Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Okay so I’m still reeling from our session at NECC (so titled in the above blog title.) You can visit our wiki handout here. It is very surreal to even now reflect and realize that I have done 2 presentations (both panel style) with Joyce Valenza. My other panelists, Carolyn Foote, Diane Cordell, Judy O’Connell, and Anita Beaman, all could have held down the session alone too. I am astonished at the content I alone learned in our session, and all was pulled together with only a little interaction before hand. We each sort of divvied up the topics, and went our own way with them, not sharing a whole lot until right before the conference. I think this is why I was able to enjoy listening after my contribution.

Time was ticking

Speaking of that, we began with Joyce going first. I was stunned at the number of slides she used, considering we had all decided before hand to just use pictures, and leave the text for our voices. Not a single bullet or visible powerpoint template to be seen, which seemed to go over really well. I had nine slides, Joyce had twenty-seven last time I counted. OUCH. I was following her, and we had decided before beginning that we each had seven minutes to talk. Seven minutes times seven people (Kim Cofino had a part that was pre-taped using Voice Thread) would mean forty-nine minutes, leaving ten minutes for discussion and questions/answers in a perfect world. I worked hard to make sure my part was seven minutes, and so having nine slides should have made that easy. I saw as we all loaded our slides on the wiki in the days leading up to our session that some had a large set of slides. I wasn’t worried though b/c Joyce had said seven minutes, and she had a large number, so I just figured if she could cover hers in seven minutes, we all could create that many and be successful.

Sometimes it’s a perfect world…

Well it wasn’t a perfect world, b/c even with a timer, some of the group went over their allotted seven minutes. I was just after Joyce (what huge shoes to fill) and so felt at ease thinking I would probably be done with mine well before my time was up. Low and behold the timer gave a warning of one minute and I still had 2 slides to go! I wrapped it up in just exactly seven minutes, whew! Our time did not allow though for Kim’s video, but it is available for any who still haven’t seen it. Awesome work too.

I became a sponge

After my part, I just sat back and absorbed like crazy b/c shockingly enough each panelist was FANTASTIC. I am proud to report that I learned so much from the other panelists. It is worth your time and effort to go back and watch/listen to the session, which is on the wiki in an archived u-stream (THANKS Derrall G.)

One of my OMG Moments

One surprise I had in our session was when just after we began I saw David Loertscher–yes, THE David Loertscher–come in the back of room. Since we had a full back channell (from the Ustream chat–53 was the highest number I saw–and then the “cover-it-live” live blog that Carolyne Foote was trying to maintain, I decided to let it be known that he had joined us. I tweeted, added it in the Ustream Chat, and added it in Carolyn’s live blog. Shocking to me, about a third of the room turned around to get a glimpse of David Loertscher. WOW. That is truly a powerful feeling–1) he chose our session (and that he was AT NECC), and 2) other people in our room were apparently live in the various chats and visibly turned to look for him. (He even has a blog–though its not as up to date as I like. Still, I’m impressed.)

Now What?

This has made me realize that we in SC should also do a session like this for SCEdTech, SCASL, SCASA, SC Middle School Conference, and any number of other conferences held around our state. So, I’m looking for recruits. Who’s in? Chris? MaryAnn? Julia? Bob? Fran? Come on!! I also think its time for me (and all the other panelists as well) to step up to the bigger conferences on our own. It’s Independence Day, right?

Want to see some other streamed sessions from NECC? Visit here.

Image Attribution:

Image: ‘David Loertscher‘
http://davidloertscher.wordpress.com/

Image: ‘Flat time‘
www.flickr.com/photos/45451323@N00/108818423

Image: ‘Panel‘
http://necclibrarians08.wikispaces.com/

Image: ‘Sponges‘
www.flickr.com/photos/96878569@N00/826064663

Today I did a session at our annual principal’s conference on social networking. Since the vast majority of tools like MySpace, Facebook, and even professional networks like Classroom 2.0 are blocked, I took the stance that we as educators must educate ourselves and our parents, especially in light of how issues stemming directly from student online interaction seems to find its way into our classrooms, guidance offices, right up to the administrators desks. I’ve presented at the conference several years, but usually in the morning. I was taken aback by the “ghost-town” feeling I had for my 2PM afternoon session. I had roughly fifteen participants. One lady assured me that my topic was popular and relevant, but after lunch folks attending this conference seem to find to “other” things to do. Factor in that it is the next to last day, and well, the lure of the beach was calling too. But honestly, when I attend conferences, I go to 90% of the offerings, and many times you can find me near the front row if I can get to a session early enough. Does this make me an uber-geek? Even in my session today, only one participant sat near the front. This was a new experience for me.

Don’t Preach to the Choir

My attendees seemed generally complimentary, and even one of the conference directors greeted me warmly by name when I arrived. But today I was a wee bit disappointed. Our SC State Department of Education library liaison (Martha Alewine) encourages us to get out and speak at different conferences besides our own. She suggests if we are to gain respect in the field, we must stop “preaching to the choir” (presenting to ourselves at our own conference) and branch out and spread our message about information literacy, ICT, and standards-based collaboratively taught engaged learning by presenting at other conferences. What better way to market what you as the teacher librarian have to offer the school and its curriculum? We must help the teacher population see that we can address standards and impact student achievement.

Spread our Message, Support our Colleagues

I generally try to present at our state edtech conference (SCEdTech), the middle school conference (if I remember to do the proposal), and this one. There are not very many “techy” sessions at this conference, as my friend Dennis Richards has noted before, and from his post here, this goes all the way up to the national level. I really like SCASA’s SLI, as I strongly feel administrators are the ones who MOST misunderstand what should be happening in a library, particularly a 21st Century Library. They are also in a position to “from the top down” help us become more of a collaborating and contributing partner for student learning. In years past, I’ve had wonderful reception and positive feedback from my sessions. My session today was later than I’d ever had before, 2PM. I never expected such a low turnout. It was quite frankly a little disheartening.

I Solemnly Promise…

I promise to all future presenters who draw an afternoon or late presentation I will strive to attend if I’m at the conference. Been there, done that. I know what if feels like now to present to an empty room. I’d have liked to have been out on the beach today too. I especially thank the ones who came.

Attribution:

It is funny how summer really brings out the reflective me. My husband and I were having breakfast this morning, talking about qualifications for certain jobs in the education field. The conversation steered towards what makes me qualified for a library job. Now he has a different perspective as a school administrator who is significantly involved in the interviewing and hiring of faculty and staff.

What he said to me shocked me. He said he didn’t really see me as a good candidate for a library job-a media specialist (as they are called in SC.) He said while I am quite progressive and good at what I do, I am too far removed from the traditional look and feel of a school library media specialist. He further explained that while he knows am above average in my position, he said I did not fit the mold of a school librarian, that the things that excite me do not center around books and reading, and that I am prone to get wrapped up in the “what’s new” and the technology side of everything. He said that I would not be considered as the “most qualified” candidate anymore because of how progressive in my thinking I am and ways of doing things.

While I know he was not trying to be mean, it did come as a sucker punch. Since when did being good at technology or being a forward minded thinker become a bad thing? Since when did one have to reel it in, and dumb down the extent of their knowledge to appear “normal” or fit the mold of expectations for one’s job? I do not apologize for my knowledge on any one topic. I do not criticize others for not having the same extent of knowledge I have. As a matter of fact, in the position of a school librarian, i proudly link together those who can compliment the learning. I say this all the time. We all have our gifts and bring different things to the table. And since the role of a “contemporary” LMS is multi-faceted, I celebrate that I can meet many needs in a school setting. I am happy to do it from a library. I will never go back to being a traditional book lover or gate keeper in the library. My paraprofessional in my media center brings that gift to our table.

But I do want to leave this rant, if one can call it that, with this. I do not hold it against any LMS who is more of a traditionalist in their school. In all likelihood, there is another who brings the gift of technology, progressive thinking, and 21st century learning to the table in their schools. Just be good at what you do, that’s all I expect from other LMS’s in the field. I don’t think anyone should be just like me. And I do not hold it against them if they are not.

Just don’t hold it against me, and know that I am willing to work with any and all–because I know we all bring a gift to the table, whatever table it is.

June 18, 2008 I am scheduled to give a half day a.m. workshop on Web 2.0 tools and I’ve been given some freedom and flexibility on what I do and how I do it.  I am planning to show a few short videos, get a Twitter hello w/ advice, and Skype in a few folks.  I have personally contacted a few already, but have decided to use my blog (and Twitter) to solicit more volunteers.  I just want some people to allow a skype (w/video or not–the choice is yours) to talk to my audience about how you personally use any 2.0 tools for professional development or projects with students.

I am not talking an hour commitment or anything like that, just a short, sweet “hello” and “here’s an idea or example I’d like to share.” Actually I’ll limit volunteers to no more than 10 or 20 minutes at the most.

Please contact me if you are willing. I am on the east coast, so eastern time rules. I’ll help with the time conversion if you need it. This would be so AWESOME, and what better way to talk about and/or showcase 2.0 tools than to utilize them in my session?

Did I mention my target audience is teacher-librarians–AKA school library media specialists?  These are your potential head collaborators at your schools, and I want to equip them with some knock-your-socks-off project based learning ideas they can take back to their schools.

Okay, if you can’t be available to help out, perhaps you can make a video or podcast hello with a tip, example, or advice?  I would be MOST appreciative! Use the comments here or the contact form on the blog to join me for this endeavor.

Attribution:

Sunday I posted about our PACT that has commenced this week. I was reading a fellow SC educator’s blog here and he was sharing about ways to motivate kids to perform well. He asked for anyone to share motivational tools and techniques used, so I posted a comment on his blog. But as I thought about it, I thought I’d share here too–why not? Plenty of my readers are facing high stakes tests about now too.

A Typical Morning…

Our school has a morning news broadcast at school that I’m sort of in charge of–some days I think the kids and the show are in charge of me! I get to school each morning at roughly 7:15 to check their scripts, make sure our glitchy distribution system is up and running (and have time to troubleshoot if necessary–knock on wood–lately it has been running like a dream!), and then prepare my own materials for my to do list, classes that will venture into the library, or classes I’ll visit elsewhere.

Game Plan - A Meeting of the Minds

So anyway, in one of the principal-curriculum coach-LMS “meeting-of-the-minds” we brainstormed some ways to get students to pay attention to tips that may help them perform better on PACT. Our concern was that since our students are “tested” so frequently (3 times already this year using MAP) we thought we needed to impress upon students the importance of the test, how to approach this high stakes test, and give them incentives to pay attention and attend school. Here is what we came up with:

• Attendance was easy–huge ice cream party for all students who attend all six days of PACT. But reviewing test taking tips was a boring and dry topic, but one we felt was important. So we agreed upon the tips we would stress, and then came up with two projects. Here they are:

• Project one–take an ABC Powerpoint of test-taking tips that the principal had and present it on the news show. But the difference would be to have kids voices doing the preso, and lively, snappy, jazz-like music to accompany it, and make it enjoyable. We actually saved it as a video, and our students used (some 8th graders, some 6th graders) were allowed to voice record until they were happy with the product. The final video was just under four minutes, and I feel the kids enjoyed it. I may post it here later. It’s at school.

• Project two - A Test Tip Call-in Style Trivia Contest
  For the three weeks leading up to the week of PACT, we did test tips on our news program. But there was a twist. We gave the tip early, making it so the student viewers read it off the TV during the show and heard it on their tvs at the same time, done sometime early in the show. Then last thing we did before signing off, we sponsored a call-in contest, and students would have to use the class phone to call the library to answer. We would showcase four statements (seen and heard) on the TV, and then encourage callers to call the library and tell us which statement was true. We entertained the eighth caller, or the first caller after 8 calls who correctly identified the correct statement. By adding the competitive twist, teachers said the students were really paying attention to the news broadcast, and we were giving the kids information that was important to boot!

Did this work?

My students this week keep asking why we are not continuing the call-in contest since PACT is far from over. Good point! (Their prize was a coupon for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. I really don’t think the kids use them, but they love winning. We would recognize the winner on the next day’s show.) Hopefuly they remember the tips we gave. There were many.

Final thoughts…

My students who work the news broadcast wanted me to string a phone into the studio, but we could not find a cord long enough. I told them perhaps next time, and in the meantime, we are hunting for a LONG telephone cord or perhaps investing in a cordless JUST for this purpose. It was a lot of fun, and the news crew for once focused on something besides playing with the chromakey and funky backgrounds!

So now, what are you doing at your school to motivate students??

Image Attributions:
Image ‘Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test Logo‘
http://ed.sc.gov/images/PACT.jpg
Image: ‘Push Me, I9m a Button‘
www.flickr.com/photos/26591882@N00/239370396

Today ended the SCASL conference that I attended in Columbia, SC. It is always a rewarding experience, as being a librarian makes you a singleton in your building most of the time, so what fun and excitement all of us like minded people can have when we are all together. There was never a dull moment. Here I am setting up my Exploratorium booth and getting ready to show and tell Flickr and SCASL Blogs!

Columbia was warm and sunny the whole conference (March 12-14, 2008) and I rekindled old friendships and made some new ones.

Fondest memories:

Sitting with Susan Henley and Camillia Harris (from Charleston School District) in Larry Johnson’s pre-conference session was so much fun–We talked almost through the whole presentation! But I had my laptop so we were pulling up the links to things he was talking about, so it was somewhat related. He never seemed to get annoyed with us, but I do think we were a tad distracting. Apologies Larry!

Eating dinner @ California Dreaming with Heather Loy and Mary (from Busbee Elementary). Although the three of us come from different school levels–Heather is from a high school, Mary from an elementary school, and I am from middle–each of us seem to face a lot of similar issues in our libraries.

Sitting through Joyce Valenza’s sessions were probably the highlight of the conference. She is leading with such an awesome example of what a true 21st century teacher librarian should look like, and I have set her as my own personal role model of what I want to be. I just want to thank Joyce for raising that bar SO high. One of my friends made fun of me for sitting on the front rows of the sessions Joyce gave. I just asked isn’t that what all kiss-ups do? But I truly wanted some of her knowledge & wisdom to touch me, if not physically, than spiritually from her aura. I don’t know why, but I felt the need to be right there. I think Joyce may have been surprised at the lack of knowledge on 2.0 tools, and she even fretted to some of us after her first session that perhaps she needs to slow down or chunk some of the content for easier digestion. I said no, please keep the bar raised high so our state librarians will know what they need to work towards. Note to Joyce: While there may have been fear in some eyes as you presented, there was a spark that we need to fan into a fire on utilizing today’s tools to engage learners. Many came to my session just thelp them understand better, and I thank you for that.

The SCASL Bag Fashion Show was a hoot-and yes, I participated. I hope to get more of the pictures posted and Ida Thompson’s rather funny diatribe that was read as we walked the fashion runway!

Supper at Damon’s with Julia Davis, MaryAnn Sansonetti, and Chris Craft was a delightful way to end the day, and we have some plans underway–watch for them to be revealed soon. Collective wisdom is awesome.

After two full days of “sit and get” style presentations, I was worried about my own presentation on RSS Feeds. I returned to my room Thursday evening set on revamping my preso, removing the little text that I already had in it, and retooling it to be less like the “sit and get” sessions I had been in the two previous days. I tried hard to come up with interactivity, but never could formulate a plan that I thought would work. So I decided to turn to my network. I asked for shout outs at the beginning of my session, asking Twitter to greet my group and tell how they use RSS. I had 24 tweets to share, and I used them to start and finish my session. I was dumbfounded to realize that Joyce Valenza herself and Kathy Shrock, both of whom have been at SCASL before, and both in my reader’s “expert” folder, tweeted to my group. (Joyce had already returned to PA, but sent warm wishes and thanks for the fun she’d had in SC the day before.) I also got a skype chat from Tim Van Heule while presenting, which was rather funny b/c he did not know I was in the middle of my preso. Really cute and funny, and it went something like this:

Tim Van Heule
Sessions already? 8:13 AM

Cathy Nelson
ready 8:13 AM
hi Tim Van Heule 8:13 AM

Tim Van Heule
What’s going on, Cathy Nelson? 8:13 AM

Cathy Nelson
in the middle of a presentation 8:14 AM

Tim Van Heule
Ah… Fun… leaving you to it. 8:14 AM

Cathy Nelson
bye 8:14 AM

My audience got a real kick out of the fact that I briefly chatted (using Skype chat as a text) with Tim. Since I had Skype open there was no disregarding it, so I just pulled it in as part of my preso! I had arranged to get Dennis Richards of Massachusetts to skype in, so instead of waiting for him to call (which is why i had Skype open) I just went ahead and called him. He was at the ASCD Conference in New Orleans. Using wireless on a conference connection is risky business indeed, too, but I forged ahead. It was a stop and go call, but Dennis did a fabulous job telling all how we knew each other from networking with the tools. He introduced himself as a school superintendent in his area, catching many LMS’s there off guard to know that a supt was using the tools as well. He shared that he had only been using RSS since last summer, but now thinks a whole new way about learning, particularly personal learning, now that he uses RSS. I didn’t drag out the conversation long since it was choppy, but do feel I left a strong impression about how RSS can help you develop a PLN (professional learning network) to grow and learn. In the mix I had the RSS in Plain English video as well as a video interview of Will Richardson where he spoke to the fact that educators must first learn the tools themselves before tryng to use them in school with kids. I also showed a short segment of an archived Ustream that Dennis Richards had on his blog where Sheryl Nussbaum Beach is talking about how a network can supplement your learning, and it was form the day before at her keynote at the NCAET Conference no less, going on simultaneously with SCASL–just about 175 miles up the road. Read about her keynote, and even view it here. I hope today I did teach how RSS can play a lead role in professional development, and I think I embodied the example of taking advantage of generous people in my network who helped me out. I thought this was one of the best presentations I have ever done. Of course, I’m biased too.

My audience seemed receptive to my message and now I have a TON of homework to do. I promised all the links I used would appear in the presentation link of this blog, and so I must set out to create that. I also have a 3-hour workshop to prepare for Monday. Am feeling very swamped!!

Wednesday evening I blogged about my experience being a guest speaker in a grad class.  I included a hyperlinked image of Twitter shoutouts to person’s twitter page, and one of my commentors asked how I did that. So i will share the steps and how I knew what to do below. I think I first saw Vicki Davis do it in her blog, bringing rushing memories of a high stressed fill grad class back to mind from eons ago.  So here is what I shared with Ann (NJTechTeacher):

1) Open twitter
2) view my “replies”
3) copy source code (html)
4) open dashboard to “write” a post, and instead of using the typical text/wysiwyg editor, I selected the editor in “code” mode
5) pasted the code I had previously copied from twitter
6) changed back to txt/wysiwyg view, and deleted extraneous info (b/c I had actually copied the whole doggone page) (in hindsight I could have probably figured out looking at the code which part I wanted)
7) typed the rest of the post.  For the life of me i could not get my part at the beginning, even though I wanted to. Alas, it was effective as it was shown and written about.

I had a class back in grad school (at USC actually–GO SLIS @USC) a long time ago that forced us to use code to create a webpage that linked to no less than one other homemade page, one existing page, one email address, and contained one picture.  That class nearly drove me insane, and at the time I could not fathom  a use for such nonesense, especailly in light of the fact that wysiwyg editors were just being introduced in the markets.  But the professor showed us how to tell if a page was wysiwyg created or pure code (scaring us all into the realization that we really could not cheat and use those then expensive wysiwyg editors).  I need not have feared though, as suddenly I was making sense out of html tags.  It came in handy the other night LOL.  This experience and knowledge has come in handy many times, actually. I did paste it into nvu (an open source web editor) to make sure it was doable before I wrote my post that way.

Hope this helps anyone else who wondered….

Image: ‘Head First HTML‘
www.flickr.com/photos/20645801@N00/408033716

What a difference a week makes! Saturday the Edublogger awards were announced, and I was so sure I did not win, I did not even go into Second Life to hear who did, nor did I tap into the many portals made available live (like Edtech Talk, Skype, and others…) You see, as I told all my friends, it was enough to be nominated. I even went out of town on a shopping spree Saturday, and around the time the awards ceremony began, my family was sitting down for a wonderful afternoon (early supper) at Carrabba’s. It was divine, and far more enjoyable. I had a few friends and family asking on Saturday, and they were shocked and dismayed that I wouldn’t stay home long enough to at least log in and see. I assured them my Twitter Network and RSS reader would keep me well informed, so well in fact that I need not worry about it all, but instead enjoy my family. I was not let down.

Congratulations to all the winners, and especially the library blog category, I’m especially pleased it is once again a school library blog. I need not have sour grapes, you see, I know what my authority and rank were in Technorati BEFORE the nominations, and I know what it is now after the nominations, and I know how many commenters I’ve had on my blog, and these statistics (which you can find out yourself with a little work) tell me a story that stands on its own, so there is no need for a pity party about the “loss.” My assistant, another colleague at school, and my sisters were all furious that I would not campaign to win, soliciting for votes from all my networks where I am plugged in and connected. But sorry folks–that is not how I operate. I’ll say it again. It was enough to be nominated. It filled me with immense pleasure and is rewarding all on its own. Wonder how I should put that on my resume?

So I returned to work Monday, doing my thing. I worked two basketball games this week, and made two keepsake memory videos for teachers to document and reflect on school performances. I included students in the second one, having them edit for me, select some pictures to go at the beginning and end, and pick out music to add. I think they learned a lot, and I teased them unmercifully, saying I didn’t like giving out all my secrets—pretty soon they would stop thinking I was amazing!

Anyway, to make this week so very jam up for me, yesterday I received an email invitation from Karl Fisch to participate in an exciting event he will be having at his school in January and February. I have not seen it twittered or posted on his blog, so I’m not sure I’m at liberty to say much else. But know that it is truly a reward for be connected to highly successful educators in the blogosphere. I suppose details about his project that I am joining in will be forthcoming soon, but I don’t mind saying it revolves around Dan Pink’s book A Whole New Mind. I am considering asking our 8th grade teachers to use it as a novel study to go along with Karl’s project. My brain is on OVERTIME! (Side Note: There was a cool DEN Webinar tonight w/ Daniel Pink that was AWESOME!!)

As an added bonus this week, today I get the pleasant (although somewhat embarrassing) surprise of getting mentioned in Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog where he is answering questions about a former blog post (where he had just opened his OLPC XO.) It is such a novelty, a lot of people are expressing their curiosity by asking questions via his comments. So Doug chose to answer them in another blog post, and what do you know but my DUMB comment is at the top—as I tease about his cat in the picture, and tell a gushy tale of how cute my cat is. <BLUSH> Okay, so not my best side, or even story. But Doug mentioned me none the less. W00t!

This evening I get the email from Joyce Valenza, exclaiming that our panel discussion session for NECC has been accepted! Joyce’s email began like this: “Good news, friends! We’re on for NECC.” Our session will have a panel of “experts” (I can’t believe I’m saying that!); our session title: Feed, Tag, Research: Remixing for School Library 2.5; session description: School librarians are leading learning and instructional change. Discover how we are re-visioning reading, research, and “library” for 21st century students on the Read/Write Web. And I can honestly say we collaborated for days on the topic and description alone. The group panel includes Joyce Valenza, Carolyn Foote, Diane Cordell, Kim Cofino, Anita Beaman, and me. After hearing from Twitter some of the big names who have been turned down, I feel amazed and honored to be with a session that was accepted.

Oooy, my head is getting so big. Don’t put a pin near me, or I might pop. Tomorrow is Friday, and I can’t imagine what kinds of good things it might bring. No time to be sad or depressed though, as I have so much to be thankful for in this week alone! I suddenly feel SO CONNECTED, not only on a local, state, and national level, but also a global level. Daunting, but exciting.

I don’t want to whoop too soon, so just let me end with a tee-tiny “w00t.”

Recently Carolyn Foote, a friend who is honestly a friend in the virtual sense, as I only know her from Twitter, blogging, webcasts, and Ustream forums, has challenged my thinking about the library. She works in a large public suburban high school in Austin, Texas (Westlake High School). She is in the process of packing up her entire library book by book for a renovation project. Earlier this week she was informed that the renovation could take as long as a year. My comment to Carolyn was “Wow, you will be a virtual librarian in every sense of the word.”
As I reflect on my joking quip, I realize it is true. Will her job end until the renovation is done? Will she have anything to do while the renovation happens? How can a staff member with no physical “home” in the building continue to work and serve the school without any books or tables, a checkout counter, or a reference section, especially in a high school?

I know the answer to my questions. Carolyn will be in need and in high demand right through the whole project. She will probably work harder than any other staff member in the entire building, as she strives to provide the same level of service and instruction as before when there were the typical tables, chairs, books, and more. How?

Just as I jokingly called her a “virtual” librarian, she will become just that. Research projects will be just as effectively completed as they were before. She will continue to teach information literacy and using online resources effectively. Students will have access to necessary resources. Book talks and author visits will continue to happen, even if she has to use Skype. You see, Carolyn is a 21^st century teacher librarian, who has adopted and uses instructional technology to “complete” the job. She uses the tools to compliment instruction, and I would wager she is so good at this already, this vehicle called web 2.0 will drive her services until she can park her self back in a physical space called a library. Carolyn already uses wikis, blogs, and more to supplement instruction. She is using Skype to pull in authors for literature appreciation and book analysis. And students as well as teachers know she can assist in just about any kind of project she is challenged with. Carolyn Foote is a 21^st Century Librarian, and I am so glad to know her, at least in the virtual sense.

Be sure to wish her luck as she tackles the project of library renovation. I know the end result will be a 21^st Century Library to compliment her, the student body, faculty & staff, and community. I am looking forward to a face to face meeting with you in San Antonio this summer at Iste’s NECC.

Carolyn’s Blog Not So Distant Future

Carolyn’s Wiki Web 2.0 in Education

Image Attribution:

Image: ‘packing_boxes‘
www.flickr.com/photos/69157454@N00/25159668

Image: ‘Carolyn_Foote_007‘
http://web20ineducation.wikispaces.com/

PS–my 17yo is looking at Austin, TX for college.

In recent years (if I must pinpoint a date it would be the summer of 2005) I became aware of the growing trends of podcasts in education. I explored podcast creation briefly, even making a couple of podcasts for my former school, using kids for all the talking, to post episodes that could be subscribed to through iTunes. I was a pod-fader however, because after making a couple of episodes, I lost interest. I cannot even find them on the Internet site I hosted them on, Podomatic. Honestly though, they were not riveting enough to refer back to. (Sue Waters told me recently that Podomatic suffered a glitch some time back, and lost all of her hosted episodes, so maybe that is why I can’t find the ones I had made previously.) But admittedly I am a pod-fader.

I remember being inundated with ideas for podcasts and video projects–never thinking to combine my two interests into a video-podcast. At NECC 2005 I went to every session that would cover podcasting or video editing. Back at school, after successfully recording and uploading the few podcasts I had students create, I let my interest sway, and began focusing more on video editing. I had some good success–I even went out and bought a firewire card for my computer so I could drop raw video from cameras into my computer for editing, and (shock and horror) opened up my computer and installed it myself. (I never asked my IT for help b/c I was so afraid they would say no. I just did it. I’m such a rebel.) Needless to say once I had mastered dropping video I began exploring video editing, and the rest is history. I mastered the freebie Windows Movie Maker, and progressed to Pinnacle (though I’m no expert at it) and even decided to move over to a MAC for better editing possibilities, and have dabbled with the industry standard program, Final Cut Pro.

Recently I was asked to give a podcasting workshop, so I needed to refresh my memory on it. Of course, now having a mac, I found the process simpler and cleaner in Garageband. But my workshop attendees as well as the teachers at my school were all using pcs, so I needed to brush up on my podcasting pc skills. I inquired around to find out who was the nearest district expert in podcasting, and made an appointment to meet with him. I just needed to clear up my fuzzy memory about all the steps to making a podcast. I found that the “expert” knew no more than me, and wound up picking my brain more than I picked his. I will even go so far as saying his podcasts are not podcasts, but rather audio files hosted on a static website. OMG! The part I was fuzzy on was getting them so that they have a feed and could be subscribed to through iTunes! He did not have a clue. Back to the drawing board. (NOTE: It was not a total loss, as I was introduced to a program he uses called Acid Music that really brings out the creative juices if they are there. Also, in his defense as well as many others, many educators feel it’s okay to call an audiofile hosted on a static website a podcast. It’s just me and my own personal refusal to believe an audio file is a podcast if doesn’t have a feed. So I will not slight him or any other educator who does this. I even take back my initial impression that his podcast program is a “poser,” a “wannabe.” It’s more than I had at the time.

I knew that a podcast simply needed an rss feed. So I do began scouring my networks for tips, tricks, ideas, and more to clear up what I fuzzily remembered from before. Thanks to MANY, but mostly John Woodring of Bluffton School District, who literally over the phone walked me through the step that allowed me to give my podcast a feed.

My friend Mr. Granito from school also created his first, and really all I can say that I did was encourage him. He is using feedburner for his feed, while I am using my edublogs site. I did have to delve into the forums to get an extension for my rss address, which translates to adding to the end of the blog’s url “/wp-rss2.php” so that iTunes could pick it up. Speaking of iTunes, John pointed out to me that all I needed to do was go to the iTunes store, point to podcasts, then scroll to the bottom to the section “Learn More” and use the information there. I used the “Submit a podcast” link there, and the rest is history. So I am now once again a podcaster. Will I be a pod-fader again? Only time will tell. I’ve added a podcast feature to the “@ the CMS Library” blog and to a new blog for school called “CMS Tiger Talk.” All are recorded by me, but hopefully I’ll be able to get others on board to help or better, create their own.

I must thank Mr. G for motivating me–his excitement is infectious. I also can thank Dean Shareski who shared the iTunes image and showed me where he hosts his podcast. Now the natural step is to progress to a video podcast. I have the podcast skills and I have the video skills, so now I just need to figure out how to make a video-podcast, right? Let’s just hope the next best thing doesn’t make me lose interest or I will once again be a podfader. I think I will ask for a digital recorder for Christmas. Anyone have recommendations?