What I've been up to...

Many of you know how much time I've been devoting to moving forward on my dissertation this summer. I really feel some momentum, and I am giddy with excitement. I know I still have many, many stages ahead, but I am moving, and that is almost entirely new.

Last week, I spent an inordinate amount starting at an Adobe Connect screen. I did a couple of Virtual ALA presentations based on actual ALA presentations from June. The first was Pecha Kucha, with my topic being "reading on the screen." Fun, I love the concept and hope to keep using it with my students this fall.

The second of my Virtual ALA presentations was my piece of "From Gutenberg to Google and Glogs, Books to Vooks," which was immediately afterwards. Beyond the simple, getting-connected issues that plagued the event, it was really fun, particularly the backchanneling. At one point, someone commented that they wanted less of a philosophy course and more practical ideas. I have actually been finding that I enjoy presentations that are more abstract and less proscriptive, so it was a grounding thing to hear. And some of their comments, especially in the social media panel before Pecha Kucha and danah boyd's keynote, really gave me some insight into the minimal level of technological comfort or understanding that some of our membership possess.

Then, last Thursday, also using Adobe Connect, I led a webinar on "eReaders and your Library" for YALSA. Earlier today, I was in a conference call with one of the YALSA members who had participated, and she really emphasized my discussion of low-cost ways to connect readers with ebooks in our later conversation. This was something it was really important for me to convey, so I was glad to know it came across and had obviously inspire her to think beyond paid models. That webinar, like all of those in YALSA's monthly professional development series, will be available to members in a couple of months. At one point, I polled the audience, and it did seem like most libraries were in the planning and research phases, figuring out how to serve their communities with ebooks.

I spent the past two days with teachers in my district, working through the Google Apps but also just talking about e-reading, augmented reality, html5, the stupidity of student response systems, the filter bubble, and playing with Google+. I let them see all my circle and experience the post-and-reply. I wish I could have coordinated a hang-out, but we didn't have a webcam, and most of them were pretty dazzled as it was...

I really enjoyed getting to work with a broad cross-section of teachers, and helping them set up feed readers to create their own PLNs was especially fun. I was so happy I could suggest someone in almost every content area and grade configuration, as well as a lot of general education and reading people, too.

Those were the last of my summer workshops...