The report identifies three "key business objectives" for library services: Commissioning, Access and information/knowledge services staffing. Information literacy is the only subsection within Access. The associated outcome is that "Library/knowledge services provide opportunities to develop information literacy and evidence based health skills. ... All those who work to improve patient and population health are aware of pertinent services and resources and know how to use them." The goals include developing a national information literacy curriculum and "Training should be provided by staff that have completed a teaching skills course" Close liaison with higher education and public libraries is recommended. You can find both the Framework document and the review of library services at http://www.library.nhs.uk/aboutnlh/review
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Health libraries review/ framework
The report identifies three "key business objectives" for library services: Commissioning, Access and information/knowledge services staffing. Information literacy is the only subsection within Access. The associated outcome is that "Library/knowledge services provide opportunities to develop information literacy and evidence based health skills. ... All those who work to improve patient and population health are aware of pertinent services and resources and know how to use them." The goals include developing a national information literacy curriculum and "Training should be provided by staff that have completed a teaching skills course" Close liaison with higher education and public libraries is recommended. You can find both the Framework document and the review of library services at http://www.library.nhs.uk/aboutnlh/review
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Free information literacy research event 13 August
Centre for Information Literacy Research: summer event
Date: August 13th 2008, 1.30-4pm (You can attend for just part of the programme if they wish)
Place: Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Regent Court building, Regent Street, Sheffield (see http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/visitors/
mapsandtravel/university_big.html (Building 166 at G3) or http://tinyurl.com/5tmfyz (Multimap)
Description: This free half day event presents a keynote from a visiting academic plus reports on research and activities in progress. With a focus on higher education, the talks will appeal to anyone interested in information literacy in different disciplines and contexts. . Email information.literacy.research@googlemail.com if you would like to attend so that we can order the right number of teas and coffees for the break!
Sessions as follows (a little more info is here)
Welcome (from me) and keynote from Dr Yazdan Mansourian, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Tarbiat Moallem University, Iran: Implications of the information visibility model in information literacy research and practice. Phussadee Dokphrom Information Literacy of undergraduate students in Silpakorn University Geography Department: emerging findings. Phussadee Dokphrom will report on findings from her doctoral research into information literacy at Silpakorn University (Thailand).
Helen Dobson, University of Manchester Library and MA Librarianship programme Evaluating Information Literacy at the University of Manchester.
Date: August 13th 2008, 1.30-4pm (You can attend for just part of the programme if they wish)
Place: Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, Regent Court building, Regent Street, Sheffield (see http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/visitors/
mapsandtravel/university_big.html (Building 166 at G3) or http://tinyurl.com/5tmfyz (Multimap)
Description: This free half day event presents a keynote from a visiting academic plus reports on research and activities in progress. With a focus on higher education, the talks will appeal to anyone interested in information literacy in different disciplines and contexts. . Email information.literacy.research@googlemail.com if you would like to attend so that we can order the right number of teas and coffees for the break!
Sessions as follows (a little more info is here)
Welcome (from me) and keynote from Dr Yazdan Mansourian, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Tarbiat Moallem University, Iran: Implications of the information visibility model in information literacy research and practice. Phussadee Dokphrom Information Literacy of undergraduate students in Silpakorn University Geography Department: emerging findings. Phussadee Dokphrom will report on findings from her doctoral research into information literacy at Silpakorn University (Thailand).
Helen Dobson, University of Manchester Library and MA Librarianship programme Evaluating Information Literacy at the University of Manchester.
Maryam Nazari Conceptions of GIS (Geographic Information Systems/Science) and implications for information literacy.
Pam McKinney, Learning Development and Research Associate (Information Literacy), Centre for Inquiry Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences. Inquiry Based Learning and Information Literacy: a report on CILASS experiences.
Seminar in Philippines
The PNU-LISAA, Inc has organised a 2-day seminar-workshop on Information Literacy power packages on September 10-11, 2008 at the Library Conference Room, Edilberto P. Dagot Hall, Philippine Normal University, the Philippines. "Through this seminar-workshop, the Association aims to share and enrich the knowledge of fellow professionals and library personnel on information literacy with customers’ competencies in mind through: (1) introducing information literacy as a power tool in the discovery for best practices enriching customers’ library experience; (2) apply professional assessment procedures in upgrading customers’ information literacy; and, (3) create relevant library information literacy plans and packages."
The fee is 3,000 Pesos; cheque payable to Philippine Normal University-Library and Information Science Alumni Assoc. (PNU-LISAA), Inc., with account number: 470378972, or email with enquiries to Roderick B. Ramos, President, Philippine Normal University, ramospnulisaa@yahoo.com
The fee is 3,000 Pesos; cheque payable to Philippine Normal University-Library and Information Science Alumni Assoc. (PNU-LISAA), Inc., with account number: 470378972, or email with enquiries to Roderick B. Ramos, President, Philippine Normal University, ramospnulisaa@yahoo.com
Monday, July 28, 2008
ISTE standards
NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/
2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm and the top lines are that teachers should:
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility
5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
There are also various other NETS publications that you can download free at http://www.iste.org/AM/
Template.cfm?Section=NETS Notably, the NETS for students 2007 ed. identifies five areas and lists performance indicators for each, as listed below. The age of students specified is 4-18 (i.e. pre-tertiary education). I have copied more detail about the third standard since it has the most obvious overlap with information literacy. An issue for me would be: how do these relate to various other frameworks (particularly for information literacy) and: aren't they rather wide ranging? Even leaving aside the issue of information literacy, I think that I would want to facilitate development of critical thinking with technology alongside critical thinking generally. Lots of scope for discussion here - but also resources to explore (e.g. there is a wiki with some examples). The students' standards are:
1. Creativity and Innovation ("Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. ")
2. Communication and Collaboration ("Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. ")
3. Research and Information Fluency. "Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students
a. "plan strategies to guide inquiry.
b. "locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.
c. "evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
d. "process data and report results."
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making ("Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.")
5. Digital Citizenship ("Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.")
There is an accompanying "profile" document which identifies some indicative attainments for particular age groups.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Social networking resource on Netvibes
The pages are at http://www.netvibes.com/sheilawebber
I identified social networking tools as ones which had been primarily designed for social interaction and sharing - so I excluded Web 2.0 applications like wikis which are more focusd on collaboration, and blogs which from the start were not only social networking tools. There is a general page with some general information and links, then a page each on Microblogging (e.g. Twitter), Facebook etc, and virtual worlds (the latter page has "entrances" to 2 Google Lively rooms and then just a couple of links to do with Second Life - I don't see SL as just a social networking tool either).
Any feeedback on the Netvibes pages welcome. I'm not sure at the moment whether I'll keep them up to date or not, but I think the various links there should work for a while yet.
Photos by Sheila Webber: The conference was at Liverpool University, opposite Penny Lane (as in the Beatles song)
Plagiarism survey
Mandy Cumbridge, Learning & Research Support Co-ordinator (School of Arts), City University, has a survey on academic librarians involvement in teaching students about avoiding plagiarism: go to
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2ik_
2bwPgG1oiVGU65Wj5_2fdg_3d_3d
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=2ik_
2bwPgG1oiVGU65Wj5_2fdg_3d_3d
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Art libraries and information literacy
- A 43 page document (updated most recently July 2007): Information Competencies for Students in Design Disciplines at http://www.arlisna.org/resources/
onlinepubs/informationcomp.pdf
- A 6 page report from the Art Libraries Society of North America conference 2007, covering talks from the session called Communication and Collaboration: Working with Faculty for Information Fluency http://www.arlisna.org/news/conferences/
2007/proceedings/ses_02.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Approaching the art exhibition on Cockatoo island, Sydney, Australia, June 2008.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Talks by Dr AnneMaree Lloyd in Sweden
1) 28 August, 1:15 PM - 3:00 PM, Gothenburg University. Lessons from the workplace: Information literacy as practice. "Drawing from social and practice theory, and from empirical research into workplace information literacy, this presentation will explore the role of IL in the construction of workplace knowledge and consider the challenge this poses for researchers and educators and information practitioners." More info: http://www.ipd.gu.se/ViewPage.action?site
NodeId=421800&languageId=100001&contentId
=-1&refresh=true&eventId=1764746908
2) 29 August, 10-12.00. Drawing from others: Ways of knowing about information literacy performance. More info at http://etjanst.hb.se/hb/kalendarium/bhs.asp#998
Photo by Sheila Webber: Great Keppel Island, June 2008
Infolit blog feeds
I have put together a page of feeds to various information-literacy related blogs using Pageflakes. It is a work in progress (suggestions welcome) and I haven't been able to link to some things which are useful because of problems in getting a feed. Still there are some "personal" and association (e.g. ACRL) weblogs which deal centrally with infolit, feeds from a couple of discussion lists, selected blogs in associated areas (web 2.0 and education) and feeds from a couple of journals. The page is at http://www.pageflakes.com/informationliteracy
In fact my original purpose was to import this page into Second Life (SL, the virtual world), taking advantage of a tool (the Daden Navigator) that allows some interactivity with web pages inworld, but it turns out that SL can't cope with Pageflakes pages. Still, I hope the page can still be useful in the normal webosphere.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Yet more papers
- Carol Kuhlthau: From Information to Meaning: Confronting Challenges of the Twenty-first Century
- Stefan Ek and Gunilla Widen-Wulff: Information Mastering, Perceived Health and Societal Status: An Empirical Study of the Finnish Population
- Louise Limberg et al: What Matters? Shaping Meaningful Learning through Teaching Information Literacy
- Anna Lundh and Louise Limberg: Information Practices in Elementary School
- David Streatfield and Sharon Markless: Evaluating the Impact of Information Literacy in Higher Education: Progress and Prospects
- Helen Partridge et al: Community Information Literacy: Developing an Australian Research Agenda
- Lynn Connaway et al: Sense-Making and Synchronicity: Information-Seeking Behaviors of Millennials and Baby Boomers
Thanks also to Jacqui Weetman DaCosta who alerted the lis-infoliteracy list that issue 114 (Summer 2008) of New Directions for Teaching and Learning is devoted to information literacy. The journal home page is at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/
journal/86011233/home
Jacqui also mentioned 2 new books:
Cook, D. and Sittler, R. (eds) Practical pedagogy for library instructors: 17 innovative strategies to improve student learning. Chicago: ACRL, 2008
Cox, C.N. and Lindsay, E.B. (eds) Information literacy instruction handbook. Chicago: ACRL, 2008.
I think that they are also the publishers of Christine Bruce's new book which comes out later this year.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Great Keppel Island, Australia, June 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
LOEX 2009
The 2009 LOEX Conference (the major US information literacy conference) will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 30 - May 2, 2009. See http://www.emich.edu/public/loex/conferences.html
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Infolit papers at the World Library and Information Congress
Firstly, there is a substantial session on Wednesday 13th August organised by the Information Literacy and Academic and Research Libraries IFLA Sections. Return on investment: learners’ outcomes in information literacy. Do they really learn?
- Indicators on ‘information literacy’ and the Information for All programme; a challenge for libraries by Simon Ellis (Head of Science Culture and Communications, UNESCO Institute for Statistics) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/134-Ellis-en.pdf
- Quels enseignements retenir de l'évaluation des competences documentaires des étudiants qui accèdent à l’enseignement supérieur en Communauté française de Belgique? by Bernard Pochet (Gembloux Agricultural University, Gembloux, Belgium) and Paul Thirion (Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/134-Pochet-Thirion-fr.pdf
- Could learners outcomes in information literacy be measured: pluses and minuses of testing by Natalia Gendina (Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts, Kemerovo, Russian Federation) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/134-Gendina-en.pdf
- More than mere collections: portfolio’s as direct and authentic - assessment of information literacy outcomes by Barbara D'Angelo (Arizona State University, Mesa, USA) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/134-Dangelo-en.pdf
- We have evidence, they are learning: using multiple assessments to measure student information literacy learning outcomes by Gabriela Sonntag (California State University in San Marcos, San Marcos, USA) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/134-Sonntag-en.pdf
- Students’ perspective of the information literacy program offered by the University of the South Pacific by Gwen Noeline Mar (University of the South Pacific Library, Suva, Fiji) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/134-Mar-en.pdf
- Appropriation du questionnaire d'auto-évaluation des connaissances informationnelles par les bibliothécaires: le cas des sciences de l'éducation et de l'anthropologie à l'Université de Montréal by J-F Durnin and Catherine Fortier (Montreal University Libraries, Montréal, Canada) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/134-Durnin_Fortier-fr.pdf
Interesting papers elsewhere on the programme are:
Do librarians like to learn online? by Debbi Boden (University of Worcester,Worcester, UK) and Ruth Stubbings (Pilkington Library, University of Loughborough) (This is about e-learning initiatives for information literacy education for library staff) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/163-Boden_Stubbings-en.pdf
Information Literacy by Design: An e-Learning Wiki for Librarians by Corinne Laverty (Queen’s University, Canada) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/163-Laverty-en.pdf and the wiki she is speaking about is at http://library.queensu.ca/wiki/elearning/
Scholarly E-reading Patterns in Australia, Finland, and the United States: A Cross Country Comparison by Carol Tenopir, Concepción s. Wilson, Pertti Vakkari, Sanna Talja and Donald W. King http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/
160-Tenopir_Wilson_Vakkari_Talja_King-en.pdf
An innovative ICT solution to steer rural communities to global understanding: a case study from Durban, South Africa by Elizabeth Greyling (Senior Systems Librarian, eThekwini Municipal Library, Durban, South Africa) and Ronel Smith (Project Leader, Digital Doorway, Meraka Institute, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa) http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/
papers/109-Greyling_Smith-en.pdf
I have also highlighted some papers to do with Web 2.0 here
Photos by Sheila Webber: Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia, June 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Plagiarism: workshop + reports on conference
2) The 3rd International Plagiarism conference took place in June 2008. The conference website is at: http://www.plagiarismconference.co.uk/index.php - they say they will put up the proceedings but they aren't there yet. In the meantime there is a very useful conference report in the Plagiarism Today blog at http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2008/06/30/
recap-3rd-international-plagiarism-conference/ . There is another from Debora Weber-Wulff, here (both bloggers note the shift in emphasis from punishment/detection to plagiarism prevention), and she also runs a plagiarism portal in German, Portal Plagiat, at http://plagiat.fhtw-berlin.de/ Lastly, what Gerry McKiernan terms the "Director's cut" of his keynote at the conference is at http://scholarship20.blogspot.com/2008/04/
disruptive-scholarship-idea-whose-time.html
Photo by Sheila Webber: Derwent river, Tasmania, July 2008
Google Lively
If you are a Google Lively user (the application can be downloaded free at http://www.lively.com/) you can enter the room below. The video streaming from Youtube (into the little TV) is "IC Girls" - a music video made in/about the Information Commons at Sheffield University.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
NHS Education for Scotland Knowledge Services Group Information Literacy Framework
A draft of the Framework is at http://www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/media/
1012229/theframework.pdf and comments are welcome via a discussion forum at http://www.infoliteracy.scot.nhs.uk/literacydiscussion/
Photo by Sheila Webber: mailboxes, Port Julia, Australia, July 2008
Up Close and Personal
Photo by Sheila Webber: Port Julia, Australia, July 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
EnIL International School
More information at http://enil.ceris.cnr.it/SummerSchool/index.htm
Photo by Sheila Webber: Great Keppel Island, June 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Information Literacy and the grim reaper
Sounds good! For more info go to http://www.caval.edu.au/upcoming-events.html
If you follow the link to past events (on the right of the above page) and to events in 2007 etc. you will find powerpoints etc. from their past information literacy seminars and conferences.
Image is copyright Meredith Badger, who designs an attractive graphic for every CRIG annual event
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Information literacy in transition
Ben, M. (2008) "Information Literacy and the Transition from Secondary to Tertiary Education: Measuring Perceptions." Enhancing learning in the social sciences, 1 (1). http://www.eliss.org.uk/CurrentIssue/tabid/54/Default.aspx
Abstract "How people perceive information literacy and how they think others perceive it can affect how they teach and learn. The transition from secondary to tertiary education offers opportunities to develop information literate students. Variations in perceptions of information literacy in schools and universities in the UK and New Zealand are being investigated using phenomenographic techniques. The research focuses on students studying Chemistry or English in their final two years at school and their first year at university, their teachers and library staff."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hakone, Japan, 2005
Plagiarism video
I came across this video - evidently a project for students in the US. It made me smile ;-) "Why not to party and not to plagiarise" by Michael Mohamed, Sumit Patel and Matthew Elliott. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZyCqo9DPI
Friday, July 11, 2008
Proceedings of KWIL conference
Kohl-Frey, O. and Schmid-Ruhe, B. (Eds.) (2008) Advanced Users: Information Literacy and Customized Services: Konstanz Workshop on Information Literacy. Konstanz: University of Konstanz. (Bibliothek Aktuell; Sonderheft 17) http://www.ub.uni-konstanz.de/kops/volltexte/2008/5905/
Patricia Davitt Maughan: From Theory to Practice: Insights into Faculty Learning from the Mellon Library/Faculty Fellowship for Undergraduate Research
Susie Andretta: Everybody Can Be an ‘Advanced’ Learner with Information
Literacy
Thomas Hapke: Between Dewey and Dewey – Information Literacy in Germany between a Librarians’ and a More Holistic View
Alexis Smith Macklin, F. Bartow Culp: Reaching Graduate Students: A Community of Practice for Teaching ICT Literacy
Lydia Bauer et al.: Collaborative Design of Ontologies: Theory, Opportunities and
Convenient Applications
Carol Leibiger, Will Schweinle: The South Dakota Information Literacy Exam: A Tool for Small and Medium-sized Universities to Document and Assess Information Literacy of Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Susanne Mühlbacher, Rainer Hammwöhner, Christian Wolff: Workplace Information Literacy in the Scientific Field – an Empirical Analysis Using the Semantic Differential Approach
Oliver Kohl-Frey: Information Literacy for Graduate and Postgraduate Students: Experiences from the University of Konstanz
Mary Harrison, Rosie Jones: Two Roads, a Single Destination: Supporting the Information Literacy Skills Needs of Advanced Users at the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
Hannah Rempel: Information Literacy at the Point of Need – Literature Review Workshops
Debbi Boden: Gaining a PILOT’s Licence: Supporting Researchers at Imperial College London through the Postdoctoral Information Literacy Online Tutorial
Nicole Krüger: EconDesk – Getting the Content of Need at the Point of Need
Sheila Webber: Information Literacy Education for Masters Students: the Search/Teach Exercise
Photo by Sheila Webber: Great Keppel Island, Australia, June 2008
Webquests
"This workshop will introduce webquests where learners answer questions by following links to websites. It is intended to encourage learner engagement in active, dynamic, enquiry based e-learning by developing realistic problem solving activities that encourage the application of analytical, creative and critical thinking skills."
More info at http://www.slainte.org.uk/events/EvntShow.cfm?uEventID=1552.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Sails in Hobart harbour, July 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Physics information fluency
blogspot.com/
Photo by Sheila Webber: View from Mount Wellington, Tasmania, July 2008
Reflection on LTEA2008: people as information sources
In the SL part there were about 20 delegates from a variety of countries. There is information about the sessions at http://networked-inquiry.pbwiki.com/About-LTEA2008-in-Second-Life and in particular there is a transcript of the chat about information literacy and IBL in SL at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=304 and information on my guided tour of my 3D model of the research process at http://sleeds.org/chatlog/?c=306. (I haven’t yet put the other chat transcripts online). I was on the organising committee for the real life conference in Sheffield, and I have (and will be) highlighting some sessions from that too. Here are a few thoughts about "people" as sources of information, emerging from one of the discussions in Second Life.
The chat about information literacy focused on issues to do with "evaluating" information, and the nature of information. I suppose because I am now fairly experienced in SL I get a bit baffled on the extent to which people assume that SL is "false" or "inauthentic", and are concerned about who they are talking to (this had emerged in a session earlier on where we had some interaction with the real life conference delegates).
Reading through the transcript I realised that because I do think of SL avatars as people, I am comparing information seeking from/about them with information seeking from "real people". One of the delegates in our SL chat talked about how people might trust him for information because you could see he owned the SL land and could tell he “lived” there. This is like someone in real life wanting directions or information about the town, seeing someone standing in their garden and assuming that person will know about the area (and this seems quite a rational assumption).
Also research into everyday information seeking (and most people’s experience) shows that people ask other people a lot for information, without generally pre-screening them to see if that person is “objectively” the best source. However, you may judge from the response made, or the context, or physical appearance, or your existing knowledge of the person as to whether you will place any value on the information they give. I may have said on the blog before that, given the importance of people as information channels (in study, work and personal life), helping students develop more ability to evaluate people as information sources (in real, not just Second, life) could do with more prominence in information literacy education.
Someone at in the SL chat session mentioned that people at conferences don’t usually have to submit an ID before collecting a conference badge: they could in fact be “anyone”. At the last conference I was at, I didn’t know many people, and I am not as familiar with Australian universities, so it was more difficult to judge them from their badge. So how could tell whether what they were saying was “valuable”? I suppose I used my experience of people (“oops, he sounds like he’s got a bee in his bonnet about that…”), prejudice/instinct (“he sounds amusing”), the subject (though it wasn’t in a central area of my expertise), obvious clues (“she got a paper accepted, she must know something”) and so forth.
Thinking back to students: why are some treated by their peers as more reliable channels (for notes, advice on assignments etc.) than others? Having thought about this some more, I think I should try and bring this question (of people as information sources) more explicitly into my 1st year Information Literacy class next year.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Graduate Information Literacy programme
GILP is run from a small unit that is separate from the library, and the aim is develop academic skills including information literacy. They work closely with academic supervisors and other graduate support services.
Sessions in the programme include: selecting and searching subject databases, issues in writing the literature review, producing your thesis in Word or LaTex, bibliographic software. The approach is hands-on, with the focus on 2 hour sessions with 6-15 students. As Jim said, the subjects covered and approach were not unusual, but GILP had received a prestigious Carrick Award for "programmes that enhance learning", and the way in which staff are devoted specifically to postgraduate development is interesting. There is some info on GILP at http://ilp.anu.edu.au/grad/ and a report on the 2006 programme at http://ilp.anu.edu.au/reports/Report2006.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Palm tree, Rydges resort (where the conference was held), June 2008
Web 2.0 policy and practice
Speakers are: Libraries and social software: lessons from the LASSIE project. Jane Secker LSE Centre for Learning Technology
- Web 2.0 at the British Library: Adrian Arthur, Head of Web Services.
- A del.icio.us taster: case studies from the Institute of Education: Gwyneth Price Collection Development Services Librarian at the Institute of Education
- Croydon College & FE 2.0: Thomas Butler, Library Operations Manager
- Feeds & Start Pages: Keeping Yourself & Your Users Up-To-Date: Matt Lingard, Learning Technologist in the LSE Centre for Learning Technology
- Enhancing social tagging with a knowledge organization system: Brian Matthews Leader, Scientific Applications Group STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Photo by Sheila Webber: Eucalyptus, Port Julia, South Australia, July 2008
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Student use of ICT
As an educator, one of the bits I found most interesting was "Face-to-face interaction is still seen as the best form of teaching [by those surveyed]. However, the use of ICT in teaching is now perceived to be a good thing, but only as long as it is done well. Face to face interaction supported by inefficient or inept use of technology is worse than using none. In the groups, a minority had had difficulties, but for most, their teachers have a good enough level of knowledge to use ICT." (p10) This is sensible, and chimes in with feedback from students (and I don't think it is just about students expecting lecture-formats: the personal approach seems important to people, which is not really surprising).
The feedback from students on using social networking sites also chimes in with discussions from the sessions Lyn Parker and I have run here at Sheffield: i.e. that students are more comfortable on using them informally, amongst themselves, to support study (rather than having them set up as a formal part of learning.
There is also some discussion of information content "Students tend to head to the internet as a first port of call for academic research, and predominantly use generic search engines such as Google, but are then likely to check the information they find against other sources such as the library. Some mention Wikipedia as a starting point although again they double check this against references given. The vast majority (69%) like to check the validity of the information they take from the internet" (p34). Hmm. Not sure 69% counts as a "vast majority". To me this survey also says that talking about "ICT" as a thing in itself is too generalised nowadays - student reactions and expectations to applications and support are more complex.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Agapanthus seed head, Hobart, June 2008.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Information-handling training for researchers
On the website you can download the report, a literature review, cases studies, and details of how the focus groups were run: http://www.rin.ac.uk/training-research-info
There are a large number of recommendations, with action expected from various bodies including SCONUL.
The minority of the research for this report, in fact, consisted of surveying researchers about their needs, which surprised me a bit (the methodology is described towards the end of the report).
Photo by Sheila Webber: Port Julia, Australia, July 2008.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Inquiry and psychology students
I have just made a post on the Inquiry Based Learning blog about a presentation (from the First Year Experience conference) on using an inquiry based approach with first year psychology students at Griffith University (Australia): my summary of her approach to learning, teaching and assessment is here.
Another presentation about psychology students was given at the Learning Through Enquiry Alliance conference in Sheffield a week ago. The title was Journals contain facts, unlike the Daily Mail: implementation of an inquiry-based learning task enabling evaluation of information sources (M. Jones and P. McKinney). The abstract is "Because of its intrinsic 'human interest' content, psychology is often misrepresented or trivialised within the popular media, this contrast between the media approach and the scholarly approach provided a landscape for student inquiry. Participants will be presented with a novel approach to embedding information literacy within the social science curriculum. They will be given an outline of the difficulties one may encounter in designing IBL to be delivered by a team of associate tutors and be able to engage in a critical discourse on the nature of developing information literacy through inquiry." The PowerPoint is here: http://www.slideshare.net/cilass.slideshare/
implementation-of-an-inquirybased-learning-task-enabling
-evaluation-of-information-sources
implementation-of-an-inquirybased-learning-task-enabling
-evaluation-of-information-sources
There is a blog posting on a number of LTEA2008 sessions including the psychology one at http://library.hud.ac.uk/blogs/il/?p=138
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bridge over the Derwent, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, June 2008.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
IL at Otago University
Currently I am staying with my aunt in South Australia (prior to coming home), which is very enjoyable, but she just has a dial-up connection - gosh, do you get spoilt by the speed of broadband!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Inquiry based learning in undergraduate modules
The delegates at the conference were mostly from Australia and New Zealand, and a mixture of educational developers, student services people, first year coordinators, academics in specific disciplines etc. There is a big literature about the First Year Experience in Higher Education, including some valuable reports from the UK, and as usual it is interesting/ depressing to see that often there is not much crossover of people with different interests. For example, although there was some mention of information literacy and working with librarians by different speakers, there was a lack of awareness of (for example) the amount of work that libraries have done in developing innovative learning spaces. By the same token, I think that the FYHE literature could be tapped into more (perhaps) by the library sector.
There is work on current projects about the first year experience in Scotland appearing at http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/ (with a useful links page) and a 2006 literature review at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/detail/lr_2006_harvey
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bridge over the Derwent, Hobart, Australia, June 2008
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