LIT Reflections: Teaching Information Literacy

new blog

2006-02-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

You might be interested in OA Librarian, a new, cooperatively produced weblog, which combines a pathfinder function with news and commentary on open access and librarianship: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com

BTW, this will be the last post here unless someone cries out otherwise. No response from GSC folks and I'm taking this down on Feb. 28th.

AEM

Dana's Teaching Philosophy

2005-11-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

Like many in academia, I was never trained to be a teacher and have had to seek out models and pedagogy, such as those found in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips, to guide my efforts. Because of my subject matter, relying solely on lecture is out of the question. You have to show students how do it, tell them why, let them try and then act as an editor/trouble-shooter to help them finally understand the processes. As such many of efforts have been given over to supplementing the occasional lecture with both class discussion (an art I am still perfecting) and hands on activities. These activities include opportunities to look at the known world through different lenses, such as the Information Organization activity that students complete in a grocery store, as well as chances to get hands on experience with computer programs. One cannot teach people how to do research and package information by simple talking to them about it. And yet learning to package information is not only about learning how to use the software but also learning when to use it.

I find myself in a somewhat ironic situation, an academic who champions the appropriate use of technology. I say “ironic” because in my experience academia usually responds to technology in two ways: they love it and attempt to apply it to every situation; or they hate it and thwart every attempt at introduction. And so, you end up with are those teachers who hide behind their Power Point presentations just as readily as they hid behind their podiums or those who refuse to utilize the wealth of information available electronically because the packaging is not tangible.

Don’t think for a moment, however, that I am without sympathy for both of these groups. Yet the desire to hide nor the frustration with having technology backfire on you when you least expect it, are surely not enough to make a teacher fall short in their calling. And that is what happens when all you get is a bunch of slides or no pictures at all when someone is describing a cathedral window…the teacher fails to teach. I cannot imagine a more frustrating situation for both the teacher and the student.

Indeed, I feel like now, more than ever, the teacher must rely on a rather old fashioned rule to avoid this frustration. THE RULE, if you will, is the first lesson I learned about presentations, and it wasn’t taught to me by my speech teacher but came from my father, a man who worked for years in the business world as an instructor. When I was preparing my first speech for my first speech class, he told me to first “know my audience!”

This rule has resonated with me as I have watched professional speakers turn what surely could have been an interesting or at the very least controversial lecture into painfully boring experiences. Indeed it has haunted me in my own experiences when, while reconstructing the format of my classes, I have lost sight of the objective of student learning while trying to implement a model. Know your audience. It seems so simple and yet in a time when everyone seems to focus on what’s on the projector, knowing your audience is surely the way to make sure that you, at least, remain focused on the right thing, the student.

Teaching requires more than being an expert in your field. To teach is to make what seems difficulty easy. To teach is to remember what is was like before you “knew”. And while we teachers and professors maybe divided according to how many years we’ve taught, what degrees we’ve earned, and what age groups we work with, we are bound by our calling, one that few hear or understand. In this time of budget woes and ever technological changes, it is pertinent that we do not lose sight of our calling. We must, as teachers, know who are audience is so that then we may appropriately utilize these fantastic technologies and finally do what we are here to do.

10 points about IM in Libraries

2005-11-03T13:17:00.000-05:00

from Librarian in Black. I'd be interested in feedback about the use of IM/Yahoo here. I know that this has been discussed before, but I wasnt around. :)

23.10.05 # 10 points about IM in libraries

Here’s a barebones distillation of IM in libraries. I’m going to use it as a starting point for my upcoming cybertour at IL 2005.

1. Instant Messaging is free (minus staff time)

2. Millions of our patrons use IM every day.

3. For some, not being available via IM is like not having a telephone number.

4. There are three major IM networks (AIM, Y!M, MSN)

5. Y!M and MSN will be interoperable at some point.

6. Trillian is a multi-network IM client, meebo is a web-based multi-network client. Use them.

7. Having practice sessions in-house is a good way to get staff excited about IM in libraries.

8. Staff can communicate in-house using IM.

9. Libraries can choose to have one IM point of contact, or they can choose to divide it departmentally.

10. IM is user-centered and builds relationships with library users.

Competing with Google

2005-11-03T12:56:00.000-05:00

Internet Librarian: Competing with Google: Library Strategies
Interesting commentary on how we compete and why we're good. Funny, smacks alot of what I tell my students. :)

Library Instruction Wiki

2005-11-03T12:47:00.000-05:00

http://instructionwiki.org/Main_Page

I haven't had a chance to really look around yet, but it might be interesting.

d.

Ain't your momma's Digital Divide

2005-11-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

So Many Digital Divides to Bridge, So Little Time (and Resources and Money and Staff and....)

This morning it occurred to me that perhaps I need to develop a pretest for 1502, so that I can begin the class with a better understand of where my students stand in relation to technology, techno speak and the like. This excerpt brings to mind that perhaps a pretest for Faculty wouldn't hurt either, before we get carried away with the Hybrid -madness. (I liken it to Reefer-madness via "Blackboard Jungle"....imagine Sidney Portier saying it.)

Technology and the new class divide
Meanwhile, this guy thinks it's new news. Check out the discussion connected to the article. If you can wade through all the irrelevant commentary, there are a couple of intersting ideas. For instance is the issue one of relevance. People have no problem getting a cell phone (which can be expensive for both service and equipment) so why not a computer with an internet connection?

Another debate of tech.

2005-11-03T12:24:00.000-05:00

Blogs Vs. Wikis Presentation

In the midst of the ongoing debate about Wiki's, Blogs etc and their legitimacy, i thought a quick breakdown would be useful. I am continually surprised by the division between what students say and what students do.

2005-11-03T12:16:00.000-05:00

URL: 20 Technology Skills Every Librarian Should Have

I'm a big fan of the Shifted Librarian, and like the encouragement to replace librarian with educator. Perhaps if we are lookinging for topics for Tres Mondays. :)

Official Google Blog: Discovering hard-to-find books

2005-11-03T09:21:00.000-05:00

FYI

Official Google Blog: Discovering hard-to-find books

Innovate Article: Five Roles I Play in Online Courses

2005-11-03T08:53:00.000-05:00

For those of you who taught 1501 this semester... Five Roles I Play in Online Courses

How do you think you did in these roles? Which role was the hardest to play? Was there another role that you would give yourself in regards to teaching online?

Inspiration

2005-11-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

I had the students create an inspiration diagram of their life at the beginning of the course.
They could look at their interests and help the decide what project they could work on.

I had two females that did not want to work on campus at the end of class because their free trial had expired. I think that was a personal preference.

Most of the students indicated this helped them format an idea.
I gave bonus points but would like this to be worked into the regular points of the class.

RH - Questions to rework:

2005-11-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

In the Read A Citation document, I would like to change from 3 questions about periodicals and include an EBook from GIL and another book format.

In the GIL search the catalog document, I would like to change the way question 1 and the last question read to state they must list the results, not just count them. Even give a 1.2.3.4.5. space to write if we need to.

In the REF document, we talked about creating a storehouse of questions that could be rotated.
For next year I think we should add political questions.
I found information about presidents this week:
Who were the families that had more than one relation elected as president?
Father son: Adams, Bush
Cousins: Roosevelts
It needs to be stated clearly at the top and bottom of this document that Internet sources are not accepted.

Homan thoughts on redwesign of WebCT

2005-11-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I was collecting all documents and grades to complete the class, I decided I would like to reformat the class for spring.

I would like to make assignments available by weekly groupings,
I would like to be able to turn on Introduction and Week 1, and have others hidden,
I would like to be able to turn off Intro and turn on Week 2 if anyone would like to work ahead,
I would like to reword questions to give more explicit instructions - guys did not figure out what was obvious to the females.
I would like to supplement each week with media samples - I know everything is changing namewise and more databases will be available. I will get to some but maybe not all at the beginning of Spring 2006.
I would like to create weekly practice tests that would help students retain information. They would be self-grading and allow students to retake them until the make 100. Do not think they should be worth more than 1 pt each in total class grades.

We have a wide range of students at Oconee that have been to other campuses and have experienced WebCT. They are familiar with the outline of the class and are successful in the course. The students with little or no background are the ones having problems. I would like to require an entrance exam. If they cannot understand the terminology or technology then they should not take the class. This is probably not enforcable.

That is my nickel for Friday's information sharing. Have a great day!

Hey, nobody asked me...

2005-10-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

Thoughts on Simmons's "Librarians as Discipline Discourse Mediators",

Doesn't the idea behind "evaluation" include "helping students examine and question the social, economic and political context..."? I'm not sure I agree with her assertion that research is collecting meaning. I can't help but believe that the meaning comes after the information, like knowledge. As such I disagree with the idea that research is about finding a "Truth" and more about finding ones own truths. I also think that deriding the discipline for not having classes about the distribution of information and politics of information is a little unfair. I find that Academia often follows behind the real world when it comes to the types of classes/discourses it provides. As such I think it's a little premature after only a decade of having information as a recognized commodity to suddenly say, "hey, where are the classes?" (And what is the deal with the word dialogic? I thought we already had dialectic.... Sigh.)

How can information literacy presuppose the acquisition of technical skills? Isn't that a bit elitist? There may be a point in the future when this is true, but that time is not now. So what happens to all those people without the technical skills? (Of course, if the college would test technical skills they way they test math ability and writing ability....) Also, I love how she just accepts the self absorption of the disciplines. I'm sorry, that'? a soap box of mine. Why does it fall to the librarians to be the translators. Here I thought that a good teacher would learn to communicate to her students, but is suppose they don't have to if the librarians are around.

(Do you think information science and library science have been bifurcated? I think it's a false wall at this point.)

Google Print Lawsuit

2005-10-04T09:58:00.000-04:00

Here's an entry from Google's official blog that I thought you should read: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/google-print-and-authors-guild.html

Ideas to think about: Does Google Print take us closer to the death of paper books and newspaper? What do you think about the idea of intellectual property rights and the digital world? Should access to all information be "free"? If so, who foots the bill - cause you know not many things in life are really free? If not, how do you handle the gap between those who have (can afford it) and those who have not?

Media in the classroom

2005-09-20T16:07:00.000-04:00

I am creating a list of webcams, streaming media, etc from internet resources.
Please send me other sites http://www.gc.peachnet.edu/library/rhoman/Video.pdf

John and I are supposed to do a workshop Oct 18 for staff development day.
THANKS

Have you explored?

2005-08-16T17:32:00.000-04:00

Has anyone looked at www.redlightgreen.com? If so, what did you think?

After the craziness of the semester beginning is over you might want to play in http://www.A9.com and http://www.scirus.com to interesting versions of search engines.

Library Instruction - and the beat goes on

2005-08-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

This is a resent post from a listserv I subscribe to, a lot of it should look familiar, and I'm curious for others opinions of these issues.

"From: Kim Ranger [mailto:rangerk@gvsu.edu]

Is alleviating library anxiety a valid reason for staying with a librarian-taught single-session instruction model for first-year
(composition) students, instead of moving to a "teach the teachers" model?

The latter would involve the librarians teaching the instructors how to best use the tools we've created for the students: an online tutorial; a guided research worksheet (for finding, citing, and evaluating different types of sources); subject resource pages which bring together the librarian contact info, online catalog, databases, websites, and other tools; plus our various methods of "ask a librarian" reference.

I'd like us to move toward the following, which would necessitate "freeing up" the librarians' time: map IL in the curriculum; concentrate on improving subject liaison knowledge; do more upper-level and graduate library instruction; design instruction, assignments, and grading criteria in concert with classroom faculty, based on student learning objectives; choose, modify, or create assessment tools for measuring IL; reach out to new audiences: recruitment at high schools, working with industries/employers.

Yet I don't want to take away resources from first-year students. What are your thoughts and opinions?"

I know that there has been much discussion about moving toward teaching the teachers rather than teaching the students, in an effort to incorporate more fully the ideals behind info literacy (or fluency, as I heard it recently addressed) into the curriculum. I know that we would all like the professors/teachers to keep us in the loop when it comes to assignments that we are, in turn, expected to help students complete. I know that we understand that students learn how to work with information better when given a context. I know that we would like for our faculty to take an interest in what tools the library has to offer. I wonder though, if sometimes, in an effort to make others value what we do and who we are as librarians, we don't undervalue these things ourselves. I wonder if we, as librarians, can/should continue to take on these old, systemic problems if the cost is who we are and what we do. Especially if no one else seems interested in the change.

Google using Humans?

2005-06-03T12:41:00.000-04:00

http://www.searchbistro.com/index.php?/archives/19-Google-Secret-Lab,-Prelude.html

Yahoo's Slider Makes Commercial vs. Informational Dichotomy Overt

2005-06-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.traffick.com/2005/05/yahoos-slider-makes-commercial-vs.asp

Clip from Search Engine Watch

2005-06-01T17:21:00.000-04:00

"New Interface Available: Search Only Material in the Google Print Database [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050526-184606]
May. 26, 2005 - Google has just released a Google Print "only" interface, allowing you to easily search material print materials that have been digitized. More details on how it works, in this post. See also the follow-up post, SafeSearch Doesn't Work On Google Print & Can Full Book Preview Prevention Be Hacked? [http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050527-111111]"

EPIC 2014

2005-05-26T14:22:00.000-04:00

Dana saw this (http://epic.chalksidewalk.com/) on LibrarianinBlack (Great blog if you aren't rss subscribed to this you should). I love it and am going to work it into my RSCH1502 class in the Fall. I've had them do a blog entry on what they thought doing research would look like in 20 years. I think this time I'll have them view this and watch Desk Set and write a reaction paper...not sure yet. Still brainstorming.

library publicity

2005-05-10T09:05:00.000-04:00

http://lbr.library-blogs.net/

In other words, an effective marketing campaign understands that positive word-of-mouth is a great gift -- but it is no accident. We must actively involve ourselves in making sure it happens.And therein lies an important distinction that Linda Wallace brought out later in the seminar: the difference between "word-of-mouth" and "word-of-mouth marketing". "Word-of-mouth" can just be a lot of aimless talking about our services and how great we are, but "word-of-mouth marketing" means actively working to get our patrons involved in spreading the word in a consistent, ongoing fashion. Wallace listed five "must-haves" for good word-of-mouth marketing:
Good product, great customer service
A clear and memorable message
A prepared and committed sales folks (yep, that's **all of us**)
People willing to testify ("One patron willing to share their experience is worth 10 library staff. Ask patrons who are pleased if you may quote them." -- something tutor.com does very well
A plan (Wallace recommends George Silverman's books on the topic) At this point, Buff Hirko jumped in to emphasize the point about good customer service being contagious.

new books posted with rss

2005-05-10T08:56:00.000-04:00

Check out this exciting website!!

http://www.library.ualberta.ca/newbooks/lc/index.cfm

check the campus weblog http://weblogs.ucalgary.ca/about

Interesting ideas!!

Quiet arount here!

2005-05-03T13:40:00.000-04:00

It suddenly got very quiet on this blog...time of the semester or just not a good form of communication for us?

Anyway, I'm sitting here protoring my final exam and catching up on all my blog readings. Discovered http://print.google.com/ Have you checked it out yet?