Meredith Farkas – building a foundation with five weeks to a social library

• issue – lots of people don’t have access to continuing education programs
• hands-on learning is important
• online courses can be run cheaply

talked about Five Weeks to a Social Library: had 40 participants, all kinds of libraries

tools used:

• drupal – it allows multiple blogs, all in the same place, and static content, too
• blip.tv
• opal

lessons:

• playing with technology is essential to learning technology
• reflective learning makes ideas stick
• learning from peers can be more important than learning from a sage on the stage
• online learning can be developed on the cheap

Helene Blowers: Lego Building: Learning through Play

learning 2.0 has been duplicated over 200 times internationally – coolness.
what can you do to continually keep up with changes?
need to think of ourselves as players
(note to self – always print out presentation… Helene had some tech problems)
become a knowledge player

• take 15 minutes a day to explore something new
• subscribe to 5 blogs: librarianinblack – sarah does a great job at short informative posts; techcrunch; what i learned today – Nicole does reflective learning stuff; wired; learning 2.0 – 3 new things a month
• tag “play items” in del.icio.us
• create a learning blog
• PLAY!!! give yourself and others permission to play.

become a guide – someone who exhibits and explains points of interest

become a discovery guide

• it’s about learning
• remove the classroom
• exposure is the 1st step towards learning
• learners have as much to share as guides
• focus on FUN

Rebecca Jones – Ain’t What it used to be… & never will be again

• New collaborative and connecting technology are changing the entire concept of where our organization/job/work starts and stops
• mentioned the Cluetrain Manifesto
• very few professionals are talking about it stil!
• organizational decisions – hardest and last thing to do. It’s fundamentally about choices and changes, which are hard to go through
• cooperation evolves to collaboration – more like singing in a choir than playing on a sports team – everyone plays a part, it’s a collaboration
• 85% of work-related problems come from process and structure problems

organization 2.0 – what does it look like? some principles:

• form follows function – what you do will shape organization
• collaboration decreases as distance increases – more than 50 feet apart
• some relationships are weaker than others
• don’t get stuck in the minority
• organizations are ecosystems – they are growing or dying
• stability signals staleness and death
• clarity dissolves most conflicts
• hierarchies work for some functions

structure should create an organizational focus on the right issues at the right time

Don’t let tools drive what you’re doing – ie., the building contractor doesn’t show up at your door saying “I have lots of cool tools – what do you want me to do for you?”

Design structure to exploit library’s strategy and uniqueness.

(not to self – check out wirearchy.com)
I think this was also Rebecca’s presentation… (someone tell me if I’m wrong, please!)
2.0 Competencies:

• collaborative
• communicator
• confident
• independent
• initiator
• entrepreneurs (have something you are very proud of and want to share)