Assistive Tech start

Since I'm cowriting a book on library services to youth with autism, I thought I'd better do the CSLA web 2.0 on assistive tech. I've also encouraged my students to do so.
As far as lifelong learning goes, that's how I was introduced at Redwood HS when I was hired there as a TL. I think I display all the habits (toolbox is probably hardest when one doesn't know a subject). Easiest is being responsible.
Comments on modules:
Explore the Job Accommodation Network to make the learning process better for a student with a disability: BROKEN LINK. Nor do I like the layout of the Blind website; I don't see where it's "easy" to show students how to use Braille0-- and it's not free. Simple accommodations link is also broken. I have my own list of simple accommodations: from desktop solutions to clear PPT backgrounds, from pencil grips to planners, from schedule charts to captioning.
The iCommunicator, on the other hand, I love!
I note issues about assistive technology in my tech class, of course, but also note it in the curriculum class and management class.
The video "talk" was also fascinating. I browsed through several videos on autism, which were enlightening. I wonder how a youth with autism would relate to them?

CSLA Research Updates

I've started a CSLA Research Update blog. It's more timely than the committee's emails. Here it is: http://cslaresearchupdate.blogspot.com/

A Word about Print: Graphic Novels are so yesterday

So my son (who just turned 21) and I did the 10% off shopping trip to Target (which means we spent more than the $$ saved), and scanned the book/magazine shelves. Target is my reality check on kids'/teens' reading. Anyway, there were no graphic novels were in site; they used to be present but now they have been replaced by comic books. You remember comic books: those 1940s and '50s items (subversive under McCarthy), including my favorite Junior Illustrated Classics? So my popular culture savant said that parents are more comfortable buying their children comic books because: 1) they remember their own childhood days, 2) illustrated publications have gained more respect (partly my idea), and 3) comic books are more American than graphic novels (that post-9/11 syndrome). So all those librarians who have jumped on the band wagon, watch as the kiddos jump OFF. Realize that my son KNEW that gradated colored T-shirts would become "in" (he was 2 months' ahead of the curve). Figures that librarians would rattle on behind the culture curve. We're built conservative. So the moral of this little tale is "Don't put all your collection eggs into the faddish basket -- unless you're willing to switch baskets quickly." Sort of like using standing English because by the time you decipher teen lingo, it's passe (I'd use an "in" phrase but I know I'd be dated...)

I C U C and summary ideas (weeks 1-9)

Here is an article I wrote about visual literacy (note week 9 about video): " Our very own Lesley Farmer has an article in the same issue of Multimedia In Schools! [as Steve Abrams] (http://www.mmischools.com/Archives/ArchiveIssue.aspx?IssueId=322)

I read Steve Abrams 23 things articles in Information Outlook (SLA), and C-M's NC Public Library built on his thoughts to do self-paced PD. And CSLA members heard about these and other echoes about Abram's ideas. So it's interesting to see people's processes. Even I hadn't played with all the goodies I had read about previously (the two new things I did were Rollyo and Library Thing, both of which I think are clunky, but that's me). Anyway, whatever motivates us, huh (as long as it's safe and legal). Personally, I think blogging is sort of antithetical to PRIVATE diaries that I kept in the past, and I can't imagine people being so lacking in a life that they want to read my ramblings. But for the good of the whole, I'm willing to put forth a few thoughts. I'd rather write articles and books -- and present and teach.

Tapped In Transcript

I run a monthly IRC session on technology and librarians; our group is Cybrarians, and we have a group online where we can keep files, etc. Here is a slightly edited session we did on web 2.0.

LesleyF: OK, so it looks as if we should focus more on web 2.0 than library 2.0, although let me take this opportunity to give a quick definition of Library 2.0, OK? Library 2.0 is the application of interactive, collaborative, and multimedia technologies to web-based library services and collections. It's a big narrow but other definitions can encompass SO MUCH. So to get us started, what do you see as features of WEB 2.0? I've got a list but want to see what your perspectives are.
Person1: well...new Web-based resources...blogs, wikis, etc.
Person1 . o O ( social networking sites )
LesleyF: and what makes these different? yes, the two/multi-way communication aspect
Person1: ease of use
Person2: free
Person3: communication
Person2: creativity
LesleyF: YES, indeed. When you think of wikis as being group-built web pages -- as contrasted to the first HTML coding/editing, it's pretty amazing how easy these tools are for the user.
LesleyF: Yes, so it's not just a passive recipient/consumer mentality -- there's a real flattening of the Net hierarchy.
Person1: There was a discussion of the Virginia Tech shootings and how digital media communicated much of the information about it
LesleyF: actually, the shootings provide an effective conversation starter about the pros and cons of web 2.0 -- and how we can turn that into a learning opportunity.
Person3: there was an article in the paper today about these different technologies being used related to the shootings. I know myspace and facebook were mentioned
Person2: many of the victims had profiles on myspace and facebook

LesleyF: In the article I read it mentioned the use of cellphones and their cameras.
LesleyF: They also mentioned how a VT grad student had taken videos and contacted CNN for their distribution, and on NPR they were referring to those websites as they talked about those victims
Person2: they were used to remember these students
Person3: basically how students were using facebook, myspace, livejournal, blogs to express their thoughts (from grief to anger to confusion)
LesleyF: right -- and did anyone catch the early WRONG "news" about the shooter being a Chinese immigrant? What's the impact of web 2.0 relative to that?
Person3: and profile images were changed with va tech logo with black ribbon
Person1 . o O ( South Korea )
LesleyF: that was the correction, yes.
LesleyF: So we can agree that more info is being shared by more people in a faster mode and more modalities. And the impact of that is ??
LesleyF: I CAN tell you that some librarians are a big nervous about web 2.0 because they're afraid that it will lower the level of quality of information. and it would make it even harder than ever for students to tell what is authoritative info/sources. What do YOU think?
LesleyF: The idea of library 2.0 is much "flatter" and interactive, more of everyone creating the library -- much more of a fluid institution.
Person3: the authorititive info/sources reminds me of what I learned in college when evaluating websites when I had to do research so it's somewhat similar.
LesleyF: As I was hinting at earlier, the misinfo that came out early in the VT tragedy was pretty quickly corrected. Folks just have to either keep tuned in -- or they need to wait for the action/errors to get corrected and facts to be sifted out in order to get a truer picture of what is happening.
LesleyF: It means that much more sifting of info....
Person3: I think it would be hard though to see blogs and wikis to know the authority
LesleyF: on the other hand, it gives a richer picture of what people are thinking and experiencing: an anthropologist's paradise!
Person3: but using tools like social bookmarking or having resources linked on a blog that are authoritive, then that's another issue. Tor example, when you are doing research about a topic, you use a tool like del.icio.us and find that people tagged/shared resources about that topic
Person3: and the resource was like to a newspaper article, then that is ok; same thing if someone wrote a blog entry about the topic and linked to news articles.
LesleyF: that is actually a modern day application of a method called citation analysis (and is also used as part of the algorithm that Google uses to rank websites). And that's what gives Wikipedia more "cred." It also makes the idea of a bibliography more palletable for young folks. So your rep is based on who you link to -- power/right/rep by association. Again, not a new notion but a new way to work with it.
Person3: to me that's the most interesting part about web 2.0 is to see what others bookmark/share about a topic; not so much reference their particular blog entry, but more about the resources being shared (especially in the area of research)
LesleyF: a web of related info -- have you done any experiments following those leads? it's fascinating -- and a good learning tool/research tool. So if one takes a different definition of Library -- as a collection of ideas, then the web 2.0 could lead to a web of ideas >> a sort of library 2.0
Person3: I guess, I am not really sure what exactly "library 2.0" is
LesleyF: well, in traditional libraryland, it's the definition I gave at the beginning of this session: application of interactive, collaborative and multimedia, web-based tech to web-based library services and collections. It presupposes that a physical library with trained staff exists.
Person2: Does this software help you with looking up information like news articles and research?
LesleyF: no, that has nothing to do with library 2.0. A library can have web-based tools that are navigation tools; they're not "pushing" user contributions.
Person3: I thought it meant how libraries were using web2.0 tools and having a presence on those sites.
LesleyF: A closer application would be a library RSS feed that would alert you to new sources.
Person2: Library 2.0 is very much influenced by technology-driven, two-way, social interactions between staff and staff or staff and patrons.
LesleyF: Some libraries have blogs that users can contribute to. Here is a good starting point in terms of library 2.0: http://www.squidoo.com/library20/
Person3: that would be under library 2.0 (the blogs)?
LesleyF: yes, particularly if the library staff opens those blogs to users. If you want to do del.icio.us, you can go to del.icio.us/popular/library2.0. Well, I'm going to leave you with those websites to start exploring these notions.

Networks into Tangles

What with all the associations and social networking sites, I think many of us leave so any cyber breadcrumbs all over that we can't find ourselves out of the digital forest. Here are just a few of mine. Hard to believe that I encourage centralization.
http://www.csulb.edu/~lfarmer (the oldest and most stable)
http://www.cuehub.org/138210825121249530/site/default.asp
http://flashlibro.googlepages.com/home
http://csulbcybrarians.pbwiki.com/
http://www.ocfaartist.com/lesley_farmer/
http://www.ephotozine.com/u48654
http://del.icio.us/flashlibro
http://rollyo.com/explore.html?rollterm=e-museums&x=9&y=10
http://csulb.facebook.com/
myspace.com/flashlibro
http://library20.ning.com/profile/flashlibro
http://csulbcybrarian.blogspot.com/(oh, yeh, that's here...)
plus my Google Reader