Information Literacy and Web 2.0

I am so glad that this assignment is as thorough as it is.
I enjoyed reviewing Ann's Introductory Presentation of the MILI pdf. It was so good that I sent it on to a favorite young person who makes his living doing all things for Web marketing. I am curious to get his reaction.
I also am quite taken by the article "Truth: Can You Handle It". I am new to the high school scene. I am amazed at the number of students who are coming into the media lab asking for formatting help on "their" work, when it is obviously a cut and paste from the Internet. "Information has replaced knowledge" is applicable to the students and to me. I know where to look things up. Always enjoyed that part of the librarian's job. But now it is far too rampant, as this article points out. I see the students and their "growing impatience and real passivity". This article is scary in that it affirms what I am seeing in real life.
I can't wait to spend more of my time doing collaboration with teachers and students. This reading has whetted my desire to polish my skills and get out there and do some lesson planning.

One step forward and two steps back....

Well, this seems to be the dance that I am doing this year. One step forward....
For instance, I got the e-mail directions for how to change our blog subscriptions to this Reader but I did not come with the attachment--and I could not tell that there was supposed to be an attachment.
Then, I got my Mac but no cords, so it ran out of power the first night and it still sits--dead.
To top things off, I was asked to take care of the high school's web site. The request came the first week of school, when my wonderful Tech was calmly doing so many things and he was so capable. So I said YES, I would love to have a bit more training and then take on the website. Needless to day, things fell apart. So Friday, I am trying to put a few things on the webpage and I accidentally erased half of the first page--links and all!!! PANIC!! Thank the stars above for the patient IT folks at the District, who got on the phone and talked me through some of the things I could do to fix things.

So

I never realized how often I start things with "SO"!

Interesting

So I really WAS successful in creating a blog for my siblings using Blogger.com. I found out by logging on this morning and seeing that 2 of my sisters had already commented. I have a brother and 2 sisters who live in the Boston area, a sister outside of Albany, New York, and the last sister lives in North Carolina. So all are living on the East coast. I replied to their posts and learned the following funny fact. Even though I posted about an hour after they did, my posting was listed as earlier than theirs because Blogger does not take into account the time zones! Ya learn something new everyday!

Wednesday night

So. I think I set up a blog for my siblings. I'm not sure if they got the "invitation" but I feel pretty good about it. We need a forum to keep our parent's medical conditions known to all, without missing getting the information to any of the siblings and also not letting the parents know how much they are on our mind--in a worrysome way. Also, while everyone wants the information, some do not want to get personal e-mails at work and that is the only place to get e-mail. Makes it tough. So a blog seems to be a good solution. I am just not sure that an invitation to look at the blog and comment on the blog was sent to all the 5 e-mail addresses. I tried to put my address in as a --oh I don't remember what the proper word was--but not just the person who set it up but a contributor, too. That didn't work. Interesting. I am learning. I felt good that I succeeded in uploading a picture. That was the good part of tonight. The humbling part of tonight was that I was not able to follow Karen's directions to set up the Reader for the group....RATS!

Tom's stroke

Aug 07 2008

So I got in the house after the MILI training today and no sooner had I let the dog out the back door than there was a knock on the front door. It was my wonderful friend Emmett. He told me my husband, Tom, hadn’t been feeling well at work and that he was here to take me to Tom at the hospital.

I wondered what I was going to blog about. Tonight I just have to have someone to talk to. You are it.

Tom had a stroke. There was Emmett saying things would be fine and the voice mail Tom left me on my cell phone, saying he was fine. (That’s me and technology–I had the phone with me all day and it was turned off…) But you never know if you are being told the truth in cases involving the hospital. "Let’s just get her here and then give her the bad news face-to-face".

So I got to Fairview Southdale and found my daughter, Jessica, and Tom’s friend & colleague, Rick, were waiting–had been waiting for over an hour and a half. Tom was having an MRI. Rick told me of Tom at work--his drooling and slurring of words, of the sparkle that was missing from Tom’s eyes and voice, of the paramedics being called, over Tom’s protestations. But told it in a way that was funny and real and spoke of Tom.

When Tom finished with the scan, I saw that the left side of his face was not quite matching up with his right. Particularly his mouth was not responding on one side. Other than that, he looked quite himself. And he is! I have just left him–and his roommate–on the 5th floor. He is ready to get out of there. But there is the echocardiogram scheduled for tomorrow... He had a heart attack 3 years ago and I hope the medical professionals take a real good look at everything tomorrow. Tom is a good man and I will miss him tonight and for the next few nights. I can’t imagine any more than that.