Deep in the Heart of Texas: TLA 2013

Original photo by Buffy Hamilton

I’d like to thank the Texas Library Association and all of the attendees for their gracious hospitality and big warm Texas welcome to their annual conference here in gorgeous Fort Worth, Texas!  It was my honor to present two sessions today:

• Transliteracy and Participatory Practices of Learning:  Praxis for Transformation of Today’s School Libraries and Learning Communities
• Illuminating Learning Communities Through School Libraries and Makerspaces—Creating, Constructing, Collaborating, Contributing

What I enjoy the most about these conferences is the opportunity to interact with others and learn from their experiences and insights.  We had some rich discussions today that came out of our small group discussion and then large group share in the morning session on transliterate practices; I left with many new ideas simmering that I want to purse from that conversation!  I also appreciated the rich dialogue with fellow librarians and educators after that session as well as the afternoon makerspace session—it’s humbling to have such wonderful opportunities to network with colleagues and learn from their insights, questions, and experiences.  Thank you to everyone who shared such positive feedback and who posed questions in person or via Twitter—I will work this weekend to catch up on threads I missed or need to do some follow-up communication with in the next few days.   I’m also appreciative of time spent over lunch, dinner, and coffee with friends today, conversations with vendors in the exhibit hall, and of the feeling of belonging everyone extended to me—thank you for making me feel like one of your very own here in Texas.  I’d also like to give a special thank you to Julie Briggs and Elise Walker for their help in making my being a part of TLA a reality.

You can grab the PDFs of today’s slides either from SlideShare, or you can grab them PDFs directly below.

TLA Transliteracy and Participatory Practices of Learning–Praxis for Transformation of Today’s School Libraries and Learning Communities

TLA 2013 Illuminating Learning Communities Through School Libraries and Makerspaces–Creating, Constructing, Collaborating, Contributing

You can also view and grab the PDFs of the slides here:

IASL 2013: Taking an Inquiry Stance on Participatory Culture, Learning, Literacy, and Libraries

I want to thank the Iowa Association of School Librarians for inviting me to speak at their conference this past week; I so appreciate everyone’s hospitality and the opportunity to think aloud and learn together.  I’d also like to give a special thanks to conference chair Kathy Kaldenberg for her efforts in coordinating a flawless day of fun and professional learning.

Below are my slides from my opening keynote as well as my concurrent session that was a conversation exploring the concept of transliteracy.

Connected Learning and Implications for Libraries as Spaces and Mentors for Learning

“Connected learning is realized when a young person is able to pursue a personal interest or passion with the support of friends and caring adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and interest to academic achievement, career success, or civic engagement.”
from Connected Learning:  An Agenda for Research and Design

For the last month or so, I’ve been dwelling in Connected Learning:  An Agenda for Research and Design, a research synthesis report that outlines the research and findings of the Connected Learning Research Network, a group chaired by Dr. Mimi Ito.  In addition to the report, I’ve enjoyed the series of recent webinars centered around the report:

• The Essence of Connected Learning Environments
• Effective Mentorship Through Shared Purpose
• The Realities of Youth and Peer Culture: Balancing Learning Opportunities and Risks
• Connected Learning As Pathway to Equity & Opportunity
• Assessing Connected Learning Outcomes (of all the excellent webinars, this is the one that provided a powerful push in my thinking and resonated most deeply with me)

Supplementary readings have also informed my understanding of this report:

• What’s All the Fuss About Connected Learning, Dr. Henry Jenkins
• Connected Learning and the Unclear Road to Equity, Justin Reich
• Connected Learning: Interdisciplinary Researchers Recommend Core Changes, Dr. Mimi Ito
• Connected Learning: An Agenda for Social Change, Dr. Mimi Ito (an especially powerful primer to the report)
• National Writing Project Connected Learning Inquiry Group
• The Connected Learning Google Plus Community
• Connected Learning videos at the DML Research Hub YouTube Channel

Additional definitions and explanations can be found here; the infographic embedded here is also a helpful visualization.

In “Connected Learning:  An Agenda for Social Change”, Dr. Ito asserts that connected learning:

“…is not about any particular platform, technology, or teaching technique, like blended learning or the flipped classroom or Khan Academy or massive open online courses. It’s agnostic about the method and content area. Instead, it’s about asking what is the optimal experience for each learner and for a high-functioning learning community?”

In the Connected Learning:  An Agenda for Research and Design report, the authors describe connected learning as a design model:

“Our approach draws on sociocultural learning theory in valuing learning that is embedded within meaningful practices and supportive relationships, and that recognizes diverse pathways and forms of knowledge and expertise. Our design model builds on this approach by focusing on supports and mechanisms for building environments that connect learning across the spheres of interests, peer culture, and academic life. We propose a set of design features that help build shared purpose, opportunities for production, and openly networked resources and infrastructure” (5).

I’ve recreated this visualization embedded in the report to provide another way of looking at connected learning and thinking about how this model seeks to “knit” together the contexts of peer-supported, interest powered, and academically oriented for learning (12):

I’m still coding and organizing my notes from the report as I try to pull out the big takeaways for me, but as I review these notes and the ones I took from the webinar on assessing connected learning outcomes last week, I’m thinking about this first wave of big ideas and questions:

• How do libraries develop learning agendas that are aligned with agendas for social change in their community?  How do the two inform each other?
• How can libraries embrace this approach to designing learning environments to help us move from “nice to necessary?”, a question that was posed at ALA Midwinter in 2013, and that I’m attempting to flesh out in my work here as a Learning Strategist at Cleveland Public Library (and that I hope to share with you later this year).
• How do we create learning environments and experiences as well as relationships with those we serve to move beyond the initial “sweet spot” of attachment to building a deeper level of engagement?  How do we as librarians (with the help of our community) design learning environments that provide diverse entry points and access for people to form communities of learning where they can create more nuanced narratives of learning as they create, share, and connect with others?  How do we design learning spaces and experiences that create more “pathways to opportunity” and participation?
• How might libraries of all kinds serve as an “open network” that is a medium and a mentor to helping people connect and move more meaningfully across multiple learning spaces and spheres within their local community as well as a larger and more global community of learners?  Kris Gutierrez’s metaphor of “learning as movement” across many kinds of contexts has spurred this thinking.
• Kris Gutierrez and Bill Penuel discussed concepts of horizontal learning and boundary crossing in their webinar and explored the question of how do we help people leverage the practices, disposition, and expertises honed in one learning space to another to go deeper with that learning and expand the possibilities for action and participation.  How do libraries support communities of learning in engaging in this boundary crossing and engaging in horizontal learning to build greater personal as well as civic capacity?
• Both Gutierrez and Penuel emphasized the need to further contemplate and explore individual and collective assessment of these practices.  In the words of Dr. Gutierrez, “What tools, dispositions, practices, forms of expertises TRAVEL and how do we know it when we see it?”  I’m also thinking about how we frame formative and summative assessments as touchpoints for learning.
• How can librarians help people take deep “vertical knowledge” in a specific content area and apply it across multiple learning contexts and spaces?  This question relates to horizontal learning and boundary crossing.  I like to think of these concepts as cross-pollination of ideas and learning.
• How do more effectively build vocabulary for this kind of learning in our learning communities?
• How do we more effectively thread and address issues of equity across our instructional design and assessment processes?
• How do libraries cultivate deeper and more meaningful partnerships and connections with other institutions of learning in their communities for more strategic impact?
• How do we as librarians facilitate the creation of sustained networks to help people make connections between social, academic, and interest driven learning? ( see page pp.46-47 in the report for more on this question)

As you can see, these learning and design principles as well as the findings and concerns shared in the report have saturated my thinking.  As I make additional readings and passes through my notes from the report, I will continue to take an inquiry stance to further unpack the concepts and language embedded in this work.  I’ll also revisit the case studies included in the report to further develop ideas on what this work could look like in practice in different library settings.  In addition, I will carve out more time to listen as well as contribute to conversations about connected learning in the NWP study group as well as the Connected Learning Google Plus group.

Nurturing Lifelong Learning with Personal Learning Networks, Ohio eTech Conference 2013

A sincere thank you to everyone who made me feel so welcome at the Ohio eTech Conference last evening and today as well as the conference organizers for their hospitality!  I’d also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to my friends at InfoOhio for their support and lovely company last evening.  Finally, a special thank you to all who took time to attend my session today–it was wonderful to have the chance to chat with several of you, and your kind words truly humble me.
You can download the PDF of my slides here:
Personal Learning Networks and Lifelong Learning February 2013 Ohio eTech Conference

The slides are also available on SlideShare:

Connecting People, Connecting Communities: Community Participatory Mapping Workshop Learning Reflections

I have only been at the Cleveland Public Library for three days, and I am delighted to have already been immersed in new learning experiences that are expanding my thinking!  My colleague Anastasia Diamond-Ortiz, who is the Knowledge Manager here in our Knowledge Office at CPL, and I attended two wonderfully original and thought-provoking learning events earlier this week.

On Monday afternoon, we attended an introductory presentation to community participatory mapping with Dr. Wansoo Im, a well-respected and widely known scholar and pioneer in the GIS (geographic information system) community.  The session, hosted by the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, gave us an overview of the work that Dr. Im has done with young people using the GIS mapping application Mappler to identify and address issues in their communities.  The Monday session focused primarily on the remarkable Hurricane Sandy Gas Station Mapping project that was created by Dr. Im and his students; this mapping project quickly became the primary source of reliable information used not only by citizens impacted in the Northeast by Hurricane Sandy, but it was also utilized and recognized by federal agencies including FEMA and the Department of Energy.  This project was just one of many that Dr. Im has implemented to help young citizens identify and take action on a community challenge through IMSOCIO, Scholars Organizing Culturally Innovative Opportunities, an organization facilitated by Dr. Im that works with young people in the Franklin Township in New Jersey; IMSOCIO seeks to “…encourage the academic progress of Hispanic high school students in Franklin Township by providing the support and resources necessary to facilitate their progression to higher education” (“What is IMSOCIO?”)

On Tuesday, we attended a more intensive daylong workshop with Dr. Im; not only did we have the opportunity to learn more details about Dr. Im’s efforts, but we also had the chance to interact with other community members representing a diverse range of organizations, institutions, non-profits, and businesses from various parts of Cleveland.  The common thread we all shared was learning more about how the GIS technology Mappler could be used to collect and track data in meaningful ways that could help each of us address specific community needs.  We also had the chance to apply the Mappler technology first hand by working in small groups to collect assorted data around the Cleveland State University campus; our groups used the Mappler app to collect and map data about bike racks, food, trees, and vacant buildings.   Before going out into the field, small groups first took time to brainstorm categories and variables for the data we wanted to map; we then came back together as a large group to discuss the process of inputting those data fields into the backend of the Mappler platform.  With the help of Dr. Im, Dr. Mark Salling, and Dr. Salling’s graduate assistant Gregory Soltis, each group was able to set up the data fields in Mappler so that we could then go and use the Mappler app to collect that data and map our findings.  In addition, a user name and password for each group was established to ensure quality control of the data collection.  My group focused on types of food sources on and around the Cleveland State Campus; it was great fun working together as a group because we discovered that we often needed to consult each other with questions about the data we were collecting, such as whether or not a food source was more of a fast food establishment vs. a restaurant.  You can see our map we created (still a work in progress)  by clicking here.

Anastasia and I left the workshop energized and inspired by the possibilities of how we might use this type of GIS application not only for data collecting and sharing purposes, but also as an avenue for critical literacy and participatory learning with people of all ages, including learning experiences that could empower our CPL community to identify and act on community needs and social justice issues.  What I particularly admire about Dr. Im is his focus on community engagement; he views the GIS technology as a tool that can help connect people and ultimately empower communities to advocate for change.  As Dr. Im showed in his case studies and work with IMSOCIO, community mapping also provides the opportunity for all community members, including those who may feel marginalized and a lack of investment in their community, to have an entry point into engaging with their community in meaningful ways that in Dr. Im’s words, gives people “hope and courage to make a difference.”  Through his workshop and case studies, Dr. Im adeptly demonstrated that participatory community mapping can also help local government be more effective and responsive to a community need by acting on this kind of crowdsourced data.  The workshop was also a poignant reminder that participatory mediums and technologies for learning can provide us the opportunity to honor the idea that “novice” and “expert” are fluid roles as we learn together; as librarians and educators, participatory community mapping is one of those technologies that can provide us the chance to better understand our communities, their ideas, and their insights to push our own thinking and understanding.

If you are interested in learning more about these concepts, I encourage you to visit the links in this blog post; you may also want to check out this short video of a lecture from Dr. Im that while slightly dated, captures many of his big ideas.

Goodnight and Godspeed, Unquiet Library

As many of you know, I’ve had a silly but beloved habit of saying, “Goodnight, library” every afternoon when I leave.  Today, I said farewell to my students, fellow teachers, and the library that has been like my child for the last time.  May others always love you as I and our students have; may you always be a place of inspiration, enchantment, learning, and joy—thank you for giving me the time of my life.  I will carry you all with me in my heart as I begin the next chapter with the amazing Cleveland Public Library in Ohio.

With love, Buffy

Video Interview: The Importance of Choice for Igniting Student Passion and Learning Through Research Projects

Earlier this week, I ran a short feature on our art gallery inspired by student research.  In the video below, Teagan takes a few minutes to discuss her work and the importance of choice in igniting student passion in research/inquiry projects.