LIBRARYCAMP & OPENCPDPENNY CS ANDREWS

@pennyb

WHAT ARE LIBRARYCAMPS?

• Unconferences for anyone interested in improving libraries

• Audience-led, no agenda

• Anything can be said, anyone can have a say

• The people who are there are the people who should be there

• Questions are as valid as expertise

WHY IS LIBRARYCAMP IMPORTANT

•Open to all

• Horizontal learning & CPD

• Crosses hierarchies and sectors

• Exposes people regardless of income to new ideas

• Lots of cake

WHAT IS OPENCPD• Taking Librarycamp to people

who can’t attend

• Extending conversations had at camp

• Sharing big questions and best practice

• A dirty great MOOC

• A set of Open Educational Resources

WHY DO LIBRARIANS NEED OPENCPD

•Only senior library staff and those who win bursaries can attend conferences & external training

• Big events often share old news

• Best bit of conferences & Libcamps is conversation

JARGON CHECKER

• A MOOC is a Massively Open Online Course. Most popular MOOCs sadly are not that open - open to all but not run on FOSS software and the content is often copyrighted and not distributed outside the course.

• An Open Educational Resource (OER) is a digital resource that can be freely used, re-used, developed and re-purposed for teaching, learning and research.

WHY IS OPENCPD OERS? WHY IS IT A MOOC?

• I believe in Open culture, so it makes no sense to make something and hide it.

• It’s more sustainable and relevant if people extend and develop the resource to suit their needs and changes in the profession. Fork it!

• Internal and external trainers and Masters courses can use the materials. Why re-invent the wheel?

• Some people like to follow a course in a defined time-period and be awarded certificates and badges.

•We can offer more support.

PAST MOOCS IN LIBRARYWORLD

•New Librarianship MOOC - run by R.David Lankes of Syracuse University’s School

• Hyperlinked Library MOOC - run by San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science

• Both run by universities, advertising their librarianship courses & publications

• Hierarchical - bring in the “experts” to show the way

•No opportunities for students to lead

POSSIBLE PLATFORMS & PROBLEMS

• Coursesites by Blackboard is easy to use, but ugly and proprietary

• WordPress with Buddypress is no fun for learners, unwieldy to look at but easy to add content

• No access to mainstream platforms like Coursera

• OpenMOOC & Google options require coding skills and patience - hard to pass on/sustain

• Moodle could be the answer

• Or build something new?

MY OTHER QUESTIONS

• How connectivist should we be? Some MOOCs overwhelm in their content generation, but closer to Librarycamp ethos for everyone to be a “node”

• How much support can we offer?

•Will bringing pedagogy in just reinforce a hierarchy?

• Could this scale to other professions? IT, artists, teachers?

•Who wants in?

QUESTIONS!

•Ask now!•Or email pennyb@gmail.com

•Or tweet @pennyb

All photos by Librarycamp, except the kitten. Kitten: Sasan Geranmehr via Wikimedia Commons