Ridge View Media’s Blog

I am Librarian, I am Avatar
Well, wow! I don’t remember librarians at school looking like these who inhabit Second Life (SL)!

Seriously, even though this is not a video but a Slideshare.com presentation, I was very impressed by it.

Bernadette Daly Swanson, a Librarian at the University of California at Davis, has published an engaging and informative presentation on how academic and public libraries effectively use SL. (Her faculty page.)

Take a look at her presentation….

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Confession & Who’s Having Fun Now
When I was in high school, and even through my undergraduate college years, I wanted to be a university librarian. I was young and single, then. People discouraged me from that career choice. They told me the job didn’t pay well, and that librarians didn’t have much fun.

“Who wants to check out an encyclopedia?” they’d say, hinting that I wouldn’t get asked out on dates if I was a Librarian. I didn’t want to be perceived as a walking encyclopedia back then.

Well, from my current vantage point of a non-Web 2.0 and non-elearning 2.0, traditional corporate training department sitting behind a firewall fortress, with regulatory and network security folks constantly on watch….Bernadette and her fellow librarian avatars are having a ton more e-learning 2.0 fun than I am!

Hmmm…but, according to her presentation, the research indicates that all learning professionals will be involved in SL in the near future. I look forward to that day, as long as the learners actually learn. But, I’m not going to wait until I get the official mandate.

It’s Time for SL
It’s time I visit SL despite my full schedule. Why? Bernadette’s presentation has kicked me over the edge out of complacency because, as a Librarian, she’s having way more educational fun than I am in my somewhat traditional, corporate world. (I coulda been a Librarian; look at what I’m missing out on!)

And, like Bernadette, because I believe that SL will be a part of the general training world sooner than the regulators and network security folks might want. The needs of the business and of the learners will require it. As blended learning begins to replace first-generation e-learning, I believe SL will replace Webinars. So, good-bye WebEx, Citrix, Adobe Connect…hello Second Life (or a behind-the-firewall, purchased version)!

That means I need to prepare myself to gain the skills and tools I’ll need to be a virtual-world facilitator.

Besides, we’ll all have nice physiques like the Librarians’ avatars without going to the gym!

Note: I haven’t researched the Librarian career field lately. Just for fun, I went to Flickr.com to try and find a photo of a fuddy-duddy librarian. Ohmygosh how things have changed!

21st Century Librarians on Flickr.com

Sigh. They are having way too much fun. At least I’m “Always Learning”!

Update! Alternatives to Second Life

Look what Karl Kapp has posted on his blog…a list of “behind-the-firewall” virtual world companies! Woo-hoo!

http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2008/06/alternatives-to-second-life.html

Thanks, Karl! I am also adding you to my Blogroll.

Wow, Another Update!

And, I just found Dr. Tony Karrer’s post on SL videos that show you how others use SL for their learning activities. I can’t wait for the weekend!

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/06/second-life-learning-videos.html

Instructional Systems Design Education | The Frugal Way

Gas prices for regular grade (87) at my local Costco are rising close to $4.70-9/10…well, as of today. And, everyone talks about rising fuel costs just like people talked about rising real estate prices during 2004-2006.

As fuel costs rise, the cost for anything and everything increases. Neighbors and coworkers are cutting back to the bare bones. For some families, it’s really, really tough as there’s too much month at the end of the money. What’s ironic is that now it’s common to share with others what you’ve cut out of your household budget. A few, random selections I’ve heard are:

“Oh yeah, we’ve cut out HBO and Showtime from our cable service.”

“I just canceled the pest control service.”

“We’ve changed newspaper delivery from 7 days to just Sundays, now. During the week, we’ll just read articles online.”

“We’ve started a vegetable garden in our backyard! Want some of my extra tomatoes?”

Limited Money for School

While we weather (and adjust to) the current economic situation, some of us are putting off getting certificates or degrees in online instructional systems design. However, I see an opportunity in all of this! Some weeks ago, I read a blog post on whether it’s really “worth it” to get an advanced degree in ISD.

Cammy Bean and Dr. John H. Curry had several friendly exchanges about this at his blog Effective Design.org Like Cammy, I have learned a great deal on the job and from talented mentors. Now, the fun part comes after you’ve read Dr. John Curry’s entire post. Look at the link near the bottom. See it? An “Aha!” moment! The link says:

My Personal Challenge

What a great list of resources! “Dr. John’s” and Cammy’s exchange has inspired me. For the past year, I’ve been thinking of getting my M.A. in EduTech, and I believe I will one day. As a former Adjunct Professor in the Community College district, I support academia whole heartedly. Until then, however, I am going nurture our household budget during these economic times and start on my “formal” ISD education the frugal way.

Thanks to the Internet and our wonderful community of online ISD bloggers, you and I can start our self-study ISD education at any time! The challenge for me will be to schedule the time and “git ‘er done”.

The “Free ISD” Series (Sharing It with You)

So, there. Now I’ve done it. This inaugural post begins a series where I will post the ISD/EduTech resources that I find. It will also serve as my journal to document my progress (or, lack there of!). Will you join me? Want to be a fellow learner or my mentor? I hope so. A graduation party by myself would be kind of lonely.

Yes, I’m “Always Learning”!

Photo credits (under Creative Commons license):

AgentAkit for “Arm/Leg”

Goodimages for “Graduation Ceremony Procession”

About this Blog…Status

For a few weeks, I left the previous post “first-page visible” for my nephew and his colleagues in his school district. And, while they checked out those wonderful online resources, I had time to contemplate my blogging navel.

“Always Learning”, I realized that a dilemma diligently dogged my approach to this blog:

The “Content vs. Design Dilemma”.

Intrigued by the opportunity to improve my CSS skills and learn PHP, I neglected content. Now, inside my Wordpress Admin panel rest over 20 unpublished drafts of blog posts!

Sheesh.

So, I’m returning to content, and I’m excited about that! I mean, what’s a blog without content? Design still awaits me as a project, and I look forward to changing the look of this blog. Plus, I need to update to WordPress 2.5.1, and plan to do that this weekend.

However, beginning today, my focus is on content, first, then design.

Yes, I’m “Always Learning!”