Looking to Expand Your Personal Learning Network

The Edublog Awards is a community based incentive started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

These are fabulous resources for educators to use for ideas on technology tools and how social media is used in different contexts, with a range of different learners. It introduces us all to new sites that we might not have found if not for the awards process.  Now, you can also nominate your your favorite educational mobile app for education.

The Edublog Awards 2011 are now open for voting.  This is a good time to lurk around, read, and see what you are missing.  I find new people to follow each year and enjoy expanding my PLN.  Add some of them to your rss feeds and/or follow them on Twitter:


Best Individual Blog
Best Librarian/Library Blog
Best Educators to Follow on Twitter
Best Hashtags to Follow on Twitter (educational discussions)
Best Professional Development Groups


Click here to view all the categories and spreadsheets of nominations.

Open Mic Night with Joyce Valenza & Moderator Gwyneth A. Jones - The Daring Librarian

On December 5th , Joyce Valenza and Gwyneth Jones shared their top discoveries of the year.

Additionally, dozens of other teacher/Librarians shared their faves and help build an interactive resource book.

View the slides from the crowdsourced google doc which highlights important tools.

New Trier Library proudly supports the projects of Integrated Global Studies School

Inside the Leviathan:  The Art of Moby Dick on Prezi

Collaborative Document Editing

Here's a screen shot of a recommendation by Mark Brumley:

Crocdoc – Collaborative Document Editing | Mark Brumley via kwout

I do love using kwout which allows embedding clickable screen shots!

Goodnight, iPad

To enjoy at the end of a long day:

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.

Michael Stephens Keynote: Hyperlinked Library Services @Library 2.011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennx/2513840755 used by Michael Stephens 

I didn't expect the Michael Stephens' keynote to have such emphasis on kindness, heart, connecting to patrons, trust, and breaking down behaviors.  We really need to look at our own behaviors instead of always judging our patron behaviors.  "Let the heart drive change".  Check it out for yourself as you contemplate library innovation.  It's really all about what it's always been about: "Be Kind".

There are technologies that are definitely game changers.  But there is nothing new under the sun about human behavior.