Tweeting the Tech UnConference at MSU

Along with some of my coworkers, I attended a Technology UnConference at Michigan State University Main Library on May 15.

What is an unconference?

You know how people say that the best part of going to a conference is the networking? Not that prepared workshops aren’t informative, but it is always valuable to make contact with a colleague from a different workplace who is dealing with a similar situation as you are.

Well, imagine an entire conference of networking. No prepared presentations. No main sessions with limited discussion. Just 50 or so librarians coming together and sharing ideas, in greater or lesser detail, depending on each one’s particular interest.

That was the Technology UnConference. And it worked surprisingly well.

At the UnConference, as is said, "there is no agenda, until we make one up." We spent a few minutes brainstorming technology topics of interest. Nine ideas were put forward, including using content management software for websites, teaching technology to the public, and integrating social network sites into our work. Then, for the rest of the day, we divided and redivided into different small groups at different times, to discuss these ideas. The main sessions – save one – consisted not of a panel of experts, but report backs from the groups and further discussion.

This structure – or unstructure? – allowed for a maximum number of voices, experiences, and lessons to be heard.

One of the most interesting things to me was that several of us posted our thoughts about the UnConference on Twitter, the microblog site, tagging our tweets with #techuncamp.

For me, this meant two things. First, by reading other attendees’ tweets in real time, I felt like I was in several side conversations. This meant that I didn’t have only my own reaction to what I was hearing, but I could read others’ reactions. Oftentimes, these were insightful, informative, or just plain funny. This enhanced my experience as I felt like I was constantly engaged at different levels of discussion.

Second, by using the tag #techuncamp – which is searchable in Twitter – we made sure that our tweets were kept together. I can now search #techuncamp and find a record of all the side discussions, packed with tips, websites, and good people to follow. Or you can search #techuncamp and do the same, almost as if you were there.

The Technology UnConference was time well spent.

If you use Twitter, follow The Tech Desk @tpltechnology or me @pjkwik.

100 Inspiring and Innovative Blogs for Teachers

Here is a list of the 100 Most Inspiring and Innovative Blogs for Educators by L. Fabry. This list attempts to cover those blogs where teachers share innovations, strategies, trends, insights and emerging technologies. It is organized into four parts:

• General Teaching Blogs
• Specialty Subject Blogs
• Best Podcasts for Teachers
• Best Video Blogs for Teachers

[via Stephen’s Lighthouse]

Awful Library Books

Awful Library Books is a collection of the worst of public library collections. The items featured are real items in real libraries today. As the site's creators write: “The items featured here are so old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid that we are horrified that people might be actually checking these items out and depending on the information.”

Fun Friday (Bonus!): Tweeting Houseplants

Last week, the tweeting coffee pot was all the rage.

This week, Mashable reports on how to outfit your houseplants to tweet you when they need water:

Our plants are animate objects, and whether we’re paying attention or not, they’re always subtly communicating their need for water and sustenance. But realistically, we humans need a nudge to remember to give them their required daily attention.

That’s where the Botanicalls (bontani+calls) Kit can save the day, and our plants. Masterminded by former graduate students — Rebecca Bray, Rob Faludi, Kate Hartman, and Kati London — in NYU’s Telecommunications Program, the kit of parts uses your Ethernet connection to tap into the health of your plant. With a little tech savvy and electrical know-how, you can assemble the kit of soil-moisture censors to make your plant Twitter you when moisture levels drop too low. Your plant will also tweet back a thanks of gratitude for keeping it alive.

The Twittering kit is a successor to the original Botanicalls system that enabled plants to call their caregivers when in need of sustenance. You can follow Kate Hartman’s plant, @Pothos, to see a Twittering plant in action.

Fun Friday: Mother of All Funk Chords

What happens when you take videos from YouTube, sample the sounds and images from them, and combine them to create an entirely new song? You get this amazing mashup video:

Search Options Makes Google Search More Useful

The Google Blog has announced a new set of tools, called Search Options, which allow you to slice and dice your search results to find what you need faster and easier.

Once you have searched Google and have a list of results, click on Show Options, under the search box. This will open Search Options, where you can limit your results by videos, forums, or review; or limit by date, so that you can see results from the past day, week or year. You can change your view, too, so that so that you can see more or less text or more or fewer images in your results. Search Options also includes Wonder Wheel, which gives you related terms for your search topics.

Watch this video from Google to learn more:

Twitter User in Guatemala Arrested for 'Inciting Panic"

Major political unrest in Guatemala has led to an unprecedented event: a Twitter user has been arrested for one of his tweets and had his computer confiscated. The arrest comes amid allegations that the Guatemalan president, Álvaro Colom, ordered an assassination.

The Twitterer Jean Anleu Fernández (@jeanfer) tweeted that people should remove their funds from the Banrural bank, leading to his arrest for “inciting financial panic.” The events transpired in Guatemala’s capital, Guatemala City.

Read more from mashable at Guatemalan Twitter User Arrested Amid Assassination Controversy.

For background on how social network sites are creating and reporting on the political crises in Guatemala, see Guatemalan Protests Organized and Covered on Social Sites.

Google Street View Not Welcomed in Greece -- Yet

Google Street View – the Internet application that allows you to virtually walk down many streets in the United States by viewing millions of photographs of buildings, people and cars, taken by Google vehicles mounted with cameras – has moved to Europe, amid much protests.

In April, hundreds of people in England raised privacy concerns when Google's camera-equipped cars began rolling down British streets. However, the government information commissioner ruled that the service is not a threat to personal privacy.

Now, a privacy watchdog has banned Google from gathering street-level images in Greece for a planned expansion into that country. In rejecting Google's bid to roam Greek streets with cameras, Greece's Data Protection Authority said it wanted clarification from the company on how it will store and process the original images and safeguard them from privacy abuses.

[via The New York Times]