Library Learning 2.0 for Media Clerks

We are now in our third week of learning about Web 2.0 tools, applications, and ways to use them for our own productivity and in the library with our staff and students.

So far? Blogging, RSS, Technorati, Flickr, Image Generators, and lots of exploration ...a TON of learning going on; discovery, laughter, some frustration, some jubilant outcries, and some chaos. What fun.

You can visit our path and progress here. Take some time to browse, see what we are up to, visit a few blogs, and maybe even leave a comment or two.

Library Learning 2.0 for Media Clerks -- It's a Go!

Alright ladies, get ready. The PST is approved. You can register at any time at the Office of Professional Development site.

We are going to have a great time exploring, experimenting, and producing great content starting in January. There is an extensive lineup of fun things to discover, but there are so many more; we will just be looking at the tip of the iceberg.

As a teaser, I'll be posting some things that Helene Blowers, the creator of the "23 Things' program suggested to prepare for our journey.

Don't feel obligated to spend much, if any, time on these. You just may find them interesting and a helpful introduction to our PST. One of the first assignments suggested in the "23 Things" project is to listen to the online tutorial Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners. Enjoy!

The ONE thing that we always can control is our own learning journey. As someone (a-hem)comfortably over the big 5-0, the new things 'out there' continue to amaze me. If you have never read Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, grab it off your library shelf and spend an afternoon reading it. Don't let the simplicity of the story get in the way of the monumental parable. Whether or not we like where we are right now, we can always put everything we have into it and learn all there is to learn while are on our journey for our own treasure.

To review any of our past posts on the PST and '23 Things', just go to the Professional Study Team topic category on the side bar.

So much to explore, so little time...

It was great seeing everyone at the meeting! Thanks to Maddie, Pat, and Mary for giving some great presentations. I wanted to give you a quick update, and get some feedback, on our PST (Professional Study Team). If you weren't at the meeting, or missed some of the facts, here's a quick rundown of where we are right now concerning the PST:

• It should clock in at around 25 professional development hours


• We will meet at Skyline High School on Wednesdays from 4-5:30 pm beginning on January 16


• We have oodles to cover, but yet I wanted to get your feedback on things you really, really, really want to cover under the Web 2.0 umbrella...or, just sit back and hang on for the ride. We will have fun exploring, learning, and expanding.


• So far...blogging, RSS, wikis, nings, social networking, photo/video applications, online productivity tools, social bookmarking, ...and brainstorm how to use these in the library.

If you know you want to participate in the PST, let me know. If you know that you cannot participate, let me know that, too. I'd like to have an idea of numbers when I turn in the application next week. I'll keep you posted as to when you can register for the PST and further details.

Librarian's Manifesto 2.0

What a great video! ...and what a segue for our PST!

Professional Study Team (PST) Feasibility and Interest Discussion

I've reviewed the requirements and guidelines for PSTs -- now we need to refine our needs and goals in forming a PST. Here's a brief summary of what we need to consider in doing a PST:

1. Consensus on our Topic. I suggest that our PST be titled "School Library Learning 2.0" or even my original suggestion of "Media Clerks 2.0". Depending on the class time we want to devote to this PST, we will have 23 Web 2.0 "Things" to learn. How much we want to learn, use, and apply these skills will determine the amount of time we need to commit.


2. A minimum of four participants are required to set up a PST -- I would suggest that we need at least 6 to make the final project manageable and meaningful.


3. All contact hours must be off-contract time. An example: We could meet once a week for 1.5 hours for the class time. .5 hour/wk could be spent individually, also off contract time. One suggestion has been that we meet for 1.5 hours, once a week, at different schools starting in January. Our class would be finished by Spring Break.


4. Our PST can be restricted to library media clerks as our goal will be learning Web 2.0 technologies and applying them to our specific job function in the secondary school library.


5. Professional Development guidelines specify that our total hours must be 2/3 class time and 1/3 can be individual work time (must be documented). The program on which we will model our PST is the Learning 2.0 program developed by Helene Blowers. A deviation would be that we would examine each 'thing' with an emphasis on how it can be used/implemented in our respective schools/libraries. If we concentrate on 2 'things' each week, we would need 12 sessions. Twelve sessions @ 1.5 hr = 18 hrs. 18 hours of contact class time + 9 hours of individual work time = 27 total hours. District approval would have to be obtained for this number of professional development hours. That may be too much of a commitment for you to make -- it depends if you want to gain more than 50% of your professional development credit with one class. Personally, I would want to make a commitment to this topic and aim for the higher number of PD hours.


6. This blog would be our communication medium, and documentation, of the collaborative efforts of designing and implementing this PST.

The structure of the PST would be:

• Weekly contact class time to be held at participant's respective school library computer labs. During this time we will learn about one (or two) new Web 2.0 topic(s) followed by Discovery Exercises to practice the new technology.
  
• Homework will include practice of the Web 2.0 skill, a networking application of the new skill (blogging will give us the forum for communicating ideas, questions, discoveries, research results, feelings, and new found skills), and contributing one practical way to use the Web 2.0 skill in the library. This will also serve as a participation log and reflection for receipt of credit.
  
• The final project will be a collaborative WIKI to publish the Web 2.0 tools learned, supporting resources, and application of the skills.

The application process, approval procedures, and documentation requirements can be quite an arduous process in setting up this PST. Before we start this process, we need to determine feasibility. Please provide feedback on the following items:

1. Given the above description, would you be willing to commit to this PST? If not, what changes would make you want to participate in this PST?
2. Given the description of the content, how many hours would you be willing to commit? What time of the year do you want to begin this class? What Day of the Week, and what Time of the Day would you be willing to meet?
3. Do you have a preference as to where the classes should be held? We could meet at one school for every session, or we could meet at a different school for each class. Schools should have the Media Station provided by DMS, access to the necessary number of computers and district network, and permission of the building principal and teacher librarian.
4. Considering that not many of the clerks frequent this blog (at least they don't post or comment), do you think a survey would be a better means of determining participation levels, topics suggestions, and details such as time and place? We need to log the collaborative nature of our design of this PST and the blog is a perfect medium.
5. What SPECIFIC requests, recommendations, or suggestions do you have concerning this PST?

Lets Plan a PST! Media Clerks 2.0?

In the responses from media clerks, a great many of you expressed an interest to learn more about Web 2.0. I think that would be a great place for us to start, but I'd like to tweak it a bit and make it a Library 2.0 PST -- specifically a MediaClerks 2.0 PST. In other words, how do we apply the vast amount of technology out there, which is growing exponentially, and really use it in the library.

Of course, to really get a grasp of available learning technologies we can use in the library would take a long time. But, we can touch on those technologies, practice them in context to what we do, and take one more step in establishing ourselves as a necessary, and valuable, part of the information literacy team in the library and the district ETIL plan on the whole.

I'm estimating that the PST, if approved, would be between 15 and 25 hours of contact time. The PST we did on Genreflecting, two summers ago, was 15 hours of credit and, speaking for myself, was a great deal of fun. It was useful, meaningful, and a great networking (social) time with the clerks. Lynn, I'll need your help here as I don't know where to begin to seek approval for a PST... Some initial thoughts (PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE comment with your thoughts on doing this PST):

• Are enough of us interested in the topic area to do a PST?
• When do we want to start? To be honest, I think this information is too valuable NOW to wait until next summer.
• How many contact hours would all of you be willing to commit?
• I would suggest having our 'class time' at Skyline... or, we could have it a different schools' library computer labs. We really do need to have access to computers and I would prefer a school using SynchronEyes so that we can use our time most efficiently. Where should we have the contact class time?
• What should our content be? I'll throw out some topics: Blogging, Wikis, RSS feeds, using photos and imaging, tagging and social bookmarking, online productivity tools, podcasting, videos, and audio, using our multi-media stations in the library, file management (transporting files, saving, working with)... other ideas?
• There would be homework! There is no way to really learn these things without some individual time practicing -- my guesstimate would be at least one hour of 'homework' time for every hour of contact time. But... HONEST, it is fun stuff to work with and I'll bet that you will want to spend more time than that learning about all the things you can do!

If this isn't what you had in mind, or if there is a topic that the majority would like to pursue, let us know. We can all work, collaboratively, to come up with a valuable, meaningful, and (library specific) useful PST. Let's start...comments? ...ideas?