Rethinking School

While students were wending their way back to school post-Thanksgiving Break, we faculty were doing "professional development", in this case, the first of three sessions with Charles Fadel. The big question posed for this particular session was "what is the implication of technology on already stressed minds?" particularly since our world is increasingly interdependent (and…

I’m looking through you… or maybe not

"Transparency" is one of those terms that's tossed around a whole lot these days, particularly when it comes to governance.  There's a lot to be said for it, and most of all when a governing body makes some sort of change.  As Karen says in her brilliant take on ALA's new Code of Conduct, some…

Minor Musings

For those about to go on Break, some things to explore and/or ponder. Books, Reading, Etc.. Maybe some of Sarah's ideas will help create the culture of reading I'm hoping for! Breaking up (with books) is hard to do... Very glad I have a break, so I can seriously peruse these Best Of lists and…

When you have a bully pulpit

A few things have happened recently that left a semi bad taste in my mouth - they revolved around someone using their bully pulpit for what I can only call personal gain. Without giving away names or exact details, here's what's going on: creators advocating for their product, which is completely understandable, but not being…

Lessons Unlearned

Like so many of us, I was shocked and horrified about the events in Boston last week - Monday, I worried about friends and family who might have run in/been supporting those running the Boston Marathon, and Friday I worried about all of them simply living in Boston and environs.  Having lived through Sept. 11,…

Speaking Up

A couple of weeks ago, there was a huge uproar about a teacher's decision to make every student in her class participate, regardless of whether they were an introvert or extrovert. SLJ has a good round-up of the various posts and thoughts. I'd been discussing this (in a way) in my class on instructional design,…

A lesson to be learned?

On Friday, as the news reports from Connecticut continued unabated, I turned off my tv.   Because I was working on a project that required internet research, my access to twitter and Facebook was still there and I read people's reactions and thoughts as I continued to do my research. One student (well, former student; she…

Minor Musings

Books, Reading, Etc. More on E-Reading: A Midterm Progress Report  (I don't annotate, but I can see the appeal for many readers... and the loss.  What will we do when marginalia is completely lost? It's a great insight into the reader's mind.) Why social media isn't the magic bullet for self-epublished authors (and this article…

Don’t blame the students

I've mentioned before that I'm on this year's YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction for Young Adults award committee and will be spending eight hours over this next weekend discussing the over 40 books we've read (ok, not all of them - we'll concentrate on the ones that have been nominated).  In other news, I've been asked…

Nothing new under the sun

I'm sure everyone's been reading about the recent plagiarism issue over on Story Siren (thanks to Liz Burns for the great round-up).  My friend Chuck talks about the "kitchen sinking" that often happens when something like this occurs. It's beyond the question of citation, though.  There's the question of consequences. When I was at Hamilton…