Librarian 2.0: Supporting Administrators with Web 2.0 Tools

[Liz Dodds]

My version of this topic is still in progress, but I urge you to go to Carolyn Foote's wiki http://connectedlibraries.pbwiki.com/Internet+Librarian+West+Presen... which contains her original presentation to the Schools West Internet Librarian Conference in October 2007. She did a terrific job presenting this, inspiring me to try it at my school with my adminstrators.
My administrative team (principal, asst. prin., vp's and counselors) meets once a week. The principal agreed that I can take 15 minutes of their time each week for the next five weeks to present blogs, podcasts, wikis, bookmarking, other, and Google Tools. I told him at best they would become avid users of these tools and at worst they would at least be familiar with them when they heard other people talking about them!

[Tom Nixon]

I think that this is such a great idea. As it happens, this Monday I am teaching our staff how to use United Streaming and NetTrekker. I am having them bring their laptops so that they can sign up right then and there (or many won't).

I like the idea of increasing the technical knowledge of administrators because that can spread to the rest of the staff.

Excellent idea!

[Susan Geiger]

Way to go Liz ! If you can actually get them signed up to a blog reader you can suggest things like LeaderTalk to add to their blog rolls as Carolyn suggested in her presentation at Internet@Schools. Maybe during the five weeks you can get them in a lab situation and facilitate individual registrations to various tools.

[Nancy White]

Wonderful! I think one of the best ways to show administrators the value of 2.0 tools is to create a blog, wiki, or Google Doc to use to help them better manage a project or task. I am at the district level --but here are some ideas. We started using Google Docs last spring to create agendas for department meetings --inviting all members of the department to post items for discussion. We are also using a Google spreadsheet to align the new ISTE Nets with the previous 9 information literacy standards (because these are still the "official" ones used in my district). We created a Wiki for a committee that was working to develop a common assessment for information literacy - so that we could have less face-to-face meetings - and still be able to share our work and comment/discuss things as they were posted.

[Liz Dodds]

Great ideas. Are people embracing them?

[Nancy White]

They are now -- it did take a little while to catch on. Google Docs has just exploded - I see them in use throughout the district by different groups as word spread. People are so tired of endless emails - keeping track of various versions of documents, etc. Web 2.0 tools really help us work smarter.

[Stefani Williams]

Thank you Liz! I will be approaching my administration right away.

[Brigeen Radoicich]

Very Cool! Here at the Fresno County Office of Education we will be hosting a Technology Conference for Administrators May 15th and 16th www.myfcoeportal.org/conference that will feature web2.0 learning. I would love to see teams of library media teachers and administrators at the conference, further strengthening the link between web2.0 and school libraries.

[Liz Dodds]

Brigeen - Please send an invitation to me and to my principal and I hope we can be there. Or are we invited?