Feb 23 2009
Transforming school libraries – Day 3
Well, I am actually writing this on day 4, but that is because for some reason I couldn’t get to my blog last night. So I will have to write something for day 4 this evening, if I have the time!
I started the day thinking about participation on the course. A lot of SLN members from the UK have joined and yet I could see only a handful online and posting comments. Also it was apparent that many people were struggling with Sosius before they could actually get to work on the course. So I decided to write a quick guide to getting started and then I uploaded it to a couple of areas and notified everyone – I hope that it helps.
Also, thinking about all of the wonderful resources mentioned in the posts, I had begun to tag them on Diigo for myself and so I thought that it would be helpful to others if I offered to do this for everyone. Now, I know that it is a huge task and may be a bit impossible to achieve successfully. But I will try to do it as best I can.
So, to the actual course. What did I learn yesterday? I have only just begun my new job and the focus for my first year must be on designing and developing the new library. It is such a small school and so it is easy to talk to staff face to face. However, I have also been given the remit that I will help the school develop ICT in the future. I hope that I have opportunities to show some of these Web2.0 tools to staff – maybe at a training day. So, I will take the chance to learn as much as I can and try to suggest things to teachers where appropriate. I will also use the Library Online website to demonstrate some of them also and maybe develop a wiki for the Reading Group. Then I will have some practical examples to show.
We are in a difficult situation when a lot of the staff do not read their official emails! But I will have to try to find my way around this. So these are my thoughts about the presentation on professional development for staff with Web2.0.
As to the other presentation on mashups! This was a really steep learning curve for me. At least I think that I understand a little more about what they are, but I couldn’t get to grips with Yahoo Pipes. Maybe that was because I was trying to do this in too much of a hurry. It is difficult to make the mental space and time at home on an evening, when my boys are fighting me for the computer!
I will have to come back to this at a later date, when I can find a quiet time to really concentrate!
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Hi Anne
We at yourschoollibrary.org are a very small team and we know that we are learning too. Thanks for your positive spin on the TSL event. We greatly appreciate your involvement and the help you are giving to others. I am so pleased that there are so many from the UK involved and like you I hope thay will get more interactive soon. Next time we look for 50 from your beautiful country.
James
Thanks James, it has been a very interesting and stimulating experience so far and I am glad to have been able to help.
I am finding it necessary to cherry-pick the most immediately relevant/accessible presentations, and am saving the others for future consumption; this is the start of term for us, and v v busy with meetings and info nights etc, so time has been in v short supply. (And a quick scan of the mashups presentation convinced me it should go in the ‘future’ pile – too much a stretch this week)