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Something is going on (or hooked on a feeling)

November 23, 2009 For the last couple of years I've been experiencing a kind of network building that I never before experienced in my more than thirty years of professional practice.

It's a kind of networking that begins outside of our state and national conferences. But it somehow becomes more obvious, and we may better recognize its importance, when we do physically meet.

At AASL Charlotte, the folks on the geek squad met face-to-face and there was something sweet, powerful, dear I say, nearly magical, about it. 

Some of us had been friends a long time.  Some of us met at previous conferences.  Some of us met for the very first time at the very recent SLJ Summit in October and at AASL earlier in November. (In fact, I find it nearly impossible to believe that I physcially met Buffy Hamilton for the first time in October!) And some of us were a little teary when we parted. In fact, the little email list we developed as a geek squad planning tool developed new life when we returned home and continued to scheme our growth beyond Conference.

I could let this go as a sweet little conference experience, a brief echo-chamber buzz, but I think it is something bigger.

As we rolled, I noticed we picked up more colleagues who were thinking about growth and change in similar ways.  There was a kind of Pied Piper thing (a nice one) going on with those geek squad folks in Charlotte. We also witnessed it when we presented those Smackdown sessions at NECC, and ALA, and AASL. People wanted to play!  People who weren't on official committees sought new ways to contribute.

(BTW, I must thank David Loertscher for forcing me to rethink my whole game plan for presenting when he confronted me with the limitations of the formal panel format back in San Antonio 2008. It was just the begining of me understanding the potential size of the room. Listen the podcast for my bigger room thinking.)

When I attended the NJASL Conference last weekend, I met a number of librarians, both younger and older, who also felt new connection, not only through their state conference attendance, but also through their tweets and their blog reading. And they wanted more. We all wanted to take pictures together. So many of them wanted to play more in more meaningful ways.  All this kinda makes me feel like a den mother.  (I suspect I am not alone in that feeling either.)

More members are joining TeacherLibrarianNing and a surprising number of librarians have signed up for the K12Online Conference and regularly attend Classroom 2.0 Live webinar sessions.

Librarians are looking to belong and contribute and feel connected to change and new professional strategies. We are reading each others' blogs, peeking into each others' practice, learning from each other in new ways.

Others feel this new connectedness too. Here are just a few of the Conference reflections that expressed the feeling.

Buffy Hamilton feels it:

A spirit of teamwork permeated the learning space, physical and virtual, as people engaged in networking and problem solving.  I believe that many of us, whether we attended in person or through virtual means, now expect that that this  “learning commons” experience will be an integral and expected element of future AASL conferences, not optional.  If you have not checked out our resource wiki, I invite you to visit and utilize the resources contributed by so many.  Kudos to the Geek Squad team—you are so talented, and I’m honored to have worked with you! .  .  .

For me, this conference was truly about the people and the wisdom they brought to the conference that they so generously shared with others.   I felt like a kid playing on an All-Star team of library professionals who are dedicated to furthering this profession and helping the people that we serve.   No words can express the gratitude and humility I feel in my heart to each person with whom I was most fortunate to meet and converse, especially those whom I met for the very first time.  I will always treasure and cherish the memories I have with each of you and how much it has strengthened me professionally.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how immensely gratifying this conference experience would be for me—it truly was a dream come true for me, and I realize with such clarity that I am indeed “livin’ the dream” every day because I get to do something I love so much and am so fortunate to be connected to people who help “fight the machine” and who “make a dent in the universe.”

Diane Chen described a series of connections in her post: 

This began a chain of many connections including the Joyce Valenza and Buffy Holland presentation on Classroom 2.0 using Elluminate and many other tools. I was connected and learning, revitalized and excited about the profession plus.... I didn't have to crawl out of my cocoon of tissues, tea, and tunnelling blankets.

Wendy Stephens describes her conference experience:

Midday Friday, I helped with the Web 2.0 smackdown, sharing digital storytelling strategies along with Brenda Anderson and Shonda Brisco, while other amazing progressive school media specialists talked about information fluency, digital citizenship, and reading promotion. The most exciting portion of the presentation was the audience participation, via the microphones set up for that purpose or via twitter and chatzy. . .AASL will be in Minneapolis in 2011, and I hope that its conference's organizers take a page from this one and remember that learning is always more fun when participatory and inclusive.

Andrea Christman discusses the importance of her PLN:

Probably the biggest change in myself that I contribute directly to attending conferences is my willingness to share in my personal learning community (PLN); virtually, through a variety of social networking sites. I remember the excitement that I felt when my first tweet was retweeted by someone who was not my personal friend! That was a hallmark moment! The higher the quality of information I contribute to my PLN, the more I get out of it from my network. I contribute this phenomenon to the face-to-face conferences that nurture these relationships (although I admit, I may never meet all of my PLN!). I also put myself myself out there on blogs, facebook and nings as my network becomes intertwined like a net. I am constantly amazed each day with the quantity of new ideas and information that I learn every day via this ever-growing professional network of colleagues. This year I got to meet with Lisa Perez, Gwyneth Jones, David Loertscher, Doug Johnson, Buffy Hamilton and it was like meeting rock stars! So much fun! It makes it easier to cultivate relationships with that little bit of face-to-face.

Gwyneth Jones writes of the importance of her informal conference connections and what worked @Conference:

the feeling of camaraderie! the Bloggers' Cafe where ideas were shared, laptops re-charged, tired feet refreshed and minds expanded. What a wonderful idea!! There's no going back i think it was the highlight of the conference for many!

the Twitter Back Channel!!!!!!! by using the hashtag #AASL2009 this was the place to B! where people "met" & shared ideas and resources whilst in different sessions and then met F2F at the Bloggers' Cafe i think a lot of us were huggers at this conference, it was so awesome to be called by name or to recognize an "old friend" finally in person! ...it felt in some ways like a large family reunion!  . . .AND, the Twitter back channel, it inspired an awesome resource, the FREE Virtual AASL2009 by Aunty Tech, aka Donna Baumbach!

Do you feel it too?  And if you do, what is it?

Posted by Joyce Valenza Ph.D on November 23, 2009 | Comments (0)