Update on trying to get registered for OERu course on OER/Copyright

I re-registered for LiDA103# with my work email. Now contemplating deleting the profile using my other email account - or maybe I can just leave it and get busy learning some of the course content???? #LiDA103

New start for this blog

I signed up for Open Education, Copyright and Open Licensing in a Digital World LiDA 103 and one exercise is "start a blog." I'm not much of a blogger, but realized that "retired librarian" still exists, so I'm going to use it. P. S. No longer retired! I'm just finished up year three at a full-time, tenure-earning librarian position at Hillsborough Community College - Florida (Florida - where Gov. DeSantis just re-opened the beaches in Jacksonville - April 18, 2020 (See this article from the Tampa Bay Times to support local journalism.) and the hashtag #FloridaMoron was trending a while ago. So... I'm trying to get signed up for all the pieces of the course - and it hasn't gone smoothly. It's great to have the lived experience that the tools for online learning can be frustrating! Much sympathy for all the faculty and students who had to move to make the quick move to online learning in the last couple of weeks! Update: It's somewhat later the same evening - and I can't log in to parts of the course even though I see that I already accomplish one post at one of the course feed pages. NO idea what's up!

Google Calendar

I'm dreading the day they turn off "classic" Google calendar! I'm having great difficulty using the new "sleek design." On the iPhone, it takes a lot of manual dexterity to click to fill out the form to create an event - and an extra special amount of dexterity to use the scrolling wheel device to put in a start and an end time... I can barely manage it! So far all my attempts to manage input on that screen have been embarrassing! Viewing the new calendar is disappointing - I can't see as much on the screen as I have been. I can't see 8 AM - 8 PM for the work week on the screen on my iPhone without scrolling. Soon everyone will need to use the redesign and I'm not sure what to do about that. (I understand the "no going back" date is February 5.) Up until now Google calendar has worked extremely well for me. I hope I can find a calendar that will allow me to entry appointments with fewer fine motor skills - AND sync with all my Google apps. (Why not use voice to input appointments? Might be able to learn to do that - but I work in a library setting where talking to your device would not always be a welcomed option!) P.S. This blog should now be called the "No Longer" Retired Librarian since I have a tenure-earning full-time position at Hillsborough Community College. :)

Is there a noun/adjective/verb for that?

I went through FutureLearn's Psychosis and Schizophrenia two week course. Language is a stumbling block! Some said "I don't want to be labeled "a patient." Call someone "psychotic" and there's a stigma attached. There was a discussion of "service user" (This is the Brits). Some object to being labeled as a service user. This is the same discussion we have in libraries. Are they "users"? "customers"? "clients"? "people who use the library who are not the staff"? Every term seems to carry some baggage for someone. BUT we need to talk about humans who are in certain roles during certain times of their lives. No insult or diminution of your status as a spiritual being in an earthly body intended! Can we please be allowed to use some noun that mean "persons who use the services of an organization"?

DIY - resurrecting shop classes

Reading this article this morning https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-05-26-how-minecraft-and-duct-tape-wallets-prepare-our-kids-for-jobs-that-don-t-exist-yet Duct tape wallets and Minecraft are in. Reading this article this morning https://www.edsurge.com/n/2015-05-28-why-elon-musk-s-secret-school-has-no-grade-levels Screw drivers are in. I've got a sense that crafts/tools that are considered feminine - or not directly related to commerce (as duct tape wallets certainly are) - are not in.

The library patron is always right - or not - or

I came across a couple of tweets from a librarian who had an uncomfortable interaction with a patron at a large academic library. The patron wondered why the library didn't have any books by Terry Pratchett. The patron asked if the librarian read Terry Pratchett. When the librarian said no, the patron said "tut-tut" (and probably a few more things - but it was a tweet, right?) The librarian's reaction was that the patron was a jerk. Well, yes, patrons can be jerks. But I wonder....what about expressing interest in Pratchett's work? "No, I haven't read his work. I'll have to put him on my list. What work of his would you start with?" What about explaining the library's collection development policy? What about suggesting other libraries in the area that might have Terry Pratchett books? Sometimes it's difficult to think of the best way to respond in the moment, but maybe the interaction could have turned into a positive one(?)

Designing for mobile - Undesigning for desktops

Designing for small mobile devices and tablets has taken over with a vengance. I'm confronted with sites where the top third or more of my desktop screen is taken up by a (often meaningless) image. I was just looking at a post on medium.com where my entire monitor is taken up by an image. I have scroll to see any text at all. And...the text runs down the middle of the screen. Navigation is... where? I had to enter a new gmail contact today and you can see that I might be better off completing the transaction on a small device using touch. I gather the idea is "progressive enhancement": design for mobile first with enhancements for large monitors. I think designers are leaving out the enhancements. I know I'll get used to it after a while, but right now I'm finding it really annoying.