Social Media Specialists

I attended the webinar, Is There a Place for Media Specialists Who Don't Know Social Media? It was hosted by Steve Hargadon at a session of The Future of Education. I learned about the webinar through Joyce Valenza's NeverEndingSearch blog. She along with Carolyn Foote, Buffy Hamilton (The Unquiet Library), and Cathy Nelson began a discussion which orignally started within Twitter. The Twitter link goes to Karl Fisch's blog post compiling all of the Twitter discussion.

These were the questions Joyce and the other panelists hoped to cover:

• How does a librarian use social media in practice? for professional development? with learners? faculty?
• What specific social networking tools do you use and how do you use them?
• How does social networking reflect/support our standards?
• Can you be relevant without understanding the new tools?
• What do these new tools mean to library big concepts? (information ethics, intellectual freedom, access to information, evaluation, collection, interacting with information sources, communicating with users/learners, contributing as digital citizens, etc.)
• How does social media change the way we present our services and instruction online?
• Do we need to retool our profession?

Needless to say in a one hour session, coverage of these questions was brief, allowing only a tempting taste. The 4 panelists collaboratively created a wiki which contains background resources and links to the panelists blogs. The Elluminate session links are available to review if you're interested here. At one point there were 90+ participants. The chat was just as valuable as the presentation slides and the audio. Obviously, the profession should be retooling.

The best thing to come from this webinar will be the opportunity to participate in similar discussions on a monthly basis. Steve Hargadon suggested the need of media specialists to communicate on a regular basis. Many agreed with him. So... watch for more webinars to occur through The Future of Education ning.

On a personal note, I already subscribe to Joyce and Buffy's blogs and follow Cathy and Steve on Twitter. Now I have two more contacts to add to my Personal Learning Network, Carolyn Foote and Karl Fisch.

School Libraries
School Library Learning 2.0
Social Networking

FURL

Another application from the Collaborative Web pagecast is Furl.
is a social bookmarking site similar to del.icio.us.

Furl also privately archives a complete copy of each page that a user bookmarks, making it accessible even if the original content is modified or removed, an antidote for link rot. This also allows full text searches to be made within the archive. Topics are used to categorize saved sites, similar to the tagging feature of other social websites. Additionally, a user may write comments, save clippings, assign each bookmark a rating and keywords (which are given greater weight while searching), and have an option of private or public storage for each topic or item archived. From Wikipedia

Sounds like furl takes bookmarking to a higher level. I've been using del.icio.us and find it meets my needs at this time.

TakingITGlobal

The next Collaborative Web application that I'm not familiar with is TakingITGlobal(TIG).

"TakingITGlobal connects youth around the world to find inspiration, information and get involved in improving their local and global communities. TIG is led by youth and empowered by technology. TakingITGlobal works with global partners – from UN agencies, to major companies, and especially youth organizations – to build the capacity of youth for development, artistic and media expression, make education more engaging, and involve young people in global decision-making."

Essentially, a socialnetworking site with a global perspective and mission. The site is interactive providing: information and resources on global topics and countries of the world; opportunities to express oneself through writing or blogging, art, or podcasts; and collaboration with others to develop projects and take action. Membership is free.


School or classroom use is also provided thru TIGed. The same features of TIG are provided in a structured environment which can be controlled to provide protection and privacy for students. TIGed is a content management system that allows teachers and students to work in a private area, yet use public resources. The site provides resources to help teachers get started: activities database, thematic classroom units, events, and collaboration with other teachers from around the world. There is a fee but it's minimal for a teacher license, $30.

Any teacher who is "looking for an innovative way to introduce global issues to their students, from simple, low-tech solutions to online global collaborations with other classes thousands of miles away" should explore TIGed.

Week 8 - Thing#19 LibraryThing

Wow!! What a great site LibraryThing is. Only added 8 books to start. (I may have to upgrade my service a-c I have more than 200 books in my personal collection.) My favorite task when I was working was cataloging. Now I can continue with my own collection and my sister's. When I visit her once a year she always has me update her collection's database for her.

Here's the link for my library thus far. I was able to add a LT chiclet, though, I removed it after adding the LT blog widget. See it below.

LibraryThing is very easy to use and I was able setup "my library" the way I like. I'm going to have to go back and actually look at the editions I have, but editing appears to be easy too. Easy to navigate.

Social side of LT is intriguing. The Zeitgeist provides lots of interesting info about users of the site and books. There are a variety of groups. And it's easy to explore other users and their library's. It's like del.icio.us in that regard. I don't get the discussions yet, but I'll check those out after I add all of my books to "my library". I'm gonna be busy after I have completed SSL2.
Only 4 more things left!

YouTube

Tried again to embed UTubeVideo and it worked!! (Just copy/paste embed code)

Who's Watching YOUR Space The 3-minute version of the most recent OCLC Symposium at ALA Midwinter 2007. More than 400 people attended this discussion of social networking practices and trends on January 19, 2007 during the American Library Association Midwinter Conference in Seattle, Washington.


Now here's the one I have been trying to embed and thought I was doing something wrong. I finally went to the developer directly, mwesch and guess what? His video looks the same as mine does with Blogger's Dashboard in the background.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)June 19, 2007
Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes by Michael Wesch

Week 5 - Thing #11 Ning

I checked out Ning and searched for various topics. I didn't think that there would be so... many groups. I liked what I saw at Teacher Librarian Network . There was a group for HS LMS, which I was. And the forums would be really helpful, sorta of like the listserv used by WEMTA members, only you can see all of the forums and responses. I haven't joined this network a-c I'm not active as a LMS.

However, I've thought of several networks that I could create (retired LMS, Class Reunion from HS or college, Lake Association group). I may just join the TeacherLibrarian network and add a group for retirees. Cool site!!!