My first specific goal for this inquiry project was, “To begin developing an online Personal Learning Network that will support my learning and teaching beyond LIBE 477.” The best action step I took in this direction was setting up a feed reader. I was surprised to discover that I already had a Google Reader account prior to this course, but I had no idea what RSS feed was, why I should use it, or how to use it! Learning this has literally been transformational. Will Richardson was right when he wrote, “RSS is a technology that will change your life, if you let it” (Richardson, 2010, p.72). During LIBE 461, I would literally spend hours searching for course related content. Setting up an RSS feed has dramatically reduced the time I spend finding quality resources for professional development. Course readings, class mates, the TLs I follow on Twitter, and following links all led me to discover some great blogs and resources to follow; I have created “The Daily Me” (Richardson, 2010, p.72) personalized to my information needs and interests. This term, I have been particularly inspired by two educational blogs, Will Richardson’s Webblogg’d and Judy O’Connell’s Hey Jude. Checking my Google reader has become part of my daily routine. I am still working on developing strategies for organizing this information such as creating folders and adding personal tags, but this network of resources that I built for myself will endure beyond this course and continue to be a source of professional development for me. I also look forward to finding a way to stay in touch with fellow classmates, as no one understands better than those in the trenches with you.
Will Richardson describes Twitter as “…a network at my fingertips phenomena where people ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources or share ideas…” (Richardson, 2010, p. 86). I was reluctant to believe Twitter could be a resource for professional development, but being diligent about checking the tweets of the various teacher librarians I follow during this course certainly resulted in my being exposed to great professional resources. One step I did not take was to actually tweet myself. As a classmate and I reflected on why we were having trouble taking the plunge, we determined that we didn’t know what to share. As a newbie to the TL world, I definitely suffered from stage fright and now realize I could have posted some of the links I was posting on my blog, as Tweeting is essentially “micro-blogging”. But I realize two other factors hindered me. The first being that I do not have a mobile device that I can tweet on. Having to wait to tweet until I can access a computer definitely hurts the “…running river of conversation” and “sixth sense” element of tweeting that Richardson describes (Richardson, 2010, p.86). Secondly, as you can tell by this reflection and my posts in general, I am a wordy person by nature. Being limited to 140 characters seems almost like torture to me. I am learning to be more concise, while trying to remain engaging and informative in my blog posts, but need to lose some of my word weight before moving on to mastering the compact language of hash tags. However, I did find other ways to be more than a consumer of information this term. I actively participated in TeacherLibrarianNing and made a concerted effort to post on the blogs of fellow classmates; both things I had never done before. These types of cyber conversations just seem to fit my personality better.
Speaking of conversations, a major area of growth for me during this course came in the practice of blogging. The only blog I read regularly before this class was my best friend’s mommy blog and even that was sporadic. Blogs as a tool of professional development, at their best, are meant to be conversations. “We write not just to communicate but to connect with others who can potentially teach us more” (Richardson, 2010, p. 28). “Writing stops; blogging continues...Writing is monologue: blogging is conversation.” (Richardson, 2010, p.30). Blogging was definitely a new form of writing for me and I tried to take Angela Maier's suggestion of blogging not just to pontificate; "Maier advocates that 70% of what one posts be sharing resources or providing links..." (Kist, 2010, p. 62). I attempted to find and share good resources on the tools I was exploring. I also attempted to engage my readers in conversation by posing a question at the end of each post. I certainly do wish the questions had led to more conversations, but realize I only really had a handful of people reading my blog. Maybe one day there will be more!
For more clever comics visit Savage Chickens by Doug Savage. He is very gracious about licensing his work to bloggers and teachers!
Works Cited:
Image Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>
Kist, W. (2010). The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
