Playing and Learning: Making a Sandbox for Librarians.

I’ve been asked a load of times how library workers can learn all these newish technologies. I don’t know why it’s easy for me and difficult for others. I do a few things.
1. I play.
2. I surf sites, blogs, and articles that friends recommend.
3. I schedule it.
4. I don’t stay committed if it isn’t fun or engaging.
5. I don’t feel the need to learn every feature and nook and cranny of the site.
6. I share. I don’t feel guilty is it isn’t directly applicable today to my current needs.
Read my recent article on using 43 Things to play and learn.
I think that the social web site 43 Things is fantastic! We could use it well to drive our play and progress on learning new things.
The basic idea is that there are tons of websites (even tons of web/library 2.0 sites) to review and play with and loads of stuff to learn. I try to personally follow a policy that I only need to learn in 15 minute increments (although I’ll give more time if I am engaged or interested). Maybe I just have a short attention span! Anyway, just like kids in the sandbox we can try new games and vesions of games every 15 minutes. So, in this article I provide 38 samples of things and sites you might like to try. You’ve probably already done many of these already but mihgt find stuff to learn in the list. 43 Things appears to be ready-made for those of us learners who like to engage in self-discovery and tracking our progress. I think that we’re a profession of inveterate list makers and love to tick off our accomplishments. (Admit, you keep lists!) So here’s my real suggestion – but Beware this could be a year long or lifelong project! I want you to go to 43 Things and register and list what you want to accomplish this week/month/year. You can make it private or share it with others. Just try it! Can’t think of 43 things to do? Congratulations you’re very relaxed – ask a few others. Review my few suggestions of 38 simple things to try, add others that meet your needs, or add a few personal ones like balance my life with some vacation trip planning, or go to a play or buy a CD on the top 40 (this year’s top 40!). Either way, you’ll have a framework to simply, cheaply and easily track your progress.
BTW – You’ll do great!
Stephen