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.

LibGuides: Tool of Oppression

Alison Hicks wonders if LibGuides software is a tool of oppression. (See http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/libguides-pedagogy-to-oppress/ ) I don't get it. Would Nicole Pagosky's Ferguson Resources ( http://libguides.library.arizona.edu/ferguson ) be more social justice-y if it were on WordPress and not part of the Arizona University Libraries system of LibGuides? Why the emphasis on the container? Also... I'm not clear about the hostility toward our traditional library resources. Hicks says "librarian-defined notions of value and authority conceals an industrial-era adherence to library-centric, behaviourist learning theories and provides a textbook example of Paulo Freire’s banking model of education." So... it would be less oppressive if students do NOT learn about scholarly resources? Why the hostility toward faculty assignments that provide a structured exercise? I'm at the reference desk of a community college where students are asked to do a basic bibliography with a recipe. Find five books, three articles, and two multimedia items on your topic. Use a certain format for the bibliography. Oppressive?? They have to find library resources. Oppressive? It's just an exercise - like doing scales when you are learning to play a musical instrument. Would it be more social justice-y if students did not know how to do a systematic search using a variety of sources and note that many publication types can be useful? Would it be more social justice-y if students never dealt with scholarly resources?

"Redesigning the entry experience"

Redesigning the entry experience is about providing an inviting experience for clients entering a physical setting. http://www.freshtilledsoil.com/redesigning-the-entry-experience/ Can we apply this kind of design thinking to our students'entry experience into our online courses? Do our students find our course site "friendly, inviting and welcoming"? Or do our students experience the "deer in the headlights" sensation that Jeremy Sabath describes in his piece? I wonder if thinking about the "course" as an architectural space would be useful....

Microaggressions or... not

I had a good time paying attention to the #critlib session on microaggressions. Storify's here http://goo.gl/SR7Bg8 I do get that we tend to operate off of stereotypes in the worst possible ways, but could there be times when we simply should NOT be offended? I am now working with librarian who also has short gray hair and similarly-styled glasses. We're almost the same height and appear to be roughly the same age. We're both caucasian. Students mix us up. #notmicroaggression, right? If students mix up two staff members who look alike, is it possible that they really do look alike?? If you look like a student, should you be offended if someone thinks you're a student? How can they tell you have a different status? Even if you are sitting at a service point... What's the indication that you are a librarian and not a student assistant? I think there's a possibility that this might not fall under the heading of microaggression. Or.... ?

OCL4Ed is starts June 18, 2014

"Learn about the concepts of open educational resources, copyright and Creative Commons open licenses to achieve more sustainable education for all." http://wikieducator.org/course/OCL4Ed/Start_here/ I signed up to take a look and see some of the design changes that have been made. I plan on looking around more tomorrow. Also coming up soon: Coursera's Copyright for Educators and Librarians. Starts July 21, 2014. Kevin Smith is involved, so this is bound to be a good course.

Sebastian Thrun's pivot

There are a lot of "I told you so's" aimed at Sebastian Thrun for his initial enthusiasm for MOOCs and his recent turn-around. Udacity is now going to target job-specific training. So... ok, we told you so - BUT I'm thinking about how he got to this "fail": He was willing to experiment and go way out on a limb in a very public way. He had the social capital to gather up venture capital and develop a platform in short order. He has brought online education to the attention of many - including ivy league schools. He experimented in a BIG way. We told him so, but he learned it for himself. I'm sure that he will go on to do many more interesting things. Now I'm trying to think about what would be different if the last couple of years of MOOC craziness hadn't happened?

Design 101 - Victor Papanek - In print only

I'm doing Design 1o1 (one-oh-one - not laugh out loud) through iversity.org One item on the suggested readings - Victor Papanek Design for the Real World - I'm reading the first edition which happened to be available in the academic library I frequent. They haven't thrown it out yet even though it's one of those academic libraries that seems bent on marginalizing the printed book. How frustrating that Papanek is not legally available electronically! (I'm quite sure that the material at gobookee.org is not up there legally.) I would like all of you to read it - and read it in its' entirety. I listened to some of Dave Cormier's discussion for #WWEOpen13. I'm rather confused. He seems to be saying that there's no longer a need for fixed texts. The conversation with the group seemed to fall somewhere between "print is dead" and "I like print." I think that you ought to read Papenek - not as revised or condensed or regurgitated by someone who might shift Papanek's arguments in some way. Write your own work and have your say! Don't mess with Papanek's expression. Also if I were teaching a course in design, I would insist that the students should read Papenek. Apparently this is "teacher as leader = bad." Perhaps if I disguise myself as a fellow student I could enthusiastically endorse the reading of particular texts?

First page of the preface from the 1st edition

Design in the Real World: Ecology and Social Change - 2nd edition (2005).

Design 101: I've only missed doing one assignment so far and will catch up on that one today. I'm not trying to be the best or even good. I'm not agonizing over the assignments. I'm doing that thing where you get an idea, do it, and ship it.

Following along ETEC 642

I'm bound and determined to follow Bert Kimura's ETEC 642 course Facilitating E-Learning Communities (http://www.hawaii.edu/dl/courses/?action=course_info&crse_id=9764). The course website is at http://etec642summer.wordpress.com "Following" is the operative term. I'm already a week behind - for no particularly good reason. I think it might have to do with a character flaw - lack of discipline(?) I intend to get going right now!

Google+

Wow, Google+ has me stymied! I can't get Hangouts to work on my desktop. I keep getting an installation error 1603 when it asks me to install the talk plugin. I thought I HAD a talk plug in! I've read up as much as possible. I see reports of problems like mine going back years - though I wasn't having any problem until a couple of days ago. Tried some of the suggestions: Uninstalled things, re-installed things, tried setting it up in a guest account... No luck! I wanted to try the on air function. So here's the deal: What do you do when you run out of problem-solving ideas? I'm sitting here with a nice webcam and a pretty good mic and a nice fast Internet connection...no luck. (Thanks for listening)

Digital Public Library of America

Micah Vandegrift has written a piece on the Digital Public Library of America - what it is - and what it isn't - and what it might become. See http://www.inthelibrarywiththedpipe.org/2013/dpla/ Micah discusses joining one of the early discussion lists concerning the DPLA. I was on the list for a while as well (dpla-discussion@eon.law.harvard.edu) and my impression was that a lot of brilliant people had very interesting ideas about presenting digital collections - and terrific capabilities. They seemed mainly interested in presenting digital library content to scholars - other people just like them. Some of the participants in the early discussions didn't seem all that interested in including public library collections. Some of the discussants didn't seem all that interested in any user not affiliated with a research-intensive university. Public librarians were working hard to be heard. I was put off. I was hoping for the emergence of a digital public library of the world with no silly political or geographic boundaries. While I continued to read about the DPLA sporadically, I stopped following the day-to-day discussions. Now the first iteration of the DPLA has launched. Robert Darnton and John Palfry - both leaders in the DPLA were guests for a recent Special Event for Terry Fisher's CopyrightX course. Both talked about the a grand vision of what the DPLA could become and how it could become the digital library for all of us. I'm looking forward to DPLA developments!

Oprah's Life Class - a kind of MOOC

How to create community with participants from 51 countries:

Check out Oprah's Life Class web site.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/oprahs-lifeclass.html

Classes. Your homework. Check-in. (While registration is required to participate in discussions, there are no other entrance requirements.)

Daily Life Work; Videos; Weekly Question (with a spot for responses); Webcasts.

The website has a place for "My Notes" "Enter your thoughts in your personal online notebook".

There's a Facebook page.

Oprah's Life Class asks people to upload their photos via Instagram. The photos are broadcast so there's a sense that they are the visible part of the TV audience.

Ambassadors use Twitter to announce TV events beforehand and keep things going with lively tweets. The Twitter stream is available in the auditorium where the broadcast is taking place. Oprah tweets to her Tweethearts during the broadcast.

The audience in the auditorium interacts with the life coach and Oprah. Skype is used to bring remote students into the classroom to interact with the life coach of the day - and Oprah.

There are no grades.

What strategies can we borrow for our courses? (Is Oprah's Life Class a sort of MOOC?)

More MOOC lurking

Report from the MOOC front: Ohio State's Writing II: Rhetorical Composing is starting on Coursera on April 22. The instructors are by Susan Delagrange, Cynthia Selfe, Kay Halasek, Ben McCorkle, and Scott Lloyd DeWitt. The instructors address the concept of "global Englishes" in their introductory material. I'm excited to see the instructors acknowledge that these courses have a global audience! In response to the introductory videos, one of the very first students to post asked if accepting more than one "English" will water down the course. A staff member replied and noted that this course will "foster a learning community that welcomes English speakers from all around the world." This is a great question to have raised and discussed right up at the beginning of the course. This may head off some problems that have developed in other courses where U.S. students have not known how to deal with writers from other regions. The instructors say that they will be spending time suggesting ways to give feedback. Official hashtag for the course: #wexmooc

In the meantime... I've continued to check out the discussions in Duke University's English Comp I (also on Coursera). One student noted that the instructor in one video referred to "inches" when talking about indenting citations. There was no corresponding equivalent for "centimeters" mentioned in the video. The student's version of Word uses centimeters. Another student supplied the conversion to centimeters, but there you go! The question about what to consider when developing a course for a global audience was raised! While APA and MLA citation styles mentioned in the course are used in many situations, would it have been worth mentioning styles used in other countries? For example I gather that ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas) is used in many universities in Brazil. Maybe acknowledging the existence of some other styles would be enough?

Student Loans - Paid off!

Last week I paid off the remainder of my Federal PLUS Loan for daughter number two. We had that average $25,000 in loans when she graduated five years ago. Done! I'm happy to that she and I are both out of debt (at least for the moment). I would love to chronicle how paying for her four years at Pratt Institute went down, but every tuition bill was confusing and every financial aid letter was confusing - and it was just generally... confusing. So how much did those four years cost? A bunch - but I don't have a total. Nevertheless we got through it with her work study grants, some scholarship awards, my part-time work teaching online in addition to my full-time librarian job, some help from my dad...and some federal loans. I'm glad to have that financial episode concluded!

I know adding info to posts after the fact is not a great idea, but I saw this and wanted to tack it on here...
NASFAA National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators put out their consumer testing of financial aid award letters report. No clear winners http://www.nasfaa.org/EntrancePDF.aspx?id=14078

A librarian lurking in a MOOC

I'm paying attention to the discussion fora on Duke's English Composition I course taught by Denise Comer and offered through Coursera. I'm looking for places that an embedded librarian might intervene. Why? I'm interested in the role that information literacy plays in MOOCs in general. More specifically I'm on board as staff librarian with writingcommons.org (http://writingcommons.org)which is being used as one of the resources for the Duke course. What other information could writingcommons.org include in order to help students taking MOOCs? Here's a few things that I've answered:

How do I copyright my work? This was not the "how do I cite work and avoid plagiarizing" - but "how do I copyright works of fiction that I myself have written?" I explained how it's done in the U.S, but I'm not certain this student was a U.S. citizen.

There was a question about how to search for open access resources. Another student helped out with that and I chimed in as well with some ideas.

How do I find recent research on child development? I explained how to find some research using open access services - and made some suggestions about finding recent articles if you are affiliated or near a library.

How can I find glossaries for various academic disciplines - specifically social work? (In the case the student is a non-native English speaker.) I listed some sites and explained how I identified them.

What about political correctness and academic writing? I turned up an interesting web site from University of Leicester and asked the students to take a look to see what they thought about it.

I'll try to keep track of whatever else gets "librarian" answer from me.

I've let the Duke librarians know that I'm in there being nosy. Any other librarians embedded in their MOOCs and answering questions wearing their librarian hat?