Connected Educator Month and other Professional Development

October (Connected Educator Month) is always a busy time and this year is no exception.  Be sure to take advantage of the many professional opportunities.  Here are just a few:

Digital Shift -- This event will be held on Wed. October 14 from 9am to 4pm, Central time. 

Digital Shift is a virtual conference that is free and always full of great resources.  For example, Follett is one of the gold sponsors and Library Journal recently interviewed Nader Qaimari, their Senior Vice President of Content Solutions and Services, who shared some thoughts on user interface and library resources like eBooks. Even if you cannot make the entire day, register to be able to access the archives.

        Library 2.0 - This is the fifth annual Library2.0 worldwide event, another virtual conference to be held on October 20 from 9am until 10pm, Central time.  

        Family Action Network Speakers –a local opportunity featuring a truly impressive array of speakers and well worth investigating if you are in the area.  On Friday, October 9th Sherry Turkle will be speaking at the Skokie School in Winnetka.  If you missed her recent New York Times Op-ed piece, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk,” do look for it and we will be adding a review on her forthcoming book, Reclaiming Conversation, to our book blog soon. The following Monday, October 12th, Anne-Marie Slaughter will be speaking at the Cornog.  She gained attention from a piece in The Atlantic a few years ago and also has a new book, Unfinished Business, about work/life balance which we reviewed in more detail here. Then on Wednesday, October 14, Julie Lythcott-Haims will give a talk at Glenbrook North High School. Her new book, How to Raise an Adult, was one that I purchased and forwarded to advisor chairs earlier this summer. (And that is just the FAN speakers for October!)

 If you have other professional development ideas to suggest, please let us know. 

Digital Shift is back for 5th year

Digital Shift is an all day online event produced by Library Journal and School Library Journal with numerous co-sponsors.  This professional development opportunity (scheduled for October 1, 2014) is self-described as follows: "Now in its 5th year, The Digital Shift: Libraries @ the Center virtual conference will focus the attention of library professionals on libraries’ central role in the transformation of our culture from analog experiences to digital experiences."

I have attended in the past and highly recommend registering - the keynotes, presentations and live chats are valuable -- and if you cannot attend the entire time, archives of sessions are usually available to registrants until the end of the year. This year's theme is Libraries @the Center and that promises some intriguing work on how libraries can adapt and adopt changing technologies.

Professional Development this Summer

Have you ever taken an online course? Experienced learning through a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)?  If not, here are a couple of ways to give it a try this summer:

Starting June 30th and running through July 27th, David Lankes will be re-running his MOOC on The Atlas of New Librarianship. Last summer I was one of over 2300 people who participated in David Lankes’ MOOC and I even used some of his videos in the graduate course which I taught last Fall. Lankes is a Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and an inspiring advocate for librarians and libraries. I really enjoyed the opportunity that the MOOC provided to converse with library professionals from around the world. It was interesting to share ideas and reflections about common issues so I am excited to hear that Prof. Lankes is planning to offer the MOOC again – follow his blog for more details which he promises to post by the end of June.

Another MOOC option, “Copyright for Educators & Librarians,” was just announced by Duke University in Library Journal. That one will be available from July 21st until August 18th. Presenters include: Kevin Smith (Duke University), and Lisa A. Macklin (Emory University), and Anne T. Gilliland (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). More information about suggested readings, course format and what you need (internet connection and time to read, write and discuss) are provided at its Coursera registration page.

The cost for the two MOOCS profiled above is free – and many more professional development MOOC ideas are available from Te@chThought’s monthly Teaching and Learning MOOC Report or on the Coursera site. If you are aware of others to suggest or recommend, please leave a comment or email me. Here’s to happy learning this summer!