Information Fluency Meets Web 2.0 — Joyce Valenza’s NECC 07 Presentation
Jul 5th, 2007 by Cathy Nelson
This media guru always knows exactly what to say to make me feel I am right there with her! The media guru of the century, Joyce Valenza, admittedly calls herself a 1.8 person, not quite 2.0. She considers herself still in beta, but proclaims to all that it is okay to still be in beta. We are, after all, lifelong learners!
Valenza starts with a a pix of the soldiers from the story Stone Soup. Many want to believe they scammed the village, but in reality, if looked at a different way, they were instead an inspiration for change and a catalyst for collaboration in that village.
With the increase in Web 2.o tools, our students are living in a very rich media world. As literacy teacher librarians, we should be embracing these tools to teach responsible use. We can model the use of these tools as well through our instructional practices. An IDEAL way to model is to change the way we do pathfinders, and instead of publishing static webpages, make wiki pathfinders! Of course this is just one way, but what a way to jump right in!
Joyce Valenza created a wiki for this presentation that can be easily accessed, and she welcomes its use for us to teach our faculty and staff, and yes, even students. There are some GREAT examples of end products of project based learning here as well, and a ton of ideas for us to start small (while we are still in beta) and grow to become authentic 2.0 users and contributors.
Remember the intro with the analogy of the soldiers and their stone soup? We as professional teacher librarians can be the soldiers of Web 2.0. We can model the use of web 2.0 tools in our own instructional practice, and help teachers integrate their use as well through solid collaboration. I left this session so inspired! Check out her avatar–I’ve got to find where this was made so I can make my own too!













