Blogging about Professional Blogs

The two blogs I chose to follow were Hey Jude and Library Grits. Hey Jude is written by Judy O’Connell, Course Director for all the graduate and postgraduate Master’s degree programs in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. Library Grits is written by Dianne McKenzie, MYP Teacher Librarian at Renaissance College, Hong Kong. Both of these ladies provide a unique perspective on library and learning trends.

Hey Jude

Hey Jude is a blog that focuses on the educational value of digital trends. She has thoughtfully written articles on popular online gaming, social media, apps, software, and several other digital trends. There were even a few blog posts featuring technology that was new to me. What makes this blog unique is that she doesn’t just introduce you to some of these applications, she highlights the educational value of them. For example, Minecraft is new to me. My nephew plays it and talks about it, I have ordered books for the library on it, and have run across a few Mindcraft graphics here and there, but I never actually took a look at it. Hey Jude’s article, “Building the (Minecraft) lost city of Babylon,” gives a look at Minecraft as an educational tool. The article highlights how Mindcraft encourages creativity, collaboration, and helps to develop online social skills (very important in the digital age). I just thought it was a kids game! Reading this blog gave me a little window into how the young 21st century student is learning, and what media they are using. I have been introduced to several ideas and online media trends such as the importance of being mindful of your digital reputation, MysterySkype, and Creative Computing. This blog is wonderful! It has given me ideas that I could bring to my library (QR hunt?) and has opened my eyes to what I can expect my young daughters education to look like.

Library Grits

While technology in the learning environment may not be the entire focus of this blog, she is using technology to share her teaching/librarian experience in Hong Kong. She highlights some of the activities she gets the students involved in, and shares some of her best practices. A couple of articles that peaked my interest in this blog was her Library Management Tips. In these articles she gives a few tips on some Google search functions, and Google Spreadsheet ideas that I had not thought of before. Another interesting article focused on her experience at an IB Asia Pacific Conference in Singapore. It was interesting to me how they used Twitter to bring people together at this conference. This blog is a fun read.


References

McKenzie, D. (n.d.). Library Grits. Library Grits. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://librarygrits.blogspot.com/

O'Connell, J. (n.d.). Hey Jude. Learning in an Online World. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://judyoconnell.com/