Voting Tools

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Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

The Vote Master is a tool in Teen Second Life the teens are using to vote with on a theme for Eye4You Alliance Island. They modified it by changing the text to fit the choices and scripted it so that when you make a choice, the box will grow and reflect how many people are voting for a particular theme.

Second Life is a great place to explore voting and having discussion about the candidates, debates, build contests, and more. If you are a regular SL’r, what might you judge a candidate on? Do we judge how well they come across on YouTube, if they are on MySpace or not, etc.

Here is some conversation from teens and adults about the Vote Master:
teen1: We will put this out by the telehub.
adult: I though we were going to let everyone use it
teen1: No i think we should just vote
teen2: And put floating text above it asking “Which of these island themes do you like the most?”.
teen:1 No I think we should just vote
teen2: Why can’t we let the public speak?
adult: who else has an interest in this?

teen1: Should we let teens vote
teen2: Yes.
adult: yes
teen1: Let teens vote
teen1: @:)
teen1: €Ok
adult: 🙂

Posted by Kelly Czarnecki

TechPresident.com

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The presidential candidates (at least some of them) are using social networking technologies in order to connect with potential voters. Candidates have MySpace spaces, Facebook pages, Flickr feeds, and blogs. They are finding social networking to be a good way to get their message out and hear from those who agree (and those who don’t) with their political positions. In the 2004 election presidential candidates honed in on how to use the web as a campaign tool. For the 2008 election the candidates are figuring out how to use social networking.

The web site techPresident has the full details on the candidate’s use of web 2.0 technologies in campaigning. The site provides a fascinating look at how social networking is changing and enhancing the political process. techPresident helps to demonstrate that social networking can be used positively to supply information, connect with others, and provide learning and thinking opportunities.

If the presidential candidates are using social networking to get their word out, it seems hard to believe that federal and state governments don’t see that positive aspects of these technologies exist. As you work to educate your community about social networking and how it can enhance and improve learning by teens, don’t forget to point out how politicians are already using the technologies. If online social networking is legislated so that these technologies are not available in schools and public libraries, teens will lose some opportunities to learn about the political process and to discuss that process with peers, teachers, and librarians.

Get Involved with YALSA

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Beth Yoke sent this email to YALSA Committee Chairs yesterday and it has lots of information on ways to get involved (or more involved) with YALSA. Check it out!

YALSA’s Board of Directors met at the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Listed below are some new programs and/or initiatives that the Board approved. There are some immediate opportunities for members and member groups to get involved, including serving on taskforces and contributing to a new YALSA wiki. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Judy or me. -Beth (byoke@ala.org)

Funds for presenting at conferences: the Board voted to set aside $1,000 annually to be used as stipends for members who wish to present YALSA programs at state and/or regional conferences. An ad-hoc committee of the Board will establish guidelines for applying for the stipend. The goal is to have the program in place by Annual 2007.

Expanding the Board of Directors: in response to the increased activity and number of initiatives YALSA is now implementing on an annual basis, the Board voted to put on the ballot a measure that would add two positions to the Board: a Secretary and another Director-at-Large. The membership will vote on this in the spring election.

2008 Midwinter Meeting:

Institute: Judy will appoint a taskforce to plan and implement an Institute for the 2008 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia. The topic of the Institute will be advocacy.

Social Event: Judy will appoint a separate taskforce to plan and implement a social event(s) which will include gaming.

YALSAWiki: At the 2006 Annual Conference the Board voted in favor of establishing a YALSA wiki. The Web Advisory Committee created guidelines for the wiki, which were adopted at the 2007 meeting in Seattle. The Web Advisory Committee is now charged with developing the wiki. Committees and other member groups may opt in and choose to develop and maintain their own section of the wiki. Contact Linda Braun, lbraun@leonline.com, for details.

New Student Scholarship: Judy will appoint a taskforce to develop a proposal for a new scholarship that will fund student member(s) travel to ALA’s Annual Conference and/or YALSA’s Young Adult Literature Symposium.

Proposed Nonfiction Award: Judy will appoint a taskforce to develop a proposal for an award for YA nonfiction.

20th Anniversary of the Edwards Award: Judy will appoint a taskforce that will plan a program for Annual 2008 that honors the anniversary. The taskforce will also explore other ways to celebrate the anniversary.

Programs for Annual 2008: The Board approved a preliminary slate of programs in concept for the conference in Anaheim. There is still room for a few more programs. If your committee or group wants to sponsor one, please turn in Form A as soon as possible. Form A is at:
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/aboutyalsa/yalsahandbook.htm