Another new word: Tweckle

Hot on the heels of "unfriending" I read about "tweckling" from the Chronicle's technology article; Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back, by Marc Parry.

Tweckle (twek'ul) vt. to abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking.

Conference speakers beware: Twecklers are watching.
They're out for blood.
And you may be their next victim.

CMCIG Workshop: Ready to go

I know, the business card looks suspiciously familiar. This is not another post about an AU LibGuides presentation, though in a way it could be. Finishing touches on Friday's CMCIG Spring Workshop presentation Realigning Teacher Education were made yesterday. As with the ACRL poster session, some kind of token handout with our presentation URL and contact information is necessary. I have IRC pens for each attendee, so creating a card and attaching it to the pen seemed a quick and easy solution.


Why does it look like a LibGuide? After Deanna mentioned her strong aversion to PowerPoint, the presentation tool we selected was ... LibGuides. As co-editors we were able to work independently and collaboratively, thus using a web 2.0 tool, to discuss web 2.0 technologies. The presentation is a timely addition to our growing LibGuides arsenal and includes education, library, and technology resources for interested patrons.

For the first time I incorporated an RSS feed into a LibGuide, though I am a bit frustrated by only being able to use one proxy address. I wanted to create an Ebsco database alert about RSS feeds to demonstrate how users can keep track of desired search strategies and to present articles about using RSS feeds in education. The feed was easy to create and adding the AU proxy for off-campus database access took only a click of the mouse; not being able to use an OhioLINK proxy (allowing OhioLINK members to view the feed) was problematic. I had to settle for advising attendees the alerts would not work off-campus for non-AU users. All of the additional resources will be accessible with OhioLINK authentication.

I'm always learning something new when creating a LibGuide, this time was no different. I discovered you can manipulate the size of a tab. Our presentation includes twelve tabs displayed in two rows. To make the tabs fit on the page, I added html coding for a space (nbsp;) behind different titles and was able to finagle how they displayed. Since we have had luck adding that same code into a box title, it was worth trying.

As to the presentation guide, Deanna mentioned we have over three hours of information to present during a forty-five minute session. We are meeting via yahoo IM later this week to finalize - and tweak - the guide and plan.

Teaching and playing to learn

Over the last few days I have been collaborating with Dr. Deanna Romano, Ashland University Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Dwight Schar College of Education, on a presentation scheduled for next Friday, the 2009 CMCIG workshop. Our presentation, a work in progress titled Realigning Teacher Education Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Meet 21st Century Skills, will focus extensively on technologies currently being taught in EDCI 232/505 Introduction to the Principles of Instructional Technology.

I have had opportunity teach this course as an adjunct for the COE and appreciate each week brings a different technology to the forefront that may be used in the classroom. I get to refresh and polish my technology skills and theorize the same for the Instructional Resource Center. Concepts we are practicing, and in some cases introducing, to pre-service teachers may often be applied to libraries; students of all ages expect us to be if not proficient, at least have a rudimentary knowledge, of 2.0 technologies they are using at a blazing speed.

And, to be honest, it gives me the chance to play to learn. My tools of choice this week were Windows Movie Maker and YouTube. I spent time working with my new toy, a shiny new HP laptop, pulling together free, accessible resources to create a short library video. With the exception of wanting to "tweak" the sound at the beginning of the presentation, it is difficult to hear, I am pleased with the end result.

Crayons & Paper

The deadline for submitting our ACRL LibGuides poster to campus printing services draws near. After determining which poster format to use, keeping in mind the printer guidelines, we hit a blank wall, literally. It's amazing how overwhelming a blank eight foot canvass brimming with expectation can be.

Earlier this week we had a break-through concerning poster design and layout. Confident it will be visually appealing and properly support our abstract and outcomes; we are now suffering with a few lingering qualms about size; text box size, font size, graphic size and readability sizing to be exact. The problem? We are judging said readable size on a poster that is eight foot by three foot currently depicted in miniature on our computer screen (see rendering @ 25% below).



While we know the font sizes range from 40 to 60, the long view is overwhelming (if not microscopic). Sections by section representations increased to 50% and 100% are helpful for specking pixel distortion, but not particularly helpful viewed across the room to gauge that readability factor.

This afternoon I decided the best way to allay this finicky concern was to create a physical representation of the poster. Luckily, I have easy access to just the tools in the Instructional Resource Center and commenced using crayons (it needed to be in color), white bulletin board paper (its three foot wide), and a yard stick to make a "to scale" map of a corner of our poster. Though I garnered several odd looks, I was working at the reference desk, I was soon able to color, cut, and tape my way to virtual poster success. I taped the finished product to the desk, stepped back the requisite three feet, was able to read all of the text, and could judge sizing of graphical elements to be suffice.

The mock poster is now patiently awaiting the verdict of my fellow presenters. To be honest, I am flush with success and wondering if I should tinker a bit more with the file in question. Maybe it could be bigger ...

Preparing to present

There is an interesting blog post over at In the Library with the Lead Pipe concerning presentations; Presentation = Speech + Slides, by Derek Badman. Conversation regarding power point is ongoing, consider: Should we use ppt? Should it be brief? Be careful not to overfill your slide. Don't read your presentation to the audience. Don't pass out handouts before the show. Don't use handouts at all. And who can forget Life After Death By PowerPoint, by Don McMillan on YouTube?

I will never forget the first time I viewed a PowerPoint presentation in library school. I was so enthralled by the presenter's use of every single bell and whistle available; I missed the entire point of the presentation. With ALA Midwinter Meetings just around the corner followed closely by ACRL's 14th National Conference and any number of state and national conferences and workshops, 'tis the season for viewing and presenting. It's time to once again take a look at how we craft our presentations - and to look at them from both a presenter and audience point of view.