Start of Term Crazies

It's been a busy old time for me, so I've not had a chance to look at anything particularly Web 2.0-ey, save checking in to see what's going down on my iGoogle and Facebook pages. So what have I been doing instead?

Well, there was a week in Rome, which was amazing. We pretty much checked off a good year's worth of a Grand Tour in a week. Photos from each of the days are here, here, here, here, here and finally here. Rather than setting up a new account with Flickr or Picasa, I stuck with Facebook. It looks like they may be able to start taking more high-res images, which is quite kewl. If they do, I'll be able to upload one of Trajan's Column, which I took in three parts and then had Ian stitch together. At the moment, Facebook can't cope with it because it's too big, so it would be nice to be able to include it in the set.

Then I had my county archery association's AGM. I've been secretary for 6 years, and have got steadily more disillusioned with what I was doing. Coupled with the fact that I've not made any inroads on my degree for a year (well, I've worked, I just haven't produced anything I can hand in), I thought I'd step aside this year and force let someone else take over. Hopefully I'll actually start enjoying archery again!

A while back I mentioned the Cephalonian Method, which had been covered at TeachMeet. So I did try it, really I did, when I took some AHA students round the library. I think perhaps the group was too small, because no one was particularly willing to contribute a question except for the AHA Librarian. Still, I thought the essence of the tour was more to introduce us as a friendly place that wouldn't mind being asked questions at a later date, and hopefully that got across. Certainly, we've already had a number of them return, so they're clearly not totally terrified of us!

But yesterday was the university archery club's second Have-A-Go session, and it occured to me as I was chatting to my novices that I incorporate the Cephalonian Method while I coach. There's a lot of time spent waiting around, since people are often 4-5 to a bow, so you need to keep up a considerable amount of patter to keep them interested while they watch everyone else shoot. So when one asks a question like "how much does a bow cost?", I'll often say something like "a bow like the one you're using will cost about £80-120, but the club provides all equipment for novices, and you won't have to buy your own bow unless you're sure you're going to continue in the sport." Each time, answering the question and adding a bit more. So, snaps to me for that. =)

One of the pictures of Rome to finish this post off:

The Trevy Fountain, taken by me.

TeachMeet - techie tools and teaching tips

Monday night was the inaugural (lib)TeachMeet Cambridge event. I wasn't sure what to expect really, because there was no schedule (the emphasis is very much on informality), but it sounded great. Basically, there are a number of talks by people sharing tips, tools and technologies, sharing experiences - both good and bad! - but in 2- or 7-minute slots at a time. So if you didn't like something, or knew right away it wasn't going to be for you, you only had a few minutes before the next great idea came along!

I found a number of the talks very interesting, particularly the ones about Prezi and the Cephalonian Method of Library Introductions. Definite food for thought from each there - Prezi is about as far removed as you can get from PowerPoint, while still being a presentation software package, while the Cephalonian Method sounds a much more enjoyable way of introducing students to the library. Who knows - maybe I'll be using it on the next batch of guinea pigs students!

The TeachMeet format itself was great - very relaxed and friendly. I could almost picture myself daring to stand up and give a talk (although on what I've no idea!). Two minutes goes by so quickly though, while the seven minute talks seemed to finish early. Maybe everyone has a natural stopping point more between 4 and 5 minutes?

Anyway - definitely interested in going to the next one!