getting students' bodies and ideas into libraries: a talk for minnesotan librarians

tomorrow, i'm giving the opening talk at ARLD Day, sponsored by the academic & research libraries division of the minnesota library association. the title of my talk is "getting students' bodies and ideas into libraries." i plan to limit my talk to a particular nook of gleeson library and what university of san francisco students and librarians do with and within it.


exhibit 1: good food (designed by USF librarian sherise kimura)





exhibit 2: get graphic (designed by USF librarians debbie benrubi and kathy woo)






exhibit 3: election exhibit (designed by students enrolled in two sections of david silver's introduction to media studies in fall 2008)







exhibit 4: the reading fort (designed by students enrolled in david silver's digital literacy class in spring 2008)


exhibit 5: our dinner table (currently being designed by students enrolled in david silver's green media in spring 2010)

novella carpenter visits USF

last friday, urban homesteader and author novella carpenter visited USF. she met with green media and garden project students who are two-thirds finished reading novella's book, farm city: the education of an urban farmer.

novella began the day with my green media class. she asked my students question and they gave answers, and then my students asked novella questions and she gave answers. we talked about farm city, about urban homesteading, about raising, killing, and eating rabbits, about pop up farming, about interacting with the media, and about the role of the internet in today's urban ag.


around noon, we walked out of the education building, across the parking lot, and into USF's organic garden. while green media students showed novella the veggie plot we planted last week, i rounded up a few garden project students to give novella a tour of our campus garden.

after the tour, we surrounded a table full of food that students cooked, baked, and prepared for lunch - two loaves of homemade bread, a delicious soup, a garden quiche, a fresh garden salad, and a tasty rhubarb pie baked with rhubarb from the garden. it was a delicious feast.



with loaded bowls and plates, we took a seat in a circle, ate our food, and talked about farm city, about making homemade cheese and salami, about raising ducks, and about today and tomorrow's directions in urban ag. as novella writes on her own blog, "it made my heart sing to see these good citizens fired up about growing food." indeed.




as a teacher, the best part of the day was when garden project students took novella and green media students on a tour of the garden (captured so well by kate greenspan). it was cool to watch the mostly freshmen garden project students teach novella about our garden, but it was even cooler to watch them teach the mostly seniors in green media. students teaching students.

when wikipedia meets the library: a case study from the university of san francisco

tomorrow evening i'm giving a talk at san francisco public library. i'll be discussing some assignments i use to get college students to create, share, and collaborate. it's free! you should go!

if things go as planned, i'll be discussing this:




and then this:





and finally this:









update: here's a photograph from my perspective. thank you sfpl!

5 ways my students use twitter

this semester, all of my students (12 students in digital media production; 17 in eating san francisco) are using twitter.

i require them to do two things on twitter. first, for each of them to follow everyone else in the class. second, once they have completed a class project (a video, a blog post, a flickr set), they must tweet about it and include a link to it. other than that, they are free to use twitter, or not use twitter, in any way they choose.

over the semester, my students have come up with some really creative and collaborative uses of twitter. i'm impressed.

here's 5 ways my students use twitter

1. to announce and link to a blog post about one's role and contributions to the campus newspaper.


2. to set up - and say thanks for - interviews with people for class projects.


3. to negotiate dinner reservation times for class field trip.


4. to announce and publicize events taking place on campus.


5. to share readings and resources relevant to last night's class discussion.


and


(my students also, from time to time, use twitter in completely inane ways; maybe one day i'll blahg about that.)