Archive for June 2007
Journal Issue on El Quijote
Posted on: June 19, 2007
The Comparative Literature Studies journal, vol. 43 issue 4 (2206) is a special edition on "Don Quixote and 400 Years of World Literature." The 400 year anniversary of the great Spanish novel was last year, and I wrote a couple posts related to the celebration over at my professional blog here and here. Unfortunately, back then I had hoped that I would be able to read the great novel again, but life trumped that idea for now. We do have copies at my library of the edition depicted here, which is the one put out by the Real Academia Espanola for the anniversary. So, who knows, I may try again at some point in the future to revisit the novel.
A new experiment
Posted on: June 14, 2007
I have grown weary of the limitations with the Yahoo! 360 blog I was using. It was part of the old account I have in which I pick up some news feeds via the My Yahoo! page. I have had it for eons. Well, basically, I got tired of some of the limitations. Mainly, I was annoyed I could not choose which posts to make private and which to share. Vox here allows that option. So, I went ahead and imported the posts I wanted to be private over here, and I deleted them over there once I got done. The Yahoo! 360 was meant to be a backup blog for when Blogger would be down, which is fairly often. Over time, it the Yahoo! 360 has become a sort of scratch pad where I put in posts that I deemed not quite ready for the prime time of my professional blog, The Gypsy Librarian. That is why this blog has the name of "Alchemical Thoughts" in the title. I chose the Maverick Librarian monicker for this blog and setting for a couple of reasons:
- To make it a bit reflexive of what kind of blog this will be. It may be fun, a bit irreverent, exploratory, bold at times (I hope).
- Because I was using that user name on the G-mail account I used to open this one (plus, I also use it in Technorati and a couple other places. Made sense to use it here as well).
At any rate, I expect that I will be using the 360 blog less these days as I get in the habit of using this one. Whatever is already there that is public will stay there for the few readers just fine. I may post a bit now and then over there for amusement, but this will be the new scratch pad for me now. So, feel free to look around.
Best, and keep on blogging.
A good article on the use of blogs in college. It pays attention to reflective writing and assessment. By the way, the website was useful in providing a suggested way to cite the article. I wish more periodical sites would do that.
- Ruth Reynard, "Instructional Strategies for Blogging," Campus Technology, 5/9/2007,
http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=47775
. See also the related article Reynard wrote back in 2005, which is linked in this one.
15 Minute Instruction Sessions
Posted on: June 13, 2007
This falls under one of those things I would mind trying to implement, but I don't have the time or resources to set it up. The idea comes from "Lightning Learning," over at Wanderings of a Librarian. (Go read that first).
I do wonder what audience we would get here for some drop-in 15 minute sessions. I like the second set of sessions, an acknowledgment that indeed students will use Google, so we might as well help them to make the best of it. Joy provides not only topics, materials to look over, which I could use for inspiration here, but she also looks at the marketing of sessions and even some assessment.
So, what stops me from doing this?
- Time. As usual, this is an issue. The time to create materials and to do the presentations. The audience may have 15 minutes; I usually don't.
- Space. Our classrooms are not interactive, and to be honest, they are a little on the dingy side, even though they are new expanded spaces (hey, a new carpet and some paint only go so far in a box with no proper equipment).
Anyhow, I like the idea, so if I ever get the resources, I will certainly try to put it in place.
