Tenets from Tennant

Essays

I’m guessing many of you have already seen this, but just in case you haven’t, Roy Tennant’s chapter in Technology in Libraries: Essays in Honor of Anne Grodzins Lipow is lovely. In addition to editing the entire book, Tennant wrote this chapter titled, “Talking Tech: Explaining Technical Topics to a Non-Technical Audience.” Here’s a list of the training tips he includes:

1. Know your audience.
2. Select the appropriate scope.
3. Summarize
4. Cultivate the right attitude
5. Admit your ignorance
6. Deliver in multiple modes
7. Repeat
8. Make accommodations
9. Provide opportunities to participate
10. Roll with the punches
11. Ask for questions like you really mean it
12. Be enthusiastic
13. Be authentic
14. Have fun!

I think it’s a good list to read when planning training and just before delivering training, too. I also think it could be useful if you have the opportunity to co-train with someone else. Talk to each other about the list and get input re: your strengths and re: areas for growth, too.

Saved by the bell

Bell Work

My sister is a middle school teacher. I am a librarian. We hang out quite a bit, often with one another’s friends, so she hears a lot of library talk and I hear plenty of school talk, too. She thinks the idea of teaching adults is scary (”They don’t listen!”). I think facing one hundred 7th and 8th graders every day is… terrifying.

The other day I overheard her talking to another teacher about “bell work”. I asked what the term referred to and she told me it’s an activity that students begin as they enter the classroom. The idea is to engage them immediately.

I started thinking about training events and how there is that time before the workshop begins… people chat or wander or grab coffee and a cookie if that’s an option. I usually try to plan an icebreaker that gets things warmed up, sets a tone for the training. But I wonder if I could do something with that pre-workshop time. I’m not talking busy work. Something fun. Something relevant. Something that gets the participants thinking about and excited about the topic we’re there to cover. Warm-up for the brain….

Has anyone used “bell work” in their library trainings? I would love to hear your examples!

A day in my life

I’m going to be updating this post throughout the day to track the things I do. I’m writing this as part of the Library Day in the Life meme.

I have been a librarian since 1995, but I have not worked for a specific library since 1999.

In ‘99 I left a Reference Librarian position at the Lake Agassiz Regional Library in my hometown (Detroit Lakes, MN), to take a position in the US Library Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. In that role, I traveled to libraries around the country providing training. When that ended, I moved to Kansas and worked as a Technology Consultant for the Northeast Kansas Library System. In that position, I worked to help support many, many libraries. Now I am the Library Training Specialist for the MaintainIT Project. MaintainIT is a TechSoup project and the offices are in San Francisco, but I am virtual and work from my home in Roeland Park, Kansas.

… I am virtual and work from my home…

7:30 AM I began my work day in my pajamas. I made myself a cup of green tea and since the weather was right, I sat on the deck. I read emails and looked over my calendar for the entire week and for next week, too. I created a to-do list (using a paper notebook). At 9 AM, it was time for my morning cereal break.

Monday morning meetings are for the birds.

1:50 PM Checking in again…

People often ask if I feel isolated, working at home. I don’t. I think the fact that I don’t live alone helps. I also credit IM with helping me feel really connected. I conduct a big share of my work communication via IM. This afternoon, for example, I’ve been working with Kendra Morgan, WebJunction’s queen of TechAtlas, via IM to plan a workshop we’re delivering together on August 12th. You can see at the bottom of the shot that I have another IM conversation going, with Sharon Moreland at NEKLS. I’m doing some training at NEKLS Tech Day on August 1st so am planning that, too.

Using IM to plan a workshop

7:30 PM I took a break for dinner (the Monday night special at Waldo Pizza — mmmm!) and am now wrapping up a few loose ends before I turn the computer off for the day. To recap some of the other things my day included… attended a meeting with other MaintainIT team members (via ReadyTalk), printed out and signed contracts and documents to mail for an upcoming training that I am doing, helped to find speakers for an upcoming webinar, promoted upcoming trainings, and… wrote on this blog! It was a busy day and I’m excited to unplug and maybe even catch a movie… or maybe I’ll go back to where I started and will spend some time back out on that deck.

Thanks, Bobbi, for inspiring this! Great idea!

From the screen to the brain

Jean Montgomery, with the Upper Peninsula Region of Library Cooperation (MI), shared a new website with me, created by the Michigan Coop directors to disseminate information about library training opportunities in the state. As I was looking at the first two training announcements, I noticed they both are virtual (or potentially virtual). It got me thinking about training in an online environment.

Transformation: The Dragonfly Project

Here’s an example of a library technology training project making an impact! Check out The Dragonfly Project @ The Haines Borough Public Library (the library is located in a small, rural Alaskan community).

“Tech-savvy young people from ages 11 to 21 are the teachers, sharing their computer skills with others by becoming mentors. They learn how to use the library’s technology and resources, develop materials and techniques to teach concepts and skills, do community outreach, and work one-on-one with a wide variety of people.”

I like the project tag line, “Bringing Technology Awareness to the Community.” I think that word AWARENESS is an accurate description of the most important role library technology training can play. Many of today’s technology tools are intuitive and do not require step-by-step instruction to use them. Instead, I think people need resources and assistance to gain basic technology skills. Once they have achieved those skills, I think they can benefit from training opportunities that focus on awareness — training that provides a sense of possibilities and provides a venue for exploration and creativity.

Another thing I really like about this project is the emphasis on reaching out to the community. It’s not just about serving whoever walks through the door. It’s thinking about who is outside the door, unaware of the resources and potential that exist.

If you’re like me, you wondered why the project is named “dragonfly”. Here’s the explanation from the site:

“In Tlingit mythology, dragonflies are thought to be transports of the human soul for shamans, symbols of transformation. Our hope is by helping young people teach adults the ways of computer technology lives will be transformed.”

Older volunteers as Wikipedia trainers

How cool is this?! Training with the goal of increasing contributions to Wikipedia’s content from older adults.

From the Wikimedia blog:

On Monday the Wikimedia Foundation started a qualification program to train senior citizens of the 50-plus age group as “Wikipedia trainers”. The future Wikipedia trainers shall be enabled to run their own Wikipedia workshops in internet cafés for older people. The long-term goal is to raise contributions from older people, who are still underrepresented in the Wikimedia Foundation’s projects.

The course will last six weeks. During the first weeks the participants will learn the basics of how to edit Wikipedia articles. In a second phase the participants will collaboratively develop a concept for Wikipedia courses for senior citizens. Subsequently, the participants should be able to act as Wikipedia evangelists and motivate other people of their age to contribute to Wikipedia.

The qualification program is part of the Foundation’s attempt to encourage contributions from targeted underrepresented groups.

Tell me a story

I posted on MaintainIT’s blog today about the power of stories for capturing and sharing technology troubleshooting tips. I was inspired by a chapter in Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind. I wanted to cross-post/link here, too, because I think this is important to think about from a training perspective. I have worked with a lot of technology trainers and the best use this strategy regularly — frame the information you want to convey as a story. As Stephanie Gerding says in her book The Accidental Technology Trainer, “Illustrative stories can communicate pertinent messages with humor, insight, and the experience of the trainer” (p 149). In addition to using story-telling as a strategy for delivering information, training can also provide an opportunity for participants to tell stories to one another. As Pink says in the book, “We are our stories.”

Flickr Creative Commons

23 Things — Minnesota Style

Like all good Minnesotans who have moved away from the homeland, I see it as my duty to inform the rest of the world about my home state. If a MN company is mentioned in conversation, for example, (Best Buy, Target, Aveda, Hormel…), I make sure everyone knows it’s a MN company that has been mentioned. In conversations about music, I can almost always find a way to make a connection to Prince or The Replacements or Husker Du or Bob Dylan or some other Minnesota music maker. People often bring up Garrison Keillor, but I make sure they know Louise Erdrich, Leif Enger, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are MN authors, too. It is very important to me, therefore, to make sure you know how cool the recent Minnesota library learning program, 23 Things on a Stick, is. Even if not from MN, I’m sure I would be impressed with the way the Minnesotans have taken the idea and run with it in a big way.

Many, many moons ago my friend and hero Ruth Solie of the Northern Lights Library Network told me about an idea she and the other multi-type directors were considering… taking the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County’s 23 Things program and running it statewide. That little idea sparked a hugely successful project. During the first round of 23 Things on a Stick, many participated in the program and a good share of them completed it. By popular demand, a second round will run from May 15-September 15, 2008. Check out the project website to view some of the blogs and other projects that are the result of this program.

Lori Reed - WJ Webinar - June 10th

Ooo! I am especially excited about this upcoming webinar! I am consistently impressed with Lori Reed’s ideas about training and am looking forward to getting to work with her more (she’s getting involved with some cool things we’re doing at MaintainIT). I’m definitely planning to attend this free WebJunction webinar next week.

Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library
6/10/08 11 AM-12 PM PT / 2-3 PM ET

How much time does your library spend on “training?” Statistics show that most learning takes place on the job or with a coworker, yet as trainers we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for and delivering classroom training. In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library.

We will explore:

• The differences between training and learning
• The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
• The key elements of a learning organization
• Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Presented by guest speaker Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.

Nicole Engard on active learning

I just read some great notes from Nicole Engard outlining her learning at a recent conference session on active learning. It includes numerous creative training ideas and also information about the “Cephalonian Method”, which was new to me.