up2date

Visualizing data

This is a very interesting 'periodic table' of data-visualization techniques. I had no idea there were so many!

If you mouse-over an 'element,' it will show you an example of its use.

Study on grad. students & library instruction

A new preprint, "A Longitudinal Assessment of Graduate Student Research Behavior and the Impact of Attending a Library Literature Review Workshop," is signaled on ACRL Insider. The abstract :

This article discusses findings from a longitudinal research study that examined the way graduate students carry out the literature review and how they were impacted by attending a library literature review workshop. The literature review research process serves as an important gateway for graduate students’ into their scholarly communities’ practices, and can be a logical place for librarians to offer assistance. This study was carried out to gain insights into the ways librarians can better meet graduate students’ needs in order to shape the services offered to graduate students. Findings reveal a lack of a single path through the literature review research process, but do indicate that attending a literature review workshop can have long-term benefits.

teaching students to think critically

I found this article, Let's Review (Inside Higher Ed).essentially advocating 'information literacy' teaching well-written and an effective piece. There is no mention of the (possible) role of libraries, which doesn't bother me, although I think it will upset others. 

Information Literacy Across the Curriculum

From the ACRL Insider :

Information Literacy Across the Curriculum.

ACRL and the TLT Group are co-sponsoring the online workshop Information Literacy Across the Curriculum from 1:00 - 2:00 pm Eastern on Wednesdays, November 4, 11, 18, 2009.

As part of implementing an information literacy program, many librarians and faculty face the daunting task of integrating IL skills across an entire curriculum. Undertaking this task is time consuming and demands the patience and support of a number of campus constituents. But when complete, it offers more vision and greater curricular integration than most realize.
...

This workshop offers first hand accounts about how to integrate IL competencies systematically throughout a general education or major curriculum. Programs highlighted will include a large state university, a liberal arts college and a community college. Each week, synchronous Webcasts featuring a different set of practitioners will present and discuss the methods needed to grow a holistic information literacy program.
...

Princeton experimenting with who teaches library instruction

Wayne Bivens-Tatum reports in his blog that Princeton has begun an experiment that changes the nature of the partnership between the Library and the Writing Program:

"The idea is that the simplest skills--the basics of searching the OPAC and an article database--would be taught by the writing instructor in an early library "discovery session," and the librarian would collaborate in a later "research clinic" and possibly meet individually with students for the most advanced portions of their research once they really got going on their projects."

In this new model, writing instructors will "be given training and support by the librarians." Bivens-Tatum weighs the possible costs and benefits of this new approach and takes the opportunity to take up the broader question of who should be responsible for information literacy/library instruction.

Digitally Literate Storytellers (EDUCAUSE)

Digitally Literate Storytellers

For the student researcher, digital literacy is about navigation, assessment, citation, and incorporation of credible digital information from ever-expanding resources. But digital literacy extends beyond intelligent consumption to encompass production and storytelling—skills that are emerging as essential to teaching, learning, and scholarship.

In this free September 16 EDUCAUSE Live! Web Seminar, Digitally Literate Storytellers, presenter Joan Getman, Senior Strategist for Learning Technologies, Cornell University, will examine the importance of storytelling and related skills in teaching and learning.

Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives

The Library Instruction Cookbook podcast

From the ACRL Insider.

ACRL Podcast: The Library Instruction Cookbook

ACRL Content Strategist Kathryn Deiss talks with Doug Cook and Ryan Sittler - editors of the ACRL publication The Library Instruction Cookbook - about the editing process, humor in library literature, and their new book. The Library Instruction Cookbook is available for purchase from the ALA Online Store.

'Investigating Primary Source Literacy'

From : ScienceDirect - The Journal of Academic Librarianship : Investigating Primary Source Literacy.

Investigating Primary Source Literacy

Joanne Archera, Ann M. Hanlonb and Jennie A. Levinec

Abstract: Primary source research requires students to acquire specialized research skills. This paper presents results from a user study testing the effectiveness of a Web guide designed to convey the concepts behind “primary source literacy”. The study also evaluated students' strengths and weaknesses when conducting primary source research.

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2009.06.017 

Social Media in the Classroom - One Size Does Not Fit All (EDUCAUSE)

Podcast: Social Media in the Classroom - One Size Does Not Fit All

This sixteen minute podcast features an interview from the 2009 Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference. My conversation with with Mark Gammon, Academic Technology Consultant for the University of Colorado at Boulder. We discuss social media tools in the classroom from both an educator and student perspective.

Understanding the Next-Gen User

Following the Nielsen research about which I previously posted, I'll be intrigued to see what they have to say. From EDUCAUSE:

Title:	Returning the Researcher to the Library: Understanding the Next-Gen User
Author(s):	Joan K. Lippincott (Coalition for Networked Information) and Alison J. Head (University of Washington)
Abstract:	Users’ expectations of information search changed dramatically in the wake of Google and continue to evolve. Some studies point to a slow, but steady disintermediation of the library from the research process. Yet, libraries have a powerful competitive advantage in the quality, breadth and authority of their content – an advantage recognized and valued by users, especially in the academic library. This four-part series explores how libraries are taking back their role as the starting point for research by focusing on the user experience and supporting it with innovative technology. The opening learning session in the series – Understanding the Next-Gen User – brings together Joan Lippincott and Alison Head, leaders in research on next-gen research habits, for an insightful exploration into the needs and expectations of students and how libraries can respond in ways they respect and understand.

Guide to technology-enhanced learning & teaching

From EDUCAUSE:

Title:

Effective Practice in a Digital Age: A guide to technology-enhanced learning and teaching

Abstract:

Effective Practice in a Digital Age: A guide to technology-enhanced learning and teaching updates the 2004 JISC guide to the pedagogy of e-learning, Effective Practice with e-Learning1, by drawing on outcomes from the Design for Learning2 and Technology Enhanced Learning Environments3 themes of the JISC e-Learning Programme. ...  Effective Practice in a Digital Age is designed for those in further and higher education who aim to enhance the student learning experience through apt and imaginative uses of technology. ...

Meeting Challenges in Teaching and Learning with Technology (EDUCAUSE)

Meeting the Top Challenges in Teaching and Learning with Technology (ID: WRC09_173151)

Title:
Author(s):	David S. Levin (California State University, Northridge) and Michael DeBlasi (Seattle University)
Origin:	Western Regional conferences (06/03/2009)
Abstract:	Introducing emerging technologies. Developing 21st-century literacies. Creating learning environments that foster critical thinking skills. In the fall of 2008, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative turned to the EDUCAUSE teaching and learning community and asked it to identify those big issues that will dominate our conversations about teaching and learning with technology for years to come. In this interactive discussion session, well quickly discuss the top-five issues to emerge, exchange ideas for how individual campuses are confronting these issues, and then discuss questions for moving forward on a solution-driven agenda.

future of learning (EDUCAUSE)

Title:	Building a Blueprint: Net Gen Students, Web 2.0, and the Future of Learning (ID: SERC09_173149)
Author(s):	Carie Lee Page (EDUCAUSE)
Origin:	Southeast Regional Conferences (06/03/2009)
Abstract:	Today's students, shaped by a lifetime of technological innovation, are increasingly different from the faculty who will teach them. How can we leverage todays technologiesfrom wikis and blogs to social networks and cyberinfrastructureto better serve their needs? In this interactive workshop, well use the student voice and our own knowledge of learning and learning technologies to construct a blueprint of what the future might look like. Can we create borderless classrooms where students work together to solve complex problems? Are there opportunities for knowledge sharing inside a lecture? How can we teach critical thinking? Together, we'll build new models for learning that test these questions and stimulate our imaginations.

21st-century classrm experience

From the Designing Better Libraries blog:

Design For Librarian Educators

...

"I learned this from an article I came across in the publication Metropolis, in which Sandy Speicher, who heads IDEO’s Design for Learning initiative, is interviewed. In this article Speicher offers “IDEO’s Ten Tips for Creating a 21st-Century Classroom Experience”. Here are Speicher’s ten tips along with my thoughts on how they can help a librarian educator:

1. Pull, don’t push - It’s not about spoon feeding the knowledge into their brains; create an environment that gets your students asking questions that lead to self-discovery.

2. Create from relevance - put the learning into the context of what’s relevant to them; that’s why designing research skill building into assignments is critical.

3. Stop calling them soft skills - good research requires creativity, collaboration and other so-called soft skills; they’re a necessity for 21st century learners.

4. Allow for variation - everyone learns differently and at different speeds; incorporate that into what happens in the instruction session.

5. No more sage onstage - to deliver authentic practice and build experience you have to step away from the lectern; let them do the work while you guide.

6. Librarians are designers - give librarians space to create a learning environment that suits their teaching style; allow them to design the learning experience.

7. Build learning communities - what happens in the classroom requires participation from the administration and faculty; librarians and other learning support professionals need to create the community.

8. Be an anthropologist, not an archaeologist - don’t study the past; study the people to understand their needs. Pay attention to connecting with them rather than digging through the data.

9. Incubate the future - It’s not about finding the right answers; it’s about learning to be ambitious, able to solve problems and taking responsibility for learning.

10. Change the discourse - You can’t measure creativity and collaboration on charts; we need to create new assessment to track the building of 21st-century research skills."

undergraduate research

An opinion piece in Inside HigherEd discusses what undergraduate students don't understand about research, and the role of faculty in helping them prepare for such assignments:

Admissions of Another Sort, by Mary W. George

displaying URLs while teaching/presenting

I could see this being useful in a class when you spontaneously go to a site that the students will want to remember that isn't on a handout. From Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day:

SplashURL.net

Tony Hirst, of the OpenUniveristy, wrote to tell me of this tool that he and a couple of his colleagues put together recently.

It's a simple bookmarklet powered tool that lets you splash the URL of the page you're currently viewing in a browser as a large font minified URL or QR code, so that audience members can easily write down/visit the URL

...

Teaching and Learning in Emerging Learning Environments

Another interesting one from EDUCAUSE:

Title:	Transforming the University: Teaching and Learning in Emerging Learning Environments
Author(s):	Catherine A. Solheim (University of Minnesota), Amy Garrett Dikkers (University of Minnesota), Kimerly Wilcox (University of Minnesota), Bernadette Longo (University of Minnesota), and Anne Minenko (University of Minnesota)
Abstract:	More higher education institutions are embracing opportunities to encourage faculty to teach in emerging learning environments, and faculty are beginning to explore how they might utilize them to enhance student learning. This presentation will focus on four faculty projects and the common themes emerging from collaborating on scholarship of teaching and learning and grounding technology-enhanced learning in pedagogy and learner outcomes. These common themes include best practices in an active learning classroom, team-based learning, and web-based delivery of interactive cases. These faculty members are collaborating to identify common struggles, unexpected challenges, and rewards in the realization of their projects.

Innovative Technology-Enhanced Learning Spaces (EDUCAUSE)

An assessment of some at UMN, thanks to EDUCAUSE:

Innovative Technology-Enhanced Learning Spaces: A Mixed-Methods Investigation

Title:
Author(s):	JD Walker (University of Minnesota) and Christopher Brooks (University of Minnesota)
Abstract:	Recent scholarship on learning spaces reflects a growing consensus that learning is significantly affected by the environment in which it occurs. While interest in innovative technology-enhanced learning spaces is high, and many institutions either have constructed or plan to construct such spaces, there is a paucity of systematic research examining the effects of these environments. In this presentation, we will describe grant-funded mixed-methods research that investigated whether, how, and to what degree learning was affected in selected classes that took place in innovative technology-enhanced classroom spaces at the University of Minnesota.

EDUCAUSE: Building a Blueprint: Net Gen Students, Web 2.0, and the Future of Learning

There are two parts to this "Building a Blueprint" seminar (part 1, part 2).

Author(s):

Carie Lee Page (EDUCAUSE) and Julie K. Little (EDUCAUSE)

Abstract:

Today's students, shaped by a lifetime of technological innovation, are increasingly different from the faculty who will teach them. How can we leverage todays technologies—from wikis and blogs to social networks and cyberinfrastructure—to better serve their needs? In this interactive workshop, well use the student voice and our own knowledge of learning and learning technologies to construct a blueprint of what the future might look like. Can we create borderless classrooms where students work together to solve complex problems? Are there opportunities for knowledge sharing inside a lecture? How can we teach critical thinking? Together, we'll build new models for learning that test these questions and stimulate our imaginations.

Learning Space

From EDUCAUSE (the 1st time I think I've seen them highlight a blog -- but this might be one worth following as we think "space"):

Title: The Learning Space
Author(s): James A. Jorstad (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)

Abstract: The primary intent of this web blog is to provide an environment which offers mediated resources in teaching and learning, guidance in classroom design, instructional design, and digital media creation and display. This is an active and collaborative space to share ideas, to explore, and to ask "what if?"