Now that THAT's over...

Sorry for the delay, been finishing up a class. So, what did I learn?

I read a great deal about Library 2.0, and what that means. I read that there is insufficient evidence to date regarding the efficacy of Web 2.0 to further information literacy learning outcomes.

My conclusion: back to basics, mainly, librarian-faculty collaboration. In a vacuum, without a credit-bearing stand-alone course and/or faculty status, without a context within which to place it, Web 2.0 technologies might not further information literacy beyond marketing, location and access.

Each purpose has its place. Marketing is extremely important, to get an IL program off the ground as well as to sustain it. But real learning? Real, measurable improvement? Librarians are hard-pressed to achieve that on their own. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 need faculty and staff support, and administrative buy-in as well, to provide infrastructure support--both technological and personnel-wise--for exploration and development of these tools, to fully realize their potential to improve student learning.

It's fun to use snazzy tools, and say "look what I made!" It is crushing to hear "so what?" I ask myself that all the time, "so what?" as a reality check before spending time on making something, provided I've also invested in sufficciently marketing my creation.

Using the tools to help market the tools...need to look into that!

Crawford, W. (2006). Library 2.0 and library 2.0, Cites and Insights, 6(2), 1-32.

Crawford, W. (2011). Five years later: Library 2.0 and balance, Cites and Insights, 11(2), 1-26.

Crawford, W. (2011). Five years later: Library 2.0 and balance (cont.), Cites and Insights, 11(3), 1-22.

Nesta, F. & Mi, J. (2011). Library 2.0 or library III: Returning to leadership, Library Management, 32 (1/2), 85-97.

Mystery and Rediscovery

So, after three weeks of mystification, I finally found out from a wonderful person on the WWW that IE9 installs itself as an update to IE8, hence, you can't uninstall it from the Programs menu, but from the Updates folder. After all these days trying to figure out why IE8 was "not compatible with my system," and wanting to strangle Bill Gates, and discovering all the things Google Chrome does and does not like to do, a savior. Thank you so much, person I have to look up again, even though I didn't need to use the screenshots of Windows 7 you also so kindly provide to the world, with your information.

The best experiences I've had on the web have been ones like this, especially the one that showed me how to remove a worm that was going around the world. What a feeling of empowerment, to be able to do it yourself, with a little help from people who aren't even your friends.

I need to thank that person personally. And all this talk (and reading) of "social constructivism," isn't that what just happened today, to me? And don't it feel good? I'm walkin' on sunshine. IE anynumber is a necessary evil for me (32 and 64 bit), as I check website work in three different browsers, just to see what happens. So yes, people, I do know of Firefox, Chrome, Safari et. al. What are all the kids using today? Most likely IE, though.

Rediscovery: I found my Wikispaces account from 2009, when I was trying to learn how to make a wiki. Soon: dryseriouswiki might be ready for you to join!

Google docs and Skype

Things to do ASAP, courtesy of one of my current classmates and his tale:

• learn how to use Google Docs more proficiently
• learn how to use Skype more proficiently
• put them all together and voila! instant online collaboration

Is this a dry, serious blog?

Why, yes, it will be, if you help me to make it so.

After years of being excluded from the "what's your second masters in?" club--a favorite of academic librarians everywhere--I finally embarked on the journey to club membership. So, almost 9 credits into the 36 needed for the degree called "Masters in Instructional Technology in Education with a Concentration in Instructional Design" (minus the 6 credits that transferred from the first masters), my mind is starting to get full. To empty some of it, I need to wonder out loud here, with you.

Getting a second masters has prompted me to read some things--a lot of things, actually. Some of the things I read were about blogs, along with many other technologies with which I've not had direct experience. I now have to get a smartphone, participate on the wikis to which I belong, learn a bunch of web authoring and multimedia tools, create an e-portfolio and figure out how to use e-portfolios for authentic Information Literacy assessment, step up the librarian - faculty collaboration....well...the blog seemed like a good first step.