April 30, 2008 By 3 Comments

Comment Challenge May 1- 31

From one of my favorite bloggers Michele Martin comes the 31 day comment challenge. Michele writes,

Comments are the lifeblood of blogging and for new bloggers, they can be the difference between sticking it out for the long haul and throwing in the towel.

I couldn’t agree more with this! Comments, linkbacks, and trackbacks are how I’ve “met” many of friends out in the biblioblogosphere. Most library systems are lucky to have one or even two dedicated trainers for staff. I remember being so frustrated a few years ago about not having anyone to bounce ideas around with. That’s why I am so thankful that I have been able to connect with other library trainers learning facilitators through all the cool Web 2.0 tools.

So I hope you will join Marianne and me in the challenge. Details about the 2008 31 Day Comment Challenge can be found here. There are a lot of educators and a few marketing professionals participating so this is a great chance to read about a variety of topics. There are even a few classes participating. I can’t wait to see what the students blog about.

Looks like May will be busy!

Filed under: Social Networking
April 29, 2008 By 3 Comments

Program Idea – Moms on the Blog

From ProBlogger comes this post from Michelle Mitchell Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are the Blogs to Watch. It’s an interesting post (even if you’re not a mom :) ).

In Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point he writes of the importance of mavens–those who are trusted for their opinions and who pass along information on what products, services and ideas are the best–and mom blogs are the maven nesting grounds. Moms want to know which products work and which don’t; they want to give an opinion on what’s worked for them and share their experiences with others and advertisers are just beginning to discover this advertising pot of gold.

You’ve heard “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”? Well she who does the shopping then blogs about it rules the net.

We seem to be doing a great job targeting and reaching out to teens and children with programs, but here is a demographic ripe for the picking. I know we’ve offered a few classes in online scrapbooking, but how about a moms’ blogging club while the older kids are in programs or storytimes or run a Daddy and Me storytime on the weekend and a simultaneous Mommy Blogging program. Summer reading is almost here!

Filed under: Library Stuff
April 29, 2008 By 1 Comment

For all my Tweeps

If you haven’t heard of Geek and Poke take a look! Hilarious cartoons about Web 2.0 and technology and best of all they are Creative Commons licensed!

This one is for all my tweeps out there.

Filed under: Just for Fun, Social Networking
April 28, 2008 By 3 Comments

Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library

From Web Junction:

Upcoming Learning Webinars

library staff assisting on the public computers Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library
6/10/08 11 AM – 12 PM PT / 2 – 3 PM ET
How much time does your library spend on “training?” Statistics show that most learning takes place on the job or with a coworker, yet as trainers we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for and delivering classroom training. In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library.

We will explore:

  • The differences between training and learning
  • The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
  • The key elements of a learning organization
  • Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Presented by guest speaker Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.

Filed under: Learning
April 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Top 100 Tools for Learning

This has been shared on a few sites (thank you Polly-Alida Farrington for posting). The information is so good I wanted to pass this on as well.

The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has released its list of top 100 tools for learning from a survey of 155 educators (81 from the education field and 74 from workplace learning). Each of these educators listed their top 10 tools for learning for both their personal learning and for creating learning solutions for others.

You can view the full results here.

Below is a table of the top 10 broken down by workplace learning and formal education.

For workplace learning

For formal education
  1. PowerPoint
  2. Audacity
  3. Articulate
  4. Moodle
  5. Snagit
  6. Captivate
  7. Slideshare
  8. Word
  9. Flash
  10. Camtasia
  1. YouTube
  2. flickr
  3. PowerPoint
  4. Wikispaces
  5. Slideshare
  6. Voicethread
  7. Audacity
  8. Moodle
  9. Ning
  10. Jing

From CLPT analysis:

What does this show? It certainly seems to confirm my feeling that formal, traditional (Learning 1.0) approaches (i.e. content-based courses, tutorials, etc) are still dominant in the workplace, whilst educators are embracing a much wider range of Web 2.0 tools to create more social, collaborative and informal approaches to learning.

I can’t agree with this more. I attend monthly chapter meetings for ASTD and it seems that educators and librarians are light years ahead of most of corporate America when it comes to using Web 2.0 for learning.

Take a look at the full list and share your thoughts. I’m surprised that Bloglines or another news reader is not higher on the list. I know for me personally that would rank as #1.

Filed under: Learning
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