Learning 2.0 @ SEMLS
Syllabus
Course Facilitator:
Kathy Lussier, Assistant Administrator for Technology
Southeastern Massachusetts Library System
508-923-3531
klussier@semls.org
Screen Name: semlskathy (AOL & Yahoo)
Course Expectations:
What You Can Expect
Well-Crafted Sessions Delivered in a Timely Manner: New
assignments will be posted each Friday by 4 p.m. We
strive to make each session interesting, engaging, and clear. But if
you are uncertain about any aspect of an assignment, let us know by posting a comment to the help page (see link in the right-hand sidebar). If you have questions, chances are
that your peers do, too. That's why our Help discussion is accessible to all course participants.
Thoughtful Discussion Group Facilitation:
The course facilitator limits her involvement so that you spend more
time discussing ideas with each other. She will post responses to your comments about twice a week or more. Whenever possible, she will pose questions and comments to the
group instead of responding to individuals -- that way everyone is
encouraged to participate in the conversation.
Prompt, Individualized Support and Feedback: The
course facilitator will strive to answer queries within one working
day.
These
are the basic things that you can expect, but ideally this is just the
beginning. Our goal is to be responsive to your questions and concerns.
What Is Expected of You
Active Engagement in Course Activities, Readings, & Discussions:
Each week, you will be asked to explore one or more online applications. You will be expected to spend time in each of these applications creating accounts, adding content, adjusting settings, and connecting with other users, including, but not necessarily limited to, your classmates. You will then be expected to report on your experiences with the rest of the group.
In many ways, the online discussions are the heart of this course. It
is imperative for you to complete your work and post comments in a timely manner. Participation should be substantive, thoughtful,
and constructive. Expect to post one starter comment each week in
response to a discussion prompt and reply to at least two of your classmate's comments.
Because
this is a continuing education course for adult learners, you will
not be awarded a letter grade. But we realize that sometimes it helps
to have an extra incentive. For this reason and because this is one of our first experiments in offering online learning, every time you complete the week's activities, you will be awarded
"points." At the end of this course, if you have earned at least
75% of the total possible points, you will receive a certificate and an Amazon gift card.
To Provide Us with Feedback:
We hope you find this course interesting and useful. But we also
realize that there is always room for improvement -- we value your
feedback! At the end of each session we ask for "formative" feedback.
This will help us make improvements "on the fly" and will also inform
revisions for the next time we offer this course.
Session Goals
Session 1 - Blogging - Week of January 21
In this session, you will:
- Get to know your classmates and facilitator.
- Learn how to set up and post to a blog.
- Learn how a blog can be used to support interaction.
-
Learn how libraries can use blogs to share news,
support interaction among students/patrons, and build community.
Session 2 - Tagging/Folksomonies - Week of January 28
In this session, you will:
- Learn about tagging and folksomonies
- Add and tag bookmarks in a del.icio.us account.
- Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.
- Explore Flickr and learn how tags work with an image hosting service.
- Discuss how libraries can use any of the above services to share information with users.
Session 3 - RSS and News Readers - Week of February 4
In this session, you will:
- Learn about RSS and set up your own Newsgator Online News Reader account.
- Locate a few useful library related blogs and/or news feeds.
- Learn how to publicize the RSS feed on your blog.
- Discover other easy ways that libraries can create an RSS feed.
Session 4 - Wikis - Week of February 11
In this session, you will:
- Learn about wikis and discover some exciting ways that libraries are using them.
- Discover easy and affordable (free) wiki services that can be used by your library.
- Contribute to the SEMLS Sandbox wiki as well as other wikis of note.
- Learn how to distinguish between cases where a library should use a wiki and cases where it should use a blog.
Vacation Week - Week of February 18
I will post the following week's lesson before vacation so that those who are taking time off later in the course have the opportunity to skip ahead. Otherwise, use this week to catch up on work from previous weeks or to take a breather. I will probably check in at least once during the week to see if there are any questions or discussion.
Session 5 - Social Networking and Recommending a Good Book - Week of February 25
In this session, you will:
- Learn about social networking sites like Facebook, Friendster, and MySpace and see how libraries can use them to connect with users.
- Create a Facebook account, add your classmates as friends, and add some applications.
- Discuss Web 2.0 safety concerns.
- Explore sites, like LibraryThing and Good Reads, where users can share information about the books they are reading.
Session 6 - Podcasts and Video - Week of March 3
In this session, you will:
- Learn how to subscribe to podcasts using iTunes or Juice.
- Discover some useful search tools for locating podcasts.
- Discover YouTube and a few sites that allow users to upload and share videos.
- Discuss how libraries can using podcasting and video sharing to promote services and reach out to their users.
- Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.
