WOW! What an amazing, awe inspiring presentation given at the recent SLAV Conference: ‘Communicate, collaborate, create and think critically!’ by a woman who can only be described as a dynamo. Passionate in her beliefs and determined to share as much as possible with her audience, Dr Joyce Valenza presented to us a monologue of ideas, thoughts and beliefs in the course of this day-long conference.
At the outset we were assured that there was no need to take notes as the entire presentation would be available for us to peruse at our leisure on her wiki. How fortunate for us, as I can now see that the three segments of the day contained more than two hundred slides each! So many ideas and so much information was shared over the course of the day making it a challenge as to how best represent her words to us.
Like everyone in attendance, I found myself in awe of not only Joyce’s knowledge but of her non-stop enthusiastic presentation of a wide range of tips, tools and ideas. The passion with which she spoke really has to be seen to be believed. Her presentation which covered hot topics such as library advocacy and promotion, the role of teacher librarians, the needs of our students as well as the content of our school libraries was interspersed around a description and demonstration of the never ending range of Web 2.0 tools that are available to us and our students.
Underlying almost every aspect of Joyce’s talk was the notion that teacher librarians have the know-how and power to take a leading role in our schools. Equipped with knowledge and intent, she warned that “you can’t be fierce in a holiday sweater”. She entreated us to not wait for our principals, but to lead from the centre, to not stop at ‘no’ and that in between making regular ‘house calls’, to implore those within and around us to help us do what we need to do rather putting up roadblocks. Joyce spurred us on to find the flipside of the negative. Instead of berating students of the dangers of their digital footprint, she urged us to teach students how to check their own digital reputation and how to create and manage their own digital identities and ePortfolios. Ideas to promote literature in new, different and exciting ways also took centre stage in Joyce’s presentation. By embracing new technology and Web 2.0 tools she encouraged us to use the enthusiasm of our students as a resource for library promotion. Joyce’s presentation was not just theory and rhetoric. It was hands on, practical and entirely tangible. The challenge to us all is to put just a fraction of these ideas into practice in our schools!
In addition to Joyce’s presentation, a SLAV Idea Book was set up by her on Google Docs at the start of the day to which participants were invited to share great ideas that they currently have in place. In an afternoon session moderated by Joyce, this was used as a base for a panel presentation. An amazing array of thoughts were also shared via the back channels of both the TodaysMeet chat room and the stream of twitter shared at #slavconf11 both of which I’m sharing here via Google Docs. The twitter stream holds a host of urls of thoughts and tools to which Joyce referred in many of the ‘tangents’ she explored as diversions from the main script! To make it easier to access these sites I have created a doc of links extracted from #slavconf11 tweets.
I extend thanks to both the SLAV organizers and my fellow participants for this outstanding conference, a conference which gave us all the opportunity to demonstrate, loud and clear, the power that lies within us as well as to reinforce to us all that learning for each and every one of us never ends.
Hi Bev,
Great roundup from the event – you can also watch the event here: http://goo.gl/ydmFt
This is the first of 4 video’s from the day that I recorded for SLAV. The remaining 3 will be up online line in the next few days.
Joyce has such passion and knowledge it was great to hear the story she shares for a second time.
Regards
Tony
Ah …. so it was you behind the camera at the conference!! WOW!! – How amazing to think that we can all re visit Joyce’s fabulous presentation over and over again! Thanks so much for making this available to both those of us who attended and those who couldn’t get there. What wonderul world of sharing we have all created! Thanks Tony.
[…] https://novanews19.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/digesting-the-words-of-joyce-valenza/ […]
Thanks for including this one too Michael. You may also want to include the first of a series of videos The Game Changer with Joyce Valenza Session 1 which Tony (see above) recorded on behalf of SLAV.
Thanks for your very kind words Bev and to Tony for creating an archive.
Sorry for the crazy NYC pace. But as always, I wish we all had more time to share!
I felt so warmly welcomed by SLAV (and your counterpart TLs across the country and in NZ).
I am so impressed by your energy and talents. I felt it in our afternoon sharing sessions.
Please continue to build your strength and capacity! You are a wonderful tribe and you can all be game changers!
Let’s build new partnerships. Let’s work together.
Big hugs, my friends,
Joyce
I know I speak on behalf of us all Joyce when I express our heartfelt thanks to you for the energy you extended to us throughout your day-long presentation.
Know however, that a part of you is still in Melbourne! Conversations with TL colleagues this week have revolved around focusing on skill set rather than just content, ensuring that the library becomes the central hub of the school, enthusing and teaching others by example, guiding students to create a positive digital footprint. In short we are adopting your call to not wait, but to “lead from the centre!”
Thanks
Bev
Thank you SO much for this run down on the conference Bev. I will check out the wiki, google doc and Tony’s videos as soon as I can.
Glad this will be a handy reference for you Penny. Thanks must be also be extended to Judith Way for the amazing job she did of tweeting so many links and thoughts throughout the day’s proceedings. She has to be a speed typist!!
[…] a recent conference I attended at which Joyce Valenza was the keynote speaker, the audience was wowed by the number of videos that Joyce had gotten her […]