Fourth place may be a lousy position in a marathon, but looks to be a winning place for trainers, libraries, and all they serve.

Let’s recap the initial places, as defined by Ray Oldenburg in his influential book, The Great Good Place: our first place is our home; our second place is where we work, and our third place is the treasured community meeting place where we, our friends, and colleagues come and go.

In listening to the comments made by a student who loves libraries, a group of us participating in one of Maurice Coleman’s recent biweekly T is for Training podcasts realized that libraries are poised to help define, create, and nurture a new concept for a fourth place: a community gathering place for social learning—a place onsite and online where communities of learning are developed and nurtured.

It makes so much sense, and speaks so well of the present and future of libraries, that a couple of us (including Jill Hurst-Wahl) immediately described the idea on two separate blogs within a few days of each other. And it didn’t stop there: after all, we’re trainers—we’re supposed to know how to get an idea across when we’re excited about it.

We have continued to think of all that this sort of fourth place means and could mean to libraries and library users. It builds off the existing pattern of library as third place—a community meeting place that is at the heart of communities and community. It acknowledges the library as a center of learning at a time when those who do not engage in learning are quickly left behind. It combines the wonderful information and entertainment resources libraries continue to provide with the growing dedication all members of library staff have to helping others learn to utilize the resources available to them. And best of all, it gives libraries a chance to be at the head of the pack in meeting onsite and online community members’ needs for first-rate lifelong learning rather than making the mistake we made years ago in not taking the leadership role which Google, bookstores, and others took while we were asleep at the wheel.

The idea of fourth places as gathering places for social learning seems to appeal to everyone who hears the concept. A colleague who runs a learning center here in the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, immediately expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the concept and plans to write about it for the thousands of colleagues she has across the country. Which is both a tribute to the idea and a warning to those of us who hope that libraries will remain at the center of the concept. If we don’t grab and run with this concept which sprang out of a conversation among a small group of workplace learning and performance practitioners who happen to be affiliated with libraries across the country, we’ll only have ourselves to blame when the Google of social learning centers basks in the success of the vision we helped create.

Our choice here remains obvious: use it or lose it. I’m betting we can use it to help build community partnerships in ways we’re only starting to imagine.

Quoting one attendee, it was indeed a “great webbie” about the virtual orientation program that Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) has created to onboard its new staff and volunteers. This webinar, jointly sponsored by WebJunction and the Learning Round Table, was another project outcome of LearnRT’s dynamic Emerging Leader Group N. They identified the topic and connected the presenters with the WebJunction webinar production staff.

Another attendee raved,
“the most useful, informative webinar I’ve ever attended!”

The superlatives are well deserved for the BCPL team. Even though you missed the live event, you can get plenty of the substance by watching the archive. Once you’ve launched the archive, listen to the first half to learn about the planning and design processes for the virtual orientation experience. The team’s deliberative and thoughtful approach is clearly reflected in the final product (even if you secretly wish they had chosen the vending machine interface).

If you’re in a hurry to see the real thing, skip down to the “App/Desktop Share Start” item in the Table of Contents window on the right. Although the actual site is part of the BCPL intranet, so not available to the public, the live tour gives you the flavor and range of ideas and strategies incorporated for orientation.

The landing page links to the five main sections, starting with “What to Expect”—an introduction to how to navigate through and use the functions of the site. Throughout the site, there is a creative combination of media that avoids over-reliance on high-tech. There are some embedded videos, but there are also more low-tech approaches of voice recorded over still photos or a photo slide show with explanatory text below. And when a simple text document is the most effective way to convey the information, that’s what you get.

The final section is “What’s Next” for the new staff member. It includes links to training opportunities and the library training calendar, an interactive quiz on the staff handbook with immediate feedback, and a list of “15 ways to shine as a new staff member.”

The 224 people who attended this webinar seemed to be itching to get back to their libraries to put some of these ideas to work. It’s likely you’ll feel the same way. Thanks Emerging Leader Group N! Thanks Learning Roundtable and WebJunction!

Using Technology in Library Training with Paul Signorelli

In these two ALA TechSource online workshops, Paul Signorelli provides hands-on, interactive instruction in using current web technology to enhance in-person training sessions or conduct remote training sessions for employees in multiple locations.

Session 1: Using Technology to Enhance In-Person Training

• Incorporating YouTube, Google Docs, and SlideShare into onsite learning
• Making PowerPoint effective and interesting
• Using technology as a tool while focusing on learners

Session 2: Using Technology for Remote Training Sessions

• Using Skype, Google Talk/Yahoo! Messenger, LinkedIn discussion groups, and other tools for learning
• Adapting your onsite skills to provide effective online learning
• Building online communities of learning

And much more!

Sign up today and engage in 90 minutes of discussion and interactive learning that you can’t get anywhere else!

About the Instructor
Paul Signorelli is a writer, trainer, and consultant who explores, uses, writes about, and helps others become familiar with Web 2.0 and smartphone technology to creatively facilitate positive change within organizations. He has participated in the ALA Learning Round Table, and written for ALA Learning blog, American Libraries magazine, and ALA Editions.

About ALA TechSource Workshops
ALA TechSource Workshops are focused, small-group online discussions that give you the opportunity to learn from experts who offer authoritative answers to your questions, as well as to interact with colleagues who have similar concerns. Workshops are recorded and, along with other materials, are made available to attendees for future reference.

Read more and register at ALA Tech Source.

Learning in Action (cc 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisemandarine/2411122894/)

The New York Times reported this week that researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have found that rats don’t learn from experience until they take a break from the experience.  The break gives them time to process and create persistent memories.  Furthermore, the researchers believe that their findings almost certainly apply to the way humans learn. Uh oh…

Why uh oh?  Because many humans are increasingly connected to our ipads, blackberrys, smartphones, and laptops, keeping our brains engaged continually throughout the day.  And while all of that ubiquitous connectivity offers us the possibility of reaching heretofore unreachable levels of efficiency and productivity it seems that it might come at a price:  The Times reports that “when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas. ”

Having recently started a new job, I can attest to the fact that there’s nothing like a silent drive or a brief nap to process and organize a great deal of new information.  My 45 minute commute home might be the most productive part of my day, as that’s where all of the sense-making is happening.  Strange as it may seem, sleeping has also been incredibly productive as I awake many mornings with a number of ideas synthesized from the previous day’s conversations, observations, and readings.

So as we come to the end of another summer and start getting geared up for the busier days of Fall let’s take a moment to remember:  There might be no better way to learn than by stopping, unplugging, and doing absolutely nothing.

Assessment continues to weigh heavily on my mind here at the beginning of the 2010-11 academic year.  While I have worked with students using VoiceThread as an alternative learning artifact, I had not considered using it as form of assessment or digital portfolio until friend and colleague Diane Cordell pointed me to this fantastic post, “VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio”, in which Chrissy Hellyer, a teacher who was working at an international school in Bangkok at the time of the posting, used VoiceThread as part of student led conferences (you can also read a cross-post of how this teacher implemented VoiceThread here).  In these posts, Hellyer thoughtfully outlines the steps she took before, during, and after the creation of the digital portfolios, including reflections on what she would do differently.

One of my goals this year in my work with our teachers and students, particularly our new cohort of Media 21 students (now called Learning 21), is to help students take a more active role in articulating what they are learning.  After reading this post, I think VoiceThread is a perfect medium for this endeavor; not only could students showcase learning artifacts they feel reflect mastery of course performance standards, but they could also use this digital portfolio to share other key learnings, insights, reflections, and learning tools they feel are an essential part of their story as a learner.

As I start to lay the groundwork to pilot this form of assessment in my collaboration with teachers and students, an additional blog post by Silvia Tolisano, a Technology Integration Facilitator and 21st Century Learning Specialist, is also informing my planning for helping our students create digital learning portfolios.

Are you using VoiceThread or other tools a means of student or learner led assessment in your library environment either with staff or with students?  If so, what advice would you recommend for those embarking on this endeavor, and which web-based tools have you found most effective for creating digital learning portfolios?  I look forward to your sharing your experiences and examples, and I will also be blogging on our own student created portfolios later in the semester!