Introduce yourself!

Facilitation
,
#47

Hello,

My name is Margaret Richlin. I’m a librarian at the Seminole Heights Branch Library in Tampa, FL.
Creating programs is a passion of mine, specifically those geared towards adults. However, I recently transferred to a new branch and am motivated to use learning circles as a way to get to know my library community a little better. I am interested in trying out new and exciting topics with a diverse population. I am also interested in exploring the role of facilitator. I look forward to using P2PU as a resource to find valuable educational material and of course to network and learn from all of you!

1 Like
#48

I am Melissa Walker and I work in Tampa, FL for the North Tampa Branch but live in Clearwater, FL. I would love to implement a Learning Circle and have attendees. If these attendees are able to reach personal goals and enrich their lives that will be even better. I want to spend more time talking to my patrons and community to determine what they want out of their library. I know that getting people into programs is ALWAYS the hardest part, but it seems especially difficult with this longer commitment and unique delivery.

1 Like
#49

Hello! My name is Erica Colon and I am new to this world of facilitating learning circles! Right now, I’m trying to figure out what type of learning circle would be successful at our library, based on community needs…but also based on a topic that would interest me as well…Any ideas on chosing the right course? Should it be something you are very interested in…something your community needs or somewhere in between? Has anyone tried a course on ‘Learning how to Learn’? My goals for the next few months would include choosing a course that will be of interest to our community and implementation a my first learning circle. Any tips for newbies are appreciated!

1 Like
#50

I’m Louthoria Yazzie and I work in Tampa, FL at the New Tampa Regional Library. My goals for the next 2-3 months is to actively help my team mates in factiliating a learning circle at our branch. I would ultimately like to start and complete a learning circle of my own soon after. The gaps I foresee for our branch is attendance. It can fluctuate depending on the time of year and day depending on if school is in session. So another goal would be to set up an interactive display in order to understand my audience more.

1 Like
#51

Hi, I’m Andre. I work at the Maureen B Gauzza Library. I look forward to developing some new programs around the learning circle format and gauge community interest in local learning opportunities. Using the Q method that has been shown, we can survey the community to measure interest in a variety of topics that can be applied to this template. As for gaps, advertising and cultivating community awareness and maintaining attendance would be the largest key factors in making sure that it is a successful model.

1 Like
#52

Hi! My name is Alexandria Mesa and I am a librarian with the Mobile Services department for the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. My goal is to see how the learning circles can be implemented into our coming technology bus classes. I am excited that it will allow us to have a wider variety of classes and not require us all to be experts in the material but rather be facilitators of the material. I think the greatest challenges are figuring out how to adapt the courses for our particular stops and stop residents to be most useful and not challenging other than the course content! I also see there are classes in Spanish but I wonder how those can be done by someone that is not 100% fluent in the language to still facilitate successfully.

1 Like
#53

I’m Dawn Dvorak. I’m a librarian with Tampa-Hillsborough County Libraries, and I’m hoping to start a learning circle early next year. I’m hoping to partner with others in the organization so we can learn from each other while facilitating a learning circle.

1 Like
#54

Hello, my name is Michael and I’m from Tampa, Fl.
My goal is to create some effective learning circles which will be interesting and will be of importance to the people who will be participating. The goal is that the parricipants will take away something that will make a positive impact in their lives.

The activities have not been decided yet, but an idea I have is language learning.

1 Like
#55

Hey all!
I’m Kal from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System. As a member of one of our library’s support teams, I hope to offer staff assistance on how to facilitate and develop learning circles. I also like the idea of using this model to develop staff trainings. I’m going to participate in an upcoming staff learning circle and try to spend more time on the website. Getting staff buy in is the only gap I foresee.
Thanks and nice to meet you!

1 Like
#56

My name is Elizabeth Hagger and I hail from Citrus Park! I currently work at the Jimmie B Keel Regional Library in Tampa, Florida. I am hoping to implement learning circles in my branch to help cultivate creativity and socialization in my community.

I plan to explore the resources made available by P2PU to begin planning and advertising for my Coro me.

Some issues or blind spots I foresee are encouraging attendance to the program. Finding a date and time that works best for the community can be difficult? As can regular attendance. However, the biggest one is the possibility that these circles may not be conducive to those that are introverted and looking to learn, but not necessarily share.

1 Like
#57

My name is Susannah Borysthen-Tkacz. I am a librarian at Cambridge Public Library. Last fall I launched our library’s first Learning Circles using Lynda online courses (accessed with a library card) for the curricula. So far I have facilitated: Wordpress.com Essential Training, Basics of HTML, and Introduction to 3D Printing with Tinkercad. I look forward to running another successful season of Learning Circles this fall, and I hope to motivate other staff members here to become facilitators. In the meantime, I’ll look to this community for ideas and advice!

1 Like
#58

Hello, I’m Katherine Lato, VP of Communications of Partners Bridging the Digital Divide (pbdd.org), a nonprofit that supports and encourages agencies working to bridge the digital divide. Ever since I learned about p2pu and peer-to-peer learning circles at the June 2016 NDIA conference, I’ve discussed setting up a class to better be able to encourage their use by our partners at Partners Bridging the Digital Divide. In early 2018, I facilitated Maintaining a Mindful Life, a four-week class to learn how to apply mindfulness techniques from Future Learn. We finished our session with all seven original participants completing all of the course material. The majority said that it was the weekly class get-togethers that helped motivate them to keep doing the course material and practicing. We documented our experience at http://pbdd.org/white-paper-experience-learning-circles/

I also attended the Kansas City workshop and am glad to be part of this community.

1 Like
#59

I’m David J. Rosen. I have been the evaluator of the P2PU- and World Education-sponsored English Now! pilot project for adult immigrants on waiting lists for English language classes. The pilot project took place in 2017 and 2018 at five adult education programs in the Northeast of the United States, in Rhode Island, Maine and in Massachusetts.

I am a longtime fan of study circles, and recently of learning circles, which I think are study circles with a blended (online and face-to-face) learning model.

I am the President of Newsome Associates, a small consulting firm with a focus on adult basic skills education, or non-formal education, in the U.S. and in other countries. http://newsomeassociates.com djrosen123@gmail.com

2 Likes
#60

Hi, My name is Dario Oturi and I am a librarian with Kenya National library Services Kisumu branch a Public Library. My goal is to see how the learning circles can be improve computer literacy to our coming technology bus classes. I am excited that it will allow us to have a wider variety of knowledge skills in our classes and not require us all to be experts in the material but rather be facilitators of the material. I think the greatest challenges are figuring out how to adapt the courses for the benefit of our particular students and learners residents to be most useful and not challenging other than the course content! I wish The courses would offer jobs to most of the jobless youths within our localities…

1 Like
#61

Hello Dario,

I have worked with several adult literacy programs that have designed digital literacy classes. Some create their own digital literacy curriculum: others use a free or proprietary online curriculum: still others customize an existing online digital literacy skills curriculum. If you would like to see a list of free online digital literacy curriculum sites let me know.

David J. Rosen

1 Like
#62

Hello David,

I would like to see a list of free online digital literacy curriculum sites

#63

Hi David, My name is Steve and I facilitate a learning circle in Siaya, Kenya. Until I met this community, I was going through a hard time trying to help my local community in basic computer and digital literacy. Sherry introduced me to GCFLearn free and I have seen the best results.

1 Like
#64

@Dario, I am glad that someone in a nearby City is in the P2PU fraternity and has seen the benefits thanks to P2PU Community. The other day I was referred to a great site that is interactive and easy to use by Sherry and Nico Koening and I assure you that i really appreciate their work. I am in a learning centre in Siaya and would be glad to visit the library and see your library at your invitation.
Steve

1 Like
#65

my name is Amy Dia am the Assistant librarian lira public library.we had are workshop in mukono,Uganda that motivated me.I would like get more skill in ICT and how to facilitate a learning circle,i have not learnt much but ready to get more ideas.

1 Like
An overview of P2PU's community for new users
#66

Mambo Dario,

We created a brief list here: Basic Computer Literacy
Let us know if these are of use to you or if you have others that work better,

Great to see this work continue at KNLS!

Nico

1 Like