University of Washington librarians in an effort to educate one another and prepare to educate faculty and students about Web 2.0 technologies set about doing so in two different yet complementary ways – a multi-session or multi-modular program during the slow summer quarter and a one-day relaxed workshop.
The modular approach was modeled after the Charlotte Mecklinburg Public Library’s 23 Things program. The basic format was introduction of the technology, discussion of its uses, practice with it, and then further exploration of/with it. This approach was done on a smaller campus reaching ten of the twelve librarians. Since it was spread over a quarter’s worth of time, participants could play/practice with the tools at their leisure in their offices, at home, and on the desk.
On the larger campus, sixty of the 100-plus librarians worked in a highly sophisticated lab setting encountering an overview of a given technology, its fundamentals of use and applications, and then hands-on practice.
They found that both novices and experts benefitted from the workshops, be they extended over time or limited to the one-day format. The approach of ‘23 Things’ scales well to any group and/or situation. And thus, the audience, while having differing needs and wants, can be ‘taught’ quite easily. The style of the approach must like most of the topics we had today depends muchly upon the culture of the audience. And as is true for any new venture or training, there must be evaluation, evaluation, evaluation!
