5 Things I Learned From Teaching Web. 2.0

For one session a month starting last June I have taught a new web technology that could be described as social technology or Web 2.0 technology. These technologies included Delicious, RSS, blogging, and Flickr. My students were my fellow librarians and staff. Here are five things that I learned in this process.

1. There was limited exposure to these technologies throughout the staff. Limited exposure usually meant that the staff was excited to learn something they had been wondering about. Sometimes it meant they were sceptical of new technology and had trouble embracing it.

2. Delicious and RSS are underutilized among our librarians. These two resources are a life saver for me as a reference librarian and I would be less effective in my job if I had not started using Delicious and RSS. If nothing else, RSS saves time.

3. Flickr is addictive. One staff person has gone Flickr crazy. She was very cautious at first. She didn't want anyone looking at her pictures but within a week she had already made her photos available to the public.

4. Fear of technology is inhibiting. When we let our fear be stronger than our desire to learn we have failed to realize how much good we could be missing. I used to be and am still a hesitant technology user. I lack confidence in my ability to figure things out. The wonder of the web is that it has made computer geeks out of all of us. We need to embrace our hidden geek.

5. Teaching is a great learning tool. In Delicious, I learned how to send bookmarks to colleagues. In RSS, I learned how to subscribe to pages that just give you that code gobblygook that I never knew what to do with before. I also learned how Wordpress works and how to set up Groups in Flickr. The process has been invaluable to me.

Our sessions and exercises can be found here.

Play Time!!

Inspired by the activities that I have chronicled on this blog and the work of Meredith Farkas et al. and Helene Blowers, I am starting a training program among our staff and faculty on web 2.0/library 2.0.

The program consists of me presenting a quick and simple overview tutorial on the topic of the month (June will be on blogging) during a library staff meeting. At the end of the instruction session, I will present the group with an activity for them to do on their own before our next session in July. I will also provide weekly emails chronicling the discoveries that the staff have made through their own "play time" with the technology. Then, once a month, we will all gather together for a "play time" where we can discuss the technology and practice using it ourselves.

I announced this activity at our staff meeting today and it was well received though with some apprehension by our more tech inexperienced staff. I encouraged them that this was a low stress exercise that was focused on the play aspect and the need to have fun with things we find intimidating. I hope to detail some of my observations through this blog.