Tame The Web » Dominican University GSLIS

Have I mentioned this to TTW Readers?

Michael — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 03:46:03 +0000

My 4th Year Portfolio (yes, paper, I know…I know…), originally uploaded by mstephens7.

I received notice that my application and portfolio of evidence for my promotion from Assistant Professor has been reviewed by the Committee on Faculty Appointments:

In the fall of 2011, I will be Dr. Michael Stephens, Associate Professor of Library and Information Science at Dominican University.

LIS768 Context Book Assignment: Videos

Michael — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:02:43 +0000

Every semester in LIS768: Participatory Service & Emerging Technologies, one option for the Context Book Report assignment is to produce a video or media project. Here are this semester’s submissions.

Blink: http://animoto.com/play/FiGx1F3hgtSX8iRCLFMQ5w

Outliers: http://animoto.com/play/rjgjI4UogPomu5bKSW7qag

Latino Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLJV5_EVq_I

Setting the Table: http://animoto.com/play/tsovePOYnIEEGbX6AbOROQ

Born Digital: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bq9-eRPTP8&

Legendary Brands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y9hD7T2tlc&

I struggled with a WP glitch to embed so please just follow the links. I appreciate the work and thought these students put into their reports.

LIS768 Group Projects

Michael — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 20:38:37 +0000

Greetings from Dominican University GSLIS!

Today we had four presentations:

Library Signage: Explored the good, bad and encouraging world of library signage.

E-Books & Libraries: Presented basics, issues and considerations about e-books and offered some great examples.

See this link: www.goo.gl/DqWg8

The Library Commons: Started with the Smithsonian Commons concepts as well as other inspirations related to the idea of “The Commons.”

Library commons

View more presentations from Cathy Gottlieb.

Here’s a video about the the future of the Commons in libraries:

Drupal & Libraries: This group redesigned a library’s Web site with Drupal.

https://docs.google.com/present/editid=0ARh7v39oMP4iZGNqM25nNWpfODNkMjlqNWRnNQ&hl=en

This video was featured in TWO of the presentations. The Unquiet Library ROCKS!

The Library is Everywhere:

The library is everywhere

View more presentations from Portia Kapraun.

QR Codes Connect Students to Books

Michael — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:32:41 +0000

I used this as an example yesterday for the Michigan school librarians:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/newsletters/newsletterbucketextrahelping/886787-443/qr_codes_connect_students_to.html.csp

“I realized how often I see them in public and I wanted to give [students] an awareness of them,” says Brook Forest’s school librarian, John Schumacher, referring to QR codes, two-dimensional barcodes that can be read using a camera on a smartphone. “They were coming up with lots of ideas of what they could make: business cards, links to their online accounts, and creating further designs.”

But first, Schumacher had the students write mini book lists and reviews, and then QR code their suggestions so other students could see what they liked. The popular school librarian—who posts online the number of books he reads each year along with authors he’s met—is big on getting books into kids’ hands. He even papers lockers and bathrooms at Brook Forest with posters marketing the latest title that’s arrived in the library. When the poster goes up in the bathroom, students know they can start reserving a new book.

“And I know they’re reading in the bathrooms,” Schumacher says. “Because they come in and tell me something I’ve only posted in there. I’ve pretty much taken over the school.”

Disclaimer: John is a Dominican GSLIS grad and I had the privilege to have him in three classes.

Updating LIS768 List of Context Books for Student Reports

Michael — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:59:46 +0000

This morning I’m updating one of my favorite assignments for LIS768 Participatory Service and Emerging Technologies. Two years ago, I asked for further suggestions to share with my class. Today. I’ll do the same: what would you add? Please share in the comments below. I’ll be including the post URL in the course site.

Original post from 2008: http://tametheweb.com/2008/09/10/lis768-reading-list/

Current list included in syllabus:

Assignment – Context Book Report – 10 points

Students will read a book selected from the list provided below or suggest another title for Michael’s approval, and write a 200-300 word reflection posted to your blog relating the topic and focus of the book to libraries, technology and participatory service.

OPTIONAL: Instead of writing your report, create a media presentation such as a podcast, YouTube video, Animoto show, etc. Let your creativity flow!

Selections from the Online Reading List

Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail
Beck, John C. & Mitchell Wade. Got game
Bernoff, Josh. Groundswell
Breakenridge, Deidre. PR 2.0
Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
Collins, Jim. Good to Great
Doctorow, Cory Content
Doctorow, Cory Little Brother
Frankel, Alex. Punching In
Fried, Jason & David Heinemeier Hannsen. Rework
Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat
Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to teach Us about Learning & Literacy
Gilmore, James & B. Joseph Pine II. Authenticity
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers
Godin, Seth. Small is the New Big
Godin, Seth. Tribes
Godin, Seth. Linchpin
Heath, Chip & Dan. Switch
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture
Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers & Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You
Keen, Andrew The Cult of the Amateur
Kelley, Tom with Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation
Kusek, David & Gerd Leonhard. The Future of MusicLevine, Rick et al. The Cluetrain Manifesto
Meyer, Danny. Setting the Table
Palfrey, John & Urs Gasser. Born Digital
Penn, Mark J. Microtrends
Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind
Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody
Solove, Daniel. The Future of Reputation
Sunstein, Cass. Infotopia
Tapscot, Dan. Grown Up Digital
Tapscott, Don & Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics
Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous
Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined
Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It

Press Release: Dominican University appoints Ken Haycock as Follett Chair

Michael — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:24:07 +0000

River Forest, IL – Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) has appointed Dr. Ken Haycock as the Follett Chair in Library and Information Science. Haycock is the recipient of the American Library Association’s 2010 Beta Phi Mu Award, presented annually for distinguished service to education in librarianship, as well as the association’s Herbert and Virginia White Award for promoting the profession of librarianship. A prolific writer and editor, he currently serves as regional editor for Library Management and series editor for Neal-Schuman’s The MBA for the MLIS Bookshelf.

Haycock has held senior positions in both his native Canada and the United States, including most recently, as director of the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, where he was named an outstanding professor; and director of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canadian society. A past president the American Association of School Librarians as well as the California Library Association, Haycock now serves as a member of the ALA Committee on Accreditation. He is also senior partner at Ken Haycock & Associates, Inc., which works with organizations to build capacity for leadership, collaboration and advocacy.

Haycock received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a diploma in education from the University of Western Ontario, a master’s degree in education from the University of Ottawa, a master’s degree in library science from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in business administration from Royal Roads University, and a doctorate in education from Brigham Young University.

“Dominican University is delighted to make this appointment,” noted Dr. Susan Roman, dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. “Dr. Haycock is a noted scholar, educator and leader who has been recognized by a wide variety of professional library organizations and has experience in a number of library environments. We look forward to his invaluable contributions to our new doctoral program, to our strategic planning initiatives, and to our position and profile within the field of educating librarians.”

One of only four chairs in library science in the country, the Follett Chair is bestowed upon a master researcher and scholar who has achieved renown in the profession, and is endowed through a gift of the Follett Corporation.

Accredited by the American Library Association (ALA), Dominican University’s GSLIS has been educating future library leaders and information professionals since the 1930’s. The school offers master’s degrees in library and information science as well as a doctor of philosophy in library and information science.

From Michael: I am over the moon about this! Welcome Ken!

Announcing eChicago 2010 @ Dominican University

Michael — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:34:31 +0000

http://www.dom.edu/echicago

Thursday September 9 : 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Friday September 10 : 8.30 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Register Today!

EChicago @Dominican is organized and sponsored by the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, Dominican University. Every year practitioners, policymakers and researchers exchange ideas and find better ways to work together. As the global information society impacts the local, and vice versa, this year eChicago@Dominican will explore not only local community projects but also global projects. Three of our key speakers will discuss collaborations in countries which are very much on the minds of the international community, Haiti and China.

Key Speakers

Gaston Armour is currently with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) as the Statewide Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, in the Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness. In this role he assists, coordinates and provides direction for the emergency preparedness and readiness programs with the agency’s 13,000 employees. Prior to his current assignment he was in the Office of Strategic Planning as liaison for the governor’s Team Illinois initiative.

Professor Barbara J. Ford, Director of the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs and Mortenson Distinguished Professor at the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Former President of the American Library Association (ALA). Recognized with awards by the ALA and Chinese American Librarians Association for her significant contributions and dedication to international librarianship.

Dr. Shuyong Jiang is the Chinese Studies Librarian at the Asian Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jiang is project director of Think Globally, Act Globally US-China Librarian Collaboration. Funded jointly for the US Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

Dr. Kathleen Robbins, developed FonkoSel Aktive pa Digicel, a replication of the Grameen Bank Village Phone program, creating a partnership between Digicel, the largest cellular provider and Fonkoze, the largest MFI in Haiti. Co-founder of Jatropha Pepinyè, a non-profit business that uses a non-edible plant native to Haiti as a biofuel source.

Panels Include
Dominican University Westside Community Collaborative
Preparing and Building Community in Crises
Community Technology Centers in Chicago
Youth Community Technology Programs
Archives and Collective Memory in the Digital World: International and Local Communities
The 21st Century Skills Movement in Libraries and Museums

The Online Student Experience

Michael — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:42:43 +0000

A very striking example of what online education can be for some. I’m currently teaching a class this summer and am trying to do as much as I can to increase my visibility/presence. The good folks at SJSU University SLIS shared this video with me – I’m on their Technology Advisory Board.

One thing I noticed last semester is that my classes really responded to video, so I’m aiming to do more and more with video. Here’s a silly class check in from last week while Cooper and I were hiking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJV-dKq6zq8

One thing I heard from the SJSU folks that agreed with my own realizations: if you are going to do video, don’t fret too much that it is absolutely perfect – just do it. The video above was the second take of only two I did on the trail.

I’m interested to hear from other folks who teach online – what has worked well? What have you found that sparks interest and engagement online?

Practicum Report: Skokie Public Library – a TTW Guest Post by Brett Kochendorfer

Michael — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:57:02 +0000

Over the past three months I have gained invaluable experience from my practicum at the Skokie Public Library. Interacting with patrons is one of my favorite facets of librarianship and the patrons at the Skokie Public Library are phenomenal. I was inspired with the overwhelming professionalism and excellence displayed by the staff. My practicum kicked off with the Second Annual Skokie Madden Bowl. I was impressed by patron turnout for the Madden Bowl and the measurable impact the librarians, Richard Kong & Toby Greenwalt, had on the teen community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAXxfaUV7dI&feature=player_embedded

During my internship I interacted with several patrons, including two librarians from other libraries, who told me I was extremely lucky to work at a library that cared deeply about their community and had a wide variety of material, programs, and compelling outreach capabilities. The diversity of patrons and variety of questions made for a fulfilling internship. As Dr. Stephens might say, this is a library that encourages the heart. I wrote a week-to-week summary of my experiences on my blog. If you are interested you can obtain detailed information here: http://www.innolib.org

While at the library I worked on a Learning Digital Media web presence for their Digital Media Lab. The concept of the Learning Digital Media website is to encourage patrons to use the lab by showing them how to begin creating Digital Media. Each post contains step-by-step instructions on how to “get your feet wet” in digital media with links to additional resources and related circulating material available at the library.

http://blogs.skokielibrary.info/medialab/

In the words of Richard Kong, whom I would consider my advisor on this project, “When I think about the future of libraries, I can’t help but think that educating our users in technology (including digital media creation) has to be a huge part of the equation.” I could not agree more with Richard and look forward to encouraging digital media and the library as an information publisher in my career.

Brett Kochendorfer is a recent MLIS graduate from Dominican University. Brett maintains a blog at www.innolib.org and you can follow him on twitter at www.twitter.com/bkochendorfer

Note from Michael: I served as Brett’s practicum advisor this spring semester. He graduated last week as well! Congrats, Brett!

Welcome to Library School & Congrats New Grads

Michael — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:41:20 +0000

A brief post based on my notes for a short speech this week at Dominican GSLIS New Student Orientation and some reflection on the 55 students who graduated from our program last Saturday:

Ranganathan said “the Library is a growing organism.” That evolution continues and you all are starting your graduate library school journey at a perfect time.

I was recently in South Carolina, where I found myself in the hotel bar after a speech for the library school. The bartender was fired up about his brand new iPod Touch. He was running the bar’s music of of it via a cable attached to the sound system, and surfing the Web via the hotel’s wifi. He praised the access to the Web and his apps and held up the shiny new device and said:

” I have the whole world of information in my hand.”

This is the landscape our new students and graduating students are experiencing. For many – not all, of course – but for many, this ultra-connected world is the norm and new devices and services enhance it almost daily.

One of my goals as an LIS educator is to prepare my students for a decidedly digital future in libraries. Technology will touch every aspect of library service and operation is some way – big or small – from storytime to book clubs, from research collections to media production studios within the library.

Technology allows us to extend the presence of library service and librarians in ways that Ranganathan and Shera might have only dreamed about. But the most important thing is these technologies allow us to extend our missions of service, stewardship and access in surprisingly human channel. When technology falls away, it’s not a blog, or a Meebo-embedded staffer, or a Drupal reader’s community, it’s simply a group of people having a conversation.

For our new students – I wish you great success and urge you to be curious and creative with your coursework. Creativity will be a valuable commodity in your future library work. In my LIS701 class, we read Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” in which he suggests one way to free the creative right brain to have new ideas is to occupy the left brain with a task, such as walking a labyrinth. For the last night of class, we met at Oak Park’s First United Church and did just that. Each turn, each pause for reflection, each moment spent in the middle of the maze offered a chance for my students – and me – to consider our semester’s work and the next step. It was a pleasant exercise.

For our most recent grads – I wish you great success with everything you do in libraries. I have high hopes for the innovations and changes our graduates and all new LIS professionals will make. This is an incredible time to be working in libraries. Economic issues force us to be creative and to be vocal advocates for our services. Go forth! Create the future of libraries! I am counting on all of you.

Independent Study Project: The Book Advisor – A TTW Guest Post by Maggie Ryan

Michael — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:52:47 +0000

In January of this year, I began an Independent Study under the guidance of Michael Stephens. On February 14, 2010, I posted that: “The purpose of this study is to create readers’ advisory tools that utilize Web 2.0 technology.” During the past four months I have spent time: reviewing literature that is relevant to the topic; studying public library websites to ascertain what RA services are currently available and to determine what types of RA 2.0 other public libraries are providing for their patrons; and surveying library patrons to learn what services they believe would benefit them. While working on the study, I had the opportunity to learn about Drupal, a content management system and I made the decision to use Drupal to develop Web 2.0 readers’ advisory tools. The outcome of all of this effort is The Book Advisor, a prototype for a library readers’ advisory website.

As I mentioned, over the course of this project I spent a fair amount of time reading and reviewing literature that relates to readers’ advisory in a library 2.0 world. The list of readings includes the titles:

Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service by Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger

All of these titles provided me with an in-depth analysis of how the digital revolution has forever altered how we communicate and organize both ourselves and the information we provide to each other. I also read a number of articles that looked at how libraries can and are utilizing Web 2.0 tools to provide readers’ advisory. The list of articles includes:

Peterson, Glenn & Sharon Hilts McGlinn, Building a Community of Readers: BookSpace
Stover, Kaite, Stalking the Wild Appeal Factor: Reader’s Advisory and Social Networking Sites
Wyatt, Neal, Take the RA Talk Online
Wyatt, Neal, 2.0 For Readers
Zellers, Jessica, In Blog Heaven: A Painless New Approach to Readers’ Advisory

Readers’ advisory, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a service of providing book suggestions for a reader based on information provided by the reader. It is a conversation between the reader and the readers’ advisory that focuses on what the reader likes to read. As I read through the articles about RA and Web 2.0, I repeatedly encountered the same thoughts and ideas based on the premise that utilizing library 2.0 tools for RA is a natural progression.

I created a short survey, Readers’ Advisory Survey, using the Web tool Survey Monkey so that I could informally survey the patrons of my local public library to learn what Readers Advisory services would benefit them. I distributed the survey to a group of library patrons and received 25 responses. I then evaluated the responses to determine what tools would best meet the RA needs of the patrons.

The Book Advisor is, as I stated, a library readers’ advisory website. It is a site that utilizes many Web 2.0 tools to provide readers with the information they are looking for, and the tools and resources they need. The site features an online book discussion blog, contact forms, and various places for visitors to make suggestions and leave comments, all of which allow patrons the opportunity to be active creators and participants in the library experience. The site also offers patrons the chance to be part of a group on the social book sharing site, Goodreads, where they can share their reading interests with other Goodreads members. The site currently includes RSS feeds that patrons can subscribe to for the book discussion blog and if the site were a live library active site and not just a prototype, it would also feature RSS feeds for new titles in the library collection as well as a presence on Twitter and Facebook.

I would like to mention that I found much of the inspiration for my prototype on public library websites I visited while working on this project. It is very gratifying to see that public libraries are increasingly developing services that incorporate Web 2.0 tools. I feel that through the implementation of services such as these, libraries in the 21^st century are responding to the ever-changing landscape of technology as well as the diverse and changing needs of their patrons.

Please feel free to visit the site: The Book Advisor

Note: This site was created for a class project. Any copyrighted image or content is being used for class purpose only.

Maggie is a May 2010 graduate of the GSLIS program at Dominican University. She has worked in public libraries for the past fifteen years, the last seven years in the Adult Services department of Fremont Public Library in Mundelein, IL.

Note from Michael: Maggie graduated on Saturday! Congrats to here and all of our 2010 graduates.

LIS768 Group Projects Day 2

Michael — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:16:43 +0000

We have two more projects today. First up:

Social Networking Tools & Marketing

Slides: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AUckRKXNEbDYZG5jNDQ5Yl8yZmM3dmN0ZDU&hl=en

This group used the Geneva Public Library’s Web presence to frame their presentation about marketing. They created a Drupal site for the library: http://librarylasso.com/geneva/ Wowza!

Social Networking for School Libraries

This group created a Ning for librarians and teachers, presenting as though the class was the school board.

LIS768 Group Projects Day One

Michael — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:44:10 +0000

It’s that time again! Today and tomorrow we have group presentations for LIS768.

Personal Learning Networks:

Karen’s Word Cloud of her own PLN

This group created a Ning for students in our program and explored all the possibilities for PLNs, including the fact that a good PLN is not just digital resources but real world interactions/groups as well! The students shared some intriguing stories about how they learn.

http://sp10lis768plns.ning.com

Group Work Space: http://sites.google.com/site/lis768plns/

Augmented Reality:

Lis 768 augmented reality

View more presentations from jmachiela.

The next group explored Augmented Reality. This group defined various aspects of AR and presented a prototypical application built for a public library that takes advantage of RFID and location aware services. The demo included the use of a GIANT hand for selecting the buttons in the app on the big screen.
Born Digital:

We viewed the above video, and then the group took us through a presentation based on Born Digital, geared toward parents, teachers and librarians.

Digital Natives Presentation

View more presentations from avarry.

And this Animoto: http://animoto.com/play/GZcVM79hhNYEjkVKDirGtw

Backchannel:

The final group of the day presented on Backchannels. They researched the concept AND did a brief survey of the class.

Take a look at their site: http://glowingfish.fatcow.com/backchannel/

Social Media Best Practices for Libraries: A TTW Guest Post

Michael — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:16:27 +0000

This post was written by Kasia Grabowska for last semester’s LIS 768: Library 2.0 & Networking Technologies class. Kasia has allowed me to repost it here.

After doing brand monitoring research for the past few weeks, looking closely at Skokie Public Library (and not so closely at several other libraries), I decided to put together a list of “do’s and don’ts” for librarians on successfully utilizing social media.

This is what I learned from doing brand monitoring and what I personally would recommend to libraries that are getting started with social media.

Tip #1: Learn how to monitor your brand

Join the RIGHT conversations at the RIGHT time. In other words, stay on top of what people are saying about you and make sure to respond, to let people know that you are listening and willing to join the conversation.

Tools to utilize for brand monitoring include RSS feeds, Google Alerts, Technorati, and staying on top of your Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts. This is definitely the number 1 lesson I learned from this assignment.

Tip #2: Learn from your brand community

You’re already engaging in conversations, why not ask people for some feedback? There are plenty of quick and easy ways to get good information that will help you keep learning from what you’re doing and improving the process as you go along. Just make sure not to overdo it; remember to always engage in conversations as a person.

Tip #3: Have a game plan

Set goals, measure and iterate your social media efforts in order to continue to grow and improve your efforts. Make sure everyone who is involved in your social media strategy clearly understands the role and goals of this initiative. There’s nothing worse than joining a social network with no purpose, plan or a way to measure what you’re doing.

By using trackable links (like bit.ly or su.pr) to help track what your users are responding to, you will be able to measure your efforts and make improvements.

Tip #4: Promote, promote, promote

I noticed a lot of libraries who do wonderful things on Facebook, Twitter or Flickr yet they don’t include links to their social networks on their websites. Or libraries that use Twitter often but don’t follow anyone; that’s not a good way to start a conversation.

A library website should be an entry point to social media; you need to create awareness. People should not have to search for you on Facebook, or Twitter, you should reach out to every member of your community first.

Tip #5: Allow open, yet governed access for your employees

This is where a social media policy comes in. By making sure everyone who is involved in your efforts understands what to do (what they’re allowed to say, how they should respond in different situations, etc) you won’t have to monitor what each person does. Instead, you will be able to focus on making improvements.

One tip about your social media policy — make sure it’s succinct and to the point, otherwise no one will want to read it.

Tip #6: Stay relevant and be helpful

Use social media to build trust, credibility and awareness in your community. Instead of broadcasting information, try creating conversations. Remember, speaking doesn’t always result in being heard.

Be helpful, stay relevant and focus on your community’s needs. It’s also important to humanize your efforts; don’t hide behind your library’s logo, allow your users to get to know you as a person.

Tip #7: Give your community room to grow

Focus on small, consistent and ongoing change. Let your members decide how they want to use “their” online community. Listen to what they have to say and change your goals and objectives based on how your community wants to utilize social media.

Tip #8: Remember, you’re not alone

By building relationships with key people within your community who also utilize social media you can leverage your efforts and obtain better reach. People who are influencers, those who are natural communicators or leaders in your community can help your social media efforts immensely. Identify these people and ask for help. Word of mouth can be very powerful.

Tip #9: Go where your users are

Remember, you don’t have to be an early adopter. It is much better to wait for your community to start utilizing the technology before adding it to your social media arsenal. In short, go where your users are. It’s much easier for someone to join you on Facebook or Twitter if the person actually uses the technology.

Tip #10: Lead change

This is important, especially for libraries that can be very resistant to change at times: if you want to lead change, find one thing you said no to in the past and give it a try.

This is actually something I heard at a digital marketing conference I got a chance to attend last month, but I think it applies great to libraries and social media.

Kasia Grabowska is currently working on her MLIS at Dominican University. She is a website manager for Train Signal, Inc and the editor in cheif of www.trainsignaltraining.com a blog focusing on IT training and certification.

Online Education & Blogging

Michael — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:49:21 +0000

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/online_education_and_blogging

Joshua Kim writes:

The best preparation I received for blogging was teaching online. One of the most important elements for running a successful online course involves presence. The instructor must be “present” in the course discussion boards and blogs. Teaching online gave me tons of practice in writing rapid, hopefully thought provoking, discussion and blog posts around the curriculum and the student’s work. Much has been written about how teaching online can improve on-ground teaching. I’d add comfort with blogging to the benefits online learning.

Is the ability to quickly produce prose that (at least sometimes) may interest a reader the sort of skill that we want to cultivate in our students? The importance of rapid, persuasive writing is growing as blogs and other social media displace other forms of communication. We all need to learn to make our case, to persuade, to make arguments based on evidence – and to do so in a limited attention economy. For all of us, both writes and readers, time is our scarcest commodity.

Perhaps participating in online courses provides students the same practice with rapid and persuasive writing as teaching an online course. The same behaviors that make for a good online instructor, namely the willingness to be active and engaged with the asynchronous communication tools, are also those behaviors of a successful online student. An online course is all about collaboration and interaction. The best students post persuasively, briefly, and often.

I would venture to say the best preparation I received for online teaching is blogging! Quick posts sharing links and commentary – something bibliobloggers have long been doing – translate perfectly to the way I interact with my online and hybrid classes. I also think the blogging activities have helped my students with their writing – just afeeling, no evidence yet, but it might be a good thing to study.