Wendy Drexler (Ed.S. Student) and Susan Jinks (Ph.D. Candidate) participated in a telecollaborative project involving 3rd graders, preservice teachers and socials studies.

http://w3.shorecrest.org/%7Ethirdgrade/GR3/Drexlerclasswebsite/Projects.html

https://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/index.html 

 In an increasingly networked world, the concept of community has taken on new meanings and inspired the development of a wide range of technologies aimed at forging connections, improving communication, and enabling coordination among groups of people. Today, such terms as virtual community, blogging, podcasting, and smart mobs have become commonplace, yet each represents a complex system of hardware, software, and people, shaped by perceptions, norms, rules, and habits, and occurring within varied social and cultural settings.

The Communities and Technologies biennial international conference serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities - both physical and virtual - and information and communication technologies. Researchers studying aspects of this interaction between communities and technologies, regardless of disciplinary background, are providing original contributions to the Third International Conference on Communities and Technologies.

http://worlds.gameology.org/ 

This third annual conference on games will focus on the construction of digital worlds, with particular emphasis on the various spatialities of games and other digital media. We are especially interested in spatiality as it is employed in the construction of virtual worlds both in terms of the graphemic representation of game objects, as well as the dual role these spaces perform as both narrative structures and sites of play. We are also interested in spatiality as it relates to the development of social space (including online spaces like World of Warcraft and gaming message boards) as well as the relationship of real-world locations like arcades and game cafes to the play experience.

 NOTE: They are looking for an Ed. Tech. person even though the position title is Librarian. They are interested in folks who will graduating in the Spring or Summer.

Digital Collections Home Page 

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POSITION VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT


    POSITION:        Digital Projects Technology Librarian       

    RANK:        Assistant University Librarian
   
    REPORTS TO:    Assistant Director, Digital Library Center

SALARY:     Minimum salary: $42,000.  Actual salary will reflect selected professional's
    experience and credentials.

    REQUISITION #:    0700564     

    DEADLINE DATE:    2/25/2007      

JOB SUMMARY:       

Responsible for assessing the technological needs and drafting appropriate specifications for digital projects.  Works closely with the project associates including collection managers and curators both on campus and in partnering institutions to analyze project requirements.  Defines strategies and methods to achieve functional requirements of digital projects across a wide array of academic disciplines.  Facilitates the research and educational uses of digital collections by integrating educational functionalities into project design.  Coordinates the work with catalogers, programmers and GIS staff to create procedures applicable to specific projects.  Participates in professional organizations and pursues research and publishing in accordance with library wide criteria for tenure and promotion.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
1.    Analyzes digital project requirements and defines strategies and methods to achieve functional requirements of particular projects.  Reassesses and revitalizes older projects.  Creates supporting documentation.
2.    Maps out the use of specific controlled vocabulary, metadata and tagging (i.e., AAT terminology; IEEE Learning Objects metadata, Sunshine State Standards for Education, etc.) to facilitate use of objects in research and teaching.  Works with counterparts in the College of Education and Office of Academic Technologies to build learning modules.
3.    Manages the development of the Digital Library Center’s geo-temporal tagging program.  Maintains tables representing “life events” of geo-political entities, particularly in Florida and the Caribbean.
4.    Liaisons with the Catalog Department, primarily the Authorities Control Unit and specifically the Metadata Cataloger.  Maps life events metadata to MARC authorities.
5.    Liaisons with the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) unit in the Government Documents Department and, for the Digital Library of the Caribbean project, with GIS counterparts at Florida International University and with foreign partners.
6.    Collaborates with the Systems Department programmers for Digital Library and Digital Library Center applications to build, maintain and develop supporting systems.
7.    Serves as a member of the Digital Library Center’s Rights Management Team.


QUALIFICATIONS:

Required:
1.    Masters degree in Library or Information Science from an ALA-accredited program, or equivalent in Educational Technologies, or professional experience in complex digital project development.
2.    Knowledge of collection management, reference, and instructional practices and standards.
3.    Excellent analytical and organizational skills, with demonstrated ability to perform workflow analyses.
4.    Effective verbal and written communication skills.
5.    Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with faculty, students, and colleagues.
6.    Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work independently.
7.    Flexible and forward-thinking approach to challenges and opportunities.
8.    Strong potential for meeting the requirements for tenure and promotion, including grant writing and publication.

Preferred:
1.    Demonstrated skills in developing educational technologies, online instructional design or similar computer applications.
2.    Prior employment with a digital library program or in collection management in an academic archives, library or museum setting.
3.    Experience in creation of authorities and their use in data-mining.

THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

The University of Florida is a large, land grant, public educational research institution with a faculty of approximately 4,000 and a student body of 48,000.  It ranks third nationally in size of student body and eighth nationally in the number of merit scholars enrolled in the freshmen class.  The University is a member of the Association of American Universities and offers the Ph.D. in more than 90 fields and the Master's degree in more than 120 fields.  For more information please consult the UF homepage at http://www.ufl.edu.

The University of Florida Libraries are members of the Association of Research Libraries, the Center for Research Libraries, the Research Libraries Group, and SOLINET.  The library staff consists of more than 400 FTE librarians, technical/clerical staff and student assistants.  For more information about the Libraries, please visit http://www.uflib.ufl.edu.

The Digital Library Center was established is responsible for the creation and maintenance of digital collections both born digitally and converted from traditional library and museum materials for their use in teaching and research.    The Center's program management structure invites faculty collaborations both within and beyond the Libraries and University of Florida.  Its current international project is the Digital Library of the Caribbean.  The Center also maintains active liaison with the Florida Center for Library Automation's Digital Library Services division and is a major contributor to the PALMM Collections.   Please visit the Center’s staff page at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/ for additional information.

BENEFITS:

Twenty-two vacation days, nine paid holidays, and thirteen days sick leave annually; retirement plan options; insurance benefits; tuition fee waiver program; no state or local income tax.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity employer and is strongly committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff.  Applicants from a broad spectrum of people, including members of ethnic minorities and disabled persons, are especially encouraged to apply.  As part of the application process, applicants are invited to complete an on-line confidential and voluntary demographic self-disclosure form which can be found at:  http://www.hr.ufl.edu/job/datacard.htm.  This information is collected by the University of Florida’s Faculty Development Office to track applicant trends and is in no way considered by the Smathers Libraries in the selection process.

Please apply for this position by e-mail. Send, as attachments (MS-Word format preferred), a cover letter describing your interest in and qualification for this position, resume and list of three references.  Include address, telephone and email information for references.  Please include a 250-word document expressing your opinion on the topic, “Technologies in the service of teaching and research:  appropriate and creative approaches.”

Apply by February 25, 2007 (applications will be reviewed as received).  All inquiries and submissions of required application materials should be sent to Brian Keith, Smathers Libraries Human Resources Officer, at: brikeit@uflib.ufl.edu