So about that math MOOC I took earlier this year. It can be easy to focus on the technology aspects of online instruction, since so much hinges on adequate access to and support for hardware, Internet connections, software, operating systems, and even peripherals, q.v. the widespread chuckling last year over the meltdown of the Coursera […]
The pink mattress lay in the middle of the road, as unmistakable as a glass of Pepto-Bismol. I was rounding Highway 13 about 9 p.m. in early November, just a week after I had returned to California. The sloped, unlit road had no shoulder and my headlights bore on the mattress occupying the bulk of […]
One of the facts in life is that library administrators take the jobs they take (and this is my fourth head-of-the-whatever library job, not to be confused with my various military MFWIC positions) based on many, many things… and the integrated library system they will inherit is rarely if ever one of them. I just […]
In short: * Got an iPhone. Zero regrets. The Barbie Doll I never had. Going from a Blackberry to an iPhone has raised my expectations of mobile platforms and software in general. Already filling it with free apps. Keyboard is kinda lame, but I’m figuring out how to type on it. * Holding off on […]
Note: be sure to read this post if you AREN’T going to ALA Annual — because there’s some free (as in zero-cost) participation opportunities here. For this conference’s LITA Top Technology Trends, I am part of an online team honchoed by Cindi Trainor that will facilitate a concurrent online discussion. I will post to here, […]
When I noted that I had been busy with conference planning, one angle to that I had left out is my crash education in DocBook XML, a markup language used for technical documentation. I’ve spent close to a year circling around the question of documentation for an open source software project. Documentation is one of […]
Need a funny icebreaker for your next “info literacy” workshop, class, or discussion? I laughed with recognition at PIL InfoLit Monologue #2, which is about what students say about procrastination, course-related work, and conducting research in the digital age (2:10). This two-minute video comes from Project Information Literacy (PIL), a national research study led by […]
Roy Tennant observed that Google hadn’t bothered exhibiting at ALA Annual 2008. I think Roy has a “game over” feeling about that — like we’re finally irrelevant enough for Google to ignore. I have another take on this, bolstered by Joe Nocera’s article in the New York Times about Google’s deteriorating daycare options. Google has […]
On top of everything else, teetering in the breeze, I have a July 7 deadline for a short article in School Library Journal on open source software in school libraries. I haven’t done a lick of work on this article and will be extracting it from various orifices beginning July 3, when I return from […]
The personal detour I’m back from giving the closing talk at SOLINET’s annual membership meeting, where I was well-pampered by all involved. I also rented a Prius for the trip, and it was quite difficult to return this lovely car to Avis. I had wondered how I would like driving a Prius, and the answer […]