Teaching and Learning Conference: Empowering Students With Necessary Tools

Today, I was able to attend a teaching and learning conference along with other instructors and librarians across the campuses of the community college where I am employed. Much of what I took away from the conference are concepts that I have already been toying with - the idea that educators need to be empowering students with necessary technology tools that will enhance learning outcomes and instill a sense of pride and success in the classroom and beyond. As a librarian, many of the technology tools discussed are tools that I'm already using daily, but there were definitely ideas that I have taken with me that I can implement very soon.

I must preface the list that I am about to give with the fact that I am not an advocate of using technology just for the sake of using technology. Working in the public library systems of my past, I saw technology adopted often that maybe wasn't the best technology for that particular community of people. In the education sector though, I do feel that students should be exposed to technology (and many different forms of technology), not because it's cool (it is!), but rather because it will enhance the curriculum. The challenge, therefore, is finding the right technology for those participatory classroom sessions.

The session I attended today that was most intriguing was conducted by Corinne Hoisington, a professor at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, VA. Again, many of the technologies I am either currently using as a librarian, or I am teaching to my information literacy students - but you may find a few here that you didn't know about. So read on!

Actually, before I get into the list of technologies, I want to share a video with you. Corinne shared one that was similar, but this will get the point across even still:

She talked about the future of technology that is coming down the pike faster than we think. Much of the mobile technologies we're currently seeing are already headed in this direction - no keyboards, no mouse, finger swipes, etc... This video is indicative yet again of the fact that information is everywhere. How our students are accessing information is changing daily, and now more than ever, we as instructors need to continue finding ways to meet students where they are in the online social realm. But enough about that... on to the list:

Wolfram Alpha
This search engine is unique in the sense that it gives statistical information, as well as mathematical equations that can be beneficial to the research process. This is one search engine that I cover with my students when we look at online resources, but I now have a few more examples that I can use when searching for next quarter. Examples include:

• Algebra equations - Can be used when checking work
  
• Mortgage calculations - Determine monthly payments
  
• Nutrition information - Find restaurant nutrition information

There are so many more uses for this search engine, but these are a few that I may add to my own sch-peel.

Join.Me
If you haven't ever used join.me, it's one technology that you have to see to believe. Students are always amazed when I use this with them, mostly during chat or phone reference conversations when I need to see their computer screen to get a better idea of their problem. It really is the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Xtranormal.com
I was first exposed to this technology when a few librarian videos began circulating the twittersphere. I'm not sure that I will use this one often...but since I am the administrator for our campus Facebook page, I may dapple with a few videos to promote campus events. I can't see me using it much for the classroom setting...but it's still fun.

Docs.com
This is one that I really need to ponder more. Microsoft and Facebook have partnered together to provide word, excel, and powerpoint web capabilities - right in the Facebook platform. I've been thinking for a while now that Facebook could very well be the next LMS. With tools like join.me and docs.com, it's moving even quicker towards that possibility of creating a classroom setting right inside the walls of Facebook. This quarter, I created a class website with Google Sites. It was effective, but I'm going to now be researching docs.com further to decide whether Facebook could be a more useful avenue for sharing class documents, etc...

Qik.com
This is the last tool that I want to touch on, and it's one that I do think is a neat concept, but I'm not sure how I would use it in the classroom either. To me, it seems it's just an alternative to youtube - capture video and upload directly from your portable device to the qik server. There's a location feature that is kinda cool... but I'm just not sure it will work for my classes.

In addition to this session that I've referenced here, I also attended a session on Turnitin, the plagiarism checker widely used in academia. This session was presented by 2 of my librarian colleagues, and they did a fine job! Much of the information I knew and have used, but it is always nice to be able to support your fellow colleagues and friends in their professional development endeavors.

That's it for now. If you have found something here that you haven't used before, please let me know if and how you plan to use it. And if you have any other cool technology tools, pass those along as well!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 I plan to incorporate next quarter (which is coming way too soon!):

1. 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
2. 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.
   
3. 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...)
   

Hopefully if you're still reading you have found a helpful nugget of information that will be useful to you and your classroom (if you teach). And for me, just when I thought I had my class material just about set - I'm off to change it up some more...