Successful! The CMCIG Workshop

Dynamic CMCs: Tools to Improve Service, was another successful endeavor planned by CMCIG chair Greg Martin, and deftly assisted by this year's workshop hostess Frances Yates, Instructional Materials Center Librarian at Miami University's King Library.

The CMCIG blog was discussed during the business meeting. I would like to reiterate the invitation extended for workshop participants to post their comments about the workshop, it's varied sessions, and to continue the dialogues begun throughout the day.

If you are interested:

• Send an email to Greg (marting@cedarville.edu) or Diane (dschreck@ashland.edu)
• An invitation will be sent to your email address
• Accept the blogger invitation
• Create a blogger account
• Begin posting!

If you have questions regarding how to use or post with blogger, feel free to contact Greg or Diane, we will be glad to help you get started. As always, comments are open to anyone who would like to add to the posted discussions.

Article in Library Journal

There is an article in October's library journal titled: "Talkin Blogs: Library bloggers discuss the impact of their work." It highlights a round table discussion concerning the professional impact of blogs; the ethics of blogging; blogs and print journalism; and what makes a blog good. I find it interesting that much of the conversation touches on various aspects discussed by our panel at the ALAO conference.

Blogger for Word

Has anyone used the blogger for word option? Looks like if you download the add-in, posting is possible from Microsoft Word and your pc. A blogger account is still required, naturally, but it might make things easier for students already familiar with Word and hesitant to use the online wysiwyg editor. About Blogger for Word has more detailed information and links to a FAQ help page as well.

I'm a bit hesitant to show this to my grad students. They are comfortable with posting weekly using the blog editor. A new way to post may add stress and they are a bit overwhelmed with technology at this point.

Are weblogs Internet faculty rooms?

I just finished reading an article on blogs and teachers. It likens, rightly so after reading various instances presented, weblogs to faculty rooms. The article is available through OhioLINK's database Academic Search Premier. Here's a link to the post, or at least what I hope is a persistent link to the post, if you are interested: This Time, It's Personal.

Blogiversity.org

I received an email this morning from this organization. Is anyone familiar with it? There is not a specific subject area for education (sadly), but other genres are represented.

AU's IRC Blog

Diane - your IRC blog looks great. Have you had much response to the blog from students or faculty? Have you been able to determine if it's being used (is that the right word for a blog?) Did the blog replace some previous form of communication, such as a written or electronic newsletter?

Thanks,
Greg

Library Blogging Article

I saw an article entitled Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services on the Information Today web site this morning. It focuses on libraries creating blogs to market services. I thought we might all want to check this out.

Podcasting from the Blog?

Hi -- For a couple of terms I had my students looking a blogs with audio (like tofuhut.blogspot.com.) Now one of our teacher education faculty is having her students identify podcasts and is also encouraging them to do their own podcasts. I'm wondering if we can not-so-sublty work audio or podcasting into our presentation, too. I'm doing the children's literature focus and thinking that surely someone is reading kid's books aloud on their blog??? Actually, it might be an interesting way to practice oral interpretation / dramatic readings. -- Mary

Books on Blogs and Blogging

I recently purchased two books for the library with blogging as a topic. The first is Who Let the Blogs Out, by Biz Stone (reviews on amazon.com). This book includes background information on blogs and a chapter (6) titled 'Politics and Pupils: The impact of Blogging on Society' which is of interest to our endeavor as it discusses instances of blogging in education. The second title is Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, by Riverbend (reviews on amazon.com). It is hard copy of the author's blog accounting of the war in Iraq and is a personal statement on how blogging has changed the landscape of reporting and first hand accounts of people and countries at war.

Is anyone familair with either of these titles? I have read the first and just checked out the second (fresh off of the new book shelf) today.

Blogging - in general

It is one of life's great mysteries; decide on a topic of interest and suddenly there is a plethora of information delivered to you. After our CMCIG workshop, and subsequent decision to tackle this blog project, two articles published in Library Journal landed in my mailbox.

The first, an editorial in the April 2005 issue, defended a decision made by the journal to publish an article titled "Revenge of the Blog People!" Intrigued, I searched for the article to read what all the commotion was about. While I do not agree with the broad stroke definition presented, or the attitude of the author concerning bloggers and blogs, one of the points raised is that of accountability. We have a responsibility to provide current information in a professional manner.

The second article, published in the Spring 2005 netconnect supplement, discusses blog ethics. "The Ethical Blogger" details a few simple ideas blogs and bloggers should follow. According to author Karen Schneider, there are five rules or "concepts: transparaency, fairness, cite it, get it right, and if you broke it, fix it. We should keep in mind everyone is not thrilled with blogs, their technology, or what their place should be in an academic library. It is important to represent ourselves, our IG, in a professional manner.

Educator Blogs Online

I came across this today as I was looking for Praxis resources. It's seems to blog about examples of educator blogs. I haven't really had a chance to look too closely, but wanted to make sure I shared it with the group. It's called Edblogger Praxis. It appears to link to many education blogs, with a split between higher ed and PreK-12.

First Year Teachers Are Blogging

So, I guess I'll start off the conversation with a blog I've seen a few times. It's called hipteacher and is done by a first year teacher. Might give our education students some insight into what to expect their first year on the job. Also, an example of how they can reach out to one another for ideas and suggestions to use in their own classrooms. A professional development tool!