You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April, 2008.
I still need to post about CiL - I promise, it’s coming. Until then, help save the environment, line your walls with books! Yes, an excuse to go by books (like you needed one) - lining your walls with books will help keeping hearing costs down. So, don’t wait, start buying!Save
I’m trying twitter again (it’s about the fifth try) and it’s going much better this time. It is true, if you don’t have people to follow, then there really isn’t much point to twitter. Thanks to all of the great CiL people I’ve met, I now have both followers and people to follow.
I noticed this post in Digg this morning, that pointed to twitter answerme which lets you track your questions. Simply send your question to @answerme. I’m surprised I didn’t hear more about this at Computers in Libraries. I did attend one session on twitter (a very good one), which mentioned that some libraries are using twitter to post about the types of questions they are getting but I didn’t hear a lot about libraries using twitter for actually answering questions. More thoughts about twitter when I post my CiL wrap up (which will be soon - there is much catching up to do still).
Another event to make my shake my head in awe. It seems that a U.S. government funded health database no longer returns results when one searches for the term abortion.
Update: thanks to LISNews, who shared the news that Popline, the database noted above, unlocked the abortion search sometime today. Yay to the power of social software for bringing attention to the problem and inciting action!
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted - as with most people I know, I’ve been incredibly busy. Luckily, I can now say that I’m on research leave! Unfortunately (or not, depending on how you view it) it will not be a slow, easy going research leave. I have tons to do - I am preparing for 4 conferences (presenting at CiL in a week, and preparing for presentations at CLA and WILU, as well as writing a paper which will be presented at IFLA). Busy, busy, busy!
It does mean that I get to catch up on some reading and do some much needed thinking (it’s also annual performance review time, which means goal setting and general planning). Once I have all of my presentations done, I hope to start spending some more time on exploring the role of technology in teaching - something that has certainly become a growing interest since I started Second Life.
In the reading department, I finally got to read Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0 (it’s only been sitting on my desk for the past couple of months). I quite enjoyed the article and it fits in to my new interest in teaching and technology. It notes that there is a change towards social learning, focusing on not what we learn but how we learn. The culture is changing from “I think therefore I am” to “We participate therefore we are”. Students are moving from learning about subject matter to learning to be a full participant in the field, and this is being aided by the internet and the social web.
While this has some interesting educational applications, it got me wondering what it means for academic libraries. If we are becoming a culture of participation, are libraries adjusting to meet this? We have always been the keepers and houses of information - how can we be key players in the culture of participation. Learning commons are one way to help this culture - providing the space for students to work in groups, become teachers to their peers - but is there more we can do? We see some libraries leading the way in the use of new technologies, such as Second Life. What else can we do to engage our students in a new culture of Learning 2.0?
One research leave just started and I’m already brewing up ideas for next year’s leave!
