Gathering steam!

[Beth Friese]

Hi everyone.

We are still getting more members! This is really exciting. Thanks to everyone who is jumping in, responding, questioning, and keeping the conversation lively.

If you are on twitter and I have not added you to the twitter list, please DM me at librarybeth. I have been out of town at a conference over the past week, so I may have missed people inadvertently. By the way, at the National Reading Conference, there was a lot of discussion about online professional development. It made me smile to think about the lively, enthusiastic group of teacher librarians we have already formed!

I'm still curious about how everyone feels about scheduling this group, and we want to meet everyone's needs. So, if you have ideas, please share them.

We've had suggestions for asynchronous discussions (which we will probably have here on the Ning, unless someone wants to suggest another venue), synchronous discussions via Elluminate, GoogleWave (send me an email if you need an invite - I have some), VoiceThread, and more. Please don't be shy about suggestions, or starting something and linking it back here.

I'd like to get a schedule started on a GoogleDoc here in a couple of days, which I will share the link to here in our group space.

Hope you all have your books on the way or in hand. Looking forward to getting to know everyone better!

Beth

[Andrea Walker]

I don't know anything much about these. Can you send me an invite?

Elluminate, GoogleWave (send me an email if you need an invite - I have some), VoiceThread,

Andrea Walker

[Beth Friese]

Sure, Andrea. Could you email me your email address at elizfriese at gmail dot com?

I'll confess, I have google wave but have had no idea how to use it thus far. But, it might be a neat experiment to see if we can "get a wave going" around the book.

Elluminate is a real-time online collaborative "classroom-like" space. We can meet there, talk, share, archive sessions, and so on. We would have to schedule that time - we will definitely have some instructions for that. It's more to add a "synchronous" element to the experience. Google wave is supposed to be real-time as well, from that I have heard, but I could be wrong.

VoiceThread is a great way to share comments and responses about a text or picture or experience. We may set a few of those up.

I'll admit I don't have extensive experience with these - thankfully, there are people in the group who do, and we will all be learning them alongside each other, along with talking about the book itself. Maybe we will get into some discussions about how these 2.0 tools can be used to facilitate the inquiry circle model.

Beth

[Andrea Walker]

Great, thaks Beth. Have sent an email to you via gmail.

[Beth Friese]

thanks, Andrea! I sent you a wave invite - hopefully will arrive soon and we can work through this together!
Beth

[Annie Davis]

Hi Beth,
I don't know much about Elluminate, GoogleWave, or VoiceThread either - but I am more than willing to learn! I also need an invite for GoogleWave. My email is [e-mail]

Thank you!

[Beth Friese]

Hi Annie. I sent you an invite - hopefully it will arrive shortly!

Beth

[Ernie Cox]

Group,
Asynchronous and synchronous discussions are key and each serve different purposes. It might work best to have people posting discussion topics and questions as we read chapters then meet in Elluminate to talk through possible responses and expanded into a shared understanding.

I also have some GoogleWave invites if anyone needs one.

The key to this online professional development space is that is doesn't have to end. It can continue to grow from this book to meet other needs. It can also be the place where we articulate how the school librarian fits into and extends the thinking in Inquiry Circles.
Our PD can connect to classroom teachers too!

We could begin using VoiceThread by creating visual depictions of the inquiry process as we understand it. Then we could all comment around everyone's graphic. I'll post a VoiceThread of a student's mind map of the inquiry process for you to respond to.


Ernie

[Donna Bills]

I am looking forward to expanding our discussion into different formats. Elluminate, GoogleWave, and VoiceThread seem to be good options I, also, have GoogleWave invites if anyone in the group needs one.