Thing 7 - Communication

1. Email-The 5 fast email productivity tips article is a great reminder. I hear teachers complain that they have too many emails to read or respond to and they wonder how we all survived before email was a part of lives in terms of communication. I think a reminder of how we can manage our email helps to harness email to a productive tool rather than a time consumer. In terms of how email is used in the MHS media center, I do contact teachers to send students with overdue materials to the media center, but I do not contact students since students do not have email access in our district.


2. Instant Messaging-
2a- The problem I see at this time for me using IM is the language. I am not up to speed on the "short-hand" aspect to instant messaging other than LOL or a few other common terms. I'm sure if I used IM frequently, I would learn fast. As for using it at school, I am not sure that our district is ready for IM at this time. Change is slow.
2b- The article IM Me presents a fascinating perspective to consider with reference services and IM. As mentioned above in 2a, I am not sure that my school district is ready for this yet. I am currently collecting data to determine a need for virtual reference.
2c-I am in the process of setting up an IM account at school. I'll write more when I've played with it for a while.


3. Text Messaging
At this time is not allowed in school. I do not see a need for this in the district yet because of the policies in place. Personally, I haven't gotten the hang of text messaging. This will be something else to try.


4. Web Conferencing
I have experienced web conferencing or webinars through Minitex and enjoyed what I've participated in. I think this is definitely another change or paradigm shift in professional development and learning for students. As more and more people turn to online learning, webinars or web conferencing is a wonderful tool. One webinar I participated in was the Gale virtual references webinar. I am not collecting data as to how often our reference materials are used to determine a year from now what reference materials I should weed and whether I can afford virtual references.