Tag Archives: tools

A Joy of Organising

Posted on by acrystelle
1

I love to organise. Depending on what needs to be organised, I’ll organise to the very last detail. I enjoy planning, seeing a project take shape, understand what I need to do to achieve or complete a task. I guess you could say that planning and organising, at least for me, is a way of getting the process of organising and using planning tools, out of my head so I don’t have to stress so much about completing things. I’m also a visual person, and have a need to see progress is being made.

 

This year – oops, allow me to correct that – last year I did away with my usual diary and went completely electronic, with a task manager and iCal on my iPhone to manage every day. Guess what? It took the joy I had out of organising and being organised. Electronic formats did not get me excited about an upcoming event or project completion. My commitments and appointments didn’t seem as real. I side-stepped a lot of my Pilates time and replaced it with work, even though I had blocked out time in my ‘diary’.

 

Towards the end of last year, I bought myself I diary. Yes, I’m going back to a good ‘ol paper diary. I’m bringing back the joy I have in organising. Already I’m loving it.

 

In my new diary I record my exercise, appointments, due dates and, inspired by the Bun-Toting Librarian, I’ve started to write down my mood, succinctly of course. At the beginning of each month I have room to make a list of focus areas and projects, as well as goals and what I’m grateful for. I’ll still use a task manager to manage the finer tasks for projects, but my diary is a small private space for me, away from my work and other commitments on the iPhone.

 

Over the last year however, I have developed a habit of entering appointments into iCal. I have my iPhone with me wherever I go. Like the shift to electronic organising, returning to a paper format will take some adjustment. Say or think what you will. So what if I appear to be going backwards? There are a number of great looking apps in the App Store right now I could download and use. Perhaps my position will change once I have a tablet; maybe I perceive the iPhone as not big enough to comfortably record what I need to. I like trying out new tools to facilitate organising and planning, but nothing beats a paper diary……at least for now.

NLS5 – Preparing the Mindset

Posted on by acrystelle
2

What started out as a fragmented idea, fueled by curiosity and encouraged by a certain lecturer, has now evolved into a research project and paper, the presentation to be made at the New Librarians’ Symposium, held in Perth next weekend.

Here, with this post, I’m reflecting on the inception of this project, trying to articulate my thoughts and clarify the purpose of my presentation. So don’t mind me. :)

When the call for papers for NLS5 was announced last year, as quickly as ideas emerged, I had initially dismissed the opportunity. I didn’t think my ideas would be good enough for a serious discussion with somebody, let alone presenting them.

This little research project inspired the start of ‘Flight Path’, and the beginning of an increased presence in the online LIS community. My research looked at the adoption and development of a new information professional’s, my own, personal learning network. I have attempted to capture what it’s like to establish connections and build relationships with others in the community by sharing my thoughts and experiences here, conversing in the Twitter-sphere, and measuring elements of PLN participation and building with quantitative data. The focus was not so much on the tools I used, but how I used them – the strategies and lessons – demonstrating the immersion into the online community “in action”. It’s all very well to set up tools – Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, a blog, etc – but to support PLN growth and the approach to continual professional development, the way the tools are used ultimately determines PLN effectiveness.

Outcomes of my research is by no means complete, nor was it a perfect methodology. What I believe I’ve achieved (and wish to contribute and share) is the establishment of a benchmark for measuring effective and engaging personal learning networks, identification of strategies for PLN adoption and possibly an enhanced understanding of the concept by learning about and applying network theory and connectivism.

The purpose of my presentation is to reflect and share my experiences of PLN development. The aim is to inspire, guide and encourage other new information professionals who may be uncertain about starting out in the online LIS community. I admitted long ago that the mere thought of using technologies and tools was very daunting and difficult to comprehend. There is no doubt in my mind others feel the same way. What I’ll be trying to achieve with my presentation is to put these thoughts at ease, assure there’s plenty of people to assist (and are very happy to!), and show that successful immersion into the online LIS community and the establishment of a personal learning network can happen with small steps.

So the end is near, a chapter comes to a close for this piece of research. Following NLS5, I think I’ll sit down to consider what the next steps will be. What aspect of the PLN concept can I clarify or expand on next?

If interested in some background reading, here’s some key posts I’ve written on PLNs.

10 Must Reads for PLNs
Principles of Connectivism and the PLN
Personal Learning Networks and Environments – Same thing?
PLN Adoption: Which stage are you at?
Focusing on Network Theory

Your Personal Brand & PLN

Posted on by acrystelle
5

CPD23 Thing 3 considered personal branding. Prior to my LIS studies I was ignorant of this idea of creating and building my professional self as a brand. And it does make sense, especially in a working climate where people are not likely to stay with one organisation their entire career. We’re entities in ourselves. A thoughtful and strategic approach to building a personal brand is required to market ourselves appropriately to the opportunities we wish to seize and the goals we wish to achieve.

I have a degree in business (marketing), so I tend to think about and apply the term ‘brand’ in this sense. Let’s dust off the old marketing textbooks….here’s some definitions.

Brand – “a perception resulting from experiences with, and information about, a company or a line of products” (Duncan, 2005, p. 6).

An alternative….

Brand – “a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors” (Kotler et al, 2004, p. 407)

A related concept…..

Brand identity – “the design of the public face or distinctive visual appearance of an organisation or brand” (Duncan, 2005, p. 329).

Okay, so these definitions are heavy on marketing from an organisational and/or consumer-driven perspective but we can see some key elements.

  • Perception – your personal brand is how others see you. How others experience your contributions to discussions, projects, etc form your reputation.
  • Public face – your presence (online and offline) and the professional you display publicly. A blog name, blog design, domain, twitter username, avatar, logo, all make up your online ‘public face’.
  • Differentiation – your character traits, skills, knowledge, experience and interests identify you as a professional and make you different from others.

To me, a personal brand is determined by three things: -

  1. Identity
  2. Reputation
  3. Professional relationships.

Thanks to social media knowing no boundaries, personal learning networks are often formed with members having not met each other in real life. When building a personal learning network – establishing and strengthening relationships – you’d obviously like other people to feel comfortable to form a connection with you. First encounters are often with personal brands. People who you follow, who follow you, people you converse, share and collaborate with form a connection with your brand. You’d like people to be confident with you and respective of your contributions to the personal learning network.

Developing a personal brand is an ongoing process of aligning how others see you with what you’d like to convey. So far, for my online presence, I’ve paid thorough attention to: -

  • Choosing my domain and blog names
  • Twitter username
  • Twitter and Linkedin avatars
  • Look of my blog and choice of photo in the header
  • Look of personal business cards
  • Biographies – for blog and speaking events
  • Content discussed and posted on Twitter and blog.

With the decisions I’ve made about my online presence, I’ve aimed to achieve, to some degree: -

  • an accurate reflection of who I am
  • consistency across ‘profiles’ – LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog
  • flexibility (for my different career stages)
  • purpose and meaning

Given I’m still a LIS student and not sure exactly where I’d like to go in my career (though I have an idea and know what skills I’d like to develop), my ‘offline’ professional presence is about aiming to do my best in everything I undertake, take up opportunities to receive advice as well as to provide it, expand my skillset and knowledge base, and applying what I learn to my work. While the decisions I make impacts the kind of ‘presence’ I convey at this stage of my career, I do not make them lightly. It shouldn’t matter whether you know where you want to head or not, how you conduct yourself among your peers contribute to the development of your personal brand.

My ‘two cents worth’ of advice to others is to start small and pay attention to the smallest of details. This is how I’ve approached establishing a personal brand and I think it’s worked well. It all adds up to being your ‘public face’. Make yourself easy to find and connect with by helping others ‘join the dots’ of your online presence and maintain a consistent identity. Keeping an accurate, and by ‘accurate’ I mean ‘honest’ personal brand will enable you and others to identify people with similar (or varied) interests, values and expertise to connect, share and collaborate with. A personal brand is an important consideration in building a personal learning network.

References

Duncan, T (2005) Principles of Advertising and IMC, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill; USA.

Kotler et al (2004) Marketing, 6th ed. Pearson Education; China.

CPD23: Thing 1

Posted on by acrystelle
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I’ve recently registered for ’23 Things for Professional Development’, a self-directed course aimed at introducing a range of tools and activities to boost continued professional development for librarians and information professionals. I’m currently completing my Master’s in Library and Information Science, so this course is ideal to become aware of and explore professional development activities which can help me grow skills, knowledge and experience beyond university.

I may have touched on my library beginnings before, but for the purpose of this post I’ll briefly outline my previous experience. I landed my first library job in aviation at a regional airline as a Technical Librarian. Since then I’ve learnt an enormous amount about the industry, my potential place in it, as well as embraced opportunities to apply what I’ve learnt throughout my Master’s course to my role and the technical library. I plan to stay in the aviation industry for some time, until my mark is made and my work is done…….there’s heaps to do. :)

My approach to career planning (which I think calls for a post of its own) is about preparing for opportunities. As this profession keeps evolving and job roles and titles constantly change, I don’t find a definitive career path, plan or goals relevant to me. Sometimes I wish I was an engineer or accountant, so I could say I’d like to be a commercial manager on a mine site or a project manager in civil engineering, and have a clear pathway. It’s not as easy as that in library and information science. The best I think I can do is prepare for roles and opportunities that align with my skills – what I’m currently developing, as well as those I’d like to acquire – experience and professional interests.

My purpose for participating in “cpd23” is to become aware of various professional development activities that can potentially contribute to my continual learning, and to try “things” out to find what will work for me. I already share my learning with this blog and will continue to do so. It’s likely I will not feel the need to reflect and post on every “thing” that is described and discussed throughout the course. I will however, share my thoughts and reflection about what is relevant to me and my learning.

I’m looking forward to reading and commenting on other participants’ posts. I hope to expand my personal learning network by involving myself in discussions and providing support to others. Whether participants are experienced bloggers, librarians or techies, or just beginning their careers, my advice is to get involved in the conversation. Don’t just post your reflections. Give advice, share thoughts and help each other. It may be daunting at first but the benefits are invaluable.

To other participants, you can catch me here or on Twitter @acrystelle. Join the conversation, follow @cpd23!

Audit Your Personal Learning Environment

Posted on by acrystelle
2

No doubt there are others like me who have signed up for, downloaded or acquired tools, applications and devices which make up our Personal Learning Environment. There is every intention to integrate these into our daily or weekly routines. Perhaps we just wanted to try them out, used them for a specific task or project or have used them only on an ad-hoc basis at most. It’s time to clean up!

In an earlier post, where I distinguished a PLN from a PLE, I hinted at my own definition of a Personal Learning Environment. There appears to be variations of a definition, yet two components stick out – tools and learning. Here’s my definition: -

A PLE consists of an individual, learner-oriented collection of tools, resources, services, and connections organised and used to gather and engage with information, reflect, and communicate and collaborate with others, in pursuit of continual learning and achievement of goals and objectives. 

The goal of a PLE audit (or mine) is to re-organise and co ordinate components to increase efficiency by minimising effort required to access and use each component. The outcome of this process is a more effective PLE, better suited to the achievement of learning goals and objectives.

I’ve taken three steps to audit and tidy up my Personal Learning Environment – stocktake, assess and organise.

Stocktake

  1. Gather all log in details for each tool, resource or service. I found this was the easiest way to identify what I’ve signed up to, tried, or use.
  2. Create a list of email subscriptions, web applications, wikis, software of your computer and devices. My list consisted of over 20 tools (!) including Gmail, Mindnode Pro (on my Mac), Dropbox, Twitter, Slideshare, Evernote and Skype.
  3. Divide a page into three columns – Tools/Devices/Resources, Use it?, What for?.
  4. Fill in the table as much as possible.

Assess

Go through each component and assess its role and contribution to your PLE. I created the diagram below to provide consistency and assist with the process.

(I understand the diagram can be hard to read. Click on the image to view a larger version)

Organise

Once you have identified the next steps required to re-organise your PLE components, ensure that you action them! If it will help, create a diagram or edit your list (created during ‘stocktake’) to show your newly designed PLE.  A visual reminds and assists me to see the ‘big picture’. I’m that sort of person, I guess.

Other Tips

  • Take stock of your PLE on a regular basis.
  • Include your online presence in this process. Which ‘presence’ (eg. LinkedIn, blog) is lagging, not being properly maintained that it’s potentially damaging your brand and identity?
  • Identify the role of each component by their function. For example, my Google Reader performs a collecting function and my blog is a thinking and contributing space.
  • Create (and stick with) consistent use of tags, vocabulary and folder structures across similar applications. For example, a project folder on my mac will resemble an arrangement of notebooks in Evernote.
  • If you use Instapaper, create an RSS feed for your “Unread” folder and add it to Google Reader. You’ll only need to look in one place for reading material and resources, not two.

The aim here was to prompt thinking about the effectiveness of a PLE and its components’ efficiency of use. The suggested audit process is intended to be a guide and is by no means exhaustive or absolute. I’m sure there are other ways to evaluate tools and ‘tweaking’ a PLE. This was just my approach. I hope it can be of use to others.

Resources for PLE definition: -

Attwell, G 2010, ‘Supporting Personal Learning in the Workplace’, The PLE Conference, ISSN 2077-9119.

McElvaney, J & Berge, Z 2009, ‘Weaving a Personal Web: Using online technologies to create customised, connected and dynamic learning environments‘, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 35(2).

Educause 2009, ‘7 Things you should know about Personal Learning Environments‘.