March 2008 Archives
Dawn and I are presenting a session at the TLT Symposium tomorrow on (you guessed it) Zotero, Endnote and RefWorks.
I am excited about this session--I think we've captured a way to show people how to maximize these tools for specific uses. Here's a brief description of what we'll be showing tomorrow:
One final Symposium note... Vicki has made some neat postcards for us to hand out at the session. Here's the
image that will be on the front of our postcard. I thought it nicely captured Citation Management 1.0 (we're all about the 2.0, kiddo). I made it using the effortlessly cool Catalog Card Generator.
Hope to see you at the Symposium!
Updated to add: I made screencasts in Jing for each phase of our presentation. You can view Zotero, Endnote or RefWorks online--no narration, however. You have to be at the presentation for that!
Updated again to add: Here's a link to the session podcast.
I am excited about this session--I think we've captured a way to show people how to maximize these tools for specific uses. Here's a brief description of what we'll be showing tomorrow:
- Using Zotero to capture bibliographic information from the Web, including article databases (We'll be demo-ing Zotero's amazing functionality within Google Scholar.)
- Taking what was captured in Zotero, and importing the citations into Endnote. Showing how to insert the newly imported citations into a paper and effortlessly format a bibliography in the citation style of your choice.
- As a final step, importing the same group of citations into RefWorks. We'll show off how to use RefShare, enabling others to see the citations you've collected and the (coolest of cool) RefShare RSS feed. I can envision using a RefShare RSS feed in the context of a class, to keep your students in the flow of new articles you're finding/discussing on a topic. And they could use RefShare to add their own findings!
One final Symposium note... Vicki has made some neat postcards for us to hand out at the session. Here's the
image that will be on the front of our postcard. I thought it nicely captured Citation Management 1.0 (we're all about the 2.0, kiddo). I made it using the effortlessly cool Catalog Card Generator.
Hope to see you at the Symposium!
Updated to add: I made screencasts in Jing for each phase of our presentation. You can view Zotero, Endnote or RefWorks online--no narration, however. You have to be at the presentation for that!
Updated again to add: Here's a link to the session podcast.
This nifty, nifty video made me think lots about how the Web can and should impact the marketing of print materials.
The children's librarian in me couldn't get enough of it.
Laura and I had to watch it ten times in a row.
The children's librarian in me couldn't get enough of it.
Laura and I had to watch it ten times in a row.
Quote above from an amazing Kathy Sierra post)
A few weeks ago, I realized that I was thinking in Facebook Status Updates. As I have often said, I need a life.
I wasn't posting them on Facebook, just continually thinking them to myself. Is this like when you are learning a new language, and realize you've mastered it when it enters your informal thoughts and dreams? I've finally made it, baby. I speak Facebook fluently, it appears.
To quell my inner Status Updates, I started Twittering again. I still can't get into it, for whatever reason. I have a problem with Twitter-ing personal stuff about my day--it simply seems too indulgent (and too invasive). I'll keep that boring stuff in my head, thank you.
Still, despite my inability to hop back on the Twitter wagon, it appears microblogging is reaching critical mass in again. The Chronicle published an article on Twitter use in academia, noting that some faculty are using it in their classes, and citing the Santa Barbara City College Library's Twitter feed as an example of how libraries are using microblogging to promote resources and services. CommonCraft (authors of the Plain English video series) even launched a new video short, "Twitter in Plain English." Is this a technology that needs to be explained in detail?
I'm still not convinced that microblogging has its place or relevance in academia (including academic libraries) yet. I know that it has a utility in quickly disseminating small bits of information. Is it at its most useful in group situations where it's hard to hear multiple voices, such as at conferences? I have been at conferences where it was exciting to see other people's Twitters about sessions. It enabled a conference-wide conversation that otherwise would have otherwise been impeded by size and distributed sessions.
Does Twitter have a place in a learning environment, outside of a conference or large meeting-style environment? Or is it, as John Blyberg so nicely puts it, "the Paris Hilton of the Social Web?"
A few weeks ago, I realized that I was thinking in Facebook Status Updates. As I have often said, I need a life.
I wasn't posting them on Facebook, just continually thinking them to myself. Is this like when you are learning a new language, and realize you've mastered it when it enters your informal thoughts and dreams? I've finally made it, baby. I speak Facebook fluently, it appears.
To quell my inner Status Updates, I started Twittering again. I still can't get into it, for whatever reason. I have a problem with Twitter-ing personal stuff about my day--it simply seems too indulgent (and too invasive). I'll keep that boring stuff in my head, thank you.
Still, despite my inability to hop back on the Twitter wagon, it appears microblogging is reaching critical mass in again. The Chronicle published an article on Twitter use in academia, noting that some faculty are using it in their classes, and citing the Santa Barbara City College Library's Twitter feed as an example of how libraries are using microblogging to promote resources and services. CommonCraft (authors of the Plain English video series) even launched a new video short, "Twitter in Plain English." Is this a technology that needs to be explained in detail?
I'm still not convinced that microblogging has its place or relevance in academia (including academic libraries) yet. I know that it has a utility in quickly disseminating small bits of information. Is it at its most useful in group situations where it's hard to hear multiple voices, such as at conferences? I have been at conferences where it was exciting to see other people's Twitters about sessions. It enabled a conference-wide conversation that otherwise would have otherwise been impeded by size and distributed sessions.
Does Twitter have a place in a learning environment, outside of a conference or large meeting-style environment? Or is it, as John Blyberg so nicely puts it, "the Paris Hilton of the Social Web?"
We've been very lucky here at Penn State to partner with our friends in ETS on a variety of initiatives, including the Libraries' Facebook application and the Zotero Hot Team. I know that I'm not just speaking for myself when I say how fortunate I feel to have these opportunities to collaborate with others outside the Libraries.
On that note, I was especially happy to see this note in a post Jeff Swain wrote following a CIC Learning Technology team meeting:
Other CIC schools are very interested in working with their respective libraries to find a common ground when it comes to faculty and student education when it comes to tools such as using library services and free tools such as Zotero and Refworks. This is a great idea because the librarians want to leverage many of the social applications and mobile tools for learning that we do. We've done some similar work with our instructional librarians and should continue to do so.
A common theme that evolved throughout the day was the idea of partnering our internal peers, such as the libraries, with our external resources in the CIC. Toward that end the CIC team is hoping to hold a conference in the fall at Wisconsin whose focus will be on building these partnerships. Details to follow later.
Hooray! Here's to continued partnerships--not just locally, but nationally. It's my feeling that with time, local development is going to go by the wayside as we work collaboratively to develop tools that can be used across a variety of colleges and universities. Sounds like we are on the road to making that happen!
On that note, I was especially happy to see this note in a post Jeff Swain wrote following a CIC Learning Technology team meeting:
Other CIC schools are very interested in working with their respective libraries to find a common ground when it comes to faculty and student education when it comes to tools such as using library services and free tools such as Zotero and Refworks. This is a great idea because the librarians want to leverage many of the social applications and mobile tools for learning that we do. We've done some similar work with our instructional librarians and should continue to do so.
A common theme that evolved throughout the day was the idea of partnering our internal peers, such as the libraries, with our external resources in the CIC. Toward that end the CIC team is hoping to hold a conference in the fall at Wisconsin whose focus will be on building these partnerships. Details to follow later.
Hooray! Here's to continued partnerships--not just locally, but nationally. It's my feeling that with time, local development is going to go by the wayside as we work collaboratively to develop tools that can be used across a variety of colleges and universities. Sounds like we are on the road to making that happen!
My Facebook profile
Search ProQuest
Enter your search terms:
Recent Comments
Mairead Martin on My new portfolio: Ellysa, so
Jake on Zotero White Paper Available: Great docu
Daniel Mack on "A Growing Impatience and a Real Passivity": Thanks for
Russ Hall on "A Growing Impatience and a Real Passivity": In express
Russ Hall on Why I Blog: Hey Ellysa
Ellysa on Why I Blog: Thanks, Co
Cole on Why I Blog: Nicely don
Dawn on Zotero White Paper Available: Now that I
Matthew Theobald on Notes from the toblog folder, Google and RSS edition: You might