Last week was week 1 of out Spring semester, and was a busy teaching time for me. I was starting off the undergrad and postgrad versions of the Business Information module (my colleague Kendra Albright is coordinating the latter this time around, but she's doing project work in Africa at the moment), leading part of the first session of our new Inquiry in Information Mangement module, having the first session of the Information Literacy research module and also doing a short session on blogging in our Educational Informatics module. The good thing was that all of these are smallish classes (though as in particular the PGs are changing their choices, there's the issue of establishing who is in/out of a class). We use WebCT, which of course means more work managing that, but although I have many criticisms of WebCT, I HAVE now come to rely on it as well as part of my approach to teaching.
In a number of these sessions, a key task was asking students to create group mini-presentations on their existing knowledge/interests in the area. So, in the Inquiry in IM module, our first year BSc IM students were, individually and then in groups, mindmapping their current concepts of IM. There were similar exercises (though not involving mindmapping) in the Business Information and the IL Research modules. The postgraduate Business Information module is at least 50% international students, so people were able to contribute their observations on issues with business information in China, Poland, Greece and Zambia (for example, that businesses in Zambia were mostly owned by external investors, or the different cultures and market characteristics in different regions of China). These exercises help to raise issues for further discussion, and enable us to get to know the perspectives and knowledge of students.
In a number of these sessions, a key task was asking students to create group mini-presentations on their existing knowledge/interests in the area. So, in the Inquiry in IM module, our first year BSc IM students were, individually and then in groups, mindmapping their current concepts of IM. There were similar exercises (though not involving mindmapping) in the Business Information and the IL Research modules. The postgraduate Business Information module is at least 50% international students, so people were able to contribute their observations on issues with business information in China, Poland, Greece and Zambia (for example, that businesses in Zambia were mostly owned by external investors, or the different cultures and market characteristics in different regions of China). These exercises help to raise issues for further discussion, and enable us to get to know the perspectives and knowledge of students.
So, finally to the "new search engine". I've also been updating material for Monday's Business Information lab, which includes looking at what search engines are useful for. One place I recommend to students, and use myself, is Karen Blakeman's blog at http://www.rba.co.uk/rss/blog.htm. She regularly posts the "top ten tips" of the participants in her training sessions. This alerted me to a metasearch engine that I really ought to have known about & which I immediately saw the use of, as it enables you to switch between many of the useful engines quickly AND you can tweak your search at each individual engine easily. This is Crossengine at http://www.crossengine.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Catkins in the snow, Feb 2007 (snow has melted now).
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