Just been at a metadata seminar where there was a lot of jargon! It was an interesting if at times overfull day. Good to hear what the Ozzies are up to and to wander around the thoughts of Gavan McCarthy who wondered about archiving and Douglas Campbell who deconstructed identifiers for us. Judith Pearce at the Australian National Library and Jane Hunter were impressive too. It was a full day with a lot to take in. Can’t help wondering about the energy that goes into sharing information in relation to the quality of content…….ah perhaps I had too much information.

Ah the more you know, the more help you get, the more you find.

I’ve made contact with a couple of mentors and it helps. It’s a nice analogy for life really - ya need someone to show you the ropes. Really it’s just like the first day at university, school or well, play group. If someone helps you out you get to know more.

I’m still finding the need to use information literacy skills pretty important, however. And in a sociological kind of way it’s interesting working out the aforementioned gender identifiers. In a group meeting I reckon I could spot the true men - they were the ones talking jargon. Or is that unkind? Perhaps we women were off changing our appearance again. LOL. But I found this - a comment on gender stereotyping in SL.

Uhoh last week I signed up for Second Life (SL). Apart from the fact that my avatar walks for miles and has only the occasional conversation and a few dances, she’s happy enough there. Yes, its a “she” and like a lot of Second Life that I have seen so far - gender stereotyping lives. Although of course that nice young American Goth I danced with may have been a little old white haired woman from China…..

It is entrancing, but my reputed aim for being there is to find out about educational opportunities. A bit like reading Playboy for the stories. I am loathe to wear my educator group name until I am sure I have visited every place I want to. Somehow having Kiwi Educator above my head doesn’t seem cool enough when I visit the Rastafarian sites or that groovy little nightclub….Maybe ’she’ has yet to learn how to turn it off and on. Or rise above the need to be cool……

There are educational sites there- and indeed the Centre for Digital Storytelling is present but a group unable to be joined at present (or is that more learning needed?).

Finding your way about is a true challenge and you have to know what to look for - so it’s information literacy all over again. Being able to read is supremely important - as it would seem, is talking English.

It’s an interesting time. I have seen that there is a group of storytellers so I’ll get along to meet them sometime soon too. Educational opportunities? Oh yes!