Rudai 23. Thing 12: Attending Conferences

I am a member of CILIP, so I have attended a few events and training days organised by them, but never a large conference.  In July this year I attended 'Moving From Year 11 to University: Building Bridges' organised by The School Libraries Group.  This event was particularly useful to me as I currently work in a school but wish to work in Higher Education in the future.  It was an all day event so it meant taking a day off work.  My line manager signed this off without a problem, but as I work alone in the 6th form library taking days off frequently wouldn't work as it can be a challenge to arrange full cover.  Recently I have been looking out for events which fall during school holidays or London based ones in the evening.

Like at other events I found it useful talking to people and finding out what other libraries are doing.  Often when I attend these events I go back to work full of new ideas.  When attending training I tend to hand write quick notes with the intention of typing up more detailed versions that evening.  On a few occasions I've left it longer than I would have liked to type up the notes, this means it's more likely I forget the 'in between bits'.  For 'Moving From Year 11 to University: Building Bridges'  I typed up my notes the next day, I also took photos of important slides.  In future I will take my laptop to events and type up notes on the journey home if traveling by train.

Rudai 23. Thing 11: Reflective Practice

My time management during this coarse so far hasn't been great.  I think the main reason I have fallen behind is because there are no concrete deadlines (I also spent some time on holiday and had a hectic start to the school year).  There are some future modules which I have already worked on and drafted posts for but I'd rather post the 'Things' in order so I'll wait until I've finished earlier modules that require more time and work.
 

So far I have found the video module of this coarse the most fun and the most useful.   Promoting resources is the part of my job I enjoy the most, during this coarse I gained new skills that will help me with this.  The plan going forward is to complete the course by the end on November, looking at the future modules there's a lot of useful stuff there that I'm looking forward the working on.

Rudai 23. Thing 10: Live Streaming

I've had a look at Periscope,  it seem like an interesting tool and something I will explore further.  I imagine it could be used in libraries to broadcast big events such as author talks or poetry readings.  You could even hold one big event around the world displaying different libraries on a large screen with each venue taking turns to present etc.  It's not something I could use in my current job, but will definitely keep it in mind for future ideas.

Rudai 23. Thing 9: Video

Perfect timing for this one!  I suppose that's one good thing that has come from falling behind.

The school where I work has just set up allowing students to access their library accounts themselves online.  Much of our students won't bother to take advantage of this, but I imagine promotion via video will encourage more to do so.

I've decided to make an info video showing students how to gain access to their account.  This will be displayed on a big screen in the 6th form cafe, so all students will see it.  The video will also include instructions on how to gain access to the Philip Allan journal online archive, a great resource.

Not everything is in place just yet, so for this task I will create a practice run.  For this I have created an instructional video on how to print double sided and in booklet form.  Students ask for my help with this a lot, particularly during exam period when they are print large amounts of past papers.  I could screen a quicker tidier version of this in the common room during exam time.

Here is my attempt (Warning it is very boring):

Adding captions was easy enough and in future I will add audio to my screen-casts and videos, I've done this before it's pretty simple.
This has been the most useful task yet, I reckon I'll put the skills I've learned to use a lot in the future. When I have completed the the instructional LRC video I will post it on this blog.

Rudai 23. Thing 8: Curation Tools

I decided to concentrate on Pinterest for this task, I have never had an account myself but have looked at it a few times in the past... up until a point, then I'd get the 'to view more please register' message.  Well I'm registered now so I guess I can now get past that point.

I feel this could be a useful tool for gathering information for our students so I have set up a Phoenix Post 16 LRC site.  I'll probably use it to pin quotes, recommended literature and cultural events & attractions in London.  The downloadable Pinterest button makes pinning super easy and quick.  I also like the group board option, I'd like to get students involved in contributing things.  We'll see how it goes...

Rudai 23. Thing 7: Podcasts

I've many friends that regularly listen to podcasts for pleasure, they'll say to me "you should listen to this, you should listen to this", usually I reply "O.k, I definitely will", knowing full well I probably won't.  It's not that I dislike podcasts, it's just I don't know when I'll actually listen to them.  I guess they're similar to the radio, I rarely listen to that, when I do it's usually something to fall asleep to so I don't care if I miss anything.  With a podcast I want to 'see (or hear) what happens'.  I was unemployed for a bit a few years back, during this time I went through a period of listening to cartooning based podcasts.  I had a lot of time on my hands then, don't now... On my commute I like to read .  No headphones at work, students to monitor.  If I'm drawing or working at my desk (at home) music is my preferred companion.  When relaxing indoors I watch TV (or film etc).  I don't drive...

This course is about trying  things and putting them into practice, so from now on I will make an effort to listen to podcasts more frequently for pleasure, it's likely I will come across something that our students will benefit from.  Also I've noticed in past posts that I may sound a bit stuck in my ways. 

I attempted to listen to some podcasts on 'circulating ideas' as suggested, but the links weren't working, maybe it was my computer.... So I decided to do a search for library based podcasts.  I came across a set of instructional podcasts produced by SOAS library.  I listened to some and feel the information presented would be better digested if read, watched on video or presented in the flesh.  The podcasts came across kind of boring...  I can't see myself using podcasts this way at work.

Next I decided to listen a literature podcast, I came across one by The New Yorker of Richard Ford reading his favorite John Cheever story 'Reunion', followed by a brief conversation with Deborah Treisman.  It was great! (and not just because Cheever is my favourite) I am not really a fan of audio books, but feel a short story works as a podcast, especially when it is discussed afterwards.  This particular story is very short which is perfect as my mind does tends to wander, hence not being a fan of audio books.

I also listened to Gary Shteyngart read Lorrie Moore and David Means reads Raymond Carver.  Both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I feel the format of having a short story followed by a discussion works well, I will definitely being promoting short story podcasts to our students. 

I have also began to gather together some educational podcasts that I feel our students will find useful, sourcing them from places like BBC, Examstutor and Podology. I will display links to these on the LRC resource site.

So my second go at podcasts has been a success, guess that's one more reason for me to learn to drive.

Rudai 23. Thing 6: Reflective Practice

A couple of holidays and a busy start to the school year have meant that I have fallen behind a little (a lot actually).  I now intend to crack on again and do a bit of catching up and feel a good place to start is to look at other participants blogs.  I have been checking other peoples blogs for the duration of the course and I have benefited greatly from this.  If I'm honest, at the start, I was a bit nervous about publishing my work online, but reading others work allowed me to relax and get over those nerves (silly, I know).

One of the early tasks was to write about why/how you came to work in the information profession.  This was a great way to kick off the coarse as it was interesting to read about how other peoples journeys began.  I particularly enjoy enjoyed this post by 'thelivedinlibrarian' and this one by 'Penny Swan's About'. I'm sure there are other great stories I've missed, but I only read about a dozen or so of the blogs.

Even though I'm working quite slowly I am enjoying the coarse, I have discovered new things that I'm sure I will put into practice in the future and there is some exciting topics coming up so I look forward to working on those.