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The Adventures of Library Girl: Libraries as Cultivators of Creativity: There's an App for That! http://t.co/vSUG6TXdZe By @jenniferlagarde "...here some of my favorite APPs to help spark student creativity. If you're lucky to have access to mobile devices in your library, these would make some great additions to your APP collection. And if you don't have such access, they are worth exploring anyway - to consider what they provide students with the opportunity to do and then to think about how you can provide students with those same opportunities with or without a gadget."
Apps: - Felt Board - Draw Quest - Art Set - Sock Puppets - Comic Life - Art Studio "As librarians, we have an opportunity and an obligation to create spaces and instruction that cultivate our students' creativity. Our spaces, our flexibility and our skills make the library the perfect place to turn kids loose: to give them the chance to imagine, explore, create and share. Along the way, they'll make mistakes and plenty of messes, but that's how we all learn. We may not all have access to the APPs I've shared in this post, but we've all got access to something far more important: kids. All of whom are eager and ready to get started!"
January 24th, the American Library Association’s Digital Literacy Task Force, led by the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy in Washington, released “Digital Literacy, Libraries, and Public Policy,” a report highlighting support for digital literacy in the context of school, public, and academic libraries.
"Twitteracy: Tweeting Improves Learning And Engagement
Education Professor Christine Greenhow, Michigan State University, conducted a study on Twitter as a new form of literacy (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131725.2012.709032). Her results showed that adults who tweet during a class and as part of the instruction: are more engaged with the course content
are more engaged with the instructor
are more egaged with other students
and have higher grades than the other students.
“Tweeting can be thought of as a new form of literacy,” Greenhow said. “The students get more engaged because they feel it is connected to something real, that it’s not just learning for the sake of learning. It feels authentic to them.”
Via Dennis T OConnor
By Silvia: "This is a great online research infographic that could be turned into a poster for the classroom."
Via Dennis T OConnor
If helping your students write papers is a part of your school day, you probably already know that there are enough issues to focus on without having to spend a lot of time teaching your students how to build a bibliography and correctly cite their sources. Your time is likely better spent helping create a focused, concise piece of work that uses excellent grammar and sentence structure.
Via Dennis T OConnor
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Rescooped by
Karen du Toit
from Durff
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"As educators we are faced with the challenge of teaching students to efficiently use the Internet to find and use information. Searching for information and making sense of it is a process that involves critical thinking and it is an important skill. Fortunately, there are many free digital tools available to help students efficiently sift through an overwhelming abundance of web content to find the relevant and reliable information they need. This post will explore some digital resources to provide educators with tools to help all students become savvy searchers and independent learners." Susan Oxnevad shares a wealth of other tools and resources to teach students how to search. " - Google Search Education - Google Custom Search - The Find Tool - Oolone - Twurdy - instaGrok - Qwiki Reference - Reliable Search Engines: iPL2 -A public service organization and a learning/teaching environment manned by students and volunteer librarians which features searchable resource collections for kids and teens, as well as an a“Ask a librarian” section.
Sweet Search - A Search Engine for Students. It searches only credible Web sites approved by Internet research experts
KidsClick! – A web search site designed for kids by librarians – with kid-friendly results!" >>Extremely valuable for librarians as well!
Via Anne Whaits, Dennis T OConnor, Jason Ertz, Lisa Durff
Terry Heick: "It's always revealing to watch learners research." "1. Google creates the illusion of accessibility 2. Google naturally suggests “answers” as stopping points 3. Being linear, Google obscures the interdependence of information" "The natural limitations of Google have led to a cottage industry of digital platforms that have moved past simple mass curation. These traditional social bookmarking sites likeStumbleUpon, diigo, pearltrees, Scoopit, and others enable users to save information. Upstarts like pinterest make this process niche, allowing for plucking of visual artifacts, and allowing users to organize them into infinite categories. But recent software has taken this even further, with apps like Learnist, mentormob, and even InstaGrokproviding more structure to how information is not only discovered, but sequenced and applied. Which frankly blows Google out of the water–or at least restores Google back to its proper context. A search engine, and nothing more." >> Valuable to know as Information Professionals
C. Shoemaker, H. Martin, B. Joseph (2010) How Using Social Media Forced a Library to Work on the Edge in Their Efforts to Move Youth From “Hanging Out” to “Messing Around, Journal of Media Literacy Education 2:2 (2010) 181 – 184 Full Text Research Paper. http://altechconsultants.netfirms.com/jmle1/index.php/JMLE/article/view/123/78 "In 2009, Mimi Ito released Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media, a book composed of 23 related studies. These ethnographic studies interrogated how learning is being experienced by teens via informal uses of digital media. The title refers to the framework around how youth learn through digital media and networked spaces, a kind of learning that is quite often invisible to adults who often confuse it with playing, wasting time or, at worst, as undermining youth’s ethical values and social competencies. This collection of studies, however, finds that these three different modes of participation with digital media, in fact, support the development of a wide range of new media literacies. This is the challenge offered by Ito and the one recently taken up by the New York Public Library. This worked example is not designed to report the successes or failure of this pilot project. Rather, it is intended to explore and take a critical look at the obstacles encountered along the way and discuss how they were negotiated. Finally, it will leverage Ito’s framework to provide context to understand what it means to use digital media for learning and how to apply these lessons learned, both for this organization and others."
Via Dennis T OConnor
“Getting the Most out of Academic Libraries – and Librarians”. Posted on December 10, 2011 by UT Librarians." "Article on current levels of student proficiency at being able to assess, critically, electronic resources – nothing new, but reaffirms current views." Carol Saller: "The group [academic librarians] unanimously perceived a lack of skills among its clientele: Students are routinely flummoxed as to how to search for or evaluate the sources they need in their work. But even as librarians are poised to teach information technology through classes, online tutorials, and one-on-one sessions, actually laying hold of student time and attention depends on faculty support—and that is not always easy to find. The extent to which college students are unprepared to conduct research may be surprising to those who assume that young adults are automatically proficient at any computer-related task. “Many students don’t actually know how to interpret the citations that they find in print or online, and as a result, they don’t understand what to search for,” says Georgiana McReynolds, management and social-sciences librarian at MIT. “They search for book chapters in Google because they don’t recognize a book citation compared to an article citation. Or they don’t know which is the title of the article as opposed to the title of the journal. Or they can’t decipher all the numbers that define the volume, issue, and date.”
Law Librarian Blog: Digital Access Isn't Everything: Digital Access Isn't Everything. There is a great article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) by Brian Cowan, 'Digital Natives' Aren't Necessarily Digital Learners, which takes on the concept of digital natives as digital learners, and concludes that while technology may deliver information in convenient ways, it will not necessarily motivate individuals to learn. Cowan describes four myths of digital learning: Myth 1: Digital natives are automatically digital learners. Myth 2: Students prefer using technology to learn. Myth 3: Cyberspace is the new classroom. Myth 4: Today's students are multitaskers.
"Following on from the lists of academic tweeters published earlier this month, we have put together a short guide to using Twitter in university research, teaching, and impact activities, available to download as a PDF."
RT @theREALwikiman: Anyhow, I blogged about it here: Student Induction, Libraries, Prezi, and Interactive Maps http://t.co/k5eHK5Jx... "All new students go through quite a lengthy induction process in the first three weeks at the University. The library is slotted into that – how much time we get with the students varies between departments – and so it’s a good opportunity for us to make contact, promote our services, and try and embed ourselves in the academic culture, but also tricky because the students are overloaded with information as it is. I wanted to give each of my departments an interactive map with all the library info relevant to them specifically – the idea being that it’s easier to navigate an actual map of the library than it is to just search for stuff on the library website. Because each department would have a bespoke map it would mean the students had all the info they needed in one place, and because I created the maps in Prezi they could also be used as a presentation tool (as well as a stand-alone web object, later; I give students the URL of the Prezi itself and tell them not to worry about writing down any of the other URLs it contains). I created a generic map of the library with all the information which wasn’t department specific, then copied that for each of my two departments and doctored it accordingly. I also made it available to my colleagues in Academic Liaison here at York, and a few of them created their own subject-specific versions too."
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RT @benshowers: How important will analytics be to libraries, now and in the future? Community Survey Results: http://t.co/nEHFpnUIUM #jiscLAMP\ Library Analytics – Community Survey Results (Nov 2012) from joypalmer Survey on SlideShare here: http://www.slideshare.net/joypalmer/survey-library-analyticsfindings We wanted to get a better handle on how important analytics will be to academic libraries now and in the future, and what demand might be for a service in this area, for example, a shared service that centrally ingests and processes raw usage data and data visualisations back to local institutions (and this, of course, is what LAMP is exploring further in more practical detail). We had response from 66 UK HE institutions, and asked a good number of questions. For example, we asked whether the following functions might be potentially useful:Automated provision of analytics demonstrating the relationship between student attainment and resource/library usage within institutionsAutomated provision of analytics demonstrating e-resource and collections (e.g. monographs) usage according to demographics (e.g. discipline, year, age, nationality, grade)Resource recommendation functions for discovery services
Libraries are changing. They're becoming an online resource for students of all ages and a meeting place for the entire community of a school.
Via gwynethjones
- “Meeting the Needs of Student Users in Academic Libraries: Reaching Across the Great Divide,” published by Chandos Publishing and available through ALA Neal-Schuman, takes an honest look at learning commons in academic libraries and discusses what is working and what is not. To evaluate their findings, authors Michele Crump and LeiLani Freund examine the measurement tools that libraries have used to evaluate usage and satisfaction, including contemporary anthropological studies that provide a more detailed view of students’ approach to research. They take a candid look at these redesigns and ask if improvements have lived up to expectations of increased service and user satisfaction. Including many actual survey questions and answers, this book will help academic librarians and administrators provide better services to student users. Book available here: http://www.neal-schuman.com/mtnos
The University of Western Ontario - Western provides the best student experience among Canada's leading research-intensive universities. University-age students today are sometimes referred to as ‘digital natives’ – a group of people who have grown up with the Internet. But many young people are unsure of how to use computers and the Internet beyond social media or web-browsing purposes. Librarians are now helping students fill this digital void. Libraries are looking to teach students how to optimize research and many now offer workshops on how to make sense of the information they find. Librarians provide instruction on how to search efficiently within academic databases, using simple tricks such as adding brackets and asterisks to narrow down searches. Nowadays, it’s important to recognize not all students are tech-savvy and for libraries to have support services for students through liaison librarians. These librarians spend time in research-intensive classes introducing students to the library resources available to them. Read more here: http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/stories/2012/November/librarians_move_to_fill_void_for_digital_natives.html
Via Fe Angela M. Verzosa
"Global Digital Citizenship is a critical element of any teaching program at any level. Our students are connected. Irrespective of the age of the student, they are wired. We are seeing devices reducing in cost, increasing in availability, and entering most classrooms and almost every school." [...] "...how do we teach Global Digital Citizenship, a fluency that is critical at all levels of education? 1. Clarity and rationale—Whether we are giving the students guidelines (my personal preference) or sets of rules, there must be clarity and a transparent rationale behind the statements we make." 2. Understanding and Purpose—This is the communication aspect with the students and the community. You have to develop and instill in the students an understanding of WHY we are making these recommendations and setting these expectations. 3. Monitoring and consequences—As critical as rationale and purpose, monitoring and consequences should be transparent, timely, and appropriate. 4. Individual and community involvement—In developing and implementing our digital citizenship guidelines and processes we sought, valued, and used feedback from staff, students, and the community."
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
By Claire B. Gunnels, Susan E. Green, and Patricia M. Butler: "A public/community college joint-use library is an especially good combination. The missions and the service populations are similar enough to provide significant overlap and allow for excellent services to all users. For example, community college students find that the public library’s collections of materials and resources meet many of their academic needs and provide an excellent complement to the materials owned by the college. Likewise, community college students respond well to the friendly service orientation provided by a well-trained public library reference staff. I think that other combinations, such as a high school/PL or university/PL joint-use library, present additional challenges to good service that we do not face."
Via Afroditi Fragkou
Many librarians are still unwilling to fully embrace Google Scholar as a resource. Michelle C. Hamilton, Margaret M. Janz and Alexandra Hauser investigate whether Google Scholar has the accuracy, authority and currency to be trustworthy enough for scholars."
Via University of Nicosia Library
By Felicia A. Smith: "Current students have different expectations and are used to a greater level of support. This is an opportunity to transform the profession regardless of emerging technology trends or fiscal constraints. This Helicopter Librarians approach does not require intensive training; that is why I do not include any checklists to follow. I am not developing any metrics; and I am not advocating for data-driven anything! This is a holistic approach to a human interaction based on individuality and genuine compassion.
A study based on the 2007 National Survey of Student Engagement reports that, contrary to popular belief; children of Helicopter Parents excelled in deeper learning activities and reported higher levels of educational gains as well as greater satisfaction with their college experience. The prevailing perception of Helicopter Parents is that their over-involvement is detrimental to their child’s growth. However, such support appeared to be welcomed by most students and actually beneficial to their overall well-being. Thus the first positive attribute of Helicopter Parents is the fact that they are sincerely concerned with the success of their children. This genuine concern has to be shared by Helicopter Librarians."
2011 Global Student E-book Survey - by Allen McKiel. Usage up 8 - 16%.
For some students, validity of information takes a backseat to ease of access. "A two-year study of students’ research habits at five Illinois universities found that the majority of college students did most of their research with Google and did not properly use scholarly databases. Caroline Barratt, director of the Miller Learning Center Library Commons, said with so much information available online, students may overlook the services the libraries provide. “People may be overconfident about the results they find in a Google search,” Barratt said. “For example, Google can be really useful, but it is often the case that a librarian can find a better source for you that your professor will look on with approval.” Kyle Boutte, a senior middle school education major from Athens, said she studies at the library but has never asked a librarian for assistance."
Tech Tools valuable to anyone involved with studying, teaching, as well for librarians! RT @deblund: #Teachers #librarians #parents: A handful of #tech tools to use with your #students! This blog post is dedicated to all of the overworked teachers who just don’t have the time to seek out this information. I have provided brief explanations, links to and pictures of the tools mentioned by Simple K12 (and a couple of my favorites). I hope this makes it more manageable for teachers to pick and choose which tools they want to use. The tools: Collaborize Classroom Prezi Evernote Glogster etc.
Tools, not Trends: http://t.co/olDHo4e3... "...Tools and technologies you absolutely need to use, and what you can ignore for the time being. In academic libraries, it means knowing the tools that students really want and use versus the tools that trendwatching librarians claim they should be wanting and using. You can see some of of those tools in the Educause Center for Applied Research National Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology 2011. It’s worth skimming to get an idea of what technology students use and how they use it. Those who believe that students avidly adopt every information technology and social media trend–and who tell us this is essential for librarians to do as well–might get a few surprises."
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