Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

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!!

Today I met some fellow colleagues after work to talk and have some fancy coffee drinks (which i don’t do…) Being new in the district, I don’t know everyone as well, so Barbara S. and Cathy H. invited me to come gab. We shared about the normal school stuff, and I told about my initiation into the district. If found out that Barbara and I have some common interests–Macs and video editing. And Cathy H and I are connected b/c years ago we both worked in a neighboring district, and she even worked in the same school as my husband.

They were very interested in my knowledge of web 2.0 stuff, and I had to admit to them I don’t know as much as they think. But in our conversations, I talked a whole different language at times, talking about twitter, Ustream, the online conference, webcasts, and name dropping–Will Richardson, David Warlick, and Joyce Valenza. They were familiar with Joyce–what school librarian wouldn’t be? But they did not know of Richardson or Warlick. Oh break my heart!

In visiting the various live shows popping up tonight in Ustream–you folks in my Twitter are awesome–I can remember reflecting that exact sentiment I beleive to Vickie Davis. We practically speak an alien language.

So I have to ask myself–am I an overachiever? I used to think of myself as not as good as most of my colleagues. I aspired to be as good at librarianship as them, and worked hard to hone my skills. Now I am questioned about my knowledge–how do I know about this stuff and where do I have the time? I don’t feel any smarter than my colleagues, that’s for sure. We are just not necessarily speaking the same language. And I still have so much to learn compared to others in my network.

I promise folks, I do have a homelife, and family, and time is made for them. But also I must confess that my entire household is digitally connected–to each other and our networks. So we know and understand that these tools and this language we speak is understood, accepted, and a welcome part of our lives. I read an incredible amount. I feel connected to my network. I miss it when I can’t get it–which is why I am rushing in to read up on twitter since it is blocked at school. My network is educating me better than any professional development I participate in at school, conferences, workshops, or any journal I read. My network IS my professional development. And I am proud of it. But I don’t think I would enjoy it if it made my family unhappy. We all four have laptops, and yes, there are times when we are all together in the living room with a laptop in our lap or at our side. It has just become a way of life for us. It is so nice to know i can chat w/ my son in Chicago anytime I want–i’m 900 miles away, yet only a few keystrokes from connecting to him. So I don’t ask forgiveness for being in tune with my 2.0 tools. I just feel blessed that they are understood in my home.

Last– I celebrate once again this evening as Chris Lehman called me Cathy in a Ustream chat tonight. I am identified only as CNelson there. So I am in his radar in the blogosphere too. WOOT!

The blogoshere and twitterverse have all been in an uproar over the recent use of UStream.  Will Richardson invited all from twittervese to join him on UStream at University of Prince Edward Island’s New Media Institute, where he was giving a keynote address (watch it again here.)  Will literally let the chatrooms have a say in some of his keynote.  Not only did he demonstrate the power of Twitter and connected educators, he also showed us the power of UStream.  I am amazed to realize I was able to sit through the presentations that were streamed that day, and even participate in the backchannel of information from the chats.

There have been several instances of the blogosphere participating in these impromptu get together’s, but as Will pointed out tonight, with this broadcast allowing only one way conversations except the chat feature, it is still limited. Skype can at least allow a conference call where several can be included in a conversation, and best, if Yugma-enhanced Skype is used, the one who began the conference call can share their desktop, thus allowing for demonstrations of computer applications. Darren Draper the other night had a class, and invited anyone interested to come and see Google Docs and other social network tools used, literally walking us through, and inviting us into his presentation, using our questions as a guide for helping others learn the program and sharing a knowledge base that really helped me.  It just demonstrated to me the power of a network and shared knowledge and having conversation to enhance my learning like nothing I had ever experienced before!

Will’s impromptu get together the other night at a restaurant on Clyburn Street in Chicago (that included David Jakes and Steve Dembo in the video—and about 40 participants in the chat–see the chat archive here) and the one tonight with his nephew-in-law David Walker (and about fifteen chatters) really enhanced my understanding more. John Pederson created a wiki that streamed his Ustream and Will’s so we could see both Will & David in one stream and IJohn in the other, but none of us could figure out how to get IJohn’s audio going. But to see folks posting suggestions in the chat, and all working together to do some trial and error testing from literally all over the world was fascinating.

The first time I heard of Ustream was from Dean Shareski.  It MUST have been a twitter b/c I could not find it in his blog, but I distinctly remember visiting a UStream to watch a puppy in a crate who was whining, crying, and distinctly unhappy—I want to say it was his daughter’s new puppy. It was rather cute and sort of funny.  I thought it was neat that we could get a live glimpse inside his house, and my only thought then was that this could give a parent a way to follow what was happening in a classroom, w/o really being intrusive.  But I couldn’t think of a single teacher who I knew that would agree to this method of observation.  But atleast UStream could be the answer to my dilemma from the BLC conference, where I couldn’t go, but did get to be involved vicariously through the Skype chats that were happening. UStream could literally bring the conference right into my living room. Next best thing to being there.  (Wonder how long before conference planners manage to lock down the UStreams?)

Last, in the chat tonight we made some comparisons to Skype, and most agreed Skype is better for a two-way virtual face to face.  Someone inquired why Will kept looking up, and he shared that he had a projector there at home and had the stream and chat projected big on the wall for them.  I shared that my mom has a projector too, and we use Skype to talk. My Mom puts the projector on for skype (and to share family pics) when a large group is at her house (and she is 74).  Okay, I nearly fainted when Will was quite impressed with that! And even more impressive to me—he called me “Cathy!!”  You see, in the chat, I am listed as cnelson.  So how does Will know me by my first name too? WOOT! I’ve been noticed by a big wig in the blogosphere!