Hello From Reno

I have been at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Reno since last Tuesday and do I have things to share! If anyone thinks librarians (media specialists) are behind the times, they should be here. Every other session was about 21st c. skills or using Web 2.0 in information literacy. So we are living at the edge.
The opening speaker was Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, that is a great read about the skills and habits of mind that our students will need to move out of the Information Age and into the Conceptual Age. He emphasizes that we need to move from LBrain dominance and move to include more R Brain thinking. He talks about the 6 things that will be most important in the conceptual age: design, story, symphony, empathy play and meaning.


I am at the closing sesssion and the keynote is Omar Wasso, the creator of Black Planet.com also the People magazine sexiest Internet executive about 5 years ago. Here are some notes from his presentation. We must help transform as well as inform our students. He is talking a lot about social networking. Not much new here, but interesting from a business perspective.

He just did a "nerd purity" test and thanks to information literacy project I had created some of the tech things he asked about, like a blog, etc. Libraries may need to be more about transforming than service. Libraries should be a reflective space and environment for learning, part of the Experience and Transforming Economy. A place out of the hubbub where you can be energized and transformed by your experience.

Well, enough rambling. You will be hearing more about this conference as I share the things I have learned that will fit right into our literacy project.

No, I have not spent time at the tables at all. In fact casinos kind of creep me out. So I can only share my knowledge and not big winnings.

Think about the history of economics as coffee:

Beans are a commodity.
Tin of coffee is a product.
Cup of coffee is a service.
Dunn Brothers is an experience.
Coffee tasting class is a transformation.

I Thought I Would Be Brain Dead

I thought I would be brain dead after a 3-hour meeting and racing across town to help with some web page training but I was wrong. Great food from the Holy Land revived all of us in the Information Literacy project. Hearing about all the unique and creative research projects that are getting under way in the three participating schools brings back very good memories of my years as a high school media specialist. I really am a researcher at heart so this project could well be the highlight of my work week.