Memorial Day Weekend

Well, I mentioned the 251 Club in my first (or was it my second...) post, and thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos from my trip to Vermont, last weekend. I was able to get to 10 new towns, including: Addison, Barre, Brandon, Essex, Leicester (home of Satan's Kingdom, VT!), Montpelier, Panton, Pittsford, Salisbury, and Weybridge.

This brings me up to about 33 towns (give or take), which I hope to get up on a website at some point in the near future. I try to spend some time driving around and talking to people, and have made it a personal mission to visit all of the public libraries in the state... harder than you might think.

Addison, VT

Barre, VT
Random Gorilla...
didn't know we had those in VT, did you?
Brandon, VT
Camel's Hump
From my folks' place in Williston, VT
Weybridge, VT
Essex, VT
Montpelier, VT
The capital building
Panton, VT
The obligatory picture in front of a sign...
Pittsford, VT
One of the 4 covered bridges in town
Salisbury, VT

3 Things

What are 3 things that anyone who knows me knows about me?

Vermonter:
I’m originally from Vermont, where most of my family still lives. I love to explore different parts of the state when I visit, and always bring my camera along. As part of the 251 Club (http://redjar.org/everytown/), I'm visiting each town and have begun to develop an online journal of my travels.

Librarianism:
When people ask me why I chose to be a librarian, I usually answer “fate”. I seem to have been involved with libraries since I was a kid, even holding the position of librarian in my Boy Scout troop.

Travel:
Beyond my exploration of Vermont, my travel log is fairly limited, with only Canada and Ireland on the list, so far. I’m hoping to squeeze a few trips in before finishing up the M.Ed. program, with France and The Netherlands and maybe another trip to Ireland.

What made you want to take this course?

My goal for this entire degree program is to help me to develop online materials for the Library. Most of these materials will take the form of self-contained, online tutorials, which are essentially small scale "online courses". Therefore, I think that the content of this class will give me a better sense of the process and resources for creating more effective tutorials.

While I feel pretty proficient in the technical aspects of online instruction, there's plenty left to learn about the planning and design, from an educational standpoint. Ultimately, this course is another piece in the puzzle for creating effective and engaging online lessons for my work.