Off to Oz

Waking up this morning, I realized that once my head left the pillow, it will be 48 hours before my head  hits another pillow. And this one will be in another continent, in another hemisphere. Just about as far away from Minnesota as you can get and still be on the surface of the Earth.

My son and I are heading to Australia - Sydney, Port Douglas and Cairns - for the next ten days. This will be my third trip to Oz, but my first to Queensland. I am excited about doing the Harbor Bridge Climb in Sydney, eco-touring in Port Douglas, (rivers where snorkeling is guaranteed croc-free or your money back!) and diving the Agincourt area of the Great Barrier Reef.

Oh, and should we survive that, I'm speaking at the Queensland Public Library conference  June 5th on Dangers and Opportunities for libraries today.

 

We'll be attempting to answer the question: What will break the bonds of the three Bs and get people into libraries? Are the Queenslanders ready for this???

 It is still amazing to me that one can travel so quickly and so far. Within the last year alone, I've been to Singapore, Beijing, and Santiago and before the end of the year will be going to Ireland and Bangkok - along with lots of trips within the US and Canada. This is nothing compared to full time speakers, of course, but for an Iowa farm boy, hot stuff. Jet travel makes it possible of course.

In some ways, I envy those pre-jet travellers. Imagine the adventure, the drama, the one-in-a-lifetime uniqueness of a trip to Australia before the 1950s. I am sure were I to actually experience the discomforts of travel by ship,  rail and prop plane, I would never romanticize about such journeying again.

But travel is a prime exemplar of how our culture embraces speed. Fast and furious experiences that pile up as passport stamps. Blog snippets rather than books.  - the sacrifice of depth to breadth. Always trying to do more at work, rather than doing better at work. Is there a growing desire a simpler, less frenetic world? Or maybe it is simply geezerdom kicking in?

I will do my best to stop and admire the view from the top of the Harbor Bridge. 

You were right and I was wrong

The subject line of the e-mail read: "You were right and I was wrong." After checking to make sure the message had not been sent to the wrong person, I was delighted to read (reprinted here with author's permission):

Dear Doug Johnson:
You were right and I was wrong. 
I guess you're wondering what this is all about.  Well approximately seven years ago I came upon your column article entitled, “Embracing Ambiguity” (May 1995), in conjunction with research for my white paper entitled, “The Role of Ambiguity in Learning,” [search Papers at www.learndev.org website.]
The first paragraph or your article said “As a teacher, I can construct activities which either discourage or invite ambiguity in my classroom.”  I said to myself, “Another example of “either/or” (dualistic) kind of thinking.”  I was searching for “black, white, and gray” (spectrum) kind of thinking to implement in my economics course so as to stimulate critical and creative thinking on the part of my students. So I was quite disappointed with respect to most of what you had to say.  However, it turned out that there was a “redeeming” last paragraph in the article which began with the sentence: “This issue certainly doesn't have an easy solution, but any solution will have a librarian at the heart of it.”  This proved to be prescience.
 I have now designed a course in introductory microeconomics which relies on a “tripod” for student learning: (1) textbook, other economics instructor, (2) myself and (3) very challenging classroom and homework assignments to “teach” economic concepts and principles as well as how to develop critical and creative thinking strategies.  At first, I thought of referring to my functions as the classroom instructor as the “Agitator.” (In contrast to the textbook instructor who is the “Clarifier.”)  But eventually I found that a more appropriate metaphor is the “Librarian” as in the sense of the compiler in a PC’s operating system.  While I am not completely a human “memex,” (Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think,” The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945), I believe the reference “librarian” is a good way to describe my role in terms of my course design.  Thus you were right; central to any solution (in terms of dealing with ambiguity) is the librarian.
 
Gilbert S. Suzawa, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881

I think I should take this e-mail as a compliment. Anyway, I am glad Dr. Suzawa is creating assignments for his economics classes that "stimulate creative and critical thinking." And his definition or use of the word "librarian" is not one I had considered before.

I've been lobbying for such assignments for years. And here are links to two papers on creating better research assignments:

• MultiMedia Schools <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/designing.pdf>  
• Phi Delta Kappan <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/LPP.html>

So, I guess if you want my attention, put "You were right and I was wrong in the subject heading."

Danger and opportunity: a keynote companion paper

This is the charge from the Queensland Public Library conference organizers:

Just on the Conference theme: Libraries - A Lifestyle Experience! Really, both your presentations at the Singapore conference (E Books and the Knowledge worker REDUX) were so relevant to public libraries, so please feel free to incorporate this type of material into how Libraries generally impact global lifestyles by providing  and keeping pace with State of the Art technology, and the management of knowledge and information in the future, including collaboration with schools to assist with student studies, cultural experiences and techno needs of the future....I have no doubt that your presentation will be something to indeed WOW! all attendees.

Here is the companion article I've written to go with the keynote. Now you know why the blog has been quiet. Comments on the article are welcome.

 If there are any public library readers willing to read this and comment, I would be especially appreciative. My experience and interest, of course, lies in the areas of school libraries and technology, but my audience here is public librarians. All I can say is thank goodness they are Australian public librarians who will be friendly, humorous, intelligent and kind - if past experience is any indication.

This has been an interesting exercise in another way. It's one of the first extended pieces of writing I've undertaken since immersing myself in the blogosphere as both a reader and a writer. I am amazed on looking this over, how heavily I've been influenced by blog reading and reading materials that bloggers have pointed me to. And of course, I've used my blog as a source from much of this material.

And  how have blogs effected you? Or have they?