"Unconferencing" with Librarians

One of my favorite parts of Learning 2.0 was the "unconferencing" option. The organizers set aside time slots where people could gather to talk about whatever they wanted. I scheduled an unconference for librarians out of sheer curiosity of who was at the conference and was thrilled to find about 18 of us from all over the region. We had a lively conversation and went around the table talking about what some of our questions and passions are as librarians in various schools.

I took notes on our conversation, and these were the main themes:

1. space redesign--how to make it the best it can be

2. role of library in the future

3. blogging--why do people want to hear my voice?

4. non-fiction--where does it fit at this time?

5. traditional library skills--where do they fit?

6. fixed vs. flexed

7. virtual library page--check out International School of Bombay's new site

8. paperless libraries?

I loved being around other librarians (it's a rather lonely job at times, which is something I didn't fully realize until I was around others) and the discussions that followed. Looking forward to keeping the connections made and forming new ones.

Learning 2.0

Loving the Learning 2.0 conference here in Shanghai.

Snippets of Learning

*Thoroughly enjoyed the balance of tech and practicality of both Clarence Fisher and Ewan Macintosh in their presentations.

*Making more peace with Twitter (I am bookchica) and seeing more of its potential here at the conference. It is definitely a great tool to connect with others I've met here.

*Thinking that some sort of animation after school activity would be great fun for kids.


Food for Thought

*Completely blown away by the difference of a tech conference with that of any other conference. The fact that people are encouraged to be multitasking during presentations used to make me so uncomfortable, but I have embraced it, and I've been blogging and chatting and reading while listening. However, I still find that the truly engaging speakers make me want to take my head out of my computer. What does that say about classrooms? Are we engaging students enough to keep them with us?

Having an "unconference" with international librarians soon. Hoping to learn lots about what others are doing around the globe in regards to 21st century learning.

Book Reviewing

I'm a sucker for book covers, and I still love having my LibraryThing account that shows a random display of my personal collection on my blog. Their blog is also very interesting and worth checking out. Just recently, I discovered that as a LibraryThing member, you can be a part of their Early Reviewer program. Free books to you with the promise of a 25 word review on the LibraryThing website. Not a bad deal in the least. They currently don't deliver to many countries other than the U.S., Canada and the U.K, but I happen to be going stateside in October so I can pick mine up and do my first reviews. I hopefully scored two children's books and what claims to be a Sedaris-esque tale about knitting this time around.