Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

Elementary librarian Doug Valentine, a.k.a. Dr. Loopy, a member of our TeacherLibrarianNing, recently posted three very clever, tongue-in-cheek videos about our profession.  I later discovered that these are but three of his many funny efforts posted on TeacherTube.

He’s given me (us all?) some great ideas for new productions this fall and some cool material for inservices.

• Agent Codee Books fights an evil Lexile character who prevents children from reading books they themselves choose
• Blind Date explores classroom teacher/librarian collaboration in reality television, pop-up video format.
• Bionic Librarian shares the updated librarian image, as well as the potential super powers of collaboration.

Great fun. Thanks, Doug!

Note:  After writing this post I explored a little more of how school librarians and teacher librarians are represented in the world of teacher and student-produced video. Check out the longer post at my SLJ Blog.

Finishing my dissertation means that I can blog and Twitter again.

I must admit it. Twitter did not impress me at first. But, as I mentioned briefly in my last post, as folks began to use it at and beyond the podium at NECC and at the BLC conferences this summer, we all began to consider its use in the classroom.

I know I am going to run Twittercamp on our library SmartBoard during films and discussions this year to capture student reactions, ideas, and questions with immediacy. It captures tweets realtime, bulletin board style, with thought bubbles connected to users’ avatars. I also like Twitterific, for use with my Mac. It accomplishes similar goals on a transparent black background.

Hmmm, I wonder how this stuff would work at our faculty meetings and planning team sessions.
In a tweet this morning, Will Richardson shared this piece about Twitter, which led me to a ReadWriteWeb post about the Top Ten Twitter Apps. Lots here to play with.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to report on, and now how to summarize, BLC (Alan November’s Building Learning Communities). I find it a mightily tough challenge.

Let’s start by saying ideas were flying.

We are on the precipice of dramatic classroom change. An explosion of emerging tools connects us and allows us to create and collaborate. This explosion lands us at brink of new pedagogy. At events like these, when groups of people with vision meet, when their ideas fly, the planning can be potent.

I suppose, most emblematic of the shift is dialog beyond the podium.

In the old days, you’d have a speaker; you’d have an audience.

At BLC, enhancing the speaker were the Skypecasts that broadcast audience comments to those spread around and beyond the conference. All around the room, in fact, all around the world, Twitter tweats kicked ideas around as they popped. Twitter and Twittercamp continually displayed fresh tweats. (If these terms confuse you, read Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Twitter).

Those tweating included the likes of Dean Shareski, Bob Sprankle, Ewan McIntosh, Will Richardson, David Jakes, and later Christian Long and Chris Lehmann. We also heard from emerging educational leaders too numerous to mention.

Why was all this tweating so important? I’ve been thinking about this since Edubloggercon at NECC. The folks in this ever expanding group are finding community–audience for their news and discoveries. This community needed to find itself. It needed lift its voice to others who believe.

Remember Cassandra? For nearly two years I’ve been thinking of myself as a happier type of Cassandra. The prophet was fated not to be believed. When she predicted that classic gift horse would bring tragedy to Troy, folks thought she was insane.

The horse slowly entering our gates today is a real gift, a gift that may forever open our gated cities.

Yet, I suspect at our own schools, when we first announce the appearance of the horse and bandy about words like wikis and blogs and Nings and Flickr and Twitter and podcasts, we too appear a bit insane.

So when all of these Cassandras gather at events like NECC and BLC, prophecies are shared and pieced together. Excitement builds as we share how the new tools can work and will work. No one wants to stop talking and predicting.

(Front row tweats)

Right now I have: 100 ideas I must implement in September, ten new titles I must read next week, and at least twenty new contacts I can call “friends.” I will share details in coming posts.