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!

17,849 and counting

17,489 -- that is the number of petitions submitted to the Obama administration's "We the People" project. It is also roughly the number (slightly over 17,000) of signatures needed for the petition titled "Ensure all school libraries are properly staffed, open, and available for children every day."

Read Joyce Valenza’s plea for action, noting support from Library Journal, School Library Journal, and Horn Book – if you decide on signing a petition, it involves creating an account (simply supplying first and last name, email account and zip code) and then activating the account (to ensure that the email is a live address); a relatively easy task for important subjects such as this. The White House is promising relatively quick responses if the goal of 25,000 signatures are reached. According to the Wall Street Journal, 81 petitions have received that required number of signatures, with 15 new petitions being received every hour.

That’s an active democratic society and leads me to also refer to an inspiring presentation given last week by Dave Lankes at CARLI (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois). He spoke about becoming more vital to the community and how librarianship is about improving society in “Expect More: Service is Proactive”. Take a few moments to read his blog post which has links to his slides and audio presentation.