I was pleased to chat with Ryan on a recent flight. We had a great talk about library programming and learning opportunities. Check his stuff out! http://www.saratogian.com/20141008/comedian-motivational-speaker-offers-practical-advice-about-personal-finance Saratoga Springs Public Library kicked off its Financial Literacy Program with comedian and motivational speaker Colin Ryan Wednesday night. Ryan’s show, called “A Comedian’s Guide to Money,” blends stand-up comedy, storytelling, and lots of pop culture to breathe life into the oftentimes boring subject of personal finance. The speaker, who grew up in Ballston Spa and now lives in Vermont, has performed all over the United States and internationally with this show that […]
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The book at the top of my “Books I Wish I had Written List” is R. David Lankes’ book the Atlas of New Librarianship (written for librarians). Second on that list may well be his derivative book, Expect More (written for non-librarians). In these works, Lankes challenges us (librarians, community members, administrators, government officials) to re-envision libraries and the roles they play in society. His thinking is rigorous and his writing is crisp. Expect More should be required reading for all library trustees, campus provosts, local mayors, and anyone else interested in the future of libraries. Thus, I was excited to see that […]
LIBR 200-12 Information Communities Spring 2015 Dr. Michael Stephens Office Hours: Virtual office hours by appointment (BB IM, etc) Course Description Examines information users and the social, cultural, economic, technological, and political forces that shape their information access and use. The different resources and services that information professionals provide for their user communities will also be addressed as well as ethical/legal professional practice. LIBR 200 meets SJSU’s graduate writing assessment requirement. Note: iSchool requires that students earn a B in this course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be […]
I am very excited about this presentation with Brian Kenney this coming Friday at the New York Library Association in Saratoga Springs, NY. Please consider attending! Program Slots #5 & #6 2:15 PM – 5:00 PM Hyperlinked Learning Experiences at Public Libraries: MOOCs & Beyond Sponsor: PLS This presentation will explore emerging models of connected, open learning – offered for free – with great potential for staff and the public. Can we support students of all kinds in Massive Open Online Courses? What’s the potential for professional development and lifelong learning when courses can gather the best of the best in a […]
I did a presentation today for a speech class that is part of our honors program. They are doing deep research into a range of topics. The faculty member asked me to do a session for them about bias and approaching new topics. It was a fun session, so I thought I’d share my slides. Naturally, this session ended with a conversation about the Illuminati, which, I guess, comes with the territory (not a part of the slides below). Self-Protection: Your Brain, Experience, & Bigfoot ——- Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley […]
Thanks to all at #2014VLA! I had a wonderful time chatting with Virginia librarians and delivering yesterday’s keynote. The slides are here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/239835/StephensVLA2014.pdf
New column! http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/10/opinion/michael-stephens/always-doesnt-live-here-anymore-office-hours/ That said, I must comment on some threads of conversation I had at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Las Vegas. In 2006, I wrote a post at Tame the Web (TTW) entitled “Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Again.” It got a lot of traction back then, during the heyday of LIS blogging, and I used a slide of the phrases for many years in presentations. One of the phrases was: We’ve always done it this way. Back then I wrote, “I think it’s time to red flag any utterance of that […]
Here’s my June column: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/06/opinion/michael-stephens/in-the-moment-office-hours/ More than once, someone in the audience has expressed concern that children and young people are always looking at their mobile device, texting, gaming, or whatever. Recently the comment was this: “I want to take away the iPad and send them outside. They are not in the moment.” My reply was a reminiscence of my mother taking away my Hardy Boys books and sending me out to play one summer day. I was furious! The seminar room vibrated with comments: “It’s the same thing.” “It’s not the same thing!”
Oops – forgot to post this: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/07/opinion/michael-stephens/flipping-the-lis-classroom-office-hours/ I’m most excited about the requirement for student reflection blogging in this course. Discussion forums, landlocked inside the learning management system, are giving way to a WordPress-enabled blog community that all of our core students will work with for thoughts on the course content. I am a longtime advocate of the power of blogging as a means to foster critical reflection in a safe thinking-out-loud space and promote engagement with other students and faculty via commenting. The Sloan Consortium, devoted to effective online education, recently heralded a similar model: the University of Nevada […]
Here’s last month’s column – all about getting too hung up on citation formatting: http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/09/opinion/michael-stephens/citation-fixation-office-hours/ But wait—shouldn’t we be teaching soon-to-be librarians how to cite properly so they in turn can deliver the gospel to their young charges in the university? And grading them down for every missed period or italicized article title? I’d argue that instead of citation fixation we promote reflection and consideration of the ideas presented in our courses. To synthesize is a sometimes overused verb in higher education, but it works in this instance. Students encountering new ideas and voices of any discipline are better served by someone […]