Golden Nuggets of Information - Finding What Absolutely MUST Be Taught
I've been seeing a lot about participatory learning and librarianship in the mainstream library twitter-sphere recently. Articles have popped up like this one, as well as a project for new media literacies and even transliteracies. All areas discuss ideas that can be used to bring new, yet practical, learning opportunities into the classroom. So, as an instructor of information literacy, I have already been diving deep into the literature for this type of instruction environment. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I entered a faculty in-service (on a Saturday morning mind you) today that spoke to this same idea of participatory learning. I was not looking forward to this at all - having to give up a Saturday is NOT something that makes me happy - but the information was very beneficial and I have walked away with new and refreshed ideas. The talking points will be covered first with my ideas of incorporation as a conclusion.
The in-service today covered a presentation from Magna Publications titled: What Should You Teach When There Isn't Time To Teach Everything? Ruth Rodgers discussed three main steps to making sure that information is being given to students in a manner that embraces lifelong learning.
Ruth began by speaking to the stereotype of new instructor behavior. Oftentimes, new instructors (myself included along with many adjunct faculty) are being placed in the classrooms with very little preparation time, in part because the position needs to be filled quickly. Many of my colleagues where I work experienced this exact scenario the first quarter our information literacy course was introduced. The curriculum team was still revamping lessons even as the course began. Many of the instructors were forced to review the material a day before (and for some, even the day of) the class session. Thankfully, my campus decided to hold off for a quarter in order to let the kinks be completely worked out. I say all of this to reiterate the point that Ruth makes: "most [instructors] concentrate on covering the material and find there isn't enough class time to cover it all." Much of what we new instructors do is brain dump all of our information resources, knowledge, and experiences onto the students. Oftentimes, we don't look beyond the content to create an engaged classroom. Thankfully, the course curriculum that I teach is designed to be engaging, but it's still a work in progress.
Consider the three points below when creating a participatory learning environment:
The in-service today covered a presentation from Magna Publications titled: What Should You Teach When There Isn't Time To Teach Everything? Ruth Rodgers discussed three main steps to making sure that information is being given to students in a manner that embraces lifelong learning.
Ruth began by speaking to the stereotype of new instructor behavior. Oftentimes, new instructors (myself included along with many adjunct faculty) are being placed in the classrooms with very little preparation time, in part because the position needs to be filled quickly. Many of my colleagues where I work experienced this exact scenario the first quarter our information literacy course was introduced. The curriculum team was still revamping lessons even as the course began. Many of the instructors were forced to review the material a day before (and for some, even the day of) the class session. Thankfully, my campus decided to hold off for a quarter in order to let the kinks be completely worked out. I say all of this to reiterate the point that Ruth makes: "most [instructors] concentrate on covering the material and find there isn't enough class time to cover it all." Much of what we new instructors do is brain dump all of our information resources, knowledge, and experiences onto the students. Oftentimes, we don't look beyond the content to create an engaged classroom. Thankfully, the course curriculum that I teach is designed to be engaging, but it's still a work in progress.
Consider the three points below when creating a participatory learning environment:
- Recognize that information is ubiquitous - What aspects of the curriculum material MUST students learn or practice to be successful?
Instructors are no longer the #1 source of information. Information is literally everywhere. Our job now is to instill a sense of lifelong learning by providing the skills necessary to be successful in the students' chosen career (skills such as critical thinking which is so very hard to teach). Students need to recognize that continuous learning is a necessity (especially for career colleges like mine) for any career path!
In recognizing this first point, instructors should find and teach course information that is absolutely necessary for success in the classroom, as well as in a career. - Define the processes that are CRITICAL for success - What questions should students be asking themselves?
For information literacy students, this question is an easy one to instill. Students learn to think very critically about a topic, looking at it from every angle and brainstorming keyword supplements using basic who, what, when, where, and why questions. For medical students, it seems the main question for them is "why" (why is this patient on this particular medication? or why is this patient reacting in this way to a certain drug?). If we are successful in getting the students to ask questions of themselves, of the coursework, and of the information they find, they truly are learning critical thinking skills that will be extremely useful in the workforce. - Define continued development that is necessary for students - What lifelong learning habits must students develop?
Again, this an area that speaks directly to information literacy. I can give my students many of the tools and skills necessary to being successful in information retrieval and evaluation, but if it stops once they exit my classroom, have I really done my job? Somehow a sense of lifelong learning should be taught.
- What MUST be taught/learned for students to be successful in my course?
a) Understanding that information is everywhere and there is no set schema to finding information.
b) Finding information by using library catalogs, online databases, and the world wide web
c) Learning to evaluate and think critically about the information found
d) Learning to properly cite the information to give credit where credit is due
e) Organizing information using online tools - What questions should students be asking themselves that encourage critical thinking processes?
I've already mentioned the who, what, when, where, and why research questions, but I also want to create participatory learning activities that force students to think critically about how they search for information. I plan to set up learning groups where regular activities are designed for students that are in the same program of study, so the material covered becomes practical - they should not longer think of this class as a class that helps them learn how to research for a paper...rather, a class that teaches them skills in finding credible and reliable information for research and everyday life. - What lifelong learning habits must students develop?
If students can grasp the concept that no career is a career that has stagnant information, then my job will be complete. Students will learn tips and tricks to help them embrace change in technology, information, and processes. They also have to understand that they can't learn everything there is to know in a 2 year program! They need to be self motivated to continue learning and growing with changes. In doing so, they will begin to develop a self worth that so many of our students need these days. I will be using a lot of program specific topics that students can research in their learning groups to reiterate the need for finding credible information. (How would you go about researching a new drug? or How would you find information on a new technology?, etc...)
Google - An Angel or the Devil?
The Devil...
In the information literacy classes that I teach, there is a full week of nothing but Google searching. Students learn how to:
This is all well and good, but a recent class left me baffled. I was demonstrating several sample searches on the overhead projector. Many students were walking through the steps with me. Right in the middle of explaining the search results, I hear: "But wait... I don't have the same link you have."
I make it a point to stop and go back just a few steps to see if maybe the student missed a step. In doing so, she assured me that the same clicks were made. I then chose to walk over to her computer and see for myself... and low and behold, she was right! She didn't have the same results. "Huh..." I said. "This could just be a fluke. Let's try another search and see what results we get."
So, as a class, we formulate another search. Same thing. By now, I'm getting a bit annoyed. Everyone should be able to have the same search results displayed if the search is done the exact-same-way-every-time. But that just wasn't happening.
We continued to move on during class, but I was still quite bothered by the situation. So, by the time I returned to my desk, I was on a massive information hunt for anything that would explain to me what was happening. Ironically enough, (I really couldn't have planned it any better) I had a link that I saw in a stream of twitter feeds from a friend and colleague of mine titled: "If you haven't seen this Ted talk on internet filtering and personalization, you HAVE to!" I'm not sure how it caught my eye...but it was so timely that I was a bit freaked.
Take a look:
I'm still miffed, and not sure really what to do about it.... but then there are the times that I really really love Google.
An Angel
In the news, There has been limited coverage of the Morganza Spillway catastrophe in the major news stream media. This is a topic that hits home (literally) with me since my home town is the good 'ole Morgan City (yes there really is a town that's west and south of New Orleans!). The news that you are hearing discusses Morgan City (since that's the end of the line for the Mississippi), but it has had limited coverage.
Google to the Rescue!
Using a few of the tricks that I teach my students, I have been able to locate the local news from the Atchafalaya Basin area. These articles have been much more beneficial than the mainstream news stations like Fox and CNN. I was able to find the most recent news articles like this one, this one, and even realtime twitter updates. Thanks to Google, it has truly allowed me to feel as if I am right there watching the impending doom happen. I still have family and friends in the area...so it's been very important for me to be able to keep up with what's happening.
Additionally, Facebook has been a fantastic use of primary source information. Friends that still live in the area have taken pictures, and Morgan City even has a Facebook page. So yet again, I have felt as if I'm right at home.
So with all of this being said, Google can definitely be a great source for information, but I don't like the fact that they are personalizing the information that is being found. Any thoughts?
In the information literacy classes that I teach, there is a full week of nothing but Google searching. Students learn how to:
- Narrow to a specific site domain using the advanced search feature
- Use the news, timeline, and realtime tools
- Formulate searches that get away from long sentence searching by utilizing keywords with " ", +, and -
This is all well and good, but a recent class left me baffled. I was demonstrating several sample searches on the overhead projector. Many students were walking through the steps with me. Right in the middle of explaining the search results, I hear: "But wait... I don't have the same link you have."
I make it a point to stop and go back just a few steps to see if maybe the student missed a step. In doing so, she assured me that the same clicks were made. I then chose to walk over to her computer and see for myself... and low and behold, she was right! She didn't have the same results. "Huh..." I said. "This could just be a fluke. Let's try another search and see what results we get."
So, as a class, we formulate another search. Same thing. By now, I'm getting a bit annoyed. Everyone should be able to have the same search results displayed if the search is done the exact-same-way-every-time. But that just wasn't happening.
We continued to move on during class, but I was still quite bothered by the situation. So, by the time I returned to my desk, I was on a massive information hunt for anything that would explain to me what was happening. Ironically enough, (I really couldn't have planned it any better) I had a link that I saw in a stream of twitter feeds from a friend and colleague of mine titled: "If you haven't seen this Ted talk on internet filtering and personalization, you HAVE to!" I'm not sure how it caught my eye...but it was so timely that I was a bit freaked.
Take a look:
I'm still miffed, and not sure really what to do about it.... but then there are the times that I really really love Google.
An Angel
Google to the Rescue!
Using a few of the tricks that I teach my students, I have been able to locate the local news from the Atchafalaya Basin area. These articles have been much more beneficial than the mainstream news stations like Fox and CNN. I was able to find the most recent news articles like this one, this one, and even realtime twitter updates. Thanks to Google, it has truly allowed me to feel as if I am right there watching the impending doom happen. I still have family and friends in the area...so it's been very important for me to be able to keep up with what's happening.
Additionally, Facebook has been a fantastic use of primary source information. Friends that still live in the area have taken pictures, and Morgan City even has a Facebook page. So yet again, I have felt as if I'm right at home.
So with all of this being said, Google can definitely be a great source for information, but I don't like the fact that they are personalizing the information that is being found. Any thoughts?
Labels:
copyright/plagiarism
Copyright & Plagiarism - Big Brother Is Watching
I was recently sent an e-mail with a link to this article, written for The New York Times by Dan Frosch. The article chronicles the law suit that Righthaven (a company who’s sole purpose is to stop online “copyright infringement of news articles originally published in the Las Vegas Review Journal and Denver Post”) pursued against Brian Hill for posting a copyrighted image that belonged to the Denver Post on his blog.
The article explains the shock the Mr. Hill experienced by the suit, and in all honesty, I probably would have been a tad surprised myself had this happened to me. But, the sole difference is… I know better! And this got me thinking: how can I better prepare my students for situations such as this?
I have the privilege of teaching 3 sections of an Information Literacy course for the college where I am employed. In this course, students learn the entire research process from start to finish, including in the middle a section on APA style and plagiarism. We touch very briefly on copyright and how to properly find images online through the creative commons, but I still don’t think it hits home for students. They understand that plagiarism is wrong, but they still don’t fully understand the consequences. To be honest, even though my college has a plagiarism and academic integrity policy, most instructors (and maybe that’s too general to say) aren’t cross-referencing work to fully determine if the work being turned in is original and properly cited. Reasons why include:
* It’s so much easier to just let it be.
* It’s hard work and time consuming to play the copyright police.
* Maybe the instructors don’t know any better…
My role as a librarian is not to be the campus copyright police, but I’m beginning to think that someone’s gotta do it! Plagiarism is still a big issue for any college campus, even with tools like TurnItIn (it takes instructors being proactive and actually using the tools available to them). We’ve seen a doctoral thesis intentionally plagiarized, “artists” such as Lady Gaga potentially being sued for theft, and Apple suing Samsung for design theft. In reality, students just don’t know that in the heat of the moment…copying and pasting is never ok!
This quarter, I am going to make a more concerted effort to get the point across that plagiarism could potentially land you in a heap of trouble, both legally and educationally. In my class…big brother is watching!
**Updated**
There is also a fantastic video on Copyright On Campus. And, a classroom presentation that I've been working on, along with the Assistant Librarian where I work, will be posted soon.
The article explains the shock the Mr. Hill experienced by the suit, and in all honesty, I probably would have been a tad surprised myself had this happened to me. But, the sole difference is… I know better! And this got me thinking: how can I better prepare my students for situations such as this?
I have the privilege of teaching 3 sections of an Information Literacy course for the college where I am employed. In this course, students learn the entire research process from start to finish, including in the middle a section on APA style and plagiarism. We touch very briefly on copyright and how to properly find images online through the creative commons, but I still don’t think it hits home for students. They understand that plagiarism is wrong, but they still don’t fully understand the consequences. To be honest, even though my college has a plagiarism and academic integrity policy, most instructors (and maybe that’s too general to say) aren’t cross-referencing work to fully determine if the work being turned in is original and properly cited. Reasons why include:
* It’s so much easier to just let it be.
* It’s hard work and time consuming to play the copyright police.
* Maybe the instructors don’t know any better…
My role as a librarian is not to be the campus copyright police, but I’m beginning to think that someone’s gotta do it! Plagiarism is still a big issue for any college campus, even with tools like TurnItIn (it takes instructors being proactive and actually using the tools available to them). We’ve seen a doctoral thesis intentionally plagiarized, “artists” such as Lady Gaga potentially being sued for theft, and Apple suing Samsung for design theft. In reality, students just don’t know that in the heat of the moment…copying and pasting is never ok!
This quarter, I am going to make a more concerted effort to get the point across that plagiarism could potentially land you in a heap of trouble, both legally and educationally. In my class…big brother is watching!
**Updated**
There is also a fantastic video on Copyright On Campus. And, a classroom presentation that I've been working on, along with the Assistant Librarian where I work, will be posted soon.
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