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Passion Quilt Meme: Chaos and Challenges

May 28, 2008 By

Thank you to Pete for tagging me on this Passion Quilt meme…
(Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids (for me: Library School Students) to learn about…and give your picture a short title.)


original image, Hexagram Three from the I Ching, located:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Iching-hexagram-03.png

From the Wilhelm-Baynes translation of “the I Ching or the Book of Changes”:
(text from http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/i-ching-hexagram-3/)

“The name of the hexagram, Chun, really connotes a blade of grass pushing against an obstacle as it sprouts out of the earth – hence the meaning, “difficulty at the beginning.” The hexagram indicates the way in which heaven and earth bring forth individual beings. It is their first meeting, which is beset with difficulties. The lower trigram Chen is the Arousing; its motion is upward and its image is thunder. the upper trigram K’an stands for the Abysmal , the dangerous. its motion is downward and its image is rain. The situation points to teeming, chaotic profusion; thunder and rain fill the air. but the chaos clears up. While the Abysmal sinks, the upward movement clears up. While the Abysmal sinks, the upward movement eventually passes beyond the danger. A thunderstorm brings release from tension, and all things breathe freely again.”

Chaos is a scary thing, beginning something new is a scary thing. Challenging ourselves with new opportunities, new technologies, new knowledge is scary but rewarding, often leading us to new ways of thinking, new approaches to problems, and new strength.

To me this hexagram from the I Ching means lots of things and holds lots of good lessons for those heading out into the Library world:

Perseverance - Don’t be discouraged. Success doesn’t always come quickly, in this rapidly paced world we have to remember that time and fortitude can work in our favor.

Frustration and failure are teaching tools – Not all things can or will work out, but we can take knowledge from everything.

Input/Advising – Too often we can be tempted to work/be alone, especially when our work puts us alone in front of a keyboard. Seeking wisdom and guidance can turn a chaotic path into a clear one.

YOU pick the path – Seek advice and guidance from others but remember it’s your responsibility to chart your path.

Seek Chaos – Consistency and comfort for the sake of consistency and comfort will yield little gain.

So as not to be the cause of chaos (or add chaos and confusion for myself)…I’m going to break the rules and not tag anyone. If however, you feel “inspired” please feel free to self tag.

Steve
p.s. I also picked this image as it’s my one and only tatoo :-)

Steve Garwood

Filed Under: Cool Tools Tagged With: ,

Online tutorial pedagogy and design (with a few examples)

October 23, 2007 By

“The potential benefits of online tutorials are many. Instruction can be scaled, increasing the ability of library staff to reach large groups of students. The variety and styles of web-based tutorials can accommodate different learning styles by using image, audio, and text simultaneously or in combination (Hook). Tempelman-Kluit found online tutorials to be a potential way to “reach those users who cannot or will not come into the library.” Because such users are increasingly able to fulfill academic assignments using full-text resources found online, and because users are increasingly expecting to be able fulfill assignments utilizing online resources, libraries find that online tutorials make sense in terms of adapting instruction to users’ needs. Those same users often have expectations about access in a time frame that doesn’t incorporate waiting for answers, or visiting the library to ask a question during hours the reference staff is traditionally available:

“Online tutorials are a lifeline when reference assistance is unavailable or when a user is accessing library resources from off site . . . [they] allow users to learn when it is most convenient for them to do so. And because tutorials are self-teaching, they allow a patron to internalize information at his or her own pace.“ (Hook)

Additionally, online tutorials, when teaching skills related to online resources, take advantage of situated cognition. Hook writes, “knowledge should be acquired in the same context in which it will be used.” Placing users on the computer, within the browser they will use to access online resources, and where they can instantly put to use what they have learned, makes educational sense.”

The text above is the beginning of a section of an Independent Study that one of my former students, Sara Zoe Patterson, completed over the summer ’07 semester. The completion of this (including a nice bib/webliography) and several examples of how she incorporated screencasts/online tutorials into a school library/media center homepage can be found:
http://eden.rutgers.edu/%7Esarazoe/howto/

I’m sharing this for a few reasons:

  1. I like her bibliography/webliography as it list some great sources of research in this area and, to me, goes a long way to take screencasting and online tutorials from the “flashy” to the necessary.

  2.  She makes use of a technology called Jing. While we both have our reservations about this service; I think it’s one we should keep an eye on.

  3. She also makes use of Spresent, another technology that I think is worth a look.

  4. Lastly, I think her work shows nice specific uses of the technology in a school library/media center environment

Steve Garwood

Filed Under: Cool Tools, E-Learning, Screencasting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

A PowerPoint Chuckle

June 29, 2007 By

I know this is probably making the rounds to all of us who use PowerPoint, but since this is so funny and unfortunately accurate I thought I’d share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpjrHzgSRM&v2
- How NOT To Use Powerpoint By Comedian Don McMillan

While on the subject of PowerPoint…I don’t necessarily love it, but it is a helpful tool…two things that I’ve found that have helped keep my PP Presentations fun (at least for me (which is important too)):

  1. Create my own custom templates/slide designs
    (I just can’t take Dad’s Tie anymore )
  2. Use nice graphics/artwork…Microsoft has their clipart site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us , but I’ve really enjoyed using sites like stock.xchng: http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml to get great quality images…(I’ll re-size in Fireworks or PhotoShop Elements to keep the file size down)

What do you all do?

Steve Garwood

Filed Under: Presentation Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

A Quick Intro to ScreenCasting

June 18, 2007 By

I love to ScreenCast…for both teaching and training, screencasting has become one of my best tools. Below is a quick example of a simple screencast…a little PowerPoint, a little Camtasia, and boom…a teachable moment…to post wherever I need it.

[blip.tv ?posts_id=276484&dest=-1]
The above is a screencast of a PowerPoint presentation, I opened PowerPoint and used Camtasia 4 to record the screen as I spoke. After recording I produced the video as several diferent types of files, the one above is a .wmv. From there I uploaded the video to blip.tv and took the code that site generated and pasted into WordPress…that’s it.

A nice tutorial on how to do this is located on the freevlog site…very easy to follow screencasts for PC and Mac.

C(S)ites:
Camtasia – techsmith.com
blip.tv – blip.tv
Freevlog -freevlog.org

If you’d like some more information check out my NJLA Presentation or send me an email at librarysteve@yahoo.com

Enjoy, Steve
p.s. Thank You to Pete for the opportunity to post here

Steve Garwood

Filed Under: Cool Tools, E-Learning, Screencasting Tagged With: , , , , , , ,