Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

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Tags: SLJ Leadersip Summit, SLJSummit08

As I attended the School Library Journal Leadership Summit this past weekend, I happened to run into an old friend–Allison Roberts.  Allison was my first LMS mentor as I entered the field of school library.  I was such a newbie then, and as we reflected over some of my “better” newbie questions, we had quite a laugh.

Allison was Aiken-Area 5’s contact for the SCASL regional network back then, and after many years in Aiken, she left to go back home to Tennessee. Allison shared this story with me in front of several other LMS’s so I want to share it with you.  Allison was an active participant in SCASL back then, and continued to attend our SCASL conferences for several years after leaving SC–mainly because the professional feeding that occurs annually at our conferences.  She was approached by another Tennessean at one of the last ones she attended, who was amazed and surprised to find another Tennessee LMS at our SCASL conference–just like her-all the way from Tennessee. What are the chances?

A Chance Meeting Launches a LEADER

I wish I could give proper credit by sharing the name of this LMS who by chance struck up this conversation with our former colleague Allison Roberts.  Anyway this person asked Allison why she was attending our SCASL Conference instead of the TASL (TN Association of School Librarians) Conference, and Allison confessed that she wasn’t getting much from it–at least not as much as she could get at SCASL.  Partner with the professional feeding the fact that she could be with all her old friends made coming anually quite a draw.  This colleague then introduced herself to Allison, and suddenly Allison felt like opening her mouth and inserting her foot–it was the THEN TASL President (or maybe president elect.) So they decided to hang out, get to know each other, and see what they could do to make the TASL conference and organization a stronger entity like SCASL.

Mission accomplished!

Allison has served three years herself recently as the TASL President, and is now a regional representative to AASL.  Our former colleague and friend is a RISING STAR in our profession! I was so pleased to get to see her and talk to her again.  It just suddenly made me realize how SMALL our world is.

Hello!

Allison sends BIG HELLOs to all of SC.  And she credits SCASL for helping shape her vision of what TASL could be back then.  By looking at their upcoming conference scheduled in the next few days, I can see that it is strong and VERY inviting, so much so that I wish I could attend.  My compliments to Allison. AND my compliments to SCASL, for being a strong organization that draws people from other states year in and year out. You guys raise the bar EACH YEAR!

Tags: SCASL, SLJSummit08

Conferences. They MUST change the way they think about attendees’ needs.  Two conferences in a row, both locations offer free wifi for anyone who brings in a laptop, but there is no plan for how those said folks will “power up.”  Okay so I’m wise to this. As I pack my things for the conferences, I tuck in my bag a powerstrip.  It came in handy at both conferences, as usually if I arrived at a session late, all I had to do was show my powerstrip, and instantly I had six to eight friends.

In Fort Lauderdale this week, I met with my “group” I was working with (Joyce Valenza, Jim Ulsh, and Chris Harris) to work out some logistics of our plan to empower the SLJ Summit in a 2.0 way. We met in the lobby, but quickly realized we needed power.  So we relocated to another  nearby table at the sushi bar (which wasn’t open at the same time.) But this time instead of the 8 outlet surge I just brought a six foot obscenely bright orange power cord that had three outlets (space was an issue when packing).  Four people and three outlets do not make for a happily connected group (the outlet we had access to was already in use by another person in the lobby.)  But Chris had a smaller power strip (all tech people have the coolest toys) and pretty soon we were churning along.

We worked handily on the Ning widgets and components and the Cover-it-Live set up so that we could feed in content about the summit. We launched and advertised tags and hashtags so folks could have their content (pictures, tweets, blog posts, etc) feed to the School Library Journal Summit Ning. We discussed the goal of live blogging sessions, sharing links w/ other attendees and virtual attendees, and setting up the Ustream (which by the way the Ustream failed miserably) for the panel discussion Joyce was moderating.  As people came through the lobby we looked like a strange group–each with our eyes basically glued to our screens, but carrying on simultaneous conversations despite multitasking on our laptops.  Some one said or group needed a “name” so we brainstormed one, and here is what we came up with–> Your outlet or mine?  To reflect on that is funny now.

Which brings me back to my original point. We need to consider those who bring laptops to conferences, and arrange a section of each concurrent session room and keynote for those who need to plug in.  More and more we have connections that go on during the conference, and strive to share or bring in virtual attendees in one way another, so TPTB need to consider this need. I’m on the Informational Technology Committee for SCASL, and we have a meeting Tuesday evening–a virtual meeting. I will ask the chair of this committee to relay this need to the SCASL President-elect (in charge of conference planning), and perhaps the local arrangements chair so that MAYBE this service will be freely offered.  BUT I will still plan to carry my multi outlet strip (and probably make a lot of new friends again.)

What? You want to know about the SLJ Summit. I’m still working on my draft about that.  But I sure will be glad to GET HOME. It’s HOT in Fort Lauderdale. And I’ve been sitting here at the airport since 4:00 or so. My plane doesn’t leave until 7ish. Sigh.

Tags: Conferences, K12, Professional Development, School Library, SLJSummit08

I sit here tonight checking my to do list and my luggage check list.  I leave tomorrow for Fort Lauderdale for the 2008 School Library Journal Leadership Summit.  You know I asked some of my state folks some time back when I first saw the posting of the summit’s dates who would go and represent SC.  I sit here and realize now that I never did find out, so it will be with interest that I seek and find out once I arrive at the summit’s hotel.

How did I get to go?
No one in my state selected me.  Instead, I ask as many connected people that I could think of how one gets invited, and the next thing you know Brian Kenney, the editor-in-chief of School Library Journal is calling me and asking if I am interested in coming. At first I tell him, yes, I’d love to come, but there was NO WAY my school could afford to send me, particularly in light of recent budget cuts across our state.  I didn’t dare ask for funding for this trip since I already had asked to go to Philadelphia in January for Educon 2.1, and was told yes—if I could pay for it. Sigh.  Not happening at the moment (but I haven’t given up hope yet.)

Well, there is one small requirement…

Brian then said he might be able to get me there, compliments of SLJ.  Okay, I have to admit I was SPEECHLESS. I was like, “Sir, where did you get my name?” (I was getting suspicious to tell the truth.) He told me Joyce Valenza.  Okay yes, i nearly dropped my teeth. After I regained some composure, he then shared that it was contingent on some answers to some questions. Mostly the questions centered around my comfort level with social networking sites, blogging platforms, and video.  After I suppose giving sufficient answers he asked if I would come and be a “tech guru” for the summit.  I told him I didn’t want to lead him on to think that I was an expert at any one thing, though I did have a comfort level in many areas we discussed. He assured me that was enough, and he really wanted me to come. (I can only assume he wanted a “practicing” school librarian for the job.)

Accepted!

So I accepted this invitation, not really being sure what would be expected of me. I found out last Thursday.  I am going to orchestrate a Ustream (the SLJ Summit Channel) & backchannel there to stream out a panel discussion that will be archive for later viewing.  WOW.  Brian said he wanted to use a school librarian for the job which is why no real “expert” is being brought in.  I feel honored to be asked, and am going to do my best to make this happen for all the LMS’s out there like me who hoped and prayed that eventually there would be a way for me to join in.

Will this impact other organizations?

I pay my dues to ALA/AASL & SCASL every year, and sometimes I wonder what am I getting from my membership?  Well now more than any other time, I feel like I can have my voice heard, all through the tools that I use.  And these same tools are allowing me to participate in many ways, including Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and more.  My hope is that these same organizations I continue my membership in will see positive effects from the activities I help contribute to here at the Summit, and embrace these tools as well, allowing some sessions or other conference events to be streamed out to members and nonmembers alike.

How do I know the impact?

One of my platforms back at NECC 08 in that panel discussion I participated in was that our group (LMS’s) must quit preaching to the choir of only LMSs that we network with, and instead branch out to other groups in the field, including (but not limited to) content area conferences for teachers, instructional technologists, and administrators on a variety of levels. I know a concern for ones unfamiliar with these tools (and their potential) is the fear that membership or conference attendance will go down due to the content being free from other sources.  I am not suggesting everything from the conferences be streamed out free. On the contrary, i am asking that consideration for a few things be made available.  These freely offered programs would have quite the opposite effect.  Instead of ending attendance at conferences, I predict more will come.  Getting in the mix of the tools and interacting with like-minded educators makes participants want (no literally crave) the face-to-face meeting. And what better place to have face to face conversations than at the professional organization’s conferences?  I certainly would not end my membership. And quite honestly, i would suddenly see and feel more value in that membership.  If any are skeptical,  consider Educon 2.0 at Chris Lehmann’s school, the Science Leadership Academy.  The first ever conference created to bring forward minded educators together for the purpose of face to face conversations was 100% freely streamed for anyone who wished to participate. Not only streamed, but also mixed in tools including cover it lives, blogs, wikis, chat tools, and more. But I don’t recall a SINGLE Powerpoint. The wiki for the conference asked everyone who was participating, either in person or virtually, to add their name to the “attending” wiki.  So the conference left an indelible mark on all who attended, physically or virtually, with the true understanding that the gathering was not about membership or even a conference, but instead about conversations and a focus on moving towards engaged learning that has authenticity. And that is why Chris this year is expecting three times the number who attended last year, which I want to say was roughly 250. I was actually lucky enough to be one of the attendees last year, and my attendance forged friendships i will in all likelihood maintain for a lifetime.

My point here is our organizations will suffer NO loss of membership (funding) or attendance. If anything, mixing in all these tools will INCREASE both and allow people to have deeper learning that will be taken back to our schools and learners.

Setting a lofty goal

So that is my goal in attending this summit. Whether I will be successful or not is still up for debate. Some of our members are tough sells. After all, our print reference books will always be there and be reliable. Sorry folks. This is my passion, so I am ecstatic to be attending. I probably will not be in front of my camera at all, and maybe not even in the backchannels, as I strive to capture the heart of what I stream and attempt to bring my virtual viewers’ voices to the floor of the summit to be heard. But I’m okay being behind the scenes this time.

Let’s connect–virtually

Plan to join me, okay?  I will twitter from here.  I will send info to my SCASL list as well. And when I know specifics about sessions I’m streaming (right now just two, the Joyce Valenza panel and the closing keynote) I will post here as well.  If your networks are larger or different from mine, PLEASE share so that we can WOW the socks off the powers that be who may still be reluctant about embracing these tools. And wish me luck!

Now, back to packing.

• Clothes - check
• Laptop - check
• Camera - check
• Firewire - check
• Sandals - check (should I?)

Tags: SLJ, SLJSummit08

Today I virtually participated in a live broadcast put together by a group of media literacy educators including “experts” from American University in DC and Temple University, and a product was released today that supposedly simplifies copyright and provides best practice guidelines to teachers and students. The guide supposedly simplifies the legalities of using copyrighted materials in an academic setting. It’s called The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, and is available here.

Released with a lot of pomp and circumstance–they were in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia this morning at 9:30, many big named organizations and people were there to both present the information as available to the public AND watch/listen to the presentation.  I myself watched from afar, and was one of the virtual attendees. I also participated in the chat that took place simultaneously with the streamed video (a BIG THANK YOU to Kristan Hokanson for making the virtual attendance a reality to me AND to exposing the organizations that worked diligently to create this daily to the power of using virtual tools to gather collective wisdom and voice! I swear we who use these tools in our daily lives have just taken one grand-daddy step towards getting more buy in from other educators, particularly TPTB (and TPTB–the powers that be–just in case you are curious, are the National Association for Media Literacy Education, the Action Coalition for Media Education, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Visual Communication Studies Division of the International Communication Association, and the Media Education Foundation, facilitators Peter Jaszi and Patricia Aufderheide of American University and Renee Hobbs of Temple University. Oh and let’s not forget the many school and district based educators who tuned in today.)

The largest number I saw in the virtual viewing audience was 121, and I had to bail when a class came in around 10:45AM. Sigh–kids come first, always. I am looking forward to reviewing all the links, videos, presentations, and downloads available, and you can find them on the wiki here.

So later this afternoon, my friend Frank Baker asked our list, some of whom I SAW in the virtual chat “cover-it-live”, this question:

OK, if you watched the stream of the event (or if you plan to watch it after the fact) here is my BIG question”

Does this report clarify it for you? or does it muddy the copyright/fair use waters?

Just curious.

Wow. That is a BIG question. I’m still trying to process the information. I don’t know about anyone else, and maybe it’s because I’m a SLOW learner, but I still have a hard time determining “transformative.”

I can say this for sure.  Where copyright seemed to be very black and white–transformative seems to have added shades of grey. So I suppose as I mull over this information in the next few days, I cannot say yet until I mash it around in my brain.  I guess for now I have to say the water is muddy.  But that is very typical, particularly after a storm, and I definitely would call the information shared today a storm to really stretch my thinking. So I’m still waiting for calmer weather and time to clear the waters.

Attribution:

Tags: Copyright

This Tuesday there is a LIVE presentation given by Joyce Valenza among others on a long and extensive attempt to make copyright less confusing for educators.  Have you heard of it?

The presentation will be broadcast live via streaming video, and if you can participate in a UStream chat OR a “Cover-it-Live” chat, you can be heard! You can ask your questions or make comments.

This presentation will release the code of best practices as it relates to copyright. There is a quiz to see just how much you know, and the clearest explanations you can want for copyright in the educational context.

Can’t make it live at 9:00AM On Tuesday, November 11?  That’s okay, the video presentation will be archived on the wiki, and the presentation itself is already available for viewing AND downloading NOW.

When? Tuesday, 9:00AM East coast time, November 11, 2008

Where can you see it? the video will be LIVE in the wiki!

Can’t be there live? Visit the wiki for the archived video presentation.

Want to preview the slides for the presentation? Here they are!

Tags: Copyright

Steve Dembo’s latest challenge in the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger challenge calls for participants to comment.  I wholeheartedly agree with this. I will take it one step further than Steve did in his challenge to improve our blogging skills. I will list reasons I do it, encourage others, and challenge you to take it one more step.

Reasons to Comment

• It truly does extend the conversations
• You get to exposed to others who may resonate with your thinking
• You expand your personal (professional) learning network

How has “commenting” been beneficial for me?

I participated in Will Richardson’s Powerful Learning Practice (PYP) program last winter, and believe my first ever contact with him was through commenting on his blog, and he on mine.  Talk about super encouragement.  I then was able to “meet up” with him in other virtual spaces, including twitter, ustream, K12Online, and other locales, which eventually led to meeting him in person for the ever important face-to-face connection at places like NECC and Educon 2.0.

I have also commented frequently on Karl Fisch’s Blog.  This led to cultivating a relationship here. I followed him in other networking circles, and I’ll be gosh darned if last winter I wasn’t invited to participate in his school’s blogging project as their entire ninth grade read and then discussed Dan Pink’s A Whole new Mind.  I attribute my luck here all the way back to cultivating a relationship with Karl initially through commenting. I asked Karl why he selected me out of all the gazillions of forward minded thinkers he had to choose form, and he simply said, “Because Cathyjo, you are part of my network.”  It was enough for me, and quite a rich experience to boot!

So the seemingly insignificant task of commenting can lead to greater opportunities. It can open so many suprising doors.

My additional challenge to you:

Please, Please, PLEASE provide a link to not only the RSS for your posts in your blog, but also the RSS for comments made in your blog.  I do not like to just enjoy your posts, I also VERY MUCH like to enjoy the conversations you engage in there as well. That is only possible if i can subscribe to both your posts and comments. Please check you blog and make sure you have added the meta data that provides readers those ever important links.  ( I have dropped a few blogs of big names in the bloggoshere I have subscribed to previously before just because I realized i was only getting one side of that conversation.)

Thanks Steve for this challenge. Want to join in this challenge? You still can. There is no official begining or end to join.

Image Attribution:

30d2bbb by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at 30d2bbb . pbwiki . com.

Tags: 30D2BBB

SC EdTech (2008 theme Rock On) is over and done again for the year. It will be back next October.  It is so good to see such a mixture of educators at this annual meet-up.  Best now that I live in Myrtle Beach (80% of the time anyway) getting to sleep at home and not worry about hotel internet connections or parking is a huge plus.

I did an extended session first thing Wednesday morning that went well enough.  I had standing room only for the first hour, but when it came down to getting “in my sandbox” and getting dirty playing with tools, some bailed. It was expected and even okayed.  The smaller the group, the easier it would be to assist those who needed help.  I did find I had to go significantly slower than was my intent.  A do over would call for a poll of expertise and comfort, a recruitment of help (I had several experienced friends in the audience including Frank Moore, Chris Craft, MaryAnn Sansonetti, Heather Loy, & Fran Bullington) and then a divide and conquer approach to teaching. Many had absolute interest and desire to learn, but no schema for the content nor a comfort in the tools.  I’m still not quite sure how I think it went.

The opening day keynote was a hypnotist who was quite intriguing.  sat on the front row, but did not volunteer.  I was amazed at the volunteers AND audience members who FROM THEIR SEAT were put under and at the mercy of the hypnotist. I hope someone videoed to show these people exactly what they did. While it was PG, I would be so embarrassed if I looked back at it on video.

Here is a breakdown of my day Thursday:

Google Apps -  The presenter went over many of the tools I knew well already, but I was hoping to get ideas for “enticing” others to use them. I am planning a parent/student evening workshop on this toic, so I went for ideas, and i was not disappointed.

Don’t Read to Me by Chris Craft - Chris is using all his learning theory and psychology from his Ph.D. program at USC to help attendees understand the best way to engage an audience when teaching or doing staff development presentations.  He is engaging and funny, so this time flew by (I had to leave half way through for a call that I may blog about later.) But reports from attendees was that the session was fabulous.

Keynote - NASA Video Conference - the speaker had all kinds of technical glitches with sound and feed back, but the astronauts that work the education side of NASA were filled with ideas of use for video conferencing in the classroom. I kept wondering why plain old Skype wasn’t used….

A group of us ate lunch together at the Sea Captain’s House right on the beach. YUMMMMY. (Me, Chris, Maryann, Julia Davis, Jessica Donaldson, and Heather Loy.)

Game-on! Okay I went b/c i am considering doing a gaming club, and so thought I would get some good ideas here. But it was simply PowerPoint Games and the audience was SO into this. I wasn’t all that impressed. Sigh. I apologize, as I can see where those who love powerpoint would get all hot and bothered.  My take away? Have kids search for PPT template games online and create their own for a content review in the classroom. So see, i did leave with at least an idea.

My next session was BAD and like Heather Loy, i will comment no further on it other than to share what I got from it. My take away? recertification credits.  I should have left but 1) I hate when others do that, 2) it’s not like I paid to attend–committee members were there free, and 3) I was trapped at the wall where i raced to get a seat so I could be plugged in with my laptop. I did text my friend Chris to say the presenter needed a remedial course in his session topic, presentation design. It was a CLASSIC KMN pppt. (KMN = Kill Me Now b/c it is bullet ridden, text heavy, and the fonts were microscopic. That was okay though because the presenter READ each and every word on her slides.)

Second Life - A few of my friends and I went to the Second Life Session, and we immediately jumped right in and friend-ed the presenter, Dr. Gary Senn, a professor from the University of South Carolina-Aiken campus. I sat in the back so I could be near a plug, and my neighbor and I got to goofing off in SL while he was touring us around (mostly me) and I got a serious case of the giggles. I could not regain composure, and people around me were getting angry. I formally apologize to everyone who was around me. I realize in hindsight how much of a distraction I was, especially after some of my friends at supper reminded me that I was being glared at by nearby session attendees. Ooops. SL has potential but I am not ready to lead students in.

We ate supper out at Broadway at the Beach and had a nice time feeding the fish and the ducks who were downright mean to each other.

Friday morning I met another friend, John Woodring, who kind of walked me through some questions I had with Ustream. Too bad it doesn’t count as a session.  I stayed for his next two sessions he presented, one on using WizIQ and one on Cyberbullying. (See his wiki.) I left with an idea for teaching cyber-bulling at school during the day to kids. I have previously done some parent workshops, but nothing of any great detail for students. Thanks John for the great ideas today.

Final thoughts

The conference does something called e-tracking, where you get a card scanned at each session and then after the conference you have a document that is worth recertification points or credits in South Carolina. I wish they would give me a session credit for my one on one impromtu Ustream session w/ John. I was there at the conference, just not in a scheduled session. Also, I think we should get credit for time spent in the vendor hall too, as I get a lot of ideas from the vendors as well.  Oh well. That is a comment to leave on the conference evaluation.  I did enjoy the days there, but the hanging out with friends, catching up with colleagues we only see at conferences, and picking the brains of experts and those who have done interesting or exciting activities that were shared is what makes attending this conference so exciting.

Attribution:

Hey everyone just showing how to write a post.

Well, our annual state technology conference is here.  SC Edtech has been very instrumental in pulling me forward in my way of thinking. I remember that first one so long ago in Greenville, SC.  I only went for a single day if the conference, but I was hooked then, and have never missed another one since. I’ve presented at most of them–there have not been many years that I have skipped–maybe one or two.  I serve on the planning board for the conference now, and can say the planning side of a conference looks very different from the attending side, or even presenting side.  (I know my friends can’t wait to see me sport my conference shirts, which are always GREAT for the guys but less than great for the gals. I’ll try to post a picture for yall.)

A 2.0 Playground

I have another presentation tomorrow, and this time it is a playground of sorts instead of me “presenting.”  I have a few friends coming along who will help, and we plan to immerse the attendees into a 2.0 playground for 2 and a half hours.  I’m worried b/c I’ve NEVER done a presentation like this before. I am not even sure how to prepare.  My plan is to make a pitch fr 21st century learning (isn’t that beginning to be “the” overused word of the year?) and then help attendees jump right into some tools.  Am I nervous? uh, YEAH! The best part though is that I am up FIRST and barring any no-shows for volunteer helpers at the conference, I am free as a bird to network, attend sessions, and shmooze with vendors. I don’t even remember the last vendor hall I went to at a conference—isn’t that sad?   (Actually I have a grant with money to spend, so I’m hoping to get a GREAT deal on a couple of items.) I wish i could Ustream my session, but it is going to be FAR too long to even consider it.  (Plus I’m not sure anyone would be interested or even if I have the “goods” to draw a viewing audience.)  Okay I must stop procrastinating and actually GET to work on my preso stuff.

The nerds have it

But I cannot WAIT to have these upcoming “nerdy” conversations with all my network that come to the beach this week!  Come on guys, “talk nerdy to me!”

Tags: Professional Development, SC EdTech