Slibrarian

Monday, July 20, 2009

Summing It Up

I can't believe that this class started only 5 weeks ago. It is infathomable how much information we have absorbed in this short time. I truely appreciate all the activities and experiences that we shared during our short time in Kristin's Multimedia course.

My personal learning network was born by following my classmates' blogs. I found this to be completely supportive and enlightening. I wish we would have set up these blogs on day one of the program as it was an easy way to interact with our classmates and to see how they are doing on assignments. It makes feedback and collaboration totally possible.

I am also following Valenza and Warlick as I find them inspirational flagships of our field. Their dedication to learning and learners is truely inspiring.

The tools that we have come across and used are simply amazing, and I cannot wait to bring these back to my staff. I think that their minds are going to be totally blown by the possibilities that these tools provide.

I think the most powerful piece that I am walking away from this class with is that we are really not servicing our students if we do not guide them though social networking. We can pretend that it's a bad thing and turn our backs on it, but then our students are out there by themselves struggling through dangers that can lurk. We need to be there as models and as a source of guidance so that our students learn how to succeed in academic and social growth. I believe that my district has not crossed this bridge yet, and my next task is to formulate a solid statement to give to my administrators as to why it is essential to make this move rather than to try and keep holding the students back.

Thank you to everyone for giving me feedback, and thank you to Kristen for being patient with me as I struggled with the learning curve! Thank you, thank you!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Social Networking Carpetbaggers

I found this article that is on hiring a social networking consultant, but I feel like the standards discussed can directly apply to us as teacher librarians. Check it out:

25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong SM Consultant or Agency