Welcome to the AASL 2.0 Task Force

[Joyce Valenza]

The charge of our committee is:

“To scan the 2.0 environment for effective participation by AASL, develop guidelines for and create an AASL 2.0 presence, and make recommendations for its continuity.” (www.ala.org/aasl/committees.html)

According to my official notification, our appointment begins July 1, 2007, and ends at the adjournment of Annual Conference 2009. I spoke with Sara and she believes we can get started whenever we want. I believe we can do a large part of our work online.

We can use this space to start our discussions. Let's get started by brainstorming.

What are your 2.0 strengths and interests?

What are your ideas for creating an AASL 2.0 presence?

(BTW, should we make this space private or allow visitors?)

[Karen Tukua]

Hi all,
I am starting at the beginning. This is all new to me. I have a pretty good website for my library portal, but it is a work in progress. It can be viewed at http://librarykaren.homestead.com/homepage.html
I have a lot of homework in order to catch up to the rest of you. I am interested in Wikies and Bloggs. I'm not sure I know what a wiggit is. I am anxious to setup a blogg and a wiki, in order to explore how they work, how they are different,and how they are the same. I am particulariy interested in how to incorporate them in an elementary school environment.
Our district's biggest obstacle is having the filters removed. I discovered by accident, that all of the pictures on TeacherLibrarianNing are blocked, when I access this site from the school. I can only view the pictures from home. When I first got back from AASL, the site was blocked also. I asked the head of TIS to unblock it, and he did, but I guess the pictures are too harmful for us to view
As a school librarian, I see this as one of our biggest problems. We can build it, but if no one can come, who loses?
Karen aka librarykaren

[Karen Tukua]

Oh, I forgot the second part of your question. How do we have an AASL 2.0 presence? I would like to see Wikies / Bloggs setup by topics. Librarians can come in, research their question, express their ideas, and explore solutions to their query. I am seeing 2.0 almost like thinking, sorting and discovering not only internally but out loud, with help from friends.

Space private or visitors? What ever you want.

[Stacey Hall]

Love your Web site! I would also be very interested in wikis and blogs. I read a great article in Educational Leadership (A (Pod)Cast of thousands by Ann Marie DIott) about an elementary school incorporating blogs into their curriculum, with a wonderful outcome. And the multiple authorship of wikis make them an even more collaborative tool for teachers and teacher/librarians.

I know what you mean regarding the filters. This is one area that may be difficult to combat. But ensuring that certain, approved sites are not blocked is a good first step.

*I'm currently a graduate student (Georgia Southern University) in the process of earning my SLMS certification. So, a site like this would be very helpful to up and comers like me - but at the same time, I think that students can also add value. So my vote would be to let it remain open as an educational tool.

[Karen Tukua]

Thanks Stacey for the comment on my website, It does need reorganization.
I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. This 2.0 stuff is new to me. I guess I've been drifting on my lorals. And you know what they say, the only drifting done is backwards. Yikkeesss. I went over to Second Life. I need to take the orientation tour. I couldn't figure out how to even get to the office building. Well, at least my learning curve will be high.

The district filters are driving me nuts.

Karen

[Joyce Valenza]

Hi Stacey and Karen,
Welcome aboard! This group was set up for an AASL committee, but in the back of my mind I thought it might be fun to have others both observe and suggest. You've already contributed to our work! Thank you for the suggestions. Just a warning: a few of our discussions here might be of the conference and planning variety.

joyce

[Stacey Hall]

Hi Joyce,

I see what you mean. I look forward to seeing your 2.0 ideas for AASL come to fruition!

[Karen Tukua]

Hi Joyce,
Thanks for the welcome. As I was reading all of this stuff outloud to my grown daughters, they asked me if this was above my head. I laughted, and said yes, but what better way to learn, then to be swimming with the big fish. I understand that most of this is for planning presentations and the like for AASL, but I'm willing to learn. I may be more of a lurker then a contributor.
Thanks,
Karen

[Lisa Perez]

Joyce: Thanks for leading us on this important endeavor.

My strengths: I work heavily in Second Life to provide virtual learning community support for our district's librarians and teachers. I also maintain two blogs related to Second Life (Chicago Public Schools in Second Life, China Cafe It is a discussion about whether Second Life is Web 2.0 or 3.0 - I consider it 3.0. I am also interested in the use of wikis and contribute to the ISTE Media Specialists SIGMS wiki. I am active in several social networking sites - Facebook and Linked In. Our professional library will be the pilot site for our district-wide library automation program, so I am interested in how centralized automation can assist with collaboration and sharing of resources. We are also using webconferencing to deliver professional development to our librarians and teachers.

I would like to see AASL take a more active role in Second Life, creating a virtual office with resources for librarians. AASL can provide a variety of events and meetings to support our work and to aid in collaboration. All other Web 2.0 applications integrate in some way with Second Life to provide a virtual link to the other applications.

I agree about making it public.

[Joyce Valenza]

Just wanted to point to a couple of suggestions that appeared on my SLJ blog:


Rob Darrow commented:
How about AASL setting up monthly skypecasts dealing with different school library issues that anyone can join?

Barb Falkinburg commented:

One of the biggest impediments I have is filtering and how to convince the powers that be that the benefits outweigh the concerns. Implementation is going to be a big issue.

Both seem to me to be solid ideas. Do we need some sort of endorsement statement to let those filtered districts know they are limiting opportuniities for learners?

Should we look into the possibility of setting up a show on a forum like edtechtalk? (I am pretty sure Jeff and Dave would give us space and time.)

joyce

[Lisa Perez]

Perhaps we should organize our objectives first. We are charged with "scanning the 2.0 environment for effective participation by AASL." I see this as two prongs. Our membership is interested in technology integration for students and also for receiving their own professional development and networking. We may want to start with creating some guiding statement about what students require in order to learn and what teacher-librarians require to perform their jobs. Then determine which 2.0 technologies best make that possible. AASL should target those technologies for advocacy and as delivery methods. Much of this work has already been done by others, so we would just need to distill it.

We will likely come up with a menu of technologies that meet different needs for various events, so we can offer a multi-pronged approach to meet our second charge - "develop guidelines for and create an AASL 2.0 presence". First, we create the guidelines and then establish various presences on this menu of technologies. I see an organizational recommendation on filtering as being part of that, as well as tips that teacher-librarians can use right now experience success in filtered neworks.

After formative and summative assessments, we present a closing statement on sustainability (that will have partially developed as the implementation plan is created.)

I think by creating a foundation of planning, we can make the most effective recommendations.

[Christopher Harris]

Glad to see that Lisa is covering Second Life because that is just not for me. My 2.0 strengths from the technology perspective are probably in web application use and development (Fish4Info, Zoho, other cool stuff), 2.0ified portals and library catalogs as an extension of the first, hardware/gadgets, and gaming. From a culture perspective, I have been doign a lot of work looking at marketing, change, and gaming.

AASL 2.0 involves two shifts. First, and most important as it is the only way the second one will ever happen, is a cultural shift that recognizes that things have changed. 2.0 is not about us. What we want matters very little in the face of what our customers expect. In school libraries that means changing to meet the new expectations of students, teachers, administrators, and parents. For an organization, however, it also means changing to meet the new needs and expectations of members. This isn't even a change to meet the needs of new members (how is membership in the 25-35 category doing anyway?) but rather members who want their organization to be more like the changed businesses they see. Can AASL be like Starbucks with a friendly greeting and learning to know customers as individuals? Can we be like Southwest and have a member rep in big committee meetings asking if that is the best move for the members or if it just serves the bureaucracy? Can we be like Netflix and deliver a wide variety of services...right to your home? In short the game has changed and the simple fact of membership is no longer enough. Members want value added above and beyond the car rental coupons that we never use.

The second shift does involve technology, but it is pointless to try and talk about wikis or skyecasts in the current cultural environment. If AASL wants to become a leader in 2.0 technologies then we need to learn about things like loss leaders. Stop charging for the conference podcasts, and make them available for all members. Then build a social site around the recordings to try and mimic the hallway conversations that make attending a conference so powerful. Will you make money on this? Yes! Not directly, but it will help members see that there is a point and a purpose to remaining a member if you can't attend the conferences. And note that this isn't a gratuitous use of technology, but rather the use of technology as a tool to accomplish the first point. In a half hour chat, we could probably come up with hundreds of great uses of 2.0 technologies for AASL from creating a truly green conference to building an AASL Delicious clone that becomes the most powerful set of school library collected web resources imaginable. The problem is that without the cultural shift none of them will work.

Sorry to be negative to kick this off, but as much as I am a little gadget boy who loves the latest and greatest technology has to offer, I also realize that much of what we are dealing with here is cultural. Maybe our best bet is to provide a few quality examples of technologies that would only be possible after the shift, or that could help drive the change, and then talk about the elements of change as part of the implementation strategy? For instance, what would it take to create a virtual conference experience that could be offered for free to all AASL members (charge the heck out of non-members!)?

[Joyce Valenza]

Wow, Chris. What a brilliant response. I wish you would share this more widely (perhaps in your blog).
It never was about us. It shouldn't be and that is a problem with most of the missions we have.

I suspect it was that cultural shift issue that struck me most in Reno. My other recent conference experiences have been so different. Sharing (freely) was the norm, not the fear. Membership would increase, excitement and involvement would grow, if we address both of those fronts you mention. You are not being negative. Thank you for provoking us!

As for the SL environment, both Lisa and Robin are experts. We have a pretty amazing committee.

And, I would love to set up a Skype session before midwinter, just to get to know each other and to generate our priorities.

joyce