Monday, September 16, 2024

Treasure trove of recordings on AI and infolit

Photo by Sheila Webber of the beach and sea in the evening after a hot day in Bournemouth in June 2024

Lots of recordings from the 2024 Generative AI in Libraries (GAIL) Conference are available. Examples are:
- Leveling Up Your Lesson Planning: Using AI to Build Bibliographic Library Lessons;
- How to Augment Retrieval Augmented Generation;
- Honing Information Literacy Skills with Gen AI - Building a Modular Lesson;
- Prompted to Action - ChatGPT Generated Essay Prompts, Library Instruction and fostering information literacy skill development.
The playlist is at  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOWNtfTOec9Io34ZHPctluvdk8fjgjBR-
Photo by Sheila Webber: Bournemouth, June 2024 (a real photo, not genAI)

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Digital Literacy and the Sustainable Development Goals

Photo by Sheila Webber of Charlton Park with a pink flower and bushes and a garden wall in August 2024
In July, the IFLA Information Literacy (INFOLIT) Section publsihed a short article: Leveraging Digital Literacy and Skills for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) https://www.ifla.org/news/leveraging-digital-literacy-and-skills-for-achieving-the-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs/Photo by Sheila Webber: Charlton Park, August 2024

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Fear of the Known: Conspiracy Theory & Misinformation Webinar for Librarians

Photo by Sheila Webber of the entrance gate to the secret garden in Charlton Park with a wall and foliage in August 2024

A free webinar on 31 October 2024 10-11am BST (UK time) from CILIP Scotland: Fear of the Known: Conspiracy Theory & Misinformation Webinar for Librarians. "Using the UNESCO Addressing Conspiracy Theories: What Teachers Need to Know Guide, CILIPS Digital Assistant Leah Higgins will give a presentation about the place of library and information professionals in combating conspiracy theories, fake news, mis & disinformation." Go to https://www.cilips.org.uk/events/conspiracytheory?
Photo by Sheila Webber: secret garden, Charlton Park, August 2024

Thursday, September 12, 2024

UNESCO AI Competency frameworks

A photo of a mulberry on a small china plate

UNESCO has published two AI Competency frameworks: for students and for teachers. The AI competency framework for teachers has three levls of progression (Acquire, Deepen, Create) and five competency aspects: The Human-centred mindset; Ethics of AI; AI Foundations and applications; AI pedagogy and AI for professional development.
Miao, F. & Cukurova, M. (2024). The AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104

The AI competency framework for students has three levels: Understand, Apply and Create and four competency aspects: Human-centred mindset; Ethics of AI; AI techniques and applications and AI system design.
Miao, F. & Shiohira, K. (2024). AI competency framework for students. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/JKJB9835 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391105
Sadly they don't seem to have collaborated with the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy initiative (whose cuuriculum for MIL includes an AI literacy component).
Photo by Sheila Webber: a mulberry from this 400 year old tree https://www.moruslondinium.org/research/charlton-house-heritage-mulberry

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Grant to investigate information literacy among religious leaders

Photo by Sheila Webber of trees and ferns in Stanley Park Vancouver in May 2024

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana, USA, (PALNI) has awarded a grant for the project Information Literacy Assessment of Religious Leaders, coordinated by Karl Stutzman, Director of Library Services at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, USA. It "will explore the information literacy behaviors of practicing faith leaders and will help inform models that broadly address information literacy needs. It will be supported for up to one year, with recipients expected to present their results and share ideas for further collaboration and innovation across PALNI and beyond." More information at https://palni.org/news/palni-grant-to-support-information-literacy-assessment-among-religious-leaders
Photo by Sheila Webber: Stanley Park, Vancouver, May 2024

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Information Literacy as a Concept and Practice: Where Are We Going?

Photo by Sheila Webber of a white rose and green leaves in July 2024
The recording of the webinar held on 29 July 2024, Information Literacy as a Concept and Practice: Where Are We Going?, (hosted by The Ohio State University Libraries) is available. The panellists are: Veronica Arellano Douglas (University of Houston, USA), Clarence Maybee (Purdue University, USA), Sara Miller (Michigan State University, USA) and Logan Rath (State University, New York State, USA).
"Definitions of information literacy have evolved over the past 50 years. How does “second-wave” information literacy differ from “first-wave” information literacy? What changes may be in store for how we think about information literacy as a concept and how we practice information literacy? Should we think about information literacy as a discipline? How will the relationship between information literacy and critical information literacy continue to develop? How should the Framework for Information Literacy evolve? This discussion will explore how our conception of information literacy has evolved and may continue to transform."
The slides are here and the recording is here https://youtu.be/FsWnlcqGWaU?feature=shared
Photo by Sheila Webber: white rose, July 2024

Monday, September 09, 2024

Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy

Photo by Sheila Webber of colourful border plants namely yellow french marigolds and I think Russian sage in Western Park in August 2024
I have blogged previously about this international project (IPILM), which was previously called Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy. In the Western-hemisphere autumn semester students from different countries collaborate to produce presentations on current information-related topics and this culminates in a webinar in January (and this year there was also a summer version). The current project involves academics and students at Hildesheim University (the lead organisation), Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce Pune, India, SUNY Empire State College New York, United States, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria, University of Sarajevo – Faculty of Political Sciences, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Tischner European University, Kraków, Poland.
They are curently advertising for students to participate October-December 2024 (I assume they have to be in one of the participating organisations) to address one of the themes: AI impact on local culture - language; AI impact on local culture - Cultural perception of AI regulation; AI impact on democracy - Politics; AI impact on democracy - Mis- and Disinformation; AI literacy for teacher education; AI literacy for students and students learning process; Ethics of producing digital media art with GenAI.
You can find the student videos from January 2024 and previous years here https://www.youtube.com/@interculturalperspectiveso2656/videos.
There is also a recent post from Thomas Mackey about the project team's in-person meeting here.
Additionally, here is an article about the project: Griesbaum, J. et al. (2023). Teaching Internationally, Learning Collaboratively: Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM). Communications in Information Literacy, 17 (1), 260–278. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.1.4
Photo by Sheila Webber: colourful border in Western Park, August 2024

Sunday, September 08, 2024

Role of Public Institutions in Media and Information Literacy Development in Albania

Photo of a squirrel in a yew tree which had been eating yew berries

An Albanian-language report has been published by the Albanian Media Institute: Role of Public Institutions in Media and Information Literacy Development in Albania. There is a short English-language summary and a link to the report here: https://www.institutemedia.org/report-on-media-and-information-literacy-and-the-role-of-public-institutions-in-albania/ I picked this up when searching for items published in the last week, but the publication isn't dated and I think it was actually published earlier. However, the website is also worth browsing: particularly if you read Albanian (obviously!) but there are also some interesting English-language reports on their activities https://www.institutemedia.org/.
Photo by Sheila Webber: spot the squirrel eating yew-berries, August 2024

Friday, September 06, 2024

Webinar: Teaching Information Literacy: Foundational Concepts and Teaching Strategies

Photo by Sheila Webber of red rowan berries and some leaves on the tree in August 2024

On 11 September 2024 at 12 noon US Eastern time (which is 5pm UK time) this free webinar seems principally aimed at faculty etc. in Ohio, but appears to be open to all: Teaching Information Literacy: Foundational Concepts and Teaching Strategies. "What exactly do we mean when we talk about information literacy? Why is it important that our students are developing their information literacy? This virtual workshop will provide an overview of information literacy as a concept and a practice in higher education and explore why information literacy is crucial to student success. Participants will also learn about resources and strategies that they can use to incorporate information literacy into their courses. This workshop is aimed at course instructors, graduate teaching associates, and librarians."
Information and registration link at https://library.osu.edu/events/teaching-information-literacy-foundational-concepts-and-teaching-strategies-virtual-event-0
Photo by Sheila Webber: rowan berries, August 2024 

Thursday, September 05, 2024

New Book: Using Project Outcome for Academic Libraries

Photo by Sheila Webber of a knarled yew trunk in Charlton Park in August 2024

This new book includes a few chapters about teaching information literacy (e.g.Revitalizing our Instructional Assessment: Embracing a New Approach using Project Outcome and Assessing Information Literacy Programs for First-Year Writing Courses at a Public University):
Parsons-Diamond, G. (Ed.). (2024). Assessment and Advocacy: Using Project Outcome for Academic Libraries. ACRL. Item number 979-8-89255-524-1. https://alastore.ala.org/assessment-and-advocacy-using-project-outcome-academic-libraries? This has examples from libraries involved in Project Outcome and using its toolkit.
Photo by Sheila Webber: yew trunk, Charlton Park, August 2024

Wednesday, September 04, 2024

New articles: Online learning; Generative AI; Learning design

Photo taken in the 3D virtual world, Second Life of Sheila sitting in a bower on a mountain working at a computer with a cup of hot chocolate

Volume 28 Number 3 (2024) of Online Learning has a good number of articles about online learning at https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/issue/view/132 including a special focus on AI and online learning. Picking out a couple :
- Stefaniak,J.E., & Moore, S.L. (2024) The use of generative AI to support inclusivity and design deliberation for online instruction. Online Learning, 28(3), 181-205. DOI: 10.24059/olj.v28i3.4458. https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/4458/1388 [This includes a worked example of using a series of prompts to develop ideas for activities with students with disabilities].
- Dello Stritto, M.E. & Aguiar, N. R. (2024) Skills needed for success in online teaching: A qualitative study of experienced instructors. Online Learning, 3(28), 585-607. DOI: 10.24059/olj.v28i3.3518 https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3518/1405
[The six identified skills may seem obvious to experienced staff, but the themes and quotations resonated with me, and I think it is a useful article to open up discussion, in particular with people new to teaching online.]
Photo taken in the 3D virtual world, Second Life in August 2024: learning online

Tuesday, September 03, 2024

Shaping the future: a research agenda for UK libraries

Photo by Sheila Webber of a cluster of apple blossom in April 2024 - almost time for the apples now
There is a free in-person event on 11 September 2024 at 14.00 UK time: Shaping the future: a research agenda for UK libraries presented by Libby Tilley. It is hosted by the University of Sheffield Information School and coorganised by the iSchool's Libraries and Information Society Research Group and the CILIP Library and Information Research Group (LIRG). The venue is The Wave, University of Sheffield, S10 2AH, UK. "The seminar will be led by Libby Tilley, winner of the 2023 LIRG Research Award, in which she will present on the findings of her 'Shaping the Future' project which involved using a Modified Delphi Study in order to surface a consensus around sector-wide critical trends to help to focus and prioritise future library and information research. This will be followed by refreshments and a short Annual General Meeting of the Library and Information Research Group (LIRG)." Register at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/informationschool/1337998
Photo by Sheila Webber: apple blossom, April 2024 - almost time for the apples now

Monday, September 02, 2024

2024 Innovating Pedagogy Report

Photo by Sheila Webber of a peace post at Charlton House in August 2024 The post says May peace prevail on earth

The 2024 version of the annual Open University report which identifies interesting opportunities or trends for pedagogy was published in August. This year it was co-authored with with researchers from the LIVE Learning Innovation Incubator at Vanderbilt University (USA).
The trends are: Speculative worlds; Pedagogies of peace; Fostering peace; Climate action pedagogy; Learning in conversation with Generative AI; Talking AI ethics with young people; AI-enhanced multimodal writing; Intelligent textbooks; Assessments through extended reality; Immersive language and culture; Exploring scientific models from the inside.
Kukulska-Hulme, A., Wise, A.F., Coughlan, T., Biswas, G., Bossu, C., Burriss, S.K., Charitonos, K., Crossley, S.A., Enyedy, N., Ferguson, R., FitzGerald, E., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Hundley, M., McTamaney, C., Molvig, O., Pendergrass, E., Ramey, L., Sargent, J., Scanlon, E., Smith, B.E., & Whitelock, D. (2024). Innovating Pedagogy 2024: Open University Innovation Report 12. Milton Keynes: The Open University. https://iet.open.ac.uk/files/innovating-pedagogy-2024.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: peace post at Charlton House, August 2024