This week in class I felt a little bit like I was in the big "silver ball" ride at Disney's Epcot Center... I was riding with thoughts of tomorrow's classrooms and what might change in the world. While some things sat well with me and others just seemed too far out there to even start thinking about, I was in the ride accepting and assessing all of it as I rode.
Twitter has been fun and educational at the same time. I am now somewhat comfortable to post both for the social aspect and the educational sharing. I have not yet set it up where I am getting the instant Twitter messages on my Blackberry, but will I when I am a little more comforable? Who knows?
This morning I presented a basic "shell" of my Google sites in a call for Library Council members to the faculty. I explained with some detail that the committee I am forming would be meeting via ITV for the first time in September, and then we would only "meet online" afterward. I was a little apprehensive to do this, as our faculty is just really in about their 3rd full year of distance learning, BUT I did have three of them (one being the Dean of the department :0)) offer to be on the committee due to the nature/structure of it. Being a small community college, we are all on about 5-6 committees. I do think they liked the idea!
The podcasting sites are wonderful! It is so great to know that there are free resources out there for helping us with reading and writing on the web. I plan on sharing this and many of the other free sites and ideas with my staff members. Hey, maybe I should embed a podcast in the email just to show them how easy it really is!
I also looked at social bookmarking and then thought a lot about the usefulness of tags. As a librarian, the tags are like subject and keywords in a library search. Teaching students/patrons the new ways to find, organize, and share ideas feels natural and fun. I am very happy about what I am learning... and sharing!
Tagging is what is so important in social bookmarking, for librarians and us all!
ReplyDeleteI love your enthusiasm for this :) What did your colleagues think of the site? Did they seem open to collaborating in this method? Is ITV like Elluminate or Skype? I'm trying to get my team to meet via Skype or using a vRoom so we don't all have to drive all over from our buildings to meet. They seem apprehensive which I found sad because we're all Tech teachers :(
ReplyDeleteThanks for your responses.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I really think that they are excited and willing to try. The ITV uses televisions, where I think that Skype and Elluminate are definitely easier (like one step ahead). The staff here is much more familiar with ITV, so I wanted to give them something familiar at first.
Also, I am sorry to hear that your colleagues aren't willing to jump out there and try meeting on the net... maybe you could try using a Google Sites or Wiki with some of the things you collaborate on. It may be extra work for you, but you could "show" them the benefits of this Web 2.0 aspect first (and the time saved). Then, they may be willing to take the "next step" to Skype or Elluminate. Good luck! We are all creatures of habit, so it really takes time to change people.