Mattie Byrd's List: LIS Readings

• Twitter4Teachers Wik

• The emphasis has moved from understanding and learning the technology to understanding end-user behaviors in context. Policies have moved from serving library management needs and library workers' preferences to where end-user needs trump librarian insights and personal search preferences.
• The unintended consequence of public OPACs, however, has been to teach us that end users have different needs and processes for discovery and navigation than library workers -- especially in the virtual digital world.
• For this change, we have to place ourselves in all of the spaces inhabited by our users. We have to introduce complementary in-person and virtual contact. We have to be everywhere they are, since that's the user expectation, and adapt to the tools that match their needs -- IM, texting, smartphones, social networks, and the rest.
• As David Penniman said, "In order for librarianship to remain what it is, it must change; if it doesn't change, it cannot remain what it is."
• There's a vast distance between the library and the learner if we don't put reference and research support services at the lesson level in such systems as Blackboard. If learners are not on-site and they never darken our doors or campuses, how do we make them better "graduates" through library services? Can we partner with the elearning developers and offer context-sensitive help in such courses?
• must develop strategic relationships and deep partnerships with elearning developers and department heads and deans. We must understand lesson level development, pedagogy, and the emerging dominant technologies, such as Blackboard, OpenID, Athens, Shibboleth, Android, OpenSocial, federated identity management, IM/Meebo, and more.
• We are strategically focused on both long-term assignments aligned with the organization's major goals as well as becoming key professional resources for special projects as team members. We contribute to the quality of decision making through excellent understanding and development of the enterprise's systems, such as intranets. We comprehend the real work of our organization and align our entire operation with that mission.
• In this case, everyone involved in learner development partners in a trans-organizational kind of way. The team would include school/media specialists, teachers, public librarians, admin types, academics, academic librarians, pedagogists, technologists, and more -- anyone who has something to add.
• o more will libraries promote the generic, unnamed librarian as all for one and one for all -- vanilla flavor only. If someone is the best in the system at genealogy, then find them -- the same for storytelling, local history, business reference, and more. We then place ourselves in the spaces where our users are -- the intranet, websites, SEOed on Google, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Ning, and more. And we connect to other experts such as consumer health hotlines or poison control!
• Whether in classrooms, individually given, or online, we make a difference in every reference interview transaction by passing on skills, resources, and knowledge.

• S/he is an integral part of client in-person and virtual social networks, touching everyone with the communication mode of their choice -- telephone, Skype, IM, SMS, email, virtual reference, and more.

    

  Librarian 2.0 understands users at a deep level. Librarian 2.0 understands end users in terms of their goals and aspirations, workflows, social and content needs, and more. Librarian 2.0 is where the user is, when the user is there.
• In the future, libraries must be able to aggregate their user experiences -- web hits, circulation, user comments, and more. We must mine these behavioral touchstones to determine how best to predict user needs, as well as to allow end users and cardholders to share their experiences and patterns

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• OPACs, links to the OPACs of other libraries, and links to reference sources are present in all sites in the smaller sample. Site search engines, new to Clyde’s 2002 list, are present in six of the 10 sample sites.

• putting together their own glossaries of texting abbreviations.
• They also compare the language and syntax of text messaging with that of formal, written English.

  • Useful to look at the differences between written language in its different forms. make kids aware that there is "propper" written language and teach them when it's appropriate/important to use it.
• But if we’re teaching them about the range of different languages that exist in English, and about translating from one language across to another, if we’re teaching them both that kind of skill, but also to think critically about these processes of moving between languages, then that seems to me entirely appropriate.”
• English has literary languages of different kinds, it’s got technical languages, it’s got professional jargon, it’s got sub-cultural languages, it’s got dialects, the kind of language that’s used in chatrooms. Kids today are exposed to a much bigger range of languages than we were in the pre-digital era. Thinking about SMS is actually a way of thinking about English, standard English and about the way it works, the way it’s different from these other languages that students are very familiar with.
• Gaining a grasp of a new language’s syntax helps you grasp the syntax of your mother tongue as well.

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• Because no IM technology standard has been approved by all the major players, IM has long been problematic for libraries—which IM clients to use—but newer IM products can help resolve these dilemmas.
• For librarians: Many librarians not only use Meebo themselves to manage reference questions over multiple IM networks, but they also recommend it to their patrons, thus circumventing patrons' need to download special IM clients to library computers. Many librarians and IT professionals are concerned about potential IM security issues, and Meebo's web interface allows patrons and library staff to use the same IM networks without most of the security concerns.
• For librarians: Blogging librarians have been quick to adopt the Meebo Me widget for their personal blogs. Libraries are also beginning to use the widget to give patrons an easy way to communicate with library staff—it removes a barrier for those patrons who don't have IM accounts or who don't want to open another program to ask a question.
• or librarians: Chat widgets can create community on any web site, more so than a blog or a social networking tool, simply because they are live and provide synchronous communication. Though perhaps not as useful for asking reference questions as regular instant messaging tools or widgets, chat widgets can be used to brainstorm with coworkers, collaborate on projects with long-distance colleagues, offer library patrons a place to communicate with others, host live chat with authors or about books, and more. Because these chats can be public or private, options for how to use the chat are open.
• For librarians: Because chat bots are more interactive than traditional FAQs, help files, and cheat sheets, chat bots like Stella are excellent ways to engage library patrons with the web site, provide research guidance, and make help easier to find. In tandem with other messaging and reference options, chat bots could cut down on confusion and help funnel more challenging questions to reference librarians.
• For librarians: Though it seems simple, Twitter's possibilities are limitless. Twitter is a microblogging tool, an alerting system, a type of IM, a social network, a status updating tool like IM away messages, a conversation, and more. For librarians, it appears destined to be an essential conference tool as well as a personal productivity tool that can be used for creating to-do lists, tracking bug fixes, brainstorming with colleagues, and generally keeping in touch with friends.
• TwitterLit, posts the first line of a new book each day with a link to Amazon—imagine the interest libraries could pique with a similar service that linked to catalog records.
• Adding TwitThis buttons or links to library web pages or blog posts is another way to increase awareness of library services because library patrons who Twit a page send that link to the members of their Twitter network.
• For librarians: Microblogs are useful for easily posting small snippets of information to the web. Microblogging applications that easily import RSS feeds are extremely useful for aggregating one's web presence.

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• Meanwhile Joe Dale, head of languages at Nodehill Middle School, Newport, Isle of Wight, believes Skype would be ideal for language lessons, as a way of getting native speakers into schools

• A seven-year-old girl sits expectantly in front of a computer, excited at the prospect of meeting her e-pal for the first time. She is a pupil at Cefn Fforest Primary, Cefn Fforest, near Blackwood, Wales. Her new cyber friend is in New Zealand at Appleby School in Nelson, on the South Island.

  At 7.15pm on a dark December evening 20 pupils from Cefn Fforest were gathering in their classroom just as the first New Zealand pupils arrived at school.

• To accomplish these different types of communication, teachers and students today are becoming less dependent on big enterprise-labeled communication systems that became popular in the '90s, such as course management and learning management systems. Instead, they are seeking out simple, inexpensive, easy-to-use tools that accomplish specific communication tasks. Despite all the buzz surrounding technology, there is not one technology that can do it all. Many teachers are finding it is best to mix and match. The freedom to mix and match technology is possible today because of two factors:

    

  * Easy accessibility of computers and high-speed Internet

    

  * A new breed of Web-based technologies often referred to as Web 2.0 (including blogs, wikis, learning communities, podcasts, audio and video conferencing, and online office applications)
• The teacher can now focus on the important question, "Why do I want to use this technology?" instead of "How do I use this technology?" Teachers are free to spend their time investigating technology-supported learning experiences and how to integrate technology into their curricula instead of sitting in tedious training sessions.

• If you are looking for more school-specific collaboration tools, you may be interested in checking out more established online learning communities that can address schoolwide or even cross-institutional or districtwide communications. An example would be the Elgg educational social network (www.elgg.net) that leverages blogs. Another example is the Digication learning community (www.digication.com), which is based on e-portfolios.

    

  One of the features Elgg offers that is unique from all the technologies mentioned is that it allows schools to run and host their own social network on their servers locally. If you have the necessary expertise to support such a network, you can download the software free of charge and have complete control over the underlying code.

    
• When I announced that they would be writing a personal narrative, they wanted to know if it would be published on the site. It motivates them to work to the best of their ability, because there is a huge difference between writing a paper for the teacher and writing one for your peers."
• Teachers are discovering many cross-curricular projects such as conducting interviews, creating classroom news broadcasts, recording class discussions and explorations, sharing feedback about books, or discussing papers they have written. Podcasts are offering ESL students, and those with learning disabilities, the chance to review lectures at their own pace for increased comprehension.
• The myriads of technologies being adopted in schools today, including blogs, wikis, online learning communities, and online office tools, are keeping teachers and students connected in and out of class. They are creating opportunities for groups to share, collaborate, showcase, and grow together. They are allowing for the exchange of information and ideas to happen not only within the confines of a classroom but across schools, districts, states, and the world. The new-generation Web 2.0 solutions are easier and more engaging to use, and they are proving to have a larger impact on collaboration and communication in the classroom than complex technologies of the past.

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• Richardson (2006) claimed that "early implementations of wikis in educational settings have shown that the more autonomy teachers give to students in terms of negotiating the scope and quality of the content they are creating, the better" (p. 65). Heather James (2004) described her "brilliant wild failure," in part, the result of assuming too much control. "To really use a wilk," James said, "the participants need to be in control of the content--you have to give it over fully." And Brian Lamb (2004) asserted that wilks are most effective when "students can assert meaningful autonomy over the process. It is not that authority cannot be imposed on a wili, but doing so undermines the effectiveness of the tool" (p. 45).
• "Wilds lead to dispersion," the authors stated. "It is easy to click around and wander off into paths that feel tangential or idiosyncratic. To a point, such an environment can feel liberating. ... But disorientation is quickly frustrating, especially in a pedagogical setting."
• DELETING ONLINE PREDATORS ACT
      Perhaps a greater obstacle is some districts' refusal to allow any social software applications into its schools. In fact, the Deleting Online Predators Act, passed by the House of Representatives (H.R. 5319, 2006) and currently before the U.S. Senate, would deny federal aid to any school library that did not block commercial social networking sites. Although the greatest fears center on MySpace and similar sites, the language of the Deleting Online Predators Act prohibits access to any commercial site that "enables communication among users," a sledgehammer solution that actually denies students and educators some of the best new learning tools available. It is important that we as information specialists educate our school communities about the far-reaching ramifications of this proposed law.

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