The Machine is Us/ing Us

This video response to the concept of web2.0 from the Digital Ethnography Center at KSU really hits the nail on the head for me - giving a nice balance of concrete and theoretical. I'd love to hear some responses from people who are just beginning to fool around with social software, or aren't yet - how clear is this? Does the amorphous thing that is 2.0 have more shape for you now? (Because I'd love to gank it for intros to presentations on specific things like rss, blogs, wikis, etc. - might be a nice way to be able to get to the concrete w/o totally skipping the very important theoretical)

because a bad librarian can ruin a library

Doug Johnson thoughtfully digs through an issue that has been on my mind a lot lately, as I get closer to finishing library school. Going into library school, I had a pretty bad attitude about what I might learn after 4 years working in a high school library.

(I have learned much, probably not as much as many of my classmates, but more than I expected because I never before (nor will again) read much informational behavior theory. And my cataloging class was such an unmitigated disaster that ever since I feel much freer to break all sorts of rules in an effort to make the catalog more accessible - guerrilla tagging, if you will.)

But the thought on my brain of late is that library school didn't turn me into a dynamic librarian who will change the world. I was already that way. And most of my classmates came in with that attitude, too, but others don't have it. It bothers me that the training/education doesn't even attempt to get at/address what is most important to success for our students and profession. As Doug says, and I thank him so much for mentioning it explicitly, these thoughts come from believing in libraries for students, not in our jobs. This isn't about outreach/promotion for the sake of us, but for the sake of the kids who need information literacy now more than ever.

This is also on my mind because a colleague at another school has been struggling. She treats the job as an 8-3 thing, and doesn't go out of her way for anything or anyone. Not in a stingy, mean way, but just because it isn't her personality. There is such a thing as giving too much of yourself without compensation - most of us are guilty of that. This is the opposite of that. I encourage my colleague to do more for her students, but my words are not having much of an effect. If this colleague stays in her job, teachers and students alike will loose out on the learning experiences they need.

Blue Skunk Blog - Librarian-proofing library programs

A free speech/fair use/satire case at Binghamton U.

Pipe Dream on the Web

The question centers around the use of the University's and art gallery's logo and design and whether it it fair use not in terms of education but in terms of parody and satire.

I find it a bit chilling that they simply shut off the creator's electronic access w/in the university system - no email, no access to her files. How does one stay a member of a University community, for 4 months so far, w/o these forms of communication? W/o these tools that are so integrated into our lives?

public domain images

found via Lifehacker

As a librarian and an educator, I am all over responsible use and re-use of media. Thanks, Wikipedia, for making it easy and keeping it real:

Wikipedia:Public domain image resources

The ratings system we've all been waiting for

Erica is one person I am really glad has too much time on her hands.

Rated B for Bad: The Librarian Avengers Film Rating System

LibraryThing does Novel List - and it's free

Suggester is Library Thing's Novel List. I say on the whole it is just as good - it is much much faster - no log in, no seven screens to nav through - although you don't get the ability to customize things like subject headings you care about v. those you don't. Given all the options though, you end up with a fast and good starting place for book suggestions/readers' advisory. Novel List is nothing more than that - a starting place - anyway. And, LibraryThing being as fun as it is, there's the Unsuggester (bad recommendations), too.

A book will never let you down

found via LibraryJuice:

scaryideas | BookPlus: A book will never let you down

2 items of note from the Praxis

I took my Praxis a week ago, an odd experience given that the GRE is way harder, but I need it in pursuing alt certification in NH to speed up the process of getting a decent paying job.

• the Dewey Decimal system helped me get two answers right. Two questions involved comparing long numbers with multiple digits after the decimal point, like 456.9819 and 456.99. If not for shelving, these questions would have taken me a while to figure out (to put it mildly, I am a late bloomer in math).

• On the essay section, in the second sentence I wrote, I used the word skilz. Literally, I typed skilz for skills. I don't end all my words in z or misspell often in type, but I do use the word skilz, especially in reference to mad skilz, ninja librarian skilz, etc. It all comes from a Croatian who lived in the same boarding house as I did (over ten years ago now) in DC when I was interning at the American Folklife Center at the LOC. Thankfully, I picked up on my use of skilz in the wrong context quickly (like 2 sentences later). I could only laugh and chide myself for being a big dork.
  

registry of online identities

I've got huge problems with the idea that once we've released people from prison we still treat them like criminals when what we really need to do is completely fix the multitude of problems associated with sex offenders (which makes me like the McCain plan better). But this is a fascinating idea and one that takes a semi-legit view of the problem, for once, from my perspective. Instead of simply saying no, it's too dangerous, we must simply scare everyone away from anything collaborative, let's look at the details of the (overblown and inflated) issue of safety on the internet for our kids. This on the heels of last weeks announcement from MySpace saying they will be checking their records against registries of convicted sex felons, which came with an acknowledgment that it wouldn't work if people didn't use their real names (from the NYT):

December 12, 2006

Virginia: Registry of Sex Offenders’ Online Identities

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Attorney General Bob McDonnell said he would seek legislation to require convicted sex offenders there to register their online identities with the state to help MySpace and other Web sites frequented by teenagers more easily block access. Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona., announced plans for similar federal legislation last week, but theirs would apply only to those on probation or parole. Mr. McDonnell’s plan for Virginia would apply to all convicted sex offenders. Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace’s chief security officer, applauded the Virginia announcement. “This legislation is an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards,” Mr. Nigam said.

yay! a NH library blog!

The NH state library system has been a tad slow to blogging - so it is with gusto that I share this new one, Book Notes from the NH Center for the Book:

Book Notes New Hampshire

Portsmouth, NH public library

The old library is closing today and the new one will open December 18th. On December 9th there will be a meeting at city hall - the city is asking the public what should be done with the old building.

ETS's ICT test - first results are in

a nice round-up of the preliminary findings of the new ICT test over at the AASL blog:

AASL Weblog - Working together towards information literacy

the opac may suck, but you can make it suck less

Pop goes the library has a few smart suggestions on cataloging dvds so your patrons can find them. Most of the suggestions apply to non dvd items as well. Yeah, it takes more time in cataloging. Time well spent in my opinion - if they can't find it, then the item may as well not be on the shelf.

Pop Goes the Library: How Do You Solve A Problem Like A DVD Set?

Web 2.0 for Educators: Social Software - NOTES � Multimedia, Teaching & Learning

One of my talks at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference was blogged:

Web 2.0 for Educators: Social Software - NOTES - Multimedia, Teaching & Learning

we had a really great discussion in this hands on session, stimulated by the blogger herself and she captures some good notes about the discussion. In essence, how do you make sure you get enough perspective? If you are choosing to read only what you already want to read? Good stuff for thinking. Part of my answer is that I'm getting stuff in my reader that is not only my worldview because of the quantity. Part of my answer is that my aggregator is not my only source of information, and that the linkable nature ensures I travel far and wide in the information world.

CMTC2006 - Look Mom, No Binder: eportfolio considerations, Royce Roberts

• there are lots of options - this is not the only way to do it -
• what do we want out of this? we want students to be able to represent themelves in a number of ways, "representation of professional self" - curricular, extracurricular,
• FEAT - functional, educational, administrative, technical
• strikes at the heart of assessment
• functional - tool itself, 'click paths'
• educational - curriculum, scope, sequence, purpose
• administrative - policy, budget, planning
• technical - system conditions, requirements, infrastructure

• cycling through artifacts, standards, and reflections
• choose the artifact - what form? best work or baseline for growth?
• choose the standard - details of the standard? natural fit?
• reflect on the artifact and standard
  

• educational
• 'formal learning'
• what gets taught where - standards, curriculum map
• students are evaluating how their work fits into the standards themselves

• focus the purpose - don't water it down to try to serve all purposes

• common or custom - depends on what you'd like to get out of it. really, custom is the way to go -
  
• iWebfolio is the tool they use
• pros and cons to most every design template

• formal review tied to the advising process
• timeline - add, reflect, review - add, reflect, review - add, reflect, review

http://oz.plymouth.edu/~rroberts/files/nhste

Kathleen Malsbenden, What is This Thing Called Web 2.0?

• demo'd skype - video for skype
  
• educationbridges.com
• My Personal Learning Space - social networking site for students
• Edublogs / LearnersBlog
  
• Responsible Use Guideline should incorporate video conferencing and everything else
• del.icio.us
• writely
• zoho
• imagination cubed
• webcast academy
• jotspot, superglu, basecamp
  

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, New Sources of Authority: Who Can be Trusted on the Web?

(discussion session - comments from all attendees)

• old sources of authority are dying, new peer to peer resouces are emerging, how do we teach students to navigate this very very gray world?
• teachers often put restrictions on internet resources because they (the teachers) don't feel comfortable on the web
• the other extreme is teachers just saying, find it on the web
• example: part of an assignment is to print out three webpages that the students used and have them do a reflection on validity of those sources, justify their use of those pages
• traditional classroom model is teachers have control over the content they provide the kids
• David: there's sending kids out to find library like resources on the web, and then there's what they are going to do for the rest of their lives which is find blogs and their discussions - its where intellectual life is happening, where ideas are forming
• "students can now research and put together a paper without ever reading a word"
  
• "i think helping them figure out what is good crap and what is bad crap is much easier than helping them figure out how much crap is too much crap"
• david "maybe you need to teach them how to assess in 20 seconds. im serious"
• "I know how to do this because I'm an adult" "That's the hitch"
• David - "The safe harbors are the least interesting part of my intellectual life"
  
• David - "The form of discourse that they're being trained in is irrelevant" - down with reports!!!
• adults don't write reports, why do we make kids write reports???
• David, "every possible niche of trust is going to be filled"
• we've moved into an age of good enough information, librarians need to make that jump
  

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, Social Software as Teaching & Learning Tools

(came in halfway through)

• social software needs to have a sense of a persistence for the user (blog url, avatar)
• edublogs.org
• other audience members - we can be their guide, they are going to be doing this eventually anyway, we can be there to talk about safety - meet with parents if necessary
• we are kidding ourselves if we think we can really control internet access by kids - posting to myspace from their cellphones in the bathroom
• the best thing we can do for our kids is help them understand what is appropriate
• points to a piece of parent education that is larger than social software - we need to start talking with them about how the world is flat
• one parent printed out a paper copy of his daughter's myspace page and went to hang it up on the bulletin board at the mall - daughter of course freaked out
• we have empowered parents to opt out of these things by treating 'technology' as an extraneous thing. no. it is absolutely necessary. it has to be so integrated there is no room for opt out. we need to say to parents , 'you not get the choice.
• david asked if anyone sets up 'back channels' in their classroom - chatrooms for additional discussion in the background about what is being presented

CMTC2006 - David Weinberger, keynote

Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, wednesday keynote

(came in half way through) Weinberger's web page

• talked about the fairly aribitrary way scientists decided Pluto wasn't a planet
• archaic Dewey decimal system to illustrate how even though it doesn't really function well in our global world, we're stuck with it and that's ok - we can think about knowledge despite it.
  
• defining and examining 'knowledge' / 7 properties of knowledge
• books are bad at linking information - footnotes are pretty ridiculous
• expensive to produce so the issue of authority comes into play
• with books - write in private then publish , can't update- model is being flipped on its head
• orders of organization - first order, actual stuff. second order, metadata (card catalog). third order, everything is digital - content and metadata
• 4 principles of organizing digital information
  
• leaf on many branches - put the book in lots of places
• messiness is a virtue
• no difference between data and metadata - search by about or a piece of the thing itself - only difference is data is the thing you are looking for and metadata is the thing you know - now any bit of information can be metadata
  
• unowned order - owners of the information no longer own the organization of the information - for the users - used NCSU catalog as example, then del.icio.us

(this is such a turn-on for a lis geek like me!!!)

• leaving the tree model (everything has 1 info place and only 1 place) and going to a 'pile' of info - new shape of knowledge - everything is connected
• it is more expensive to exclude stuff than include it - storage is so cheap - easier to keep everything than to make decisions about what to keep
• preserve everything because we do not know what matters
• filter on the way out, not on the way in - postpone building the taxonomy, let the user do it and give them the tools
• 7 properties: one and the same; simple; impersonal; bigger than we are; filtered; orderly; has a knower
• simple things become complex - simple george w speech, bloggers tease out the history, compexities, links
• no longer the broadcast era - no longer need to be so simple, blogs allow the conversation to be complex
• filtered - knowledge has been filtered by experts. there are other experts. used digg as the example
• authority - "when in doubt, look it up" (britannica)
  
• mere presence does not convey credibility.
• wikipedia - history and discussion pages incredible artifacts
• discussion pages increase the credibility of the articles
• increases credibility by letting you know right up front that there is debate about the article
• encourages authors/readers to increase the conversation
• beta is great
• showed a mocked up NYT front page with wikipedia warnings about neutrality, etc.
  
• publicly negotiated knowledge
• the world's greastest authority debates the common man
  
• world's greatest authority will leave if her stuff is changed too often
• the result is not what any individual would come up with, it has been negotiated
• knowledge is social

(i think i am a little in love with this guy. this is all sooooooooooo up my alley)

• kids do their homework socially w/ im
• kids learning social because knowledge is social (individual testing is ridiculous)
  
• (some german guy) in order to know what a hammer is, you have to know what nails are, what wood is, what trees are,
  
• context context context of info in order to create meaning
• externalization - books externalize knowledge, calculators externalize arithmatic
• now in the process of externalizing meaning -
• everytime you tag you make it possible for people to create meaning
• no links, no web!
  

Moviemaker and IMovie workshop

just my notes:

Nicole Tomaselli
held at the Manchester Professional Development Center
workshop website http://www.nashua.edu/tomasellin/multimedia.htm

AIPTEK digital video recorder - records to SD, takes still and audio, BEST BUY, 2gb sd memory card for $40
- quality is totally great and fine!!!!

- movie projects are really time intensive. Be specific about how long the project will go. Be specific about the fact that the quality is not going to be perfect. Learning in stages. 30 sec projects.

- utilize 'found' video - united streaming, google video - repurpose video
- best place to start is to start with existing media

- lapel microphones cost $3 on govconnect

- scientific element infomercials hee hee!