the big house library was proud to be a satellite location for this live streaming learning event. :)
the big house had a total of 17 district-librarians, teacher-librarians, and library support staff from all over the north bay area. :)
there were a total of 200 participants -- individuals logging in from home and groups signing in from satellites like ours -- from all over the state and from across the country! :)
some participants just watched, listened, and learned, while others texted and tweeted with attendees from all over the state. it was totally interactive and incredibly fun! :)
the technology worked surprisingly perfectly! :) (at least on our end... some satellites struggled at first, but made it online eventually!)
the organizers used elluminate to conduct the webinar. it allowed for slides, videos, audio, and IM all to used simultaneously. it was efficient, effective, and cool. :) our new computer lab did the job marvelously! this event was exactly what the space was designed to be able to do (and hopefully will do much more of in the very near future).the only casualty was my (expletive) microphone! i cannot explain why it chose today to not work.
the presentation was flawless; it was full of helpful tools, practical information, and inspirational ideas.the chatting was fast and furious; we were full of witty comments and thoughtful questions.we talked about web 2.0 the entire time and the need to do it now! to walk the talk, i took notes using a web 2.0 app called wallwisher: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/myjvwebinarnotes.
there were a lot of really great quotes to ponder and so many awesome new links to explore!
@aprilgeltch said: "i will grow step by step, not all at once"
@glenwarren said: "i wish we could bottle this and put it in every supermarket!"
the famous and fabulous professor of librarianship dr. david loertscher asked the million dollar question: does web 2.0 impact student achievement? i'd sure like to think so! and when i find some research to support that claim, i'll post it here.
dr. loertscher also asked if 2.0 tools impact earning potential. well, to me, it's obvious that they do! when was the last time your employer asked you to prepare a poster board about a project you were working on? why is it then that we're still assigning them to our students? when was the last time your employer told you that you couldn't use a computer all day at work? why is it then that we expect our students to power down at school when we never do?
what we are required to teach our students does not align to what they need to know how to be able to do to succeed in today's workplace. state school library standards will help, no doubt. but we've got to begin now teaching teachers, administrators, policymakers, parents, and of course our students about all this stuff. they just don't know what they don't know; and that's where we come in! :)
i learned so much in this webinar, probably most importantly that i am not alone in my desire to do libraries differently than they've always been done before. we're marching in the right direction. keep heart! the revolution is under way! :)
in response to the "oh-my-gosh-there's-so-much-what-do-i-do-next" feeling that many of us had at the end of the webinar, i would point out dr. valenza's answer to our nagging question: how does she *do* all this???
dr. valenza said: "i stopped making the beds. i don't inventory every year. i don't catalog completely. and i gather all the help i can (students, parents, grandparents). but not doing it is not an option."
i would like to thank the tireless organizers of this event in the southern section of csla: kathie maier, jane lofton, and my gal pal marie slim! :) i would also like to thank our inspired speaker dr. valenza and our host dr. loertscher. :)
i can't wait for our next webinar! (and, yes, the big house will host!) there will thankfully be one a month from now on. teacher-librarians -- especially ones new to the profession like me and in districts like mine that can no longer afford to have teacher professional development days due to the state budget shortfall -- desperately need school library leaders like dr. valenza and dr. loertscher pushing and prodding us to do more and be better. our kids deserve no less from us.
