Spotify

I know it is outside my normal remit but I cannot avoid posting about Spotify. I expect that many, or most of you, are already using it....but I have obly beeen using it on my PC and laptop about six months now. Imagine having much of the music of the world available for listening and bookmarking  into playlists free.Bear in mind there  are adverts occasionally (but there are on Classic FM and they are just as irritating there) and if you want to listen without ads you have to pay and if you want to listen to to your tracks on a mobile device you have to pay more but it is still a great service.

So what am I listening to while doing this post?  This is amazing music by a neglected master of JS Bach's time.

Jan Dismas Zelenka – Trio Sonata No. 1 in F major, ZWV 181: II. Allegro


And I was able to embed this through the useful little article Add Spotify, Rdio and GitHub's Gist embeds to your site  by Alex Mills which I have just been reading.  Magic.

Google+ and the Hangout feature

When Google+ came out I got quite excited and thought that I might use it instead of Facebook. In particular I thought the Hangout feature might be a really good way of communicating with students - even a group of them at once. Well, I have only a few friends on Google+ and have largely forgotten about it and them..... As for Hangout it's too late now as my students are mostly doing exams. I've missed the boat. Phil Bradley has done several posts here  and here  on Google+ Hangout so that has reminded me of my failure. I wonder if anyone out there has used it for Information Literacy in any way?

Mobile apps and resources at Newcastle University

I have said on numerous occasions how important the mobile dimension to our services  is set to become. Also I have long admired the LibGuides interface. This guide from University of Newcastle Library ticks both these boxes so it is a pleasure to feature it as an example of good practice!

It features the INTO Newcastle University app which gives everything new students need to know about living and studying in Newcastle.(A city which I enjoy and visit regularly to visit my son - not at University but working up there); Library search on a mobile ; encouragement to find the nearest available PC, contact tutors, check timetable on their mobile ; Facebook site ; links to other subject guides accessible by mobile ; links to basic apps ; explanation of wireless access ; explanation of  a mobile site ; explanation of  an app.

Finding the right moment and many more YouTube tricks

This guide from Joyce Valenza is a mine of practical information for using YoiuTube better. I love YouTube but can remember more horror stories of its failure to work than I care to admit! (Lining up 5 clips in advance in a huge lectuire theatre at a conference and then having no sound...for instance!)
I need to read this in detail and use the tips. Suggest you do too!

Information Literacy for Researchers

There is a leaflet available here entitled "Information Literacy framework on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework using the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy".
This is a valuable document which uses the new SCONUL Seven Pillars framework and should be a useful aid for demystifying the information maze for researchers.

100 ways to use Twitter in education

This post from Jeff Dunn from Edudemic suggests 100 ways to use Twitter in education by degree of difficulty.
He says
"Twitter is a powerhouse for marketing, communication, business, and even education, letting people from around the world work together, share ideas, and gain exposure.
It has become a staple at many online colleges and campuses as well, leaving many academics wondering just how and if they should be using Twitter both in the classroom and in their professional lives. So we’ve revised our our original 2009 list to get you started or up to date.
Whether you’re an academic or just interested in building your Twitter profile, keep reading to learn some tips and tricks that can help you take the first steps towards using Twitter for coursework, research, building a professional network, and beyond."
Some great ideas here.

Smartphone users in the world as an infographic

We cannot doubt the importance of the mobile trend but much will depend on the penetration of smartphones. Here is the latest trend as an infographic.


Infographic by-

Transformation in Teaching : Social Media strategies in Higher Education

This looks an important book for those who want to get evidence of how social media is being used in higher education. Here is the contents page :

Section 1 Introduction

Chapter 1: Understanding Social Media
Nicole A. Buzzetto-More ......................................... 1

Chapter 2: Theoretical Perspectives of Social Media
Catheryn Cheal .........................................................19

Chapter 3: Taxonomy of Web 2.0 Applications with Educational Potential
Tihomir Orehovacki, Goran Bubaš, and Andreja Kovacic ........................................................43

Section 2 Multi-Media

Chapter 4: Flickr: Critique and Collaborative Feedback in a Design Course
Diane Robbie and Lynette Zheng .............................. 73

Chapter 5: YouTube: Beyond Lectures and Papers in Leadership Education
Kathy L. Guthrie .....................................................93

Chapter 6: GenerationPulse: Web-based Service Learning in Psychology Courses
Sarah Castricum and Belle Liang .............................115

Section 3 Virtual Worlds

Chapter 7: Second Life: Reducing Public Speaking Apprehension
Scott L. Crabill, Jeff Youngquist, and Jacob Cayanus ........................................................... 139

Chapter 8: Second Life: An Online Course about Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds
Kathryn Stam ............................................................ 159

Chapter 9: Second Life: Learner Experience with an Authentic Learning Environment Design of a Game Development Course
Marija Franetovic ...................................................... 185

Chapter 10: Second Life: Virtual Teams in an Information Technology Course
Jeannie Pridmore ....................................................... 217

Section 4 Social Networking

Chapter 11: Diigo: Social Bookmarking in a Professional Communication Course
Florence Dujardin, Kirstie Edwards and Sue Beckingham ........................................................ 243

Chapter 12: GLEAN: Social Learning for Business Students
Susan Gautscsh and Charla Griffy-Brown ................. 275

Chapter 13: Facebook: Role Play in a Psychology Class
Eileen McBride and Kimberly Hall ........................... 311

Chapter 14: Facebook vs. Web Courseware: A Comparison
Terri Towner and Caroline Lego Muñoz ................... 343

Chapter 15: GoogleMaps and Drupal: Walking Ulysses by Mapping Novels in the Digital Humanities
Joseph Nugent and Tim Lindgren .............................. 373

Section 5 Blogs

Chapter 16: Twitter: Integration into Developmental English and Technology
Alan Reid, Denise Houchen-Clagett, and J. Burton Browning ....................................................391

Chapter 17: Blogger: Classrooms Without Boundaries in an English Honor’s Course on Literary Self-Narrative
Rachel V. Smydra and Pamela T. Mitzelfeld ............413

Section 6 Synchronous Tools

Chapter 18: Adobe Acrobat Connect: Global Web-Conferencing in a Visual Communication Course
Karen A. Ritzenhoff ..................................................433

Chapter 19: Chat: Transforming the Social Work Classroom
Jane Peller, Kaitlyn Beebe, and Gerardo Morales Aldrighetti ......................................451

Remarkably you can get into the full text on Google Books here! 


Thanks to Sheila Webber in her Information Literacy blog for alerting me to this!

Web 2.0 to enrich Information Literacy skills

This presentation was given by Lori Cooney back in March 2012 at Mass Schools and Libraries and contains a wealth of suggested tools. If you are a school librarian and have missed this Prezi presentation then do take a look here.

LILAC 2012 part 3 Our Symposium "Information Literacy - just an outdated buzzword".

I have saved the best part til now! Jo Parker, Jane Secker and myself put on a fun Symposium " Information Literacy - just an outdated buzzword?" on the Thursday afternoon immediately after lunch.
I was worried that we were competing against 4 other events including a Teachmeet. Also immediately after lunch would anyone want to argue about the merits of Information Literacy?
We were very pleasantly surprised to see upwards of 50 delegates crowding into the room. But would they discuss the topics using the prompts we had devised? Also the room was in rows of immovable seats and we could not split them into groups.

No problem : the discussions when prompted were almost deafening!

We then each spoke for about 5 minutes :

Jo Parker gave a short summary of how librarians have changed their approach to user education, moving on to information literacy and the web, but was this enough?  Information literacy hadn't been very showy in the past, more like a female peacock rather than the full flowering male peacock. (slide).

I then took over and, disdaining Powerpoint, used 3 props. First the new edited book "Information Literacy beyond Library 2.0" which had been the starting point for the symposium (held up briefly and then thrown down on the floor...)but how to sum up some of the arguments?
Is there an elephant in the room now? Enter prop number 2 (Toy elephant) : there was an elephant in the room but it was not a single one. A better way to look at the problem of IL was to acknowledge that there was something very important around everyone's management of informatiuon : but it kept changing in its nature and no-one saw the whole elephant  : some saw the ears, some the tail, some the head.... There have been many attempts at a comprehensive term (multiliteracy, digital literacy etc etc) but perhaps the most useful way was to take a transliterate approach, which meant acknowledging overlap of literacies and that these would keep changing. Then when we came to talking to others about IL we would need to adapt our language and approach according to the discipline, level, and subject discourse and we would do well to put on a large pair of spectacles (put on a  ridiculously large pair of glasses). The existing IL frameworks had been too rigid but the new SCONUL framework promised more flexibility  and the New Curriculum for Information Literacy research by Jane Secker and Emma Coonan offered the kind of picture that that could fit the future.

Jane Secker then suggested that  information literacy should be viewed holistically as part of the learning process, and drawing on her work with Emma Coonan and the ANCIL ‘pizza’, Information Literacy should be customised and different ‘toppings’ might be more appropriate in different disciplines. However information literacy needed to be delivered embedded in the curriculum and at the point of need. She also saw information literacy as being part of helping students understand ‘the rules of the game’ and used the metaphor of chess, that by having the rules of the game explained it would not make them a grand chess master.

(For more about Jane's research see her other session at LILAC 2012.)

These little presentation created buzz so we set the participants to form informal groups off with the  first discussion point :

"If IL at your workplace was a ‘thing’ (like oup peacock or pizza) what would it be like for them?"

Then after a few minutes we asked :

 "What do you do?Share your knowledge of the frameworks you use with your group (and if you don’t use any –why not?) "

Then after a few more minutes :

"How far do the existingframeworks/statements you’vediscussed go in terms of expressing what is happening at your workplace?Any pitfalls? Gaps?"

Another few minutes and then :

"What’s our action plan?What should we be doing differently (if anything?)"
We  encouraged participants to tweet to #!Lbuzz
This took the place of reporting back from groups. As the groups which were formed varied in size, and there were so many of them, the normal report back just would not have worked. In stead we were able to go through the twitter stream.
 Here is a selection of the tweets :

.....................................................................................................................................

 IL is for life, not just assessment time

Info centric instruction should mean success lives on, and is not just about one off assignment success

Look thro the eyes of the learner to build ur IL framework. What’s in it 4 them?U can take a learner to the 

IL fountain but can you make them drink?

 Information Literacy as a bargain-basement – the TKMaxx of education

@touchthecloud Great use of crowdsourcing IL thoughts on Twitter – thanks for making it such fun!

 Librarian as personal shopper – taking the punters to the good stuff and telling them what would look nice
on them.

    
My action plan for IL. 1)Think. 2) Act. 3)Reflect. 4) Refine. 5) Repeat. 6) Retire

If it’s going to be pizza it should be a calzone – all the good stuff inside

 The elephant has the glasses on – but can it see? 

 Can I be first to posit the idea of the Digital Literacy Spaghetti Bolognese framework? It’s basically just a mess…

I don’t need IL, I just need literacy, I can’t spell Duck Billed platypus! Help me….

  

Different experiences, different institutions. Shared resources, know more about pre-he IL, less silo-ized idea of IL

 Hearing a real need for librarians to have a database of shared resources. Pointing them to your survey @jsecker [think that’s the OER stuff]

It’s a cocktail cabinet containing a Swiss army penknife to open the wine

 Don’t be mechanistic encourage enquiring minds

Do you want a dutch one? @AnnekeDirkx Grappige sessie waarin we de resultaten van onze discussies moeten tweeten

She also said: and we think the frameworks are a little but old fashioned

        We are using acrl or sconul frameworks

        Our IL is a small and spotty ladybug, a dutch cow and a restaurant menu

It is messy. It’s a dinosaur. It should be joined up. It should be holistic, not in isolation, engaging and campus wide. 

 Our action plan: create clearer smorgasbord of tasty options to communicate what I can teach

 It’s like Mr Potato Head

.............................................................................................................................

So what did we conclude?

Information Literacy will continue to evolve. It should not be looked at too prescriptively. It moves about and  is messy.
 The term IL is still the best label we have, we will need to adapt our language and approach according to the discipline, level, and subject discourse.
Librarians can get excited about it even just after lunch and we have a bright future helping our everyone to construct their information universe.

Here are the slides.

LILAC 2012 part 2

For the full list of sessions at LILAC 2012 complete with most of the Powerpoints click here. 

I would like to draw your attention to a few of the sessions I attended which I found particularly interesting so here goes :

Mary Antonesa and Claire McAvinia (National University of Ireland Maynooth)

Information Literacy and the case of the “natives”

The concept of the Digital Native started with Marc Prensky et al and encouraged librarians to do new things in order to connect with them. There has been a lot of cold water poured on this over recent years and the general consensus is that it is much more complex than this!

This presentation based on research being done for a PhD at University of Sheffield is looking at IL and its evolving relationship with literacy, the learning environment and the creation of knowledge by students. This is very much the same ground that I was looking at it

our new book so I was eager to see if her findings based on focus groups of all concerned, student observation and interviews were going to chime with what I have written.

Emerging findings emphasised :

-the importance of the transition from school to HE and the intimidating nature of online material after the transition;

-the challenge of referencing and the lack of understanding of its value ;

-in terms of teaching  : dont tell us show us;  

-they may think they should know and therefore do not  ask.

-Library instruction is more about  knowledge construction.

-Literacy development is progressive not sequential.

-It is socially negotiated.

-It depends on context.

-Need to focus on the person’s interest.

-Cannot be learned once for all time.

Amen to all these!

The second study is on the use of vles by students.

This has begun with a survey of use of undergraduate  language students. The kind of use was disappointing to me (but not surprising!) L they saw it as a place to get lecture notes, the place to keep up to date with room changes etc. Lecturers were enthusiastic  and later beginning to use e-lng tools, aaaand also giving tasters of secondary sources that opened up reading lists.

This was one of the most interesting sessions and  more time was needed to follow up these interim conclusions.

 

Maria Savova (Claremont Colleges Library) Robin Canuel (McGill University)and Chad Crichton (University of Toronto)

Mobile Technology and Information Literacy instruction ; the McGill Library experience.

This was one of the most useful sessions I attended and is the kind of thing that all HE institutions should be tackling if not now, then soon!!

The workshop “McGill Library from the palm of your hand” was given to library staff first.It covered E- content issues ; whether to download or use online ; Issues of direct online ; direct download and can be used offline ; download to pc and transfer. Current catalogue records do not clarify which type it is and therefore users need to be aware of these format issues. Html versus pdf has issues for 6 inch screen. Digital rights management and the problems this raises. Full versus mobile library web sites.

How to manage e content on mobiles and on ipads

What application  will students use to download their stuff onto? This is a big area for development and becoming part of what it will mean to be information literate.

Andrew Walsh (University of Huddersfield)

Playing games and growing trees...not sucking lemons

How Lemon Tree, a social online game based on use of library resources has been developed at Huddersfield. Works rather like Foursquare.

Here is a link to Lemon Tree

Students register with Lemon Tree and are awarded points for use of library and comments. 

Started in Nov 2011 and already 500-600 signed up exceeding expectations!
For further details strongly recommend you look at  this article in the University repository. 

Gwnneth Price (Institute of Education)

Digital literacies as a postgraduate attribute

This very interesting project is part of the JISC "Developing digital literacies" band. see here.

Staring in July 2011 it runs for 2 years. It will describe what pg students  think about use of digital tool.Different groups will have different experiences.

The next stage is to give all students an ipod touch to use for making journal of how they study.

This sounds fascinating as I believe librarians should be assisting students to gather, manipulate, synthesise digitally across platforms and devices. This project will help us to understand what is already happening and how we can tackle this in the future.

LILAC 2012 part 1

This year our annual UK Information Literacy Conference LILAC was in Glasgow. Having been to Glasgow (the former 2nd city of the Empire) twice for conferences already, I knew that this would be a cracker and so it proved. Over 120 of the 350 delegates were international : a great sign of the success of this Conference.
The keynotes Megan Oakleaf (Syracuse University), Lord Puttnam, and Tara Brabazon (University of Ontario, Institute of Technolgy) were all inspiring and so all totally different in style. I shall not attempt to summarise in deatil, but just offer a few comments and try to give  the flavour.

Megan Oakleaf 
believes that we can show evidence of our library impact on studemt learning., correlate library interactions with other student success measures, and define the library's role in achieving strategic institutional goals.

How do we show our value?

What can we do differently?

Could we impact with students before they start?

Here is link to a free version of an article by Megan Oakleaf: "Are They Learning? Are We? Learning Outcomes and the Academic Library." The Library Quarterly, 81 (1), 61-82. http://www.meganoakleaf.info/aretheylearningoakleaf.pdf

Lord David Puttnam
spoke brilliantly (no powerpoints). I remember particularly :

The Far East are well ahead.streaming of video. This  can be done easily seamlessly in education and distance learning.

Voice recognition is going to big.The iPad 3 has voice recognition instilled.

Keyboards will be  less important in future. T

Oracy needs to be in the teachers ' curriculum.This means kids will need to  be better speakers, orators. Importance of social skills.

Compare a surgeon and teacher of 1912 operating now....The surgeon could not begin to cope  but the teacher would ......

If we are just using digital technologies to deliver the  same curriculum then its a waste of possibilities which are there. 

We need to learn about student ways of operating.

 Librarians are part of this imaginative change.

Teachers and librarians are the infantry for change!

Education can provide the means to survive, and provide social security and health systems required.

But our assessment processes are way way behind.

Librarians have a brand issue. It is like a millstone round our neck. The public doesn't understand our role. We are seen as custodians.....treasure keepers.

Companies have the same problems. 

But Dame Lynne Brindley  has succeeded brilliantly with the British Library.

Tara Brabazon

Using some Powerpoints, sound and her usual flambouyant acting style...

She spoke of the need for a Digital Detox. 

Google is like the McDonalds of information management.

We dont put words into Google that we dont know and we are too easily satisfied.

(As I have said so many times : they dont know what they dont know : or with incoming students they often think they do know how to search)

She suggests digital dieting which in practical terms could mean :

Pushing students away from Google toward Google Scholar (YES!!!!)

Reduce their speed pf search by putting in intellectua; obstacles like asking for annotated bibilograhphies.

Reduce use of textbooks.

Improve and widen their vocabulary.

Help them to know what they dont know by using the curriculum. 

More about LILAC in next post.

Information Literacy BEYOND Library 2.0

This blog has gone rather quiet! The main reason has been that a sequel to the book has been under development : called "Information Literacy beyond Library 2.0".
Jo Parker and I have been hatching this for well over a year so here it is at last!
This blog has been trying to keep you up to date so now we have another book!

Here is the blurb from our publishers :

Information Literacy Beyond Library 2.0
Peter Godwin and Jo Parker

This new book picks up where the best-selling Information Literacy meets Library 2.0 left off. In the last three years the information environment has changed dramatically, becoming increasingly dominated by the social and the mobile. This new book asks where we are now, what is the same and what has changed, and, most crucially, how do we as information professionals respond to the new information literacy and become a central part of the revolution itself?

The book is divided into three distinct sections. Part 1 explores the most recent trends in technology, consumption and literacy, while Part 2 is a resource bank of international case studies that demonstrate the key trends and their effect on information literacy and offer innovative ideas to put into practice. Part 3 assesses the impact of these changes on librarians and what skills and knowledge they must acquire to evolve alongside their users.

More information: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=7623

Table of contents: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/downloads/file/godwin&p-toc.pdf

Free sample chapter: http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/downloads/file/godwin&p-ch1.pdf

Photo : Social networking in the library at Luton in former years.

Geographies of the World's Knowledge

Want to see some visualisations of internet penetration worldwide with total numbers together with % of population? Or the world's largest newspapers, mapping Flickr, distribution of articles on Wikipedia? The Convoco Foundation and Oxford Internet Institute have given us a fascinating collecxtion of data and visualisations here.

Library Day in the Life 8 February 2012

I have been meaning to do the Library Day in the Life wiki for several days. I just fall outside the Feb 5 deadline...but... It always amazes me that colleagues have (or make) the time! Several of my days lately have been ideal for this so I have emerged out of my blogging silence to give you this.

Wednesday 8^th February 2012

Today I must get to work on time – even early – have to deliver a session for new Master’s level students - in a hostile environment. So it’s goodbye to the free leisurely bus journey and hello to a quick drive with £7 parking ticket next to the University. It’s so cold, but the new Student Centre is warm and inviting. I pass by the cafe and notice it’s open and there’s a friend eating FEB (full English breakfast). What torture! I am slimming at the moment. .. Up in my office we are all set to go to the nearby Business suite which we are having to use.

It is 9.00 and the student group are beginning to arrive. I do some introductions as three colleagues wrestle with uncooperative equipment. We have lift off ; with full functioning Powerpoint and YouTube clips. These are new international students and I have up to 90 minutes with them. I refused to do the suggested “Introduction to the Library” and “ plagiarism” and instead am going to tackle Social Media and Google. Having just been writing about Information Literacy, Library 2.0 and Transliteracy it’s time to do something different! Taking an openly Transliterate approach for the first time was fun. Comparing Amazon with Google Books and the Library catalogue ; setting the number of books in the world, against the number Google have digitised and the number we have in our library and so on ; encouraging them to consider accessing material online, save results, make notes and use and save them across platforms (mobile, laptop, PC). We have a truly international bunch of about 50 and I go round individually finding out country of origin. When I talk about the power of Facebook and Twitter it is really humbling to hear how students from Libya have used these social media. Also a student from Cairo. The first session went well, but no time for tea. Straight into repeat session at 11.00 and out part way through at 12.00 to prepare for returning international students in the largest lecture theatre on the University site.

I collect some guides. We are going to do a special one hour session on skills they may have (or not learned) so far in the course. We expected 180 of them : I expected only half would turn up. Peering through the door it was full : back I race for more guides. The theatre is bursting with students : my colleague runs through a list of skills and then turns to me to see what I have done. In a flash I become “Francis Maxwell-Smith” and boast about all the things I have not done and how I will still get a degree. They love my posh Oxford accent! Anyway the role play goes well and we get the message across that there is help available and that they should start to take heed.

It’s 1.30 and I must get back to the third iteration (why do we all use that trendy word nowadays?) of the Social Media and Google session that began at 1.00. I help to round this off. Great to meet all these international students and demonstrate the world they live in by using YouTube “Social Media Revolution 2012” and “Next is Now!”

It is 3.00 p.m. but when was lunch? Fortunately not all days are like this!

Mobile delivery of Information Services

Char Booth has posted here about her recent survey for Council of Chief Librarians of California Community Colleges, which was partly about use of mobile technologies.
It showed most users were very or fairly likely to use mobile content, resarch and support.
She also linked mobile service to the kind of mobile support which can be offered by a no-frills vendor pushcart which can go between sites and be among our users. This is a fascinating post and the report below is important.

California Community College Student Library & Technology Engagement Survey: 2011 Pilot, Final Report

View more documents from char booth

Skills that travel : Transliteracy and the Global Librarian

Must recommend this presentation by Lane Wilkinson at ACRL/NY Annual Symposium on 2 Dec. 2011. If you have not come up against the concept of Transliteracy, this presentation is an excellent advocate for showing how it can illuminate the role of the modern librarian. Highly recommended.

Skills That Transfer: Transliteracy and the Global Librarian (ACRL/NY 2011 Symposium)

View more presentations from Lane Wilkinson