Deep Thinking

Languages are fun. Whether it’s the sounds they make, the meanings they intend, the pictures they create, or the funny ways they twist our faces, words can simply be fun. There are evenings in our house when we get incredibly goofy and rhyme everything we say. The first person unable to complete a rhyme is the big loser. For some reason, 5 people in this house gang up on “the dad” by helping each other out so “the dad” does not win.

I prefer alliteration. Humor and hubris. No one is better than all others. Humor is the great leveler. “The queen is dead/Long live the queen.” Fun phrases. Fortunately in our household, we are “well-traveled” and can at least understand bits and pieces of 5 languages with phrases in many others. This gives us more ammunition for tongue twisters and silliness. The best tongue twister in Chinese was “ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma” Excuse my lack of putting the tonal signs on there, but I never could get them all right.

The best phone number I’ve ever had is 337-9001 which in Mandarin Chinese is read “san san chi, jyou ling ling yi” (san san chee jo ling ling ee). I never did say it outright in English, but had to say it in Chinese then translate it back to English by thinking of the numerals or by typing it out. This is more remarkable because Chinese is a 3rd language for me, acquired in little bits during college and by living in Taiwan. I think it’s because the humorous part of my brain is active. Even my librarian trading card makes fun of myself. Coming out of anethesia once, the nurses were alarmed because I only spoke Chinese to them. They drug my first husband in to translate. He leaned over and said, “We’re in Iowa City. Speak English.” No problem. Why didn’t they just say something?

So where is this rambling walk through the language humor part of my brain going today? The mission of my program is “to inspire life-long learners and to teach effective use of ideas and information by providing a stimulating and positive learning environment.” You just don’t inspire people when you are so seriously full of yourself and boring. I do make fun of myself constantly while I model how to be a life-long learner. Students are constantly trying to teach me how to read jokes aloud. No success. I think that showing you care deeply for each person and their learning enables an environment of trial and error and trial and success. Of course there are some gender differences in what we perceive as funny. A report out Nov. 10th from Medical News Today called Gender Affects the Way a Person’s Brain Responds to Humor answers and raises questions.

Today a senior citizen volunteer who reads weekly with individual children asked me about the tree in our courtyard. One little boy who began the year tremendously unhappily just last week had giggled and insisted to her that I had snuck into school and tied little pumpkins on the tree to trick them. Aha! Today we went into the courtyard and he picked 2 persimmons, washed them, sliced them, and shared them. He looked them up in the encyclopedia, printed a picture from the computer, and wrote me a thank you note with a picture of him sneaking one in his pocket for his mother. Pretty good for a first-grader. As his senior citizen friend left, she told me “I learn so much just coming and hanging out in the library.” YES!

What would I do if an older student, say middle or high-schooler had asked the same question? Taken them out, picked, sliced, shared, researched, then given them Suzanne Fisher Staples absolutely fabulous book Under the Persimmon Tree. Of course, I think I’ll have to stock tissues to check out with this story. It was so moving that as soon as I finished reading it, I gave it to a middle school librarian to read.

Enjoy your day. Learn something new. Share a joke or the joy of reading. And whenever you are feeling down, pull out the video Desk Set and enjoy the moments of Katherine Hepburns brilliant brains and Spencer Tracy’s quick quips in a playful or an intellectual mode. Stimulating all parts of your brain.

Mike Langberg wrote an article for Silican Valley about the effect of interruptions on knowledge workers productivity. Last year I took the Covey Training on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I still carry with me the wallet-sized card with The Quadrant II Time Management Matrix. I’d like to hear from others who are trying to live in the Important, but Not Urgent quadrant. (Remember you also have the Important and Urgent quadrant, the Not Important and Urgent quadrant, and the Not Important and Not Urgent quadrant. ) If you were to divide the typical school librarians day, which activities we face would fall in which quadrant?

The authors of the Head First book series (Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates, and Eric Freeman) blog entry on Incremental vs Revolutionary Improvements have an illustration showing when it is necessary to continue to make small incremental changes and then what happens when we hit the wall - necessitating revolutionary changes.

Two passages stand out in my mind: “The true art of product or service development might come down to this: Knowing when it’s appropriate to make incremental improvements and knowing when you need a revolutionary leap.”

So “revolutionary” often just means “revolutionary in THIS context.” And that’s also a way to think about where to find ideas for revolutionary improvements… look at what’s being done in other domains, that might work in yours.”

The authors took a look at classroom experiences and books, then changed how they wrote their Head First series.

Take a look at the school library program. Have we hit any walls lately? What about in the area of advocacy for school libraries? Do we continually implement new PR campaigns, marketing strategies, and reiterate the same litany of complaints? When do we look at the big picture and make revolutionary changes?

A simple revolutionary change in my elementary library this year is this approach I am using with every group: “You are responsible for everyone learning this strategy. If one doesn’t get it, none of you got it. If you have truly learned it, you can help teach it to your teammate.” I know they are hearing this because as soon as I begin the phrase, “If one doesn’t get it…” all the students chime in. I grade everything they do regarding instruction. I give the team a star or none. It’s A or F. Nothing in between. Throughout formal instruction, I pause and remind them to check the learning of all their teammates. If they are having trouble reteaching it, I will help. I have found that this teammate approach has resulted in students getting up from groups and going over to help others. The students are extending the meaning of my saying to the entire class now. If one group doesn’t get it, none of them get it. How does this translate? Students are teaching each other. Show and tell is alive and well in computer and internet usage. Students move around, teach older and younger students, and actively seek new ways to do things so they can teach something new.

Why did I make the revolutionary approach this year? My assistant was cut to half time. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving students from 20 classrooms out of 28 came to the library. Nine classes needed me for direct instruction. There was no assistant to help. I laid it on the line with students this year. We are a team. We have to help each other. I am no longer the only teacher in this room. Rule #3 is “Take care of your library.” The students understand that the library is a thinking, learning place and they have to help enable that to occur. Never have we emphasized the “your” as much as this year. It shows.

When you check your RSS feeds, some days everyone is talking about the same thing. How much original thinking and writing is going on versus clipping and quoting others and adding a pithy statement to the beginning? Just because something shows up on 3 or 4 blogs, doesn’t mean the original thought is written in stone. In the age of fluidity, creative thinkers are the ones putting together ideas and generating new products. They will survive the outsourcing of tasks because they are focusing on the big picture of what is wanted and how to deliver.

Now for the issue that irritated me today: women buying more of the market share of technology. You know that journals take a long time to recognize trends, admit there may be something, send reporters to gather facts, decide that it would be newsworthy enough to print, and actually print the article. By the time you read the article half of the population dismisses it as “old news” and the other half was oblivious all along and overreacts. You may notice some disdain on my part for the over-reactors.

Businessweek came out with an article called Meet Jane Geek which details the fact that more women are buying technology. The article verges on demeaning when it superficially lists the things that stores are doing to attract women shoppers. One comment on the site warned them about being condescending.

One of the TechDirt blog entries is from Mike with the great tag line ” from the took-’em-long-enough dept.” Tech Companies Finally Realize That Women Buy A Lot Of Gadgets. It’s funny that this comes up again because in January 2004 CNN had a study showing women buying more technology than men. In September of 2004 Hilde Corneliussen discussed this issue in Gender and Computing and warned against tech companies making tech gadget pink as the only attempt to attract women shoppers. A more in-depth linking report came out from the Crutchfield Advisor in February of 2004 called Suddenly, Technology is a Girl’s Best Friend.

There are some differences between the ways some men and some women shop (not all). Is it gender-based or knowledge-based? For example, I don’t dart into a store and buy a gadget because it’s new. I research it. I study similar products and compare, look at the purposes and functions, read online reviews by real consumers, and sometimes visit stores twice before buying major products. For small tech gadgets, I determine whose opinions I trust, read their ideas, price around, and shop quickly. Now, my best friend is the opposite. She’ll rush out and get the new thing, bring it in to show me, hand me the manual and say, “Now tell me what I’m going to do with it?” Are the differences gender based? No, way! Consumer shopping techniques vary.

Take the issue of gender-biased sales clerks when you are shopping. More and more clerks are being knowledgeably trained to stop making assumptions about people based on whether they are male-female, wearing blue jeans, older-younger, etc. When I shop with my husband, no clerk directs his “intelligent sales pitch” to my husband because he doesn’t participate in the asking of questions. I know the questions to ask and pin them to the floor until I get genuine answers. My husband doesn’t shop on his own because he is not an informed tech purchaser. Doesn’t have to do with his gender…it’s his consumer knowledge. Not all men and women are the same.

Years ago little girls were taught that they would be mistreated by mechanics because they were girls. When I would head in for a repair, I’d first call my father who is a great mechanic, and I’d ask him for the proper vocabulary to use. When I hit a spot where I didn’t know if I had the correct information or the repairman was trying to bamboozle me, I’d pause the conversation, call my father, and tell the repairman that I was getting a second opinion. I currently have a great group of mechanics that I trust 6 states away from my parents. They know that I will research what they tell me, get a second opinion, and make only the needed repairs. When I talk to other female friends, they tell me that they do not get mistreated any more by mechanics. What changed? We became more informed. We demanded better service. We became tougher and held people to a higher standard. I also refuse to be condescended to and have been known to refuse to deal with an employee who belittles women and I am unafraid to call a manager over. In the 1970s my mother and I may not have been as tough as the women I meet now. Society has changed. I believe women are MUCH tougher now, more informed, and taught to seek the best, not settle for the immediate.

Back to technology. Why do we have to fight a battle of genders over technology? Who is coming out there stating that men are the only techies and geeks? Look at the field of library information science. Women KNOW what’s going on. We can use the technology, repair it, purchase it, plan for it, implement it, and let companies know what is and isn’t working. Why are the majority of the technicians men in my district? Not because women aren’t capable! I think that I have the ability to juggle far more details in my life than simply repairing the same type of network and CPU issues over and over. I’m focused on using the technology to increase productivity. Does this mean that I am any less knowledgeable than my technician? No! But, to the children in my school do they see me as a techie? Perhaps not because they don’t focus on the product or tool I’m using, but they focus on the end result of our lesson. We aren’t teaching digital camera usage, we are focusing on choosing the best image to tell our story and share our learning.

Is there something that I should be doing differently? Perhaps, I now take the time to mention to everyone - male and female - that they can grow up and do what I do (recruitment); I mention to kindergarten girls that are afraid to touch the mouse that I believe they will become experts by the end of the year with practice (encouraging experimentation and changing mindsets); and I provide opportunities for creative thinking and using tech tools as communication devices (ICT skills). Maybe more importantly for both genders, I should continue to emphasize their questioning what they see, hear, and believe. I should continue to give them the skills they need to gather information and make informed decisions.

I know times have changed. Recently my father called me while he was purchasing some technology and he said, “I need the vocabulary to use with this guy before he tries to sell me something on the new computer that I don’t need.” I’m happy to be your second opinion, Dad.

Comfort zones. Relaxing with friends. How does it happen now? While I read about the prevalence for IM’ing among teenagers, I decided to open the conversation to the guinea pigs in my house - those 4 boys and hubby dear. Fortunately they are learning tolerance from dealing with the probing questions from their librarian mother.
#1 Son prefers text messaging on his phone and IM’ing while he’s updating in myspace.com. #2 Son prefers email. When I probed for the reasons why, the difference in their friends is the main reason for the preference in their format. #2 son prefers anonymous emails because his friends are in England, Australia, and Eastern Europe. He tells me he has buddies at school, but never hangs out with them, calls, or visits. He likes to probe ideas in depth then log on at pre-arranged times to interact. He connects with the computer to download what he wants for his PSP, borrows his #1 brother’s Xbox to play interactively, but does his thinking offline.
#1 Son is extremely vivacious and gives me lessons on how to talk to other people. His phone rings, buzzes, and twitches constantly. Friends continually drop by, meet us in public, and share the “buzz” about the latest writings from #1 son’s posts on myspace. His life is very open, lived immediately, and he good-naturedly tolerates mistakes in himself and others.
Now #3 son is even more focused on his music and developing his guitar skills. He uses myspace and IM’s only when he has special needs and questions to ask. His online usage is dedicated to searching for guitar chords, tabs, riffs and more. He hosts friends but their entire focus is the music and their guitars. Going out is to the local teen hang-out to hear their friends bands (remember he is 14) When friends call, it’s always in a pack with 3-way calling and more. His use of the camera is for creativity and designing new artwork for his musical pages.
#4 son focuses strictly on one-on-one communication. He uses messaging only when one particular friend calls him and tells him to get online. His experiences online involve looking for funny videos on Comcast’s The Fan and using the cell phone to tell his friends about what he’s found. #4 son isn’t content to tell what he’s found, but often rushes in to grab the digital camera, records the moment, then shows you whether you want to see it or not. He prefers his activities in person. Online experiences are the most fun when someone else can laugh with you and look over your shoulder.
Now for hubby dear… uses email professionally, IM’s only when he’s looking for an argument politically and prefers to post on sites like DemocraticUnderground. He wants his ideas flowing constantly with immediate news updates, searchable, interactive with polls and posts for all, and a huge variety of ideas, but mostly reflecting his viewpoint. He has a brilliant mind but will argue a point for days via postings. Determined. Doesn’t choose to learn how to text message. He uses the 5 techies around him to accomplish his tasks.

So… try to fit that into a survey and study and proclaim one size fits all for learning in this century for this family. Makes you think!

David Weinberger’s article on The New Is is worth reading again. For those of you who haven’t sampled and linked to it, here is a paragraph that might spark some interest:

“Until now, the structure of knowledge has mirrored the way we’ve structured the physical world: We take a pile – think of your laundry – and split it into lumps, and then split those lumps into further lumps, until we have piles that are not worth splitting any more. So, we create a library classification system such as the Dewey Decimal System, or a Periodic Table of the Elements, a Tree of Life, or a business organizational chart. But when we’re dividing up our laundry, we have to put our socks into one pile or another, but not both (the Law of Identity). Why should the same restriction hold when we’re dealing with ideas? Why can’t ideas go in many piles? Why can’t a single intellectual leaf hang from many branches?”

If you haven’t explored the ideas on tagging, this may be the introduction to the reason for tagging. As a librarian I look at this in much the same way I viewed keyword searching in the 1980’s when I put my hands on my first cd-rom: Dissertations Abstract on CD. As a graduate assistant helping instructors with their book topics, searching DA in print was extremely time-consuming and often fruitless. When DA on CD arrived at the University of Iowa, I happened to see it and begged privileges to try it out. Fantastic! Keyword searching. Access through multiple points. I didn’t have to remember the esoteric, confusing ,often whimsical and capricious terms cataloguers chose (which were often incorrect, too, because they hadn’t read the documents). Instead I could attempt multiple search strategies to hit many documents. The next month Eric on CD arrived. Access to the world was coming. For those who were raised in the era of the internet, try to picture the dark ages of searching texts using those millions of cards in the card catalog at UI. Filing catalog cards was ALWAYS backed up and my access was never perfect.

Now, view the internet in a different light. The term Web 2.0 is bandied about frequently. I see it as just another arbitrary division in our search for ultimate access. We are no longer on a continuum of perfection but face branches of access that link back, cross over, and grow in their own direction. Back to Weinberger’s article we read “On the Net, documents – pages – get their value to a large degree not from what they contain but from what they point to. ”

So, I ask you to explore the article and add to the internet’s connectivity by posting in this blog and in your own. Add your ideas and personal expression to the internet. Someone else will come along and tag you. Maybe you will agree. Maybe you won’t. How will you view this? Will I be rememberd as a gatekeeper to knowledge or a guide along the road to wisdom? Hmmm. Something to think about.

The American Association of School Libraries (aasl@ala.org) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (acrl@ala.org), divisions of the American Library Association jointly own a list called InfoLit to explore the issues of information literacy for K-20. Here is a post that I wrote on September 25th, 2005. I think that more and more people should be exploring and contemplating these issues. So many of our “ills” are a result of these issues.

Here is my summary of K-20 issues to this point:

Students do not have a set of skills needed for post-high school education.
There is no agreed upon K-20 national information curriculum nor agreement upon who is responsible for the teaching of these skills.
K-12 schools continue to suffer catastrophic budget cuts of resources and staff.
K-12 educators focus upon the immediate needs of the school including discipline, testing, and local concerns.
Students’ immediate needs are not met on-demand, in the manner they need, during research so they do not experience success.
Students forget what they are taught.
Faculty members are recalcitrant to schedule whole classes for information skills instruction in sufficient time blocks to allow mastery learning.
K-12 educators have not had training in how to frame research questions and assignments that elicit student interactions we seek.
K-12 educators and Academic librarians have no opportunities to address these issues.

To unsubscribe, send a blank email message to unsub-infolit@ala.org. To resubscribe, send a blank e-mail message to subscribe-infolit@ala.org with your first and last name as the subject.

So then, now where do we go and should we attempt to solve these issues? Who would be willing to work on these?

While exiting the Interstate at a very dangerous crossing the other day, a car shot across 3 lanes to end in front of me in a dead stop. The driver paused, waved at me, then shot back left across 2 lanes, tore through a yellow/red light and made another lane change and turned right half a block down. My #4 son looked up and said, “They should put up a sign that says MAKE UP YOUR MIND.”

While I continued driving home, I thought about such a sign. Would posting a sign make others start to come to terms with their decisions? For a class that was lingering in the library long past their need to browse, would a sign on the overhead that said, “Make up your mind” help them focus?

What if we could put up signs that would surprise people and make them think as they drove down the road? The renegade part of me wonders when the technology will exist for hackers to break into the code of the Dept of Transportation to send rogue messages on the electronic billboards alongside the road. What signs could appear?

*Read everyday.
*The library has IT.
*Go home and read.
*Connect at your library.

Hmmmmm. I think I’ll try some subliminal messages during my next meeting. Wonder if anyone will notice those subtle hints. Go get that master’s degree. Try a new book. Check out that database article. Make up your mind.

During my Master’s program at University of Iowa, the business course for librarians focused heavily on Peter Drucker’s work. Peter died on Remembrance Day and his obituaries can be found at Business Week and Bloomberg.
He was a remarkable man who often saw well into the future, made many mistakes, put into usage the terms “knowledge worker” and “management by objectives”, and had a fascinating history. See his interview in the third edition of Wired.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/drucker.html He was a complex man who walked his talk. When Hitler came to power, he objected. Read this interesting part of his history in Bloomberg. It’s amazing how often I have quoted Peter Drucker over the past 20 years.

This is my new avatar. Courtesy of Joyce Valenza’s daughter Emily, I was able to create my new view at http://www.tektek.org/dream. What does this have to do with Deep Thinking? Sometimes the image we have of ourselves and our ability to laugh at ourselves is MORE important than the serious things we do.
Since the theme of our bookfair was Kingdom of Reading, I was able to play royalty one week this fall. On Monday the next week when I returned in regular clothes, one of the kindergartners assured me that I would always be his queen. Pictures below: