Support your local library and your local librarian
I've been fortunate to be working with Jennifer Nelson, Senior Librarian in the Hennepin County Library (HCL) system on an IMLS project looking at what it takes to start up and sustain rich media programming in libraries.
In a collaboration between the Learning Technologies Center and HCL, we've been building our programs primarily around Scratch. We started this work about 4 1/2 years ago ( with a Scratch workshop in Minneapolis Central Library) and have been able to work all over the country - with the support of the IMLS, the state and local library systems and of course the efforts of the wonderful Scratch develoment team.
We just finished the latest of a number of workshops organized by Minitex a higher education resource program and SELCO - a library cooperative, in the state of Minnesota. We've really appreciated the support of organizations such as Minitex and SELCO as they get the word out to support professional development for librarians - and really supporting them as educators who need to learn and tinker with new technology and approaches.
Here's an article written by a participant Tyler Irvin, Regional Librarian for an earlier workshop we held in Marshall, MN
We made a map of sites we've been able to visit, share and support educators for the project.
I also really like your use of Google maps to document the location of workshops, etc. :)
Yay we'll be following this up with a story about running a workshop based on the Google Maps + Scratch that one of our teachers developed... coming soon!
I loved the article by Tyler -- it was full of lovely observations that I think are useful across contexts/learning environments. My favorite: "If the kids or teens are playing around with the program during the presentation, [the facilitators] consider it a success and don't fret that they aren't receiving undivided attention."
I wish your participants were more involved in ScratchEd, as they seem awesome! :)
Yes I agree - we talk about Scratch Ed within talking about support resources but maybe you have thoughts about even how its presented and focused on.
And Tyler is wonderful - really thinking about how librarians work with youth and what resources can really help with this.
> Yes I agree - we talk about Scratch Ed within talking about support resources but maybe you have thoughts about even how its presented and focused on.
Yours is a timely comment. I was interviewing a teacher educator this morning, who recommended making a "Getting Started" guide for ScratchEd, just as we have the "Getting Started" guide for Scratch. I thought it was an interesting idea -- and one I hadn't ever really thought of. A short ScratchEd primer might help with that. If you have any suggestions for what teachers might find most useful/pertinent about ScratchEd, I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts...
Thank you for sharing the story. I met Jennifer Nelson at 2010 Scratch@MIT, and as a library school student, it is so great to hear that libraries successfully incorporate Scratch in youth programming. I hope to hear more stories from libraries! :-)