Binge Watching

I don't know about you but when you are still ADHD and heading for 65 life takes on a whole new meaning. I once read a description that said, "I can't clean my room because I get distracted by all the cool stuff I find". Yip dats me.

One thing I hate is watching a part of a series today and another part next week. That kills me. I can't wait that long - and the chance I will still be available in the same place, at the same time is as close to zero [and I am not talking about Ground Zero], as one can get. So I get series from a group of downloading geeks and on any given day when I know I need to just 'sit still and concentrate' - I start binge watching one of the series. If I like it - I go out and buy it for my growing collection but I will not pay for junk - copyright or no copyright.

When it comes to movies especially sci-fi - one should really not apply critical thinking skills but together with my ADHD is a drive to perfections so here is my list of what I think rocks when it comes to movies.

1. The main actor/actress or producer must at least have made a name for themselves if at all possible. Yes - I am a sucker for that. Sooo much easier to watch something by Steven Spielberg and know its gonna rock your world - than sit and suffer through some low budget attempt at depicting life or fantasy. That brings me to number two...

2. The plot or preferably plots must be good. I like to have to sit and wonder how they will all cross paths - the battle in my mind is electrifying. Then of course the obvious - they must tie into a bow in the end - don't leave me hanging unless you plan to bring out a second movie in the same line.

3. I don't want to look at a movie and think - wow this computer animated scene is awesome. I want to be so sucked up into the story-line and the visuals that I forget it was created by a row of 010101010.

4. If its low budget it better have a famous actor or a mind boggling plot - or don't bother. Just watched the first few episodes of  "The Legion of the Seeker" - 6/10. Some good stuff but generally more suited to teens. Like most of these low budget or seemingly low budget efforts - costumes are dull, colour is dull, plot within a few episodes becomes predictable. Good looking actors with baby faces and bodies oiled and shining from a few hours a day lifting weights don't do it for me. It takes a lot more than that to keep my interest. Why do men always think this is what women like - that is just weird. Give me a man that is cuddly, with character lines on his face, eyes that can read into my hidden soul and a mind that can listen to my woman's chattering and within an wink of an eye take me on a new adventure with a unique subject -  any day!


5. When it comes to movies - I want to be surprised - at my age I have seen them all - well at least the good, the bad and the ugly that made it to the silver screen and went down in history. Watched as grey-scale movies turned into a hand painted [so it looked] pink blue colour to within a few years - full colour. 10 cents for popcorn and a movie - three rows from the front watching some or other Beatles movie - brings back warm memories.

Too many movies today seem to be clones of something in the grey mist of my mind that is similar. Pity. It must preferably be unique. Started watching "Shannara Chronicles" 7/10 - excellent filming ideas - some cool new thoughts for the story lines, costumes vibrant, makeup realistic and different and a few plots, acting fairly realistic except for a few places where I felt the 'angelic faced, muscle bound' blond boy could have done with drama lessons, generally the story is well thought out but the similarities to "Legion of the Seeker" are clear as living daylight. Seems they plagiarized each other. But give it its due - after the fourth episode while it was becoming a bit boring, at least I was a little disappointed that this episode is as far as my new found 'friend' had given me - it must be a new series overseas - lets hope it make the SA Screen before I get so old I need a wheelchair to get to the remote, and when I get to it, forget why I wanted it in the first place or before I die.  Such is life - pass the popcorn.

Preaching, Teaching and Presenting

2014 has been a hectic year as far as making a difference in the lives of people. Being involved in Information Literacy as a Training Librarian never leaves a dull moment.

Using my God given gift of teaching and preaching, I have over the years developed InfoLit courses because it used to freak me out when students came to the Library and did not have a cooking-clue of what it was all about and trying to teach them life-skills on a one-to-one basis is soul destroying.
Honestly one student had the mouse on the screen of the monitor trying to ''click'' on the catalogue button.

The existing content when I arrived around 18 years ago ran for 30 minutes, was presented at first on a hand-written transparency and was bogged down with library terminology and information overload. Having taken photos and moving to a slide projector the training at least had some visual content even though all the librarians had to march in, stand down the wall of the training room and smile - it was a start.  Once PowerPoint appeared on the market and I leaned to tweak it - we started to fly. Evaluations show that the students enjoy the training and would recommend it to others to attend. 

Over the years different people moved in and out of the curriculum development scene leaving their stamp and expertise intermingled with my modules - including since the merger of a whole lot of institutions to form Tshwane University of Technology an "Information Literacy Committee". I love their brains.

Today I have what I feel is an user-friendly, suited for 1st years from city or disadvantaged rural communities, Information Literacy course made up of 6 modules and ever expanding to YouTube as well.

It is blended with interactive sections, games, videos [some self-made], quizzes etc.  I am no longer the 'king-pin' but have a deep sense of satisfaction that I birthed almost 18 years ago - will around 2015 or a year later, become a full academic subject on the time table of every student at TUT.  The feeling is almost as good as when I put the first 386 desktop PC down for students to use and the whole Librarian body was up-in-arms - ''how dare I allow a student to touch a computer''. Later when I suggested we try to be a bit more creative with the interior design as the infant Internet slowly made an appearance - they nearly passed out. "We are academic, we have an image to keep" mmmm - like black and white bullet pointed PowerPoint presentations, flat shoes and a bun in the hair, glasses on the nose, suited clothing - is what they meant. Man a lot has changed LOL. Those were the days. Lest we forget.

Today I sit next to a 64 computer lab in the library [one of many on the different campuses], - guide students in using Internet from an academic perspective and introduce them to the secrets hidden in the databases we subscribe to, plus I keep redeveloping the methods and content in the modules.

This year I won the award for best speaker at the OCLC flash talks in Cape Town covering the story of a library I started in a rural school in Soshanguve, gave a workshop covering advanced PowerPoint training for Trainers that includes how to bring life to PowerPoint when teaching students [would make those initial baby-boomer librarians turn in their graves] and have trained over the years in excess of 20 000 students making them independent researchers who now find security in the library, love the online libraries of the world including ours and understand how to reference correctly and evaluate content - no longer needing the librarian to provide the information but only to guide them to the information.

Goals for the future - to make online tutorials [just taught myself Camtasia] and online assessments in Blackboard.  Look for new methods for the changing generations and their learning preferences - immaterial if its a baby-boomer who came for training and is asking 'what happened to the books and journals'? Even a X-generation. Immaterial if its a left or a right brained person, a 1st year who could be 18 or 38 years or a post graduate - myself being a right brain, dominated by a left brain baby-boomer,  I am flexible enough to adapt and old enough to have empathy.  That is why I love what I do. They say only 20% of the world is in a job they love, it's great to be in the minority. Two more years then I pension - wonder what doors will open up after that. Can't wait!!

imgur: the simple image sharer

imgur: the simple image sharer

Experiencing Cape Town on Foot

Spending a week in Cape Town in a rather dingy hotel that had seen better days in its history was a little of a 'blast from the past' seeing as I went to school there at Wynberg Girls High around 42 years ago. I tried without success to teach the serving staff - if you serve ribs and chips each person at the table needs a steak knife and a bowl with hot water and lemons in it, and no - a communion dunk and wash finger bowl will not do. By the way have you heard of toothpicks? We could use some. Honestly what do they teach waitrons today - poor tourists they must think this is Africa.

The first thing I noticed was the mountain looked the same but the people had changed. I have never in my entire life been approached by so many beggars - and seeing as Cape Town has a lot less humans than Pretoria and Johannesburg leaving one feeling open, relaxed and out of the rat-race, I got the feeling the beggars made up the bulk of the population.

There is a security presence everywhere with their little yellow shirts which should already have rung warning bells for me - who needs to keep on a massive municipal security force to keep the non-beggars safe - if its safe. Ha - but being grey and over 60 means I am also a slow learner at times. These security persons stand around on corners, chatting to each other and texing. My word! - we are raising a nation of people who will never look at the sky again - leaving the beggars free to harass who they liked - and I was a prime target.

Popped into shop to get some cutlery seeing as my self-catering suite had a bread knife, soup ladle and whisk in the drawer - that is all I kid you not. As I headed for the exit I saw a beggar squinting in my direction. He started to go lower and more turned - by the time I got to him he was a total cripple. "Please ma'am help me I am hungry" - "Get away" I yelled out and miracles of miracles he stood up and walked off mumbling under his breath - cured.  

That was not the only healing I saw - sitting on the station waiting for the train and next to me are two girls. One must be around 16 and the other fatter one in her 20's. Laughing and joking and eating sweets and chips.  The train arrives and I get on. A minute later I hear the sound of voices singing an unheard of church hymn - and the next minute here comes the thin girl with a plastic mug leading her 'now blind' friend behind - eyes rolled back and the white showing. I nearly burst out laughing but gave them ten rand for the act. Then as they stepped out of the train - she was healed "hallelujah sister".

However the best was when I walked down Adderly street to the Conference Centre CTICC.
I had this feeling I was being followed. No matter where I walked this girl with a old pants, and army type hat followed me. Eventually she approached me, "Leave me alone" I yelled out. She nearly burst into tears, "I thought you were a Librarian and going to the Conference, I am lost".  I felt so bad, gave her a hug and showed her the way. You never know when the next beggar is an angel.  

The death of the "Ordinary Librarian"

The Death of the Ordinary Librarian aka Ordinary Librarian, Research Librarian or Personal Librarian - which one are you?  

LIASA 15^th - Annual Conference in the mother city Cape Town.

Institutions like a major correspondence Institution dominated many of the papers on the future of Librarians and the role they are going to play in the new playing fields of libraries.

Research is obviously a key factor in South Africa not just to place it on the global map but also to enhance the world we live in and bring credit and funding to any institution, so the focus of the librarian as a support system to the normal run of the mill student body, seemed to take an insignificant place in the order of things at the LIASA Conference 2013.

I remember thinking – oh my word if they had it their way they would close down all institutional libraries that assist undergraduates and just concentrate on researchers – it was as if in their minds “everyone is born a post grad”.

In fact one library has removed the word ‘support’ completely from its job description for librarians almost as if ‘support’ was dirty and undesirable.

I listened fascinated as the papers were presented and started suggesting that the emergence of the Research Librarian would cause that the qualifications needed could be up to a PhD because the argument is, and maybe rightly so, – if you are assisting post graduates who are busy with ground breaking research in let’s say engineering, then at the very least you need a qualification one higher than they have. It even seemed to be suggested that in a case like this a PhD in engineering was more important than a PhD in Library Science. In fact I would go as far as to analyse that this is the route some of the larger institutions are considering taking.

The other title branded about was that of the Personal Librarian. Librarians were encouraged to ‘go to the users’, some had even been given an office in the faculty where they could operate from a few times per week. These Personal Librarians would hold the hands of the lecturers who were doing research and almost inclusively be used by them much in the same way as a personal secretary.

I found it hard in today’s economic environment, budget cuts and streamlining of posts with possible downsizing of many libraries; - to separate what was fantasy from reality in these papers. Which library in all truth can afford to take a large chunk of its Librarians and offer them up as sacrifices on the altar -  solely for research and/or as Personal Librarians situated away from the reference desk.

I realise that many of our upcoming users are bypassing the library when it comes to finding information and as Librarians one will have to keep rethinking the role you play in a changing digital environment. But honestly – this is Africa not every student walking through the door is a digital native and from what I see in the training room many are first generation students who come with massive gaps in knowledge and research skills. I do believe the new Chat-Line for students with their General Librarians will go a long way to earn you the respect of your users however, in the light of what is being discussed at the Conference, Top Management and Library Management will have to go back to the drawing board – if they every left it, and re-look at how the Library will support research in a more personal way.

Releasing Librarians for personal use to me should form part of a Faculty Budget – I am not sure this should fall on the shoulders of Library Heads and Executive Committees to scuttle around with the re-engineering and further deplete the dwindling Librarian posts.

While I understand the urgency of research and the bigger urgency for the Librarians to reinvent themselves to meet the needs of researchers, I am very aware of the forty thousand or so undergraduates that have to be serviced. If we leave them to their own devices we may sit with a larger headache a few years down the line when they turn into researchers without the necessary skills, without being able to identify and evaluate information, without being able to produce a unique assignment based not only on their findings but on their own logical assumptions and new ideas based on sound research foundations.

The other issue I have is, if the Librarian is a PhD in Engineering and is just about doing the research for the researcher – are we really producing researchers or just people who ‘plagiarize the Librarians brains’ and could not do their own unique research even if it was expected of them. Where is the cut-off point? Or is there none? Does the researcher write on his thesis –his name and next to it the Research Librarians name seeing as they did most of the work anyway?

‘Nice to have’ these specialised Librarians - if you have the budget or if government comes to the table and provides additional funding for Research Librarians and Personal Librarians as it should; if it is really serious about Research as it says it is.

However it worries me that the powers that be seemed to have declared null and void the guidance that the General Librarian can still provide to the majority of the under graduate student body at the University and Institutions albeit via Chat lines, Social Networks etc and not face to face as was the traditional role played. It worries me that the mention of under-graduate programs and support hardly made the headlines in the discussions or papers that were presented but for a few.

Honestly?  Has the role of the Librarian and the library as a whole, really changed that much, that quickly? Are we going to shut the doors already and lie down and die while our users plagiarize the world of online information with their skills on an ever downward spiral and no Librarians to guide the way forward? Librarians may no longer be the keepers of information but they certainly are still the tour guides to it.

In stark contrast to the established post matric educational institutions with their government sponsored infrastructure - I attended a few sessions with school, public and special interest libraries because, what is happening there, has a ripple effect when those children become students and walk through our physical or virtual doors. What I heard there turned my blood to ice especially in the light of what I discussed above. Some public librarians even felt that Information literacy skill training was not applicable to them. Oi veh!!

The infrastructure in most provinces of fully stocked libraries with trained librarians and access to digital information is, as one speaker from Limpopo tactfully put it, ‘deteriorating by the day’.  The person for Education and a few government officials were delegates. The lady for Gauteng Education was quick to brag about the literacy programs they had in place and how they supported school and public libraries. What she said was in stark contrast to what was actually happening on the ground if you took note of what speaker after speaker laid before the Conference and came to light during open discussions. I can attest to the lack of resources at school and public library level as I work mainly with information illiterate first years, the majority of which have never seen the inside of a library. I was very tempted to challenge her and the honourable government member but I kept my pose as we may need them in future and taking her on in open debate was not a good idea. Let her have her day, history will prove her mistaken in the difference her efforts where making in the global scheme of things. We need a nationwide effort when it comes to support for educators and scholars.

Telling industry to provide the funding is just as chilling. When the king abdicated his throne for the love of his life it was to a equal who could take his place. When Education abdicates its position of the leader in education to industry its on dangerous ground. Industry in any case wants to welcome well trained researchers into its family, they do not want to have to make the bottles of milk. No wonder less and less corporates are investing in South Africa.

If municipalities do not have the expertise or passion or vision to do it, then Government needs to spend some of the tax money to send experts to get the ball rolling at a much faster rate than it is rolling at present; if it is rolling at all.

In Limpopo the school and public libraries for the number of people living there and the mainly rural environment they find themselves in, is a horrific tragedy, to say the least. The sentiment was not –‘we need to build infrastructure and uplift the people better preparing them for their future academic studies’. The basic sentiment was, ‘well it’s largely rural so there is very little we can do” and everyone had their moment-of-silence for the lost-cause, but moved on – no way!! 

If I swore I could think of some choice words to say here. For goodness sake – if you as government and municipalities have identified what is a growing crisis for a nation; surly you find solutions and provide the funding to make it a reality, not just sweep it under the carpet and hope it will disappear. I lost count of how many people attested to no funding for new books and resources on the shelves of rudimentary libraries that did not meet the curriculum needs. 

Education and support for those who are going through studying or teaching – are the only solutions to poverty and to uplift our people into the new world and from them, we birth the researchers of tomorrow. Are you trying to tell me no researchers will come from rural Limpopo except from the one or two universities in the area– what a waste of a countries talent! 

No one is born information literate, no one is born being able to use Internet, online databases or do research correctly but everyone can be taught and learn, and the younger they learn the better for themselves and for the institutions that will absorb them after school.

Research Librarians, Personal Librarians – awesome thought and it needs perusing; but getting back to the millions and millions that are not there yet, what about placing more resources in the hands of the humble General Librarian. How about skilling them to be able to cope with the new demands and expectations of the upcoming students – those who are from rural backgrounds and those who are from the cities.

Closing thoughts - Come on –do we need a PhD to assist a ‘fresh out of matric’ with how to locate, evaluate and use accredited information –man I don’t think so. Is the role of the General Librarian really so mundane and unimportant that it hardly took centre stage and left most of the delegates desiring the more lucrative and highly esteemed senior posts of Research and Personal Librarians.  

My thoughts are, that in the rush to be the most important Research Institution in Africa, I think the library has lost the vision of its vital role with undergraduate students. Simply providing Information Literacy courses like some do, is not enough. 

How as Librarians and Libraries we support users in future - may be on the transformational landscape – but we cannot just cross it out as no longer relevant to, what remains in many aspects, a very third world population in South Africa and Africa. 

Schools, Public Libraries, Specialised Libraries and Academic Libraries need to take hands, share resources and skills and form a unified approach – taking each others needs into consideration, to combat what may be the biggest man-made disaster in the twentieth century happening right under our noses.  Your Training Librarian. 2013

A slither into my mind

Facebook status asks, 'What is on my mind'?
Well it multitasks between dreams and reality and making dreams reality. It would be so confusing to know what is on 'my mind' I would never share the depth of it. Right brained but tested 100% left and 100% right had the psychiatrists at TUT confused. One turned to me and said, 'this is impossible' Did not know where to place me. LOL. Well God is the God of the impossible. I usually tell people I prefer right-brained thinking but have this interfering left-brain trying to direct it.

On my way to University Witswatersrand [White water] today for a tour of their facility for disabled students. Should be interesting from a right brained perspective. Want to see how we can include this knowledge in production of online training modules for Information literacy.

For the founder of LinkedIn - Reid Hoffman, launching LinkedIn ten years ago was like jumping off a cliff and building an airplane on the way down-- sometimes we have to believe in our dreams, believe in ourselves, trust the vision that God shows us and His purpose for our lives - and JUMP!

So what do you think - the apps have it?

LOL - yip watch out for the 'eye in the sky' - actually I think those who want to know - know it all already. They start with one piece of the puzzle and eventually they have the full picture. Maybe there is this database somewhere that sucks in all this info - mine must be really threatening like a soup of confusion - USA, Israel, Africa mixed with Joyce Meyer and GodTube. I have all these people 'following me' over the net social networks - maybe 'the eye' is one of them. LOL

One more thing my saying is "happy and healthy" well believe it or not they did a study on what makes people happy - the result? The psychiatrists have found that it is not money, or work satisfaction but how much gratitude you give. [tanx Lord].

As the 'kid president of the USA' said in one of his videos [which are painful to watch] - "how about today 'You make some else's day AWESOME!!'.

One of the people he interviewed said, 'we need to listen to each other - kids need to listen to grownups and grownups need to listen to kids' - and personally I think 'grownups need to listen to grownups'. I am sure what the guy was trying to say is a lot deeper than just - 'listen' with your ears. Have a great day. Remember no matter what, God does actually love you and wants to have a practical, personal relationship with you.


 

Dancing a jig on the desk to stimulate interest in learning!!

After much pressure I enrolled for a short course at UNISA. Well off the cuff,  to decipher the guides, tutorials and additional info requires a degree, obviously one I do not have. For a course that is suppose to empower me to be more creative in my thinking and methods in training  - it's very long and vague.

So now I am reading about learning theories and schools of thought. You are joking right? You either learn or you don't and its really up to you as a student. You as a trainer can analyze if they are right or left brained, you can create activities and PowerPoint that accommodates both of them - but let me tell you if they don't realize they have a need and they don't buy into the training - they will not learn even if you jumped on your desk and did a jig to stimulate interest.

They walk into the training room fresh out of high school, with their Grade 12 certificate in one hand and noddy badge in the other. "I made matric, I got accepted into varsity, the last thing I need is more life-long learning skills and by the way - you are a grey haired old lady and you want to teach me about Internet - yeah right, pass me the pillow I need to sleep".  Some do just that. >sigh<.

So with respect researchers I personally feel that learners will only learn in response to a need. They walk into class and they think they know it all - I mean let's face it in their minds - has the university not heard of Google? .

So step one is to do activities that make them realise they 'don't know it all' and to artificially birth needs in their grey matter. A quick quiz on basic Internet vocabulary cuts most down in size. The other thing is to birth the idea that they need these skills to get better marks and self empowerment.
This is a little harder because they feel they are superman already and he has laser vision so where do I fall off the boat, but you catch some with worms and some with bugs - whatever works.

Then the two theories UNISA quote -  to me form an integrated one idea. One looks at stimulus response process and one looks at cognitive process. When I looked at the stimulus response and the academic waffle in the book I could just picture a rat in a maze. Let the thing run round enough times and bump its head a couple of times and in the end it will memorize the way to the cheese and dump even if reluctantly, its old ideas. Students learning styles are not much different to rats.

However for this superimposed learning to occur in students, the maze cannot change - it needs to be stable and constant until a new idea is needed to be planted. Training content needs to be systematically organized using what they know as a foundation and building curriculum step for step in a logical pattern on it. This building on existing and newly gained knowledge and skills continues module for module.        

Most curriculum is not clear, to the point and understandable. It's jumbled, says one thing in one manual or letter and something else in another one. It hops around like a chocolate bunny rabbit trying to avoid the three year old devouring its head first. That is why I am so successful as a trainer.   When training first years I don't want to 'sound academic' I want them to birth a new desire to learn as they realise there are gaps in skills and knowledge that they urgently need. Then participate in the learning process without them feeling belittled or threatened.

Then I want them to have fun doing it. The person who decided academic means black and white bullets in PowerPoint with long content that needs a specialized dictionary to decipher, should be shot at dawn. That can come later if it even needs to come at all. In a texing generation that communicates with illegible writing - we need to adapt or die. I have done drama, sung to them and provided team activities that get them competing across the library - the left-brains deciding who will do what and in what order and the right brains just bounding away and doing, it racking in the necessary information to beat the other teams.

I will be dead and buried but they will not forget me singing [out of tune], January, February, March, April, MAY, JUNE, JULY in a true Capetonian accent to reinforce that those three months are not abbreviated in TUT Harvard referencing.

Finally knowledge and skills must build up like they are climbing stairs. Prior learning forms the foundation and then one has to logically work out what must they know first, what vocabulary they must mastered, what skills must they have gained before you can move to the next module. One cannot throw them into the sea of an academic library and hope to heaven they know how to swim. You ascertain using different methods where the gaps are, and take it from there.

Its a fallacy that 'one size fits all' when it comes to training students. Always have Plan B - you may sit with 50 left brained scientifically minded students in a class forming the majority. These guys would not know how to smile even if you offered them accredited research papers on the face muscles and how to do it. When you step up to the mike they are already analyzing you like a bug under a microscope.  At times like these you don't sing or crack jokes, you put on your white overcoat, black rimmed glasses balancing on your nose and blend in with the tribe. If they can identify with you it makes listening easier and if they listen, do practicals - then they learn.

Hallelujah sister - pass the spiked coke, I have another lesson back to back today.