Getting There » Resources

Using Second Life as a Venue for PD

bjansen — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:01:25 +0000

If you haven’t attended a seminar sponsored by ALA or ISTE on Second Life, then you are missing a valuable opportunity to hear about some timely topics and converse with your colleagues from around the U.S. and the world. In January, I logged into Second Life for the first time so that I could hear Mike Eisenberg. While awkward at first, the venue is amazingly engaging and well worth the learning curve (it isn’t that bad, actually). Since then I have attended two other seminars featuring Joyce Valenza and Will Richardson. Last week, my co-author Marla McGhee and I presented about keeping school libraries relevant in the age of accountability. Since we are fairly unknown, our attendance was sparse compared to the others, but the participants kept the discussion lively and had definite opinions about topics of concern. We discussed the accountability system and the effects it has on school libraries including collaboration and text leveling, the hurdles in integrating the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner, developing a culturally competent collection, and the blocking of Web 2.0 tools in schools. While our avatars stood in the same place the entire session, the awkwardness faded as soon as we started. One can control the movements of the avatar, but we are not as experienced as some and chose to concentrate on not messing up and to keep up with the questions on the chat log. I think that in time, one can get proficient. Lisa Perez (aka Elaine Tulip) is so good at managing her avatar AND literally setting the stage for the session AND calming nervous presenters and newly born attendees.

At a party last evening, a skeptical neighbor asked me just what was so special about PD in Second Life that you couldn’t do say, on a video conference. Well, I said… You can

attend quality seminars, most for free, from the comfort of your easy chair in your old shorts and t-shirt.
interact with colleagues from all over the world
meet new people
chat or talk using a microphone
get notecards from the presenters
see accompanying slide show and photos of the presenters
join online supporting organizations
IM private messages
keep a record of the chat log
“see” others in the group

The list goes on and on. If you haven’t been to a seminar in Second Life, put it on your list of things to do next fall when ALA/AASL kicks off their new season of professional development seminars. Give birth to your avatar this summer so you are ready next fall.

Using Wikis for Collaborating With Teachers

bjansen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:05:16 +0000

Using wikis in collaboration has added a dynamic dimension to working with teachers. I had not really articulated just how they made a difference until I started planning two presentations I am giving in April at the Texas Library Association and the Missouri Assoication of School Librarians. I like the initial stages of planning a workshop or presentation–the brainstorming of topics, selecting the most relevant ones, then putting those into an outline. Unlike most presentations where I use PowerPoint, I decided that this one would be given using a wiki so I set about finding good images. A nice discovery was the new Word Mosaic tool in Image Chef. Not unlike Wordle, it takes your list of words and crafts them into a shape of your choice. However, it does not create the sizes of words based on the frequency. It simply makes a pleasing picture with your words (see above). I chose black and soft white to match the Glogster collage I chose for the opening page.

The purpose of this post is not the Word Mosaic tool, but the topics I chose to include in my presentation, and the subtopics and supporting details of the outline. It turned out to be a how-to on collaboration and the use of wikis as a tool for it, that results in a one-stop shopping experience for students after the direct instruction is over. Instead of listing the topics and details, the link here will take you through the process, along with supporting evidence. What should I add? Where can I get examples? Collaboration wiki

Helping teens care about intellectual property

bjansen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:18:19 +0000

I found a website dedicated to teaching teens about intellectual property. answers questions about intellectual property and offers a 4 unit curriculum containing sixteen relevant activities. Typically high school librarians do not have this many sessions with students to teach this very important concept. In addition, teachers are often unwilling, due to the vast content they must cover, to give up their class periods for us to work with the students. How can we teach this concept in the short amount of time we have without sounding preachy through lecture? Ideas?