A Big Welcome to New SLL 2.0 Users!

This is just my welcome to new folks starting the journey today or very soon.

• School Library Learning 2.0 runs from June 1-September 1, 2007.
• The URL is http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com
• I have been through the course as a "test driver" and it's been a real learning experience--one of the best professional development experience I've had in a long time.
• California School Library Association (CSLA) members who have been through the course (including me) will "cheer on" participants who are taking the course over the summer. We really want you to succeed and cheering and otherwise encouraging one another along the way is a key part of the "summer 2.0 fun" experience.
• School Library Learning 2.0 is the first and only learning 2.0 program designed especially for K12 library folks and with California Curriculum Connections.
• School Library Learning 2.0 is the first and only learning 2.0 program that includes avatars. Why? Because in addition to it being fun, school teacher-librarians and their colleagues need to model safe Internet behavior to students--student photos and glamor shots don't belong on blogs for the whole wide world to see!
• School Library Learning 2.0 participants can also get academic credit (2 units)--a nice incentive for teacher-librarians and other teachers. The link to Fresno Pacific University's Continuing Education registration site is now available. See http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com and go to the "About" section for details.
• I encourage you to take a look at my blog and those maintained by other test drivers to see what we were able to accomplish in our nine weeks. It's been a great deal of fun and I am planning on keeping my blog going. After all, with things moving at the pace they have been we really cannot afford to ever stop learning.
• And finally, I hope by the end of the nine weeks you'll see just how wonderful belonging to a learning community can be!

Teacher's new blog

I had a bit of a success story today when the architectural design teacher came to me with a request for some information for his students about sustainable architecture. It seems the students are analyzing their projects for the use of green or sustainable technologies and he wanted to give them a head start by pointing them to some resources. After discussing the assignment a bit, I suggested that maybe a wiki or a blog would be appropriate. While I think in the longer term a wiki might be the better approach, my confidence with setting one up is not as great as my blog experience so I told him I'd set up a blog where students could, through comments, make statements about their projects.
He left and I was very shortly able to set up a blog called RHS Sustainable Architecture on Blogger. http://rhsustainablearchitecture.blogspot.com/ I added some links so that kids could immediately have a starting place for their investigation.
The proof, of course, will be in the pudding. I'm looking forward to seeing whether he encourages them to add their comments and how many will take advantage of the blog.

Why the OPAC sucks

The three previous posts were added from another blog where Karen Schneider has conveniently listed all the reasons she thinks OPACs suck. I happen to agree that they suck but it will take me some time to go though her reasons and see exactly what she's thinking.
In the meantime I am still in the process of getting AquaBrowser installed at school and will let everyone know when it's available. I'm not only installing AB but my tech has also set up a new server for the library which I will be able to use for library wikis, etc. Sometime next year I'm expecting the district to migrate to Follett's Destiny and the whole shebang will move to a server at the district office. I do feel I'm pushing the boundaries but that's nothing new.

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 3: The Big Picture

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 3: The Big Picture

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It)

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of It)

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 2: The Checklist of Shame

ALA TechSource | How OPACs Suck, Part 2: The Checklist of Shame

A Wandering Eyre » Actual Reasons Why My OPAC Sucks

A Wandering Eyre » Actual Reasons Why My OPAC Sucks