This morning, I opened the daily Unshelved in my email -- and if you're not reading this library comic every day, you should be -- and found an ad for this book TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. I followed the link and read part of the sample chapter. I went from there to my public library Manitowoc Public Library and looked for the book in the catalog, after signing in. It wasn't there, so I clicked on the "I need material" tab and was given the option to create an interlibrary loan request or to recommend a purchase. I recommended that the library purchase the book, including the link to the Wiley page. The automatic message promised that the library staff would get back to me but recommended I call the library if I needed something immediately. [And we need to continue to provide that option, and the really old fashioned option of going to the library and talking to someone.]. I then logged into Goodreads and added the book to my [ever growing] "to-read" list.
Even though all my interactions have to do with reading a print book, I used six web sites (including my email program and this one) to discover, explore, recommend and capture the information about this book.
People talk all the time about the digital generation, and about how students are constantly connected, and this is what they're talking about. The readings all focus on the creativity piece, and the sharing piece -- which I'm doing right now. It's similar to what Jenny: The Learning Librarian said about students creating their own videos of summer camp.
My point today is that we need to be sure that our students can access all these tools and use their phones or other devices to access them. I think the risks (cheating, distraction) are worth the rewards (engagement, remembering assignments, finding new connections).
I'm not losing sight of some of the concerns about capturing experiences rather than having them (a concern my camp counselors had about still photography as well) or the importance of human interaction. We need to talk about those another day -- possibly after we've read the book.
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| Hemlock Trail Peninsula State Park, WI |
4 comments:
How many books on your to-read list? I have 87 on my list on goodreads.
I'm like you. I look for books everywhere. I'm still using pencil and paper. (My phone is a phone, nothing else.)
I think this made 75 on the to-read list, but I recently weeded both the ones I've read and the ones I'm probably never going to read -- and I only remember to use Goodreads sporadically, so there are probably more out there I'd like to read.
Which brings me to the related issue of how do you find enough time to keep up with all the online communities? And all the information? And have time left to read a few good books (and that eating, sleeping, working, family thing, too)?
Amy, that is my problem, I feel like I am not doing a good job keeping up with online communities. I easily spent 1 1/2 hour talking to my friend on the phone catching up, but seem to have a hard time keeping up with all of the blogs and tweets!
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