Reflection on course journey

The biggest problem I faced in completing this PLN course was time. The time required to explore, use and reflect on the various components and tasks expected of participants. This program has encouraged me to revisit some online tools and websites that I haven’t used for a while and think about why I haven’t used them and how I could now change my approach to some tasks and use them more, in particular, evernote and diigo for research notes and bookmarking useful websites.  Sharing ideas with others through facebook is something that I have done for a while now, but my use of twitter has been spasmodic, and more into following others rather than sharing with others.  This is something that I should change.   I have also reactivated my blog to post reflections as required for this course, but I should be using it to reflect on other aspects of my work and professional learning activities.  Hopefully I will keep it going on a more regular basis.

The need to undertake a research project gave a focus to advanced searching techniques and alternative search engines, whilst the expectation to report on progress or finished project gave the exploration of presentation tools such as prezi, storybird, animoto, glogster, and others an incentive. Thus the reward of undertaking some family history research that I had been promising myself that I would do this year was a bonus for me.

Thank you to Kelly, Linda and Cathy for all their help and guidance as we undertook the various tasks.

My project on finding out about the Buntingford tannery in Flemington is not complete.  However I have put together a short presentation about what I have found so far.

Reflection on digital publishing

This unit on digital publishing platforms has made me think about how I do and should use my blogs, facebook, twitter accounts.  They each have different audiences and different purposes for online publishing.  I follow a range of blogs, friends on facebook, and twitter to keep up to date with new thoughts and ideas for professional learning.  I am less likely to use these for personal connections with family and friends.

I find that Twitter is short and immediate, often providing a link to a blog post, short comments on conferences attending with the use of  a relevant hash tags. I tend to follow these if I can not attend a conference, so that I get a feel for the guest speakers and the discussion.  Facebook is great for quick scan of what people are doing, reading, sharing with others.  Blog posts can be lengthy and with the archive can be a record over a period of time of discussions, reflections, sharing on a range of topics of interest.  I have a few that I regularly follow and others that I read if  the topic is of interest and has been suggested, or recommended by someone on twitter or facebook.  It has been suggested that I should use my blog more to share my thoughts and ideas on  topics but I find that after working all day, I need some down time, not more time at the computer and online.

As my project is more family history orientated, and the people that I would be sharing my final document with are not generally on social media, I may mention it on my personal facebook page but not necessarily my work page; and am unlikely to tweet it.  This probably reflects my views on privacy and what I share online, who to and how.  This unit has in many ways reinforced my thoughts on the need to keep separate personal and professional  communications.   I don’t necessarily need to know what others have cooked for tea, what their dog/cat/ etc did. But I do like to hear about what new books they have read, or how they have modified their research program with year 7 or VCE, new ideas in how to use various technology tools and software, etc.

Project plan update

Project plan- Buntingford Tannery Flemington June2015

My project is as I identified earlier is researching the Buntingford Tannery at Flemington.  As my project is personal rather than work related, there is not the same  pressure to meet timelines and have it completed.  Some of the tasks that I have identified in my planning template do not need to be done in a strict order. Some tasks can be undertaken online when I have the time, for others  I need to organise access to documents with the Public Record Office and the State Library, once identified from online indexes and searching.

Tools I envisage using include Evernote and Diigo for bookmarking and keeping notes. Word with footnotes and citations for writing up my research to share with family members.

Citizenship and sharing

We encourage our students to be good digital citizens.  How to be mindful of their digital footprint that they are making now and how this may be seen by others.  In a controlled environment we also encourage them and guide them to use some aspects of online  social media to collaborate with fellow students for assignments.

This SLV PLN program is encouraging and assisting Library professionals and others to gain the skills for becoming good digital citizens and helping them to develop confidence to use social media, both personally and professionally.

I have both twitter (@fpattison)  and facebook  (Fay SLV) accounts as a way of keeping in touch professionally with events and activities and changes that are occurring in libraries and use of technology in education and a whole range of other things.  Like many I tend to follow rather than actively participate in the various discussions.  Maybe this needs to change!

Project: next steps

Having changed my proposed project early in Module 2 when we had to undertake searches using possible terms (see post for 3 May),  I have been searching on George Debney, Flemington tanneries and Buntingford Tannery. I have followed up some of the documents listed in search results.  I have saved these to a separate page in Evernote with annotations and bookmarked some in Diigo.

Going through a folder of notes and photos that my mother had on her grandfather has helped me to rethink what information I already have and what I still need to find.

Eventually I would like write a document to share with family members and others about George Debney, his family and the Buntingford Tannery at Flemington.  However for this program I would be happy to have made a start with using Google and other search engines, various libraries online, especially SLV, PROV, and Trove’s digitised newspapers.  and collating any information  found using Evernote and Diigo.  In the longer term I will need to find out what information local historical societies may have, and what documents extended family members may have.

 

Work flow

In looking at my workflow when online

• What are the key tasks I perform online?

Mainly it is for work  – Checking and responding to emails, keeping half an eye on my facebook  pages (work and personal) and linkedin page; but mainly I am searching for information – responding to requests from staff, adding websites and video to the school LibGuides pages, posting to the shgcreading blog .

My personal use is mainly related to checking out places to stay and ways to get there when organising holidays;  and researching genealogy – my family history but also my involvement in Founders and survivors project, and Convicts to diggers project and starting soon is Diggers to Veterans project.

• How much time do I have?

It never seems to be enough time.  Searching always takes longer than you allow for when trying to meet teacher request. I also find that it is easy to get side tracked, particularly when searching family history.

• When do I access information?

I try to keep work online activity to only at work but often end up doing some at home, particularly if there have been problems accessing sites due to firewall issues.  Personal is only when at home.

Although I bookmark useful information and websites to Evernote and Diigo so far this has not been a regular thing, I am more likely to use my browser Favourites to bookmark websites.  Sharing websites with staff and students is usually via email, Delicious, Edmodo or Libguides.   Professionally with library  colleagues I use email,  Google+ and Facebook, and occasionally twitter.  Maybe I need to use Evernote and Diigo with these colleagues more than at present?  But this means that they also need to be using these tools.

 

 

Google Apps workshop

Last week I attend a workshop on using Google Apps for Education.  Kimberley Hall from CEOM lead us through ways of using Google drive, docs, forms, etc for ourselves, and with our students as a way of sharing and working collaboratively. There are a few of us at work who use these tools occasionally, but maybe we need to be doing it more often.

Then she took us through more effective ways of searching in Google. Fortunately for me I had just completed this unit in Making the web work for you.  The hard part is being able to have an opportunity to show the students some of these added search tools so that they can be more efficient when searching.

Moving from literacy to fluency

When evaluating information online I start by checking who has put up the information, do they have a reputation in the area for high quality research or investigation, what else have they published in print or online.  Is it a reliable source – is it a government department, and organisation, and educational body.  These are also questions that I get students to consider when they are seeking information for research projects and assignments.

I have come to accept that using online resources is just part of the daily work.  Where once you would have gone to a printed source, now it is an online source, particularly as many publishers  now provide their books as online resources or ebooks, and updated versions of many student nonfiction books are longer available in print format.

My networks are many and varied, being both professional for Library and Information Services and for personal interests such as genealogy.  For some my main contact is online via email, facebook, linkedin, twitter but I still manage to meet up with some members at Professional learning activities – conferences, workshops, meetings, etc.  It is often the personal face to face discussions that I enjoy the most and get the most from. Time and distance is always a factor when sharing information and resources with others.  Hence online methods have many benefits of being time efficient, (no travel) and on an as needs basis, when needed.   It is the sharing and bouncing ideas off each other that deepens the experience and extends your interest and desire to dig that bit deeper when researching  a person or topic of interest.  Or to go to that next stage when investigating resources for student assignments to place into Libguides or bookmark on the schools delicious site.  It is the willingness of colleagues to share what they have found with you that we all benefit from.

Skype and email have many benefits when connecting with a friend in another country trying to decipher documents written a century or two ago.

Finding primary sources – reflection

Like many others, my default searching online is to start with Google and its tools, then to try other search engines or databases if I am not happy with the results initially found.  For my topic it was interesting to see that other search engines came up with the some of  the websites and documents as Google, but nothing new.

Searching digitised newspapers on Trove was the most useful as it had 618 entries for Debney tannery, even though it had no books or photos.

SLV had a couple of journals on the leather industry for the time period that I am interested in and a few photos of other tanneries.

It was interesting to see that the Pinterest boards that came up for Europeana and Museum Victoria were very similar/ same when the term tanneries was entered, most of which were for leather goods, but very few for old tanneries.

Because my research is for a specific tannery for the period 1870s-1920s, there is not a great deal out there in published sources, particularly online via the search engines, libraries online indexes and databases that I have used as part of this unit.

So I will keep on searching.

 

 

Research project change of topic

With module 2 I started doing some research  for on my proposed project topic of supporting Gifted and Talented students and became overwhelmed by the amount and nature of material available. ACARA, the  Department of Education for each state, government inquiries into the education of gifted and talented students and the submissions to these, professional articles in an array of journals, and much more.  Too much to read and consider in the time I have available for this PLN program, but something that I will work on with others in my school over a longer period of time.

So after seeing Cathy Hainstock’s blog  Harold went to war   I have decided to undertake some research related to my great grandfather, George Debney, and in particular the Buntingford Tannery in Flemington. You may have heard of Debney’s Paddock and Debney Park Secondary College.  These are in the area of the former tannery.

It may be harder to locate useful resources from what I have seen come up with searching google so far. I needed to change search terms.  I started with Buntingford Tannery and came up with more entries for the tannery in Buntingford Hertfordshire England.  I then had to include Flemington in the search string.  Trove’s digitised newspapers appear to have a number of useful items as there was a fire at the tannery in  1909.

Search terms Buntingford Tannery