Final Three/ Last Post

Last post! Sounds a little like the title for a John Wayne movie. Insights: I enjoyed blogging, more than I thought I would, and I've learned not to write long post. I'd like to take a class in journalism. Blogging is, I think, a subset of journalism, but the newspapers involved are scattered throughout the planet. I learned in blogging that taking care with what you write is important - to everyone who blogs, interesting enough. I suppose these are personal insights. Last of all, I discovered that I'm more of a ham than I thought.

Final Three/ Applications to My Practice

In glancing at what I've posted, I know covered a wide field. Originally I thought about just posting that which related to adding technology to media centers. The longer I thought, the more I became convinced that what was going on with technology in the broadest sense was directly effecting change in the media center. I hope to use blogs as a way to keep in touch with other media specialist with similar interest to my own. I may have to run it from home, but that has advantages, too. Blogs may be the first step in an evolution that creates unified professional groups across the old boundaries of nations, distance, and cultures. Keeping, or participating in, such a blog would be the big thing that I could do with this technology.

Final Three/ Significant Postings

We're down to the last three postings. Of all the posting I wrote, I have three which I feel are most important. The first was the definition of technology, taken from the Greek as Teknologia. I like definitions and especially definitions that thread throughout history. Institutions, and ideas I don't think change much throughout history and work among people to shape of reality, or real-ness. The second was the listing for the Colorado study, which, more than anything I know, points out how much media centers do for schools. The third is the link to Web 3.0, that updating of an old catchword. Web 3.0 isn't quite here yet, but it still points out how much the world of education, governance, and economics will be changed in the near future by what's being created now. As Bette Davis said in one of her films - Hang on folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Winter Notes - web 3.0

It's a few minutes later. I found a half a bar of chocolate to eat. I'm more optimistic now. Has anyone heard about web 3.0? Is this something like Santa Claus?It isn't quite here yet. I've included a link to a good article on web 3.0. Evidently web 3.0 is about the user and the creator of information. I wonder if this will create a new niche for education; maybe some version of it will be education in the next generation.

Winter Notes: Thinking About Web 2.0

As we reach the end of the semester we're also reaching the halfway point for the school year. One of my media centers goal this year is to create a higher profile of web 2.0 technology for our faculty. I'm working on a web 2.0 for teachers only - some sites can be shared with students and other are meant just to help teachers work on their own web 2.0 at home ( I'd say that some huge percentage of the Internet is blocked at school and that's not unusual). I've created a link to a best-of-the-web 2.0 site that includes education sites and a bit of everything else. But I've had a nagging thought: the teachers I work with aren't concerned much with web 2.0, or technology to the degree that I thought they were. Pencil and paper test still dominate the classroom. Professionally, NCLB looms. We don't have resources, the schools are too crowded, and even more budget cuts are coming. Is anyone else bothered by a similar bout of pessimism?

The International

This isn't about the old socialist anthem. Instead, I was 'net surfing, looking for international viewpoints on media centers and libraries. We all know the American Library Association. Here's the equivalent the UK and one hundred other nations - titled simply The Library Association, whose purpose is, according to the organizational web site, to "affirm that libraries are fundamental to a thriving democracy, culture, civilization, and economy." Those are pretty big responsibilities. but I don't think they're exaggerated. Take a look and note, I think, the similarities of librarians all over the world.

A True Story

This is a true story. I know we've read about teachers being taught technology by preteens and I never thought I'd - well, here's the tale. I was setting up an LCD projector today on the connections class wing of the school where I work. We were having a little trouble. I mentioned that I didn't visit their hallway very much - they just didn't seem to have many problems. "Oh, that's because of Reggie," the teacher shrugged.
Who is Reggie? I asked.
"You know him, "she insisted, and held her hand out at collar bone height, " little skinny kid with the red hair. Seventh grader. Well, when something goes wrong, we call Reggie and he comes running. Reggie can fix anything."
Anything, I asked.
"Nothing has stumped him yet. Anyway, he wants to be a geek guy when he grows up."
No doubt, I thought. Later I ran into a tiny, carrot-topped child darting down the hallway, eyes on the ground, rubbing his nose, charging forth, no doubt, on another mission of mercy. I stopped him and silently shook his hand.

Annihilating Time and Space

One of the themes, I think, of digital technology is how it seems to do away with time and space. Information that anyone can create - and in many different forms - can be made summoned almost anywhere from almost anywhere. It is more than a little bit like magic. Look at the web sites for school libraries across the United States. I've included a link to school and public library resources in Alaska, about as far away from Georgia as I could imagine. But does this whittling down of time and space create similar cultures? I think it does.