Curtis+Cartwright and Cardiff University are undertaking a study into the role of research supervisors as regards information and data handling skills. They have a survey online: one version for students and one for supervisors at http://www.rin.ac.uk/supervisor-survey and http://www.rin.ac.uk/research-student-survey. The study is described at http://www.rin.ac.uk/role-research-supervisors
"Staff working on the LIS Research Coalition sponsored Research in Librarianship – Impact Evaluation Study (RiLIES) project
This is a one day workshop on 14 March 2011 at the The University of Warwick, UK. There are presentations on Information Literacy and the Research Development Framework, The 7 Pillars of Information Literacy and the role of librarians, Good Practice in Research Data Management and A Joined-up Approach to Promoting Information Literacy for Researchers, followed by workshop sessions. The cost is £185 for UKCGE (UK Council for Graduate Education) Members and £235 for non-members. This includes a delegate pack, lunch and refreshments. Further info at http://www.ukcge.ac.uk/events/eventsarea/infoliteracy11
This is a CILIP course on 13 April 2011 held in London, UK. "Much has been written and discussed about the Google generations brains being wired differently because they have grown up with using the Internet and mobile devices. How can these new technologies be used to support learning and information literacy? E-learning already offers many opportunities, now is the time to discover how mobile devices, personal response systems and QR codes can be a key feature for supporting students in this area." http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/training/pages/e-learning-to-m-learning-supporting-learning-and-information-literacy.aspx
There has been a good discussion on the American information literacy list ili-l in the past few days, about the polling tool Poll Everywhere; the advantages and disadvantages of using it for information literacy. There's a cut down free service, and a priced service for larger use. The ili-l list archive is at http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/ili-l/ and the Poll Everywhere site is at http://www.polleverywhere.com/
The journal club held in the virtual world, Second Life, next meets this Wednesday on 23 February 2011 at 12 noon Second Life time (that's 8pm UK time see http://tinyurl.com/6hmkx8r for times elsewhere). You need a SL avatar and the SL browser on your computer, to participate, and it is nice if you have read the paper ;-) though the session leader will summarise key points briefly at the start, as usual. Eleni Zazani (of Birkbeck College (University of London), UK, Loreena Sandalwood in SL) will lead discussion. We will be discussing:
Two short adverts for Swansea public libraries that I thought were rather good. Nothing much to do with information literacy, but I will throw in a post relevant to the Savelibraries campaign now and then. Thanks to Scott Vine, who alerted me to these.
When I taught a publishing module I would scan the Bookseller every week, but nowadays I don't make an effort to see the printed version. The Bookseller is the UK bookselling and publishing industry's trade magazine. However, following up a story about today's announcement of the major Australian book chain Angus & Robertson going into administration (following on the collapse of the US' Borders book chain), I also came across this brief report on a survey that found that over-50s were slightly more likely to have e-book readers than younger people. There are also the weekly top book selling lists and the lists of (British) publications for the week.
Three articles in Science focus on "the data deluge and the opportunities that can be realized if we can better organize and access the data." These (I think) call for specialist information literacy, although sadly information literacy is not mentioned in the articles. For me it highlights the disciplinary differences in information literacy: in these fields understanding how to retrieve, make sense of and communicate numerical and biomedical data are important for being information literate (knowing how to use textual databases is not enough). The "seventh pillar" of creating new information is also important (and being able to describe the data using an ontology, and share it ethically). Thanks to Peter Willett for alerting me to this special issue.
This article discusses Infolit iSchool in Second Life, and the information literacy activities that go on there. The other articles look interesting too (if only I spoke Polish!)
A (priced) online session offered on 29 March 2011 by Queensland University of Technology is: Social media in and out of the university classroom, with Howard Rheingold. "This session will focus on the use of social media in teaching, and the kind of collaborative inquiry and peer learning afforded by using digital media as part of a participative pedagogy. Howard will discuss the new literacies that are emerging and need to be taught: attention, collaboration, participation, crap detection, and network awareness. Get set for the 2011 academic year! Challenge your thinking about the literacies required of 21st century learners and learn about the tools and environments that can aide in the development of robust peer learning environments. Howard's presentation will be followed by a dynamic group discussion focused on how libraries of all types can captialise on collaborative inquiry and peer learning, and on how libraries can support the acquisition of new and emerging literacies." See http://www.littleurl.net/8f09bf
Aimed at UK academics, this Sharing Practice projects aims to gather and share stories and evidence about how people teaching in universities change their practice, why they do it etc. Until 4th March they are collecting "change stories". http://www.sharingpractice.ac.uk/homepage.html
The closing date for proposals for the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) conference is 15th February 2011. This conference, held mostly in the virtual world, Second Life (the picture shows one of the venues last year), runs for 48 hours 17-19 March 2011. "This grassroots, community-based conference attracts faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, instructional designers, technical specialists, and members of organizations from around the world. Those who create teaching/learning environments, resources, tools, support services and professional development opportunities internal and external to virtual world environments participate."
Discussion in Second Life, the virtual world, on 16 February 2011, 12 noon Second Life time (that's 8pm UK time): This inspired my teaching! You need a second Life avatar and the Second Life browser installed on your computer, to participate.
The ACRL/IRIG Visual Literacy Standards Task Force has made a draft of the ACRL/IRIG Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education available. They are inviting feedback via their blog, or emailed to Denise Hattwig dhattwig@uw.edu - closing on March 31st.
The New Media Consortium has published the latest Horizon Report "Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education and creative expression over the next one to five years"
There is a call for papers for a special issue on Information Literacies (“Informationskompetencer i en kontekst- og mediebaseret sammenhæng”, looking at information literacy in specific contexts/ media) in the journal Danish Library Research. The call is in Danish, for articles in Danish. However, they will also accept articles in English. More information on the International Information Literacies Research Network blog where I found this information: http://iilresearch.wordpress.com/2011/02/
The Follett Challenge is a competition which offers a prize to schools ("K 12") in the USA. They have to "Develop a plan describing an existing information literacy based local school program for students, demonstrating how the program makes use of technology and content to improve student engagement." and make a short video about it. The challenge is open now and closes on 1st June 2011. Follett sells educational products and services, including educational technology. More details at
Information and Communication Technology Literacy: What Do Businesses Expect and What Do Business Schools Teach? is a report by Radwan Ali and Irvin R. Katz published by the ETS (Educational Testing Service) in August 2010. http://144.81.87.152/Media/Research/pdf/RR-10-17.pdf
5th February is Save Libraries day, organised by the UK's Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) "looking for help from across the globe with a day of action in support of UK public library services" which are being seen as soft targets in the current swathe of public sector cuts. The webpage with suggestions is at http://www.cilip.org.uk/savelibraries. You can tweet about it using the hashtag #savelibraries, to say why public libraries are important. The poster on the right is one of a set created from old wartime posters by Phil Bradley: the complete collection is here. There are a whole range of reasons why public libraries are worth saving: not just in terms of books, but for internet access, as a comfortable "third place" to learn and relax, a place to come across new ideas and so forth. However, just as important is the work of librarians in helping people to get the most out of information and books, for all aspects of peoples' lives.
A new book aimed at teachers and school librarians.
I don't think I have blogged the fact that the name of the test produced, sold and administered by the (US) Educational testing Service (ETS) is now called iCritical Thinking. This was formerly called iskills, and before that was called the ICT Literacy test (I think the content has also changed a bit each time). It incorporates aspects of information literacy. To quote their website "An outcomes-based assessment, the iCritical Thinking Certification measures applied ICT literacy skills through a range of real-world tasks." "features real-time, scenario-based tasks that measure an individual's ability to navigate, critically evaluate and understand the wealth of information available through digital technology" "is endorsed by the Global Digital Literacy Council (GDLC) and aligned with the nationally recognized Association of Colleges & Research Libraries (ACRL) standards" http://www.ets.org/icriticalthinking/about/
From the University of Kentucky, newly on the RAILS (Rubric Assessment of Information Literacy skills) website, are some rubrics. Rubrics outline what is required to achieve a particular information literacy standard (e.g. for "Constructs effective research strategy" it identifies what would be seen as "emerging", "developing", "proficient" or "distinguished" performance). I think you could also characterise this as a criterion-referenced approach to assessment (in all cases in it a good idea to tell the students what the criteria are, so they know how they are being judged, obviously).
