Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

Next week right here in little ol’ South Carolina, I will be privy to two expert voices!! Welcome to true southern charm and manners Marc Prensky and Ewan McIntosh!

Welcome Marc!

Coming to Rock Hill (my official hometown) Marc Prensky is giving a keynote at a local conference for this school district. My husband is part of the planning committee, and yesterday he informed me that the coordinator of the conference (which I am not officially attending or participating in) said I was welcome to come hear Prensky. I guess this coordinator knows how excited I would be–meaning, I suppose, he recognizes that I’m a forward thinker too, and clamor after forward thinkers, either virtually through blogs, ustreams, and other networking or in person, like conferences. Whatever the reason, I am so excited to know I can attend for at least Prensky’s part of this conference. I won’t be able to ustream so don’t ask. The school district does not allow outside computers connectivity (wonder how they will deal with Prensky’s?) I’m still very excited. Will it look bad if I steal a front row seat for a conference that I am neither a paying or contributing member of? The uber-geek in me will be in full swing for sure. The ultra nerd in me also wants to talk to him AND get maybe I’ll even ask for an autograph. Confession–I’m an edtech groupie!

Welcome Ewan!

Ewan McIntosh will be keynoting the first day of the Greenville County School District’s Upstate Technology Conference. This one is absolutely FREE! I have a preso there at 8:00 am, and then at 9:15, Ewan does his keynote! I am so excited! Ewan was very instrumental last summer in making sure many virtual participants could participate in back-channels at NECC and the Building Learning Communities conferences. It made me realize there is a whole different way to enjoy conferences and get professional development, right from the conference I am at AND from my own living room if I am not present. I just emailed the UTC coordinators to inquire about Ustream possibilitis, and I will let you know what they say.

On a sad note, I will not get to enjoy David Jakes as keynote speaker for day 2 of the UTC. Isn’t it cool though that he will also be in SC? And he does indeed have a history in SC as part of the CSRA and the Department of Wildlife, though I’ve heard him talk about that time in his life, and though he is complimentary of his job, well, I’ll just say he doesn’t seem to like SC as a home (but of course that is my take after some “virtual” conversations.) Maybe next week when he is here, someone can get an official and 100% accurate opinion from him directly. Thursday I’ll be in Columbia, SC working with a group from across our entire state to hash out concerns relevant to school library media specialists. Perhaps more details to come later. Then Friday, we fly out to San Antonio for NECC.

Yes this is going to be a VERY exciting week coming up!

Attribution:

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:

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:

That was the title of my session Friday, March 14, 2008 at our annual SCASL conference. This was the 3rd time I had given this preso, and quite honestly, I am still getting feedback from my attendees. The preso in one of its earliest formats appears on my “preso” page, which is supposed too serve as my place for anyone looking for handouts. I’ve gone strictly to electronic handouts, though in all honesty, it is really just some links. But since I first presented this at Summer Leadership (SCASA Annual Conference) and SC Edtech, it has been transformed. I have gone from a heavily scattered text approach (bullets–oh no) to a visual representation of my material for many slides, and I mixed in videos too. Oh and don’t forget I invited my Twitter network to say hello and speak to the power of RSS, as well as a Skype call from a network friend (Dennis Richards, Superintendent of his school district in Falmouth, Massachusetts .)

This mixture of material including Twitter shout-outs, a Skype Chat and call, videos, and my slide show helped me make this session much more than the “sit and get” presentations I have grown oh so weary of. And today, I have posted the entire slide show, all 37 slides, for anyone who wants to review it. I welcome your comments, either here or on Slide Share. Looking for constructive criticism, b/c I have one more conference where I may do this same presentation.

Today I did a workshop for LMS’s and their principals. The principals were only required to attend for 1 hour, so I divided my material up into 2 parts. Part 1 included some interactivity, and part 2 some humor. These are the cover slides, but the entire preso (for both) can be found on my Slideshare (linked below.) I wish I could publish the groups 15 minutes of fame. They did a fantastic job in what they were asked to do. I did birdwalk a bit, and so did not get to show the videos I had planned, and though Skype initially worked at the beginning, when it was time to skype in my guest speaker, John Pederson, Skype seemingly was blocked. Hmm.. Overall though, I feel it was a good workshop. Wish I had played my videos though–they were the “piece de’resistance.”

Her is Part 1:

Here is Part 2:

I am going to try to embed them again tomorrow, though it may not work. They are slide share files, located here.

GUESS WHAT??  I am getting personalized help from Sue Waters and James Farmer of The Edublogger Fame!!  W00T!!

Next week, March 12-14, the South Carolina Association of School Librarians will meet up in Columbia, SC for the annual SCASL Conference. This year’s theme, Power Up @ Your Library, is very fitting, as there are some POWERFUL guest speakers, authors, and more coming to rejuvenate me! Annette Lamb, Larry Johnson, Joyce Valenza, Gail Dickinson…I almost feel like I’m going to a national level conference rather than a state level one. Our President-elect, Valerie Byrd-Fort has one a FANTASTIC job putting our conference together this year. I cannot wait until Wednesday next week!

The conference program was released today, and I have made a preliminary outline of what I want to attend–and guess what? I’m not skipping a single event. I will be exhausted when I get home Friday evening. Here is a rough itinerary (with session titles abbreviated for me) that is subject to change.

WEDNESDAY
Concurrent 1 (4:15-5:15)
James Bryan - Historical Fiction
or
Perry McLeod- Digital Storytelling

Exploratorium and All-Conference Reception (5:30-7:30)
SCASL Blogs! & SCASL Flickrs! (Okay, so you may not know that this is my responsibility and so I will be hosting it–IT! OMG!! I have not even begun to put together a display board or anything. I better get busy!! Late supper too-shucks…Someone wait for me to go eat.

THURSDAY
Concurrent 2 (8:00-9:00)
Joyce Valenza - Library Websites

Concurrent 3 (9:15-10:15)
Gail Dickinson NBPTS–>NBCT Now what?
or
Annette Lamb - PPT Sidekicks
or
Larry Johnson - Re-Imagine…

12:00-1:15 Meet authors/special guests
(Hob-nob with Authors Jaime Adoff, Eloise Greenfield, Will Hobbs, Alan Katz, Michelle Knudsen, and special guests Joyce Valenza, Annette Lab, and Larry Johnson!)
SCASL Business Meeting, 1:30 - 3:00

Concurrent 4 (3:15-4:15)
Gail Dickinson - AASL Standards
or
Annette Lamb - Re-Imagine…
or
Larry Johnson - RSS feeds in classroom

FRIDAY
Concurrent 5 (8:00-9:00)
MINE-Feed the Mind w/ RSS
(Note: there were some awesome sessions planned at the same time as mine, and thankfully some of the ones going on at the same time (Like MaryAnn Sansonetti’s “Ipodabilities” and Carole McGrath’s “T-N-T” I saw previously at a different conference. The only thing I have to worry about–other than an obscene early time to present–is that everyone else might choose theirs over mine. Oh, wait, that would mean fewer people in my session, which translates to an easier preso to give. Ok, I can live with it after-all!)

Concurrent 6 (9:15-10:15)
Debbie Keenan/Margie Edgerton - Flexible schedule
or
Julia Davis - Google Lit Trips
(I need to go to the Keenan/Edgerton session for ideas on a different preso I’m giving…but I want to go to Julias–how will I ever decide?)

Concurrent 7 (10:15-11:15)
Donna Shannon - Building a Knowledge Base in Reading
or
Andi Fansher - Moviemaker Magic

Awards Luncheon, 12:00 - 2:00
Eat with my Horry County LMS colleagues as we wait on the edge of our seats for the announcing of this years’ SC Book Award Nominees.

Okay so everyone can see that I have a jam-packed conference planned for myself, and still have many decisions to make. I’m carrying my laptop, and with free wifi, I plan to be connected to my network everywhere I go. Any of you loyal readers, would you like for me to “Ustream” anything? I have found out in the past I cannot “coveritlive” very well or even semi blog during sessions. I have to reflect and post. So I definitely could Ustream some. I’ll be taking a lot of pictures too, and will be posting them to the SCASL Flickrs photostream. So if you are not coming, you can virtually attend compliments of me. Let me know.

For the last few years I have asked annually three times during the school year to attend Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference. I would ask in August near the beginning, just before Christmas break, and again in March.  Each year I was turned down due to lack of funding.  I didn’t overly complain b/c one, it is expensive, and two, I feel the conference concept best benefits a group from the same school or district. It takes more than one person to return and help formulate and then cast a vision.  Many of my readers know I changed school districts this year. Again, I began my tactic of asking about the BLC conference. Being new, I  had to describe it, share my knowledge of what it offers, and really sell the idea that a collective group could really bring back a lot to share.  I spoke to my principal and media coordinator on the district level in August. I planted that second seed in December. Today, before I could nourish my little planted seed, I was told that a a sprout had fomulated as a group from the district office was going (just that it did not include me.) When I expressed shocked indignation (yes, lots of pouting out loud!), I was then told that a few principals around the district are putting together small groups of educators from their schools, and that I should inquire with my principal. My principal is not only supportive of me attending with the groups from the district, she is recommending I take one other teacher from our school–someone who can help cast that vision. I did ask her to go with me, but she feels it should be a teacher. I even (shock, i still can’t believe I did it) suggested that instead of me, she send two teachers who are leaders but not necessarily totally bought-in to 21st Centruy Learning, and she said no, you deserve to go Cathy. W00T!

I am extremely happy. Now our school will totally benefit from this, as will my district.  And I really feel no one–not one of us–would be going if I hadn’t pushed it.

So I will have my brain so totally tickled this summer! Here’s how my summer is breaking down:

• June 16-20, 2008:  South Carolina Association of School Administrators Summer Leadership Institute, presenting Schools & Dealing with Social Networking, Myrtle Beach, SC

• June 25-26th, 2008:  Upstate Technology Conference, Greenville, SC

• June 29-July 2, 2008: ISTE’s NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas; presenting with panel of experts on School Library Web 2.0

• July 16-18 , 2008: BLC 2008, Boston, Massachusetts

Yes, my brain will be so totally tickled this summer.  Who needs vacations when this much fun & learning can be had?

My youngest son (17yo) objects heatedly when I talk at the table about friends I’ve connected with. He always asks “real” or “virtual,” as he does not agree that the people I network with using 2.0 tools can be anything more than people somewhere else that you really don’t know. Well I beg to differ, ESPECIALLY after this weekend.

Educon 2.0 was everything it promised to be and more. It was really surreal to see the people that I network with from blogs, chatrooms, wikis, podcasts, nings, and Twitter in person. But it was not like how Alex Russo described educators at conferences (my take on his reference was that we are somewhat like “8th graders at a dance”–very unsure of ourselves.)

From the get go, when Liz Davis met me at the airport in Philadelphia, there was an instant connection. We even hugged like long lost sisters. That was true for most of the day as I met in-person for the first time the people I network with. There were many, many spontaneous hugs.

As I continue to try and wrap my head around how special this conference was, I try to find the words to write. What made it so special? There was not one minute where I was not interacting and talking in conversations, and that includes sessions and fun activities, both scheduled and spontaneous (like the Franklin Institute, boxed lunches, a catered Philly cheese steak supper, an impromptu supper at that Asian Cafe that was so good we went back Saturday evening LATE, and they almost had to ask us to leave so they could close!)

Educon 2.0 was like no other conference I’ve ever been to (and that includes EdubloggerCon In Atlanta, which was more of a pre-conference un-conference idea.) There were no powerpoints or slide shows of bullets in sessions, only educators who served as facilitators to lead the discussion on how to make learning more engaging, more authentic, and how to get beyond the obstacles. There was a lot of discussion about NCLB and filtering, and educators who are not up to speed with the students we teach, who design lessons like it’s 1950 and not 2008. But it pleased me immensely to discuss these topics with the most powerful educators I know, and together strive to find a solution to these obstacles.

What struck me as odd?
There were ALL kinds of educators attending (200+), and they included 2.0 teachers, administrators, instructional technology directors, tech integrators, teacher librarians/media specialists, students, college professors, and more, and strangest to me, a broad range of technology and 2.0 skill base in using the tools, including absolute beginners to seasoned veterans. Many had heard of the conference from the tools we use, but others got it simply by word of mouth. It was great mix of our stakeholders. The only missing piece was parents, though many of these are parents too, so perhaps that was covered as well.

Re-occurring theme
“Touch them all.” David Jakes

Favorite Quote
NECC is a showboat compared to this. (Can’t remember who said it.)

Fondest Memories
Supper with the girls (me, Joyce Valenza, Carolyn Foote, Liz Davis, and others). We nixed on two restaurants Friday evening, writing them off due to crowds (after all, Friday is a date night.) We settled for the Asian restaurant, and shockingly enough, befroe we knew it, we had nine at our table. Then right after we ordered two more groups came in, and because the tables were somewhat close, the conversations continued well into the evening–by the end our crowd included close to 75 people. (See my pictured table!)

What I found MOST surreal
My RSS reader was walking around with me, and many were calling me by name. Yes, I do mean Chris Lehmann, Will Richardson, Joyce Valenza, David Jakes, Christian Long, Patrick Higgins, Jennifer Wagner, Woody Delauder, Glenn Moses, Ryan Bretag, and, well, I could just keep going here, but the I would not meet my goal of brevity…

Tons of time to connect!
I will probably blog some more about the conference, but I did want to leave this food for thought. I know it was an immense challenge that Principal Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy pulled off, but he pulled it off extremely well. But this is the first conference ever that only cost me $50 and included so many well established gurus. There was no exhibit hall, no badges or bags (though I did win a prize, a mug with the Educon Logo), and no frantic schedule of sessions w/ no time to talk between. This was by far the best conference I have ever attended, as each session was designed to be a conversation, with a full 90 minutes that more often than not allowed the participants to really connect, debate, and learn from each other. Many of them had some kind of interactive component (our session had participants draw a traditional library vs. a 21st century library, and then describe them; another session had the participants create a poem or lyric to share about the topic.) Then each session allowed 30 minutes to get to the next discussion, which allowed you to continue the conversation should you choose to. All for $50. WHAT A BARGAIN!!

My Personal Blonde Moment
Sunday morning I was to ride from the hotel with Liz Davis , since she had rental car and our planes left relatively close together. We would ride to the airport form SLA together. But I misunderstood the time, and thought she had left without me (and I was wrong i later found out!) But Will Richardson and Ryan Bretag were riding in Will’s car (a Prius!!) and Will offered to take me and my luggage over. So I hopped in. Will remarked that he really wanted coffee, and I told him if he would take a right there was a Dunkin Donuts and a little convenience store right there. So he drove up to the curb, quickly threw the car in park, and was out of the car I thought before it came to a halt. I swear it rolled about 6 more inches. I about freaked out! I was asking very excitedly to Ryan is the car stopped, is this car in park?? Now mind you I was in the front. Ryan answered yes, but asked to get out (the child door locks were engaged.) At this time I’m still not sure the car is actually in park, so I still a wee bit nervous. I’m trying to unlock his door, while inside panicked about the motion I know I detected. Ryan basically had to say (and as politely as he could muster,) “No Cathy–you have to open my door from the outside–the child locks are engaged.” Talk about a BLOND moment. Oh well, at least I can laugh about it now.

Funniest Memory
The panel discussion, where the panelists all sat at the table each with their laptops (Gary Stager, Will Richardson, Sylvia Martinez, Joyce Valenza, Chris Lehmann, and David Jakes–gosh I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!) Each panelist was using a Mac, all except David Jakes. Jakes began by mumbling “What is this, a Mac commercial?!”

Final thoughts–much of Educon was Ustreamed and so if you want to hear the archived conversations, be sure to visit on channel “EduconTV.” Oh well, back to my original question, are they real or virtual. If I was not sure before Educon 2.0, I know for absolute sure now. These friends are REAL!

Technorati Tags: educon20, ustream

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/

Do Ostriches really bury their heads in the sand when frightened? According to “Phrase Finder” this is a myth. Ostriches basically when frightened lay down and flatten their heads along the ground, so as to disguise themselves from possible predators. But this reminds me very much of how our schools and IT deal with content they block at school.

I really, really, really try NOT to write about filters and blocked content so much. After all, I am a mother of one teen-aged son, and one young adult son in college. Living w/ guys you kind of know what their world revolves around, and how easy it is to be sidetracked by less than academic content, especially online.

But it is infuriating to know that I cannot access the Nings set up at school, even though many of my PLN resides there. I must wait until I get home to actually partake of the plentiful servings of rich content and collaborative opportunities that are there! Why are they blocked? They are classified as a blog, a social network, and a forum. I am getting ready to participate in a collaborative project, and yes, I want TOTAL access 24-7. I don’t want to wait until I get home from school. This opportunity could actually lead to GLOBAL projects for classes at my school, and egads, yes, during the school day! I belong to several nings, including Classroom 2.0, TeacherLibrarian, and most recently Powerful Learning Practice for Teachers and Students. These are NOT risqué, profane-laced sites, but rather places where I can learn more, and pass the learning on to students and teachers, even at my own school. If there was ever a place to see authentic 21st century learning, the Nings I am a member of are it. And best, its members are ready to open their arms and welcome all, and can answer JUST ABOUT any question.

This has been nagging me for some time, but it has become really frothy and ready to fizz right over. You see I tried to network w/ another friend, and low and behold she wasn’t getting any of my emails b/c her email filters out all incoming mail from gmail. Now what’s with that? I know many of the EXPERTS in the field use GMail as their primary email for professional contacts. Is this district making the implied statement that only pedophiles, rapists, child-killers, and prostitutes use gmail? What about parents who use email and want to contact their child’s teacher?

Well, very soon I will be participating in a learning/leading excursion and will be charged with leading a group of newbies into the fray we know as web 2.0. Our main portal will be a Ning (called Powerful Learning Practice for teachers and students,) and my goal is to hopefully generate some collaborative projects for my school and students, and therefore we will need that portal (Ning) open. Yes folks, its time to approach IT about loosening this clamp on Nings. All blogs, nings, wikis, and social networks are not bad for kids.

Let us be the professional and offer guidance into sites where we can teach our students to evaluate situations and circumstances and exhibit making good choices–what an authentic teaching scenario—instead of sticking our heads in the sand, like the fabled ostrich.

Image: ‘untitled‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49358150@N00/298444281

Image: ‘ostrich‘
www.flickr.com/photos/13119988@N00/213159950