Final Project S603 Fall 2008 Natalie Baum Introduction This wiki was designed to supplement a presentation developed to teach librarians about the fascinating world of chocolate. Why would librarians need to know about chocolate? Aside from keeping a secret stash hidden in your desk drawer in case of emergency, librarians should realize that chocolate is a rich and multidimensional subject that incorporates history, economics, science, and medicine. This wiki will briefly cover the history of chocolate, hot topics or trends in the chocolate world today, and ways in which library media specialists, academic librarians, and public librarians might encounter or use this delicious topic in the library setting. Audience The primary audience for this site consists of librarians of all types who might be looking for further information on the topic. This program began as a live presentation to a group of student librarians discussing the topics mentioned in the PowerPoint below and included a hands-on demonstration of truffle making. A sample program for truffle making that can be used in a public library setting is also included in this site. Need Librarians, particularly school media specialists and public librarians, have such a wide variety of topics that they are requested to have near expert knowledge of. This program introduces many resources that librarians can use and gets them thinking about different ways to incorporate specialized topics into broader applications. Specifically, the truffle making program presented in the Public Library Program section of this site challenges librarians and patrons to participate in the creation of chocolate. A self-assessment tool is provided on that page, as well, so that learners can judge their truffle making skills. Ultimately, however, success is determined by a delicious creation. Technology Effectiveness The programs presented in this project will engage a wide variety of learning styles. There is heavy text, appealing to readers, but there are some visuals as well. The candy making part of the program will appeal to hands on learners. In addition, I have used the collaborative Google Sites/Wiki program to allow for interaction among other librarians who might come across this topic and have further information to share. In "A New Model for Education: Designing Virtual Communities for Creativity and Learning," Ted Kahn describes a new model of education in which the line is blurring between students, teachers, and other stakeholders. Collaborative spaces allow a greater dialogue to flourish, enriching the experience for all involved, not just students. Technology Issues After starting out this project with a Wikispaces site, I abandoned it in favor of a Google Site due to the more professional look and feel of Google sites and my overall comfort level with Google Docs and other Google applications I have used before. I did run into some issues, however. Embedding the timeline was very easy on Wikispaces but impossible on Google sites due to coding issues. This frustrated me for hours until I figured out I couldn't do it. Even being fairly familiar with Google, there was a bit of a learning curve. If I had seen the Google Site About Google Sites beforehand, however, I might have been more at ease and struggled less. Technology Elements For this project, I utilized four technology elements:
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