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For those who don’t know what Educause is, it is an organization dedicated to Technology in academic institutions. You always feel you are at a conference run by professionals, here, because they are really good at it. Their big annual conference in the Fall each year is akin to ALA in terms of size and number of vendors (but more men!) The conference I am at this week is their South East Regional and is much more concentrated and manageable than the big one.

This morning I went to a Pre-conference on Podcasting. I know several of our faculty are using Podcasting and I hoped this session would help me get ideas about how we can use it in LIB100 classes and in the library as a whole. I know the Tech Team has done some looking into this so perhaps we can all get together and brainstorm when I get back. I was hoping for more technological information in the session – software, etc. but it was more about the concept of podcasting. They gave us some great examples of schools that are using it like NC State’s Wolfcast and there are lots of things we could do in terms of general library content – using specific databases, tours, etc. that could easily be done in the podcast format.

Podcasting offers a lot of possibilities for increasing active learning time in classes by providing the lecture material for review before and after class. It also provides a way to be sure students who miss class because of illness or campus activities have access to the same content as those who come to class. I’d be interested in testing out some options for LIB100 this Fall. My mind is already scheming…..

As usual, you learn more at many conferences from the other attendees than you do from the presentations, but this was a worthwhile session. Now off to lunch and back for the General Session on Technology at the GA Aquarium. Should be interesting. More this evening!