Peter Godwin: University of Bedfordshire
"Web 2.0 - where next? An overview of the past 3 years, and a glimpse into the future"
Peter’s talk got the day off to a positive start with his humorous overview of web 2.0 activity throughout the past three years. He presented an astonishing visual array of social network platforms, with hundreds of attendant Apps that have been created, and more being introduced daily; whilst scrutinising their relevance for learning environments, and the question of information literacy. His started with the statement "The walls of the library have gone, but the library hasn’t it’s now where you want it to be", and closed the talk with the thought provoking "We, the librarians, information specialists etc. need to brand ourselves, and quick, to avoid anonymity, and asked us to consider whether or not librarians "are the pharmacists of knowledge"?
Matt Hunt: Royal College of Nursing
"Wikis, Knowledge Management & Web 2"
The main element of Matt’s talk was "Wiki working, and collaborative work spaces". He discussed Wikinomics, widgets, and programming, which the former seemed to be overtaking as a way for lay people (incl. patients) were able to set up their own wikis for free via Google, and within half an hour for example. He made many valuable references, and brought to our attention that… "Librarians need to ensure the future is evenly/equally distributed; they need strategic plans" he reminded us that users are producers as much as users, and that being gatekeepers is not enough. He addressed the "knowing/doing gap" i.e. are learning environments following league tables?" and if so, how does it resolve an issue, and are collaborative technologies the answer??
Professor Gilly Salmon: University of Leicester
"I Pod, therefore I am... Creating Pedagogical Podcasting"Prof. Salmon opened her talk with taking the university into the 21st century, and a look at how pedagogy was changing with the advances in technology. She covered many of the technologies that she had helped to initiate at Leicester over the past few years, e.g. podcasting, second life, the IMPALA project, and The Media Zoo, and gave an insightful presentation on the introduction and take-up of such technologies with some very interesting findings, e.g. "The Media Zoo provides a supportive, experimental, environment for University staff to facilitate transfer of understanding of the design of learning activities using learning technologies. You can find the Media Zoo in the physical, virtual and 3D worlds". Prof. Salmon has done a considerable amount of work on this subject, including writing books on it. Central to her discussion was the integrating benefits of such technologies in a learning environment, especially in health care, that all university participants could use share and gain from.
Jenny Evans, Lawrence Jones and Andrew Regan: Imperial College
"Learning 2.0 @ Imperial College Library"
Following the successful introduction of Web 2.0 user relevant technologies, to the information user services, the above team delivered a clear presentation outlining their approach to implementing what they’ve decided to call Learning 2.0, giving valuable guidance on approach, planning, implementation and feedback. Their talk mainly comprised of the programme the library staff had devised, explaining how it worked, which was useful for looking at ways to set up a Web 2.0 team, in a similar context, and the elements worth considering when doing so. They provided examples of the different sessions and workshops they provided, and graphs and charts showing what worked / what didn’t, the effect the programme had on knowledge generally, and tips on how to run a similar programme. They also show us how they have the developed and changed the programme for the 2009 version, providing examples of feed-back from some of their participants.
Lyn Robinson: City University London
"Getting Your Message Across"
Dr Lyn Robinson's talk was built around (effective communication) in the use of social media technologies, and their increasing use within the professions and academia. In this context we were reminded of the need to focus on what we were actually trying to achieve ‘effective communication’, rather than getting submerged in the technologies as an end in itself, and lose sight of how to apply it. Demonstrating her own experiences of using Twitter in a work-based setting, Lyn acknowledged that there is no one particular answer as to how to go about effective utilisation, as the context, and requirements frequently differ. However, it is helpful to keep in mind that "Lib 2.0 is in constant and purposeful change". She stressed the speed with which valuable, relevant information is made available through this medium, making it impossible to ignore, e.g. RSS alerts for latest Swine flu updates to mobiles. Lyn provided lots of relevant references including her own, soon to be published, ‘Understanding health care information’ Facet, Jan 2010.