ISTE 2011- SIGMs Forum- A Librarian's Take Away

I am so happy that someone posted these videos from the ISTE 2011- SIGMs Forum.  I was so impressed with Buffy Hamilton's talk about Enchantment and so excited that someone besides me knew Guy Kawasaki who I have been following on Twitter from the beginning. Buffy's talk inspired me to see my students in a new way.



Times are difficult for librarians. We are constantly being forced to defend our positions only to have them cut anyway. Gwyneth Jones- The Daring Librarian talked about making a shift.  The shift she is talking about is what this blog is all about.  We are the choir she is preaching to! We are the ones making the digital shifts! We should all be PowerLibrarians so we can shift the perceptions of others and be ready for the flood of people heading to our door!



Having a strong web presence is not showing off, it is not having a big head, it is what Librarians need to do to survive. What do you find when you Google yourself?

ISTE 2011- A takeaway from a Vendor? Sweet... no... SweetSearch!

When I was at ISTE11 in Philly I did not spend much time in the vendor hall. I never feel comfortable talking to vendors since I have so little clout when it comes to what my district purchases. When I did go into the hall I was specifically looking for World Book to see what their new science module was all about. I was so focused on that mission that I almost missed the biggest library takeaway of them all. Mark Moran of SweetSearch lured me in to his booth with bookmarks, yes that was all it took, paper bookmarks (since I give out more than 400 book marks to students each week of the school year this was quite a prize). Anyway, the bookmarks give students tips for Internet Research. Mark who is the founder and CEO of Dulcinea Media, the parent company of SweetSearch, told me about this free search engine for students. It searches only credible web sites. The search engine part is free but there is so much more and it will have a pay component. I love how well researched this product is and I love that some of it is free in case the other librarians do not agree that this is as great as I think! I also just started following Mark Moran on Twitter. And a SweetSearch search came up with a webinar link that explains more about SweetSearch. The video below is what Mark was offering at ISTE11.



A YouTube search of SweetSearch came up with this tutorial from Anna Laura Brown the SocialNetworkingLibrarian.



What do I think of SweetSearch? I am ready to put the widget on my library home page!

Plurk

Are you an educator? Would you like to have a Personal Learning Network (PLN) with other educators? Are you a little overwhelmed by Twitter? You have heard me mention Plurk on this blog many times in the past. Well now one of my Plurk friends has come up with a cheat sheet so easy that anyone can learn to Plurk and start a PLN! Sharon Ricks, teacherricks on Plurk, has come up with this wonderful graphic showing how to Plurk. Check it out and check out her website on weebly! If you join Plurk be sure to friend me and friend Sharon! Make sure you remember to tell us in your profile that you are an educator!

Google+

My friend Cathy Jo Nelson, who I met in real life for the first time at ISTE, sent me an invite to Google+. I just posted my first post and fell on the floor laughing (not really, maybe it was a short chuckle) at this video posted by my real life (then virtual) friend Kristin Hokanson.

Don't get me wrong, Google+ is starting to grow on me and while many of those I am following and are following me are not my Facebook friends, most, if not all, are my Twitter or Plurk friends. I can see setting up Google+ as an educator and following only my educator friends on it but then isn't that Twitter or Plurk? It is going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out and who comes out on top. If Google is smart they will allow the privacy controls educators ask for and Facebook feigns. Google already has 5 Privacy Settings and Google+ isn't a week old yet. So far so good.