31/8/2010 2 Comments Letts on librariesI've just finished listening to a programme on Radio 4 with Letts discussing libraries and it has left me disheartened, annoyed and generally shouting at the radio. The entire programme gave such an old fashioned, elitist view of libraries as silent places with worthy books and none of that annoying technology to spoil them. The short quotes from Alan Gibbons helped a little but apart from that the impression that libraries should continue to stagnate and not try to attract younger people or move with the times was quite ludicrous and extremely irritating. Letts patronising and snobbish tone did the save our libraries campaign no favours at all , indeed the damage done will put back the cause. Why get caught up in semantics - whether a library is called a learning zone, learning resources centre or dream zone it still does the same thing - provide reading material, research opportunities and support to the community, no matter their age or reading tastes. Of course that's just a few functions and to list all of them would take more time than I have. To suggest that libraries being run by volunteers is a good idea is insulting to professional colleagues and devalues the vital role they fulfil. Think this was the first time I've listened to Radio 4 - will probably be the last too! Let's hope the day improves....... can't possibly get more depressing one would hope. Twitter hashtag - #r4lettsdoeslibraries
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13/6/2010 1 Comment Football musingsMy husband and I visited our son in his new flat yesterday, and I admit it was purely to watch the first England match as we don't actually have a TV! I am not usually a football fan but I do watch the World Cup and I really enjoyed the evening, although I was enjoying the banter on Twitter as much as the football. What gave me the most pleasure however was seeing the men in my life so enthused and engaged and happy to be sharing the experience together and it got me thinking...... how fantastic would it be to have a wow televised event that promoted reading! This World Cup will bring families and friends together as they watch, it's the camaraderie and fellow feeling we all enjoy, if only there was a way we could harness that and the excitement to focus on encouraging reading. It's a shame that the television companies haven't used this chance to make programmes based on sports writers, or dramatised sports based fiction, or even had a discussion programme with authors that focus on sports of different nationalities talking about their team. (I apologise if they have done this - no telly lol!) Yes I know I'm dreaming and for reading to be given this sort of focus just isn't going to happen but it would be so amazing. Tying in reading with such a high profile sporting event would undoubtedly have made it a bit more cool and less geeky surely? Of course I am very aware that colleagues in schools all over the country are indeed doing this but we can never do enough and a national emphasis on reading is needed, I'm sure we would agree.
The National Year of Reading was great but we need every year to be a year of reading and the media can play such a huge part in ensuring this is so, they just need to do some creative thinking and make encouraging reading a part of their planning. This would help more families to see reading as a shared pleasure, it is not just young people that are reluctant readers after all. The World Cup and other sporting events appeal to a wide ranging clientèle and could be such a powerful force for literacy. Ok back to reality now, realise my wishes don't have much chance of coming true but it's always fun to think what if and daydream . I've just finished Unlocking the Reader in Every Child so that probably refocussed my attention on reading. It's a good book, interesting and useful for anyone with an interest in reading promotion and it's easy to dip in and out of when more inspiration is needed. Maybe one day we will have a Reading World Cup - will live in hope - but until then I guess it's up to librarians, teachers, parents etc to see the potential in marrying books with popular events, same as it always has been! 2/3/2010 0 Comments World Book DayThis will be the first World Book Day in a very long time that I am not in the school library coordinating events which will be strange but I am very lucky that I will be in Guernsey instead. I will still be in a school library - I am visiting Elizabeth College the school that won the Write Path this year and we will be launching the Write Path books on the day - it's very exciting! Last year for WBD we wrote a Twitter story with other schools and one of our year 11 students made a video - we had themed the day around the excellent Trapped By Monsters website (www.trappedbymonsters.com) and he had great fun getting staff to wear monster masks and running around school like a mad thing! I also made a longer video with colleagues in international schools, they were asked to prepare a video not longer than 3 minutes of their students talking about their favourite books. I then collated all of these wonderful videos into one and if anyone would like to use this to show on Thursday it can be accessed here:
http://www.vimeo.com/9854271weeblylink_new_window It is a long video, aprox. 45 minutes but you could just show part of it if you would like to. The students on it are quite fantastic and very articulate, apologies if the sound is a little erratic it was one of my first moviemaker projects. Happy World Book Day everyone! 28/2/2010 3 Comments Favourite placesI've been thinking today about my favourite places to visit on the net, and the reasons why they are my most visited. Twitter has to be the first destination of choice, after all I think I've learnt more from my personal learning network (PLN) on Twitter than I have from any other form of professional development I've ever been involved in. People are so generous and easy to approach that if I don't access tweets for a day I almost feel bereft - I have felt so supported in my recent career change by friends I have made on the site. Other can't do without sites include Facebook, Netvibes and of course Wordle which is why it makes me very sad to see the definitive wordcloud site out of action. Wordle is so very easy to use it has won many colleagues over to using web 2.0 and yes I know there are numerous other sites that have a similar function but to my eyes none are as good so I was very happy to sign up to Phil Bradley's pledge of support http://www.pledgebank.com/wordleweeblylink_new_window
We have been very lucky up until now to be able to use Wordle free, personally I have made much use of the site and I very much hope it will soon be up and running again. I have watched three fantastic videos this weekend thanks to tweets from various people: http://tinyurl.com/y87gdf5weeblylink_new_window Fantastic reading promotion video http://tinyurl.com/yz5jsrbweeblylink_new_window The networked student http://tinyurl.com/yesjvjwweeblylink_new_window Did you know 4.0 All are now safely bookmarked...although I kind of know the Gotta Keep Reading one nearly off by heart now, sad person that I am! Have a great week everyone and keep reading - especially on World Book Day on Thursday. |
AuthorMy blog is a collection of thoughts and I hope you will learn something about me from the ramblings as well as finding some useful links. I'm Bev Humphrey and I'm a Literacy, School Libraries and Technology Consultant. I am self employed so views expressed are solely my own. CategoriesAll Android Apps Authors Bett Book Giving Day Books Cats Childrens Books Christmas Christmas Challenge Conferences Dickens Dyslexia English Games Geography Graphic Novels Images Inspiration International Women's Day Ipad Ipad For Education Libraries London Mfl Picture Books Podcasts Poetry Poetry Day Primaries Reading Resources Revision Twitter Urls Video Visits Wbd Wordcloud Wordle Workshops Write Path Writers Writing YA Youtube |