Bonus Post - Summary

As an educator, I've always been dedicated to life-long learning. I've sat through enough classes taught by ineffective, uninspiring teachers to know that when an educator is no longer interested in learning, it's time to quit teaching. That being said, it's increasingly difficult to find time for "extra" learning when just keeping up with curriculum changes, massive amounts of paperwork, new administrative demands each school year, and maintaining some sort of relationship with family and friends leaves little or no down time each day.

I was so excited when we spent a staff development day kicking off the Learning 2.0 project. I had been trying to figure out the best way to gain more tech knowledge, wishing I had the time and energy to take a graduate tech class that sounded interesting. I knew I couldn't add that to my already stressed life, but Learning 2.0 offered the perfect solution. Unfortunately, after that wonderful staff development, real life and work intervened and I felt hopelessly lost, behind, and frustrated.

After Christmas, I decided that I owed it to myself to do what I could, even if I didn't finish. Initially I convinced myself I could surely finish by the Spring Break deadline, so I announced my intentions and received support from fellow librarians as well as my principal. I completed a few assignments. Noting that they were time-consuming but not difficult, I set up a schedule to finish by the February 1st deadline so that I would at least be able to consider writing a third grant for our school. It's been tough. As soon as I came to a stopping place at work each day, I rushed home and worked at my home computer until 10:00 and 11:00 at night, even eating at my desk. I've had to work literally all day every day including weekends and the holiday. But I DID IT! The knowledge I've gained is invaluable.

My favorite discoveries were iGoogle tools, Flikr, Animato, and online image generators. Perhaps the thing that surprised me is that there are so many people in cyberworld tearing each other to pieces. I came across so many depressing, demented things while doing assignments. There is a lot of great stuff out there too, and I can find more of it now.

I would definitely participate in another program like this. For first timers, however, a little more support and encouragement through group meetings and email would be very helpful, because people with little or no previous exposure to web 2.0 still communicate primarily through email, and it's very easy to get completely lost (where the heck do I even find the website?) if you don't immediately get going after the intro! Perhaps that is the main reason teachers are so reluctant to incorporate technology into their lessons on a regular basis. New things are thrown at us all the time, with little or no supported practice time.

Throughout this journey, I've thought of things I would like to incorporate into my library program and my personal life. Only time will tell the true story of where this takes me, but my time was well spent and I'm thankful for having this opportunity to grow. Thanks Mary and Debbie, for your innovative leadership style!

P.S. (Added Tuesday evening)

I will not need to write a grant because our principal is collaborating with her peers on a terrific grant idea. Now I'll have the opportunity to practice all I've learned and begin incorporating it into my program. My first order of business is to decide on the best way to set up a Mockingbird blog. I'll also continue to read my fellow librarians' blogs as they move through this project.