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)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy_Lussier/654445418
Twitter: kmlussier

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.

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 April 27
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.      
  

• Learn about tagging and folksomonies
• Add and tag bookmarks in a del.icio.us account.
• Explore Flickr and learn how tags work with an image hosting service.
• Explore LibraryThing and learn how tags on this site differ from subject headings.
  
• Discuss how libraries can use any of the above services to share information with users.

• Learn about RSS and set up your own Google 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Learn about microblogging with services like Twitter, Jaiku and Tumblr.
• Create a Twitter account, post daily Tweets, and select other Twitter accounts to follow.
• Discover and discuss ways libraries are using Twitter to reach out to users.