Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Someone asked me today why blog? Will Richardson has summarized it well here and here. He also shows exactly why blogging is a great tool. It’s not about the expertise of the writer. It’s about the expertise of all the writers who come, read, and respond with a comment. It’s FABULOUS conversations that stretch my mind, challenge my thinking, and get me to rethink the way I approach topics. That is why I blog. Wil Richardson’s blog seems to embody what it is all about. That is what motivates me to read and comment–to extend the conversation and my own learning.

So, if you are a blogger, please make sure your comments feed is available too. I read 90% from the reader, and so I can follow these invaluable conversation in my reader if there is a comments feed available. If your blog is in my reader with a comments feed, you are more than likely in my favorites or experts folder. Congratulations. The rest of you, get with the conversation! Add a comments feed.

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Back in early January my principal, Mary Clark, asked me to help her set up a blog. She wanted to explore this “blogosphere” I speak of so frequently, and she wanted to begin with her own blog first. That has finally happened, and now she is the author of her very own blog, appropriately titled “So Little Time; So Much to Do.” In the next few days I will assist her in setting up a reader, and show her a few blogs to subscribe to in the beginning to get her a solid understanding of a reader and how it helps manage reading from the blogosphere. These will also be ones that will excite her about 2.0 tools, show her that there is a network filled with educators who believe in higher order learning, engagement in the classroom, and authentic use of 21st century tools. If you have a recommendation, please comment.

I am delighted to no end that she is interested in something I am an avid fan of–blogs. I have so many in my reader I’m embarrassed to share (287). How do I manage so many? My bloglines account has my subscriptions organized in folders, and some of the folders are meaningful only to me. Sometimes I mark everything in a folder as “read” if I feel it is material or information I won’t miss, fall too far behind in, or will be able to get some other way. A perfect example is my “News” folder. Most of the time the news is easy to get elsewhere, be it tv, radio, or the talk of the town. And my news folder fills up quick. Marking it “read” knowing I can get it another way removes the guilt of subscribing and not reading. I also hear about some blog posts through Twitter, and so mark them as read right away too. So having that many subscriptions is totally doable if you have a management plan. (But I won’t recommend it for my beginner blogger principal!)

We are only just beginning to set it up, so we selected a simple design to start with.  I want her to see that a blog is a conversation about today’s learner. Now I can say my principal is a 21st century learner too! W00T!

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I’m still reeling with the knowledge that my wonderful advisor from the University of South Carolina, Dr. Donna Shannon, is reading my blog. This just blows me away! Look at the bottom of this email she sent me:

W00T! Best of all she wants me to “virtually” join her SLIS 761 class to talk about Web 2.0 Tools with current students and educators working towards school library media specialist certification. Ain’t technology grand! She assures me since I use Skype, it will be fairly simple! I remember my days in library school and having visitors (back then it was not really done virtually other than one tv studio to another–i can’t believe I think that is so old school now!!) The visitors for the most part were highly successful practicing educators in the field. One of my favorites was a class where we had the “standards” folks in charge of testing from our very own state department of education. That was a powerful class. Lots of great discussion about “the test.”

So now I’m slated to be that practicing educator who will visit the class to offer words of wisdom. Oh geesh am qualified? I still feel like I’m such a beginner, learning new things in on-the-job training everyday.

So I ask you, my collective brainpower here in the blogosphere! What 2.0 tools do you think I should share and focus on? Blogs? Readers? RSS? Twitter? Social Networks? Aye-aye-aye where do I begin? Maybe I should regenerate and tweak an old preso? Let’s hear it! What do U think oh-collective-brainpower that I know as MY NETWORK!!

PS–You better believe I did a spell-check and proofed this one folks! I have a reader who can hold me accountable!

Image Attribution:

Image: Doctor Donna Shannon, Ph.D.
www.libsci.sc.edu/fsd/shannon/shannon.jpg

Image: “Donna_NoteJan08.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/c_nelson/2213786902/

Anyone know the Beatles song that goes, “Baby You Can Drive my Car…”?

Along about Thursday evenings I’m delving into my iTunes looking for material to load up on my ipod for my weekend 170 mile trip home to my family. In order to listen to the radio, I’d have to channel surf every 30 miles or so. I have an ipod playlist called “1daysdrive.” What an odd name, you may be thinking, but I couldn’t generate any creative juices for the title of that playlist, and so to ensure it’s the FIRST one listed, I stuck a 1 at the beginning. That’s pretty creative, isn’t it? (Not my car, but I do drive a silver Sebring!)

Anyway, this last week I was looking for audio files to put in there to get me from Myrtle Beach to Rock Hill (South Carolina). So I selected 2 Guiding Lights, Kidcast #45 Speed Networking, two Wes Fryer podcasts (Moving at the Speed of Creativity, ), Geek!ed! #92, and if time permitted, Larry King Show w/ guest Jack Hanna. (Note: yes, the Larry King podcast is video, but I can still listen and enjoy most of the time. )

Yes, the soaps are my indulgence, and best they take roughly 25 minutes each. But I’m blogging about listening to one of Wes Fryer’s podcasts.

I have a confession to make. I almost skipped this one, as technically I had a little more than my 3-hour drive on the playlist. I was skeptical—social studies was never my forte, and the topic for this podcast, “21st Century Cartography,” did not interest me in the least. I grabbed it though, b/c I knew David Jakes has become the Google Earth expert lately, and since I had familiarity with David Jakes and Google Earth, I thought why not? Here is how Wes described it in his post:

This podcast features a recording of David Jakes’ excellent presentation about Google Maps and Google Earth at TechForum Southwest in Austin, Texas, on November 2, 2007. Every subject can be studied within a geographical context. Two freely available tools, Google Earth and Google Maps can be used by teachers and students to create rich learning environments that merge content, media, and geography to make learning truly engaging…

I guess what grabbed my attention was the “every subject studied in a geographical context.” I tell you it was well worth my time. I found myself answering aloud in my car the questions Jakes was asking the audience, expressing shock and disbelief at no answers or delayed, tentative answers. I know my kids use Google Earth at school—I didn’t download it, but it’s on almost every workstation in the library. I even came in and twittered @djakes how wonderful it was and would he consider a Ustream of that same preso for my teachers! Well low and behold, he direct messaged me that we could talk, and I do believe it will happen! David Jakes even followed up last night with a Skypechat too. I told my principal, who asked about our options for a video conference. I shared that I had successfully used Skype/Yugma and Ustream at school, which were both viable solutions, and our state offers any educator a portal into Elluminate too, and we could probably get district support for that one. So she said let’s go for it, and is currently checking her calendar for an appropriate date or two. So I am so excited to have this as a distinct possibility for our faculty/staff. I just hope it truly comes to fruition. If you have not listened to this one, here is that podcast.

I have to thank Wes Fryer, b/c he is constantly challenging my thinking, and bringing some of the most dynamic speakers, presenters, and learning into my world via his blog/podcasts. I would have never even thought to pursue this had I not taken a chance and listened to a podcast that at first thought, almost did not make the cut. But I knew Wes never disappoints me w/ his material, so I listened. I am so glad I did! Yes Wes (and David Jakes too, I guess), baby you can drive my car!

Today my principal came over to the library to chit chat about some ideas I had brainsotrmed in an email the night before (regarding our spelling bee, an annual event that not everyone loves…) She loved all my ideas, and that, my friends, may be a coming post later on.  The Spelling Bee is next Friday.

She has asked me to help her begin a blog, and was fretting over time constraints and whether or not she would have time to committ to the tool.  I tried to describe it as nothing less than her emails and newsletters she already spends time doing, and introduced her to a reader–showing her both my Bloglines and Google Reader accounts.  I tried to explain how a reader makes it manageable.

So maybe tomorrow I will get to sit down with her and help her create her blog. Maybe.  I don’t know about your principals, but everyone I’ve ever had always seemed way to busy.  But my feeling is since she seems to have this vision, and a desire to get into the web 2.0 mix, I should do everything I can to get her in it now, while the desire is fresh.

What should I do?  Should I just create the blog for her to save her time, and then show her how she can tweak it, change the theme, and add widgets and assorted other fun stuff for blogs, or should I get her to start from scratch, with me on the side guiding her.  My fear is if I let her do it she will sort of lose interest or not see the potential.  Maybe I’ll just create a generic one, and then take it in to show and offer it up for use, and then explain that she can go from there or launch her own, and explain that I will be there to support her as she learns. I don’t think she is ready for her own domain or anything like that, and so will probably use the Edublogs portal since I am comfy with it and KEY, it is not blocked at school. (The easiest one to introduce her to, blogger, IS blocked at school.) I am not sure, but something tells me she is the type who really likes to sort through things to understand them, and that means moving things around herself, organizing it, and making it something she likes. She’ll need to physically untangle the wires and set up her space.

My principal is so ready to be molded. She is not resistant to anything, and seems more tech-savvy than most principals I have worked with, so I am truly excited about this.  When the blog comes to be, I will ask my readers and my twitter network to show her some “blog-love.” You all know how encouraging it is when you get comments on your blog. It feeds the desire to keep at it.

If you have any helpful hints or links, please send along.

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Image: ‘Fear the Skeleton Hand3‘
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Image: ‘Snakes in a Plane‘
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One of my favorite edubloggers (who resides in a folder for Experts in my reader) has set up a new location for his blog. That’s right friends, David Jakes, expert at Digital Storytelling Guru (just to name a few of his many educational tech skills/expertise) has created a new web presence and moved his blog The Strength of Weak Ties to a new home. Gone is the unforgiving blogger tape across the top, as he is no longer using the blogger service. It’s now a Wordpress theme and hosted under his own domain. Quite impressive. Some of you know I’m looking to relocate too, so I’m especially watching others who are doing the same thing. I will get to talk shop with David Jakes, whom I consider a friend (right now only in the virtual sense, but soon–@Educon2.0 January 25-27–I’ll be able to say he is a friend in the truest sense.) W00T!! Jakes is coming to South Carolina in June for our Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, SC, and I almost feel like I am the reason he is coming. Well not really just me but allow me to explain. You see, some of the organizers of that conference were at SC EdTech back in October, and they were asking for a presenter who might consider being their (Greenville, SC Upstate Technology Conference) keynote. Since I’m on the planning board for SC EdTech, I was at the information desk when that conversation took place. Knowing those folks fairly well, I joined in the conversation. Tim Van Huele and Jeff McCoy asked if anyone had an idea of who might would come, and I suggested David Jakes. I told them to research him, and that I knew for a fact that Jakes did keynotes and sessions at many educational technology conferences. Well what do you know, but Jakes is coming to SC! I don’t know how big a part I played in him coming this June, but I will take some of the credit. I hope to see him face to face there too. So now I’ll have at least three opportunities to hang out with Jakes: Chris Lehmann’s Educon2.0 in Philadelphia, Greenville’s Upstate Technology Conference, and NECC in San Antonio. Maybe I can get the goods on how to select a host for my online presence.

I first met Jakes at EdubloggerCon in Atlanta. He led some of the conversations, and really challenged my thinking about digital storytelling among other things. Then I befriended him in Twitter, and discovered he had worked early in his career less than a year here in SC, down in the lower state. I sort of rode on his coat tails virtually during Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference during the summer, blogging about it several times. I also blogged about joining him virtually at New York’s TechForum. You can read those posts here, here, and here.

You meet all kinds in the bloggospher and twitter. (See the screenshot of a few o my Twitter friends?) They could turn out to be life-long friends, some of ‘em, even if only in the virtual sense. Okay, so this one was too long too. I’m working on it. And it is still not Jan. 1 so I have another couple of days before I must adhere to my personal goal of shorter posts. Some things just can’t be shared in brief posts.

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Image: ‘Down on the corner‘
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Since I’m considering a location change, I’m dabbling with the thought of changing the name of my blog too. I Googled TechnoTuesday, and found a rather comical but raunchy site (which i won’t link to here). My blog was born October 1, 2006 on Blogger[correction-July 2006], but I moved it to Edublogs October 31, 2006, for fear of it being blocked at my school. In researching the other TechnoTuesday, it was begun January 2006, but I think only in print format for magazines, which the blog author lists. It was launched as a web blog later, and the copyright at the bottom indicates 2007. I don’t know if that means the blog itself came to fruition sometime in 2007, or if the most recent rendition of the blog was created in 2007. Either way, I don’t want to be connected in any way, shape, or form to that material. I’m not saying the material is bad—just not representative of me or my personality/moral standards. And since the author of that blog has seen to it that a domain is named TechnoTuesday, I don’t think I “want” to be TechnoTuesday anymore. OUCH! So, I’m brainstorming for a name change before I make the jump to my own domain. Anyone have any suggestions?

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Image: ‘Rock of Change‘
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As I see others reflecting on the year 2007 as it draws to a close, I must as well. There have been several changes for me including a new job, a new living arrangement for my family, and new opportunities that are as a direct result of joining the blogosphere and interacting with a network (like Twitter.) I won’t bore you with my favorites, but instead make some goals:

• Brevity - In my own blog reading I find it difficult to read long posts. I know I’m guilty of writing long posts too. So I have a goal–be brief and get to the point! I am planning to reduce verbiage, and try to say it with far fewer words, and instead use more pictures, and maybe a video or two (stored sensibly on video and picture storing sites–hello, YouTube, TeacherTube, Photobucket, & Flickr.)

• Relocate - I am becoming ever increasingly unhappy with Edublogs. I dumped blogger a year and half ago, and jumped ship to Edublogs, primarily b/c I feared Blogger would be blocked at school (and I was not disappointed.) Edublogs was good for me, but as I have grown, my material requires more space. Since it is time to pay for more space to be allowed the service, I see it also as a good time to explore hosting it on my own space/domain. I don’t even know if I understand it, but I have been assured help from my friends Chris Craft, Jennifer Wagner, and perhaps even David Jakes. (Counting on you all, actually!) Timeline? I don’t know. I need to get bills from Christmas squared away before I decide. But in the meantime, my posts will probably be limited.

• Video - I’m going to seriously look at adding video to my mix here. I’ve created myself a YouTube and TeacherTube account, and want to begin playing in the green screen department. Dean Shareski is responsible for that! (Note to Dean–You inspire me!)

• Redesign - I have some presentations coming up, and I plan to redesign them. I’ve been reading a lot lately about the 10-20-30 rule for presenting. I’ve also come to understand that folks don’t want to read it, they want you to tell it-and what better way than in a story. So I’m going to be hitting Flickrcc hard, and trying add in the mix some videos (for commercial breaks, as I heard one blogger call them–wish i could credit that person!) And I’m going to rehearse my spill in the best storytelling format I can come up with. Along with that, I hope to add some kind of interactivity to my sessions–though I haven’t quite figured out how yet. Anyone have any suggestion? Look out SCASL, SCASA’s SLI, and SC Edtech.

Okay, I know, I know, still way too wordy. Give me a break, it’s not 2008 yet! Rag me about it after the first. Happy New Year everyone!

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Image: ‘massive change‘
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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

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Image: ‘packing_boxes‘
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Image: ‘Carolyn_Foote_007‘
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PS–my 17yo is looking at Austin, TX for college.

I accidentally discovered tonight that this blog of mine has been nominated for a 2007 Edublog Award under the category of “Best Librarian Blog.” You see I was getting ready to post my “history” as shared recently by Kathy Schrock and Doug Johnson, since I aspire to be like them. I also thought that posting my history would afford me the chance to reflect on my career (the good and the not so good.) In the dashboard feature of the Edublog platform I use, one can see the most recent pingbacks under the section called “Latest Activity.” I nearly fainted when I saw it. First let me say thanks to any of my readers who follow me. I’m amazed when people tell me they read my blog. For the longest time I really felt I blogged in vain. Gradually I began getting comments, and found that along with the clustr map enough affirmation to continue. My blog is really just a reflection on my own personal journey in using web 2.o tools, and hopefully enough encouragement to get others to join in and use these tools too, for professional growth AND student learning. WOW I am still amazed to get this nomination! I am in some good company, and feel honored to be there with other librarians. ( I also had to laugh when I realized I subscribe to ALL the nominees already.) Want to see who is nominated? Click here. Want to vote? Click here.