Thing 16

Learnport

As an off and on spectator/user of Learnport over the years I have found it to be an intriguing resource with potential to be very useful.  The access to Nettreker I have previously commented on in an early blog port.  This is a very nice tool to have at your disposal as a teacher and student.  One of the limitations of Learnport is that the site is not very engaging.  The navigation, to me, is not intuitive.  The overall experience of using Learnport, in my view, is somewhat stilted.

The resources available at Learnport do tend to make up for the clunkiness of using it.  There are course listed for either SBEUs or college credit.  The fact that there are not a wide range of courses targeted at the a school media specialist such as myself reflects that trend across the spectrum of post masters coursework of relevance to librarians.  This lack of choices is not specific to Learnport.  As a media specialist consulting with teachers seeking further coursework or professional development I have no qualms about listing Learnport as a resource worth investigating.

Other resources there include a links page - MEL is a better source for these.  Video and audio resources for teachers - titles seem to be pretty decent but the selection is not huge. Lesson plans - only 39 listed.

Obviously the strength of Learnport lies in it's access to Nettreker and professional development courses.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

A have been a Facebook user for two years.  I use it for purely social reasons with family and Friends although I do belong to the MAME page on Facebook and occasionally I get updates from the association via Facebook.  I am not comfortable 'friending' colleagues and especially students on my private Facebook page.  There are aspects of my private life that should remain just that - private.

So in the the spirit of adventure I test drove Twitter.  This is something I have sort of put off fro quite a while.  The education benefits of following worthy tweets being balance by time constraints.  My day is plenty busy as it is and another tech addiction just might break the camel's back.

The importance of the professional networking can't be downplayed.  The expedient way to do this is to use modern social networking sites.  To me this option is second to face to face interaction. There is nothing like a room of librarians who normally spend their days in a professional isolation chamber getting a chance to interact and speak their common lingo. Very nerd based but highly engrossing for the library professional.

MACULspace

I was formerly a member of MACUL.  In the 1990's a was a regular conference attendee but when the district I was working for at the time cut by on professional development I was force to choose either MACUL or MAME.  I chose MAME.  In 2007 I was selected as a MACUL MI-Champion recipient for St. Louis Public Schools (my prior district) and attended the conference that year.  Upon leaving St. Louis i let my membership in MACUL lapse because once again I was forced to choose between MACAL and MAME.  I don't recall of MACULspace was active at the time.  I can say that as a professional learning network MACUL far exceeds MAME in size and  participation from diverse educators.  I am impressed with the look and navigation MACULspace.  The resources are numerous and the connectivity to fellow professionals appears to be very strong with boards and communication features.  Sharing of projects, information, and lessons is well supported.