#NECC09 Conference - Washington, DC

WARNING: rambling post with many parenthetical interjections - also, this post originally was on my Second Life blog......and I brought it over here as my first professional blog post! Don't worry, it should make sense eventually.

((2022 Note - OMGosh, this post is cringeworthy! I had forgotten that long ago I eschewed capitol letters and employed a rambling weird punctuation filled super bloggy causual writing style.  I started to correct all that and then (exhausted) I stopped and just rolled my eyes thinking that it was, though dated, a part of my history - So be it.)) 

Back to 2009--

So the NECC conference in DC was just brilliant this year! The Twittering back channel conversation was so stimulating and i made so many new Twitter following friends! 100+....lovely, smart, & cool colleagues who can continue the discussion about Educational Technology - expanded my Personal Learning Network!.....So..... I've decided to become transparent! My worlds are colliding anyway... my Interweb & SL life and my RL life...this blog will still mostly be about my SL adventures and library/technology & education work in Second Life (what little I do between changing clothes and being a Victorian Steampunk chick) but I'll maybe add more RL or at least not be so circumspect about who i am and what i do...(as a library media/technology specialist and a graduate instructor at Johns Hopkins Uni)....but because of my early years on the web (and don't we all have these stories? and try and one up each other about how hip and cool we were with appletalk, mudds, WBS, TTRconferencing, compuserve, gopher, and a 14/4k modem with a 100 foot phone cord?) i learned to stay mum about who i really was...doing my thing and being internet aware...lots of pseudonyms! i won't list ALL of them here..(sheah, right...like duh!) Anyway...mostly i didn't want my students to see what a snarky smartarse i am and to be able to let off steam with my opinions...i still worry...teachers have been fired over what they've blogged about...i like my private life well, private. i do historic re-enactment where i play a pirate wench for gosh sakes! otherwise i'm pretty tame [blinks and smiles sweetly]....so anyway...how much of your RL do you let out there? i mean...really. so, hmmm not going to over think this but i may make some past posts private. and or start a technology blog that keeps the saucier side of me out of it...(omg, not ANOTHER BLOG!) or i guess i can just blog my technology thoughts on my library blog but that has always been just for my kids & community and as a program pomotional piece...hmm WWJVD (what would Joyce Valenza do?) maybe i'll be semi-transparent then. so, ok educators....fellow technology teachers...if you found this and are looking for me i'm sure you can find the real me by what i do or you can leave a comment here and i'll hit you back. k? so one of the highlights of the conference (for the heavier and more techy stuff check out my wiki) i got to meet the lovely, gracious, funny and adorable Miss Eleanor Anderton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eleanor is one of my oldest friends in Second Life....along with Miss Serafina Puchkina and June Wozniak...anyway....it was Miss Anderton's Shopping alerts that got me in the inventory laden addicted clothes buying stocking wearing mess that i am today in SL....and i love her for it. we were trying to connect for a couple days...and with so many sessions to attend and 19,000 people there..it wasn't easy. finally in a session on creating PLN's in SL and i was hoping with this crazy red hair of mine i'd stand out...and finally as i was leaving i heard the sweet dulcet voice yelling "RED!" and Squeee!!!! huggies galore! YAY! i very nearly jumped up and down and well....YAY! we giggled over things and made our way to the second life playground where we picked up our special SL badges and our Second Lifer (snarf) ribbons because apparently having as MANY little ribbons on your badge is like crack to my geek tribe and well....we started gossiping about shoes and stuff and the people around us were looking at us a little oddly....see? Second Life is that thing that sucks you in and swallows you up! seee?!!!! LOL anyway....it was just lovely...but i'm happy i'm home and can sleep in my own bed...Mmmmm so ok...semi-transparent. i'm out and proud...as Capt_Red, a Second Lifer and a Librarian....and a redhead! \\FTW//! oh and now i'm plurking....oh the madness! thanks Sera & Ele! gah! more stuff to keep up with....what WILL i do?! LOL postscript: ok....so i'm not only semi-transparent but fully transparent ....cause here's that blog with my RL name on it...Oh the humanity! keeping up with yet ANOTHER web platform!! Blurg! LOL

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You Don't Have to Marry It!

Image
  An update from the  Archives .  Got Ed Tech Relationship Anxiety? It's so easy to feel Ed Tech trend overload at the beginning of the school year. It's exhausting and can be overwhelming. Just remember, it's OK to date new technology, you don't have to marry it!  You don't have to try to be the expert at everything.  Sometimes, it's not what you have, it's the creativity of how you use it. It's the innovation of teaching and not the tool. Tools come and go, it's the daring spirit to try new things that pays off in the long run.   If you're feeling overwhelmed, gather and curate great resources, rather than create new content.   That can come later when you are less stressed or when you get inspired. Then, please share shamelessly across Edu platforms and help another educator who might need it. That's paying if forward.  Again, tech may change, but it is our daring innovative change agent spirit that moves on. Use resources like Common Sens
Keep reading

Do You Know About Secret Bitmoji's?

Image
Did you know about Secret Bitmoji's? Well, I just stumbled over them this summer and WOW! Cool! Are these new features or something we just missed? Since Bitmoji never talks to me -- and I've Tweeted and Instagrammed them over and over for years and nothing......I guess this is a new feature? The ability to make a Bitmoji with just about any word.  I found this in the weirdest way, I was searching for a picture of an orchid -- because my Dad got my Mom & I orchid plants and I was asking how hers was faring. I found ALL these cartoons with the word Orchid -- but no pictures. Like why????  What was funny, it wasn't a cartoon of an orchid, it was just the word. I tried it again and got a different set of cartoons.    Then I realized, wait..... it's just the word. I know, I'm slow sometimes - don't judge me.  So of course I tried my name See that little pencil on the top? That means it's going to write out what you put in!    There are also other handy Bitmo
Keep reading

Don't Label Me: LGBTQIA+ Ally

Image
Our Middle School Library in Laurel, Maryland has been a loud and proud Safe Space and Ally for ALL of our  LGBTQIA and Neurodivergent students for years. We have purchased every well reviewed, requested, intriguing, and middle school approved fiction and non-fiction book on these topics. I daresay we have one of the largest collections around! We have Safe Space signs around, a rainbow narwhal (pictured above) and groupings of books on display all the time. I have also blogged about our support of our diverse communities. Dear Queer Teen - It Gets Better! - 2012  Create a Safe Space - 2018 BUT... I have strong opinions about putting a Genre label on these books. I am really cognizant that some of my Middle Schoolers are curious or questioning to learn more about but aren't ready to out themselves. To their peers and to their parents. This is yet another reason I'm against Genrefication. I know, among some of my other Future Ready Librarians this is a controversial topic. 
Keep reading