Registration Complete

I have just completed my registration for WILU 2012 in Edmonton, AB.  I will be attending the following workshops:

• Literature Mapping: A Visual Exercise of Advance Information Literacy
• Open Literacy & the Problem of Access Refusal
• A Little Publication in your Hands: Engaging Student with Zines
• Choose your own Teaching Adventure: A Resourceful Way to Balance Content Consistency with Teaching
• Aren't we all Trying to do the Same Thing?
• Authentic and Active: A Pilot Project to Assess a Large-scale Information Literacy Program
• Massive! Open! Online!: Understanding MOOCs and their Impact on Library Instruction and Services

A little bit of everything!  A couple of things I have never heard of before!  A whole lot of excitement!

For more information on WILU, please see http://sites.macewan.ca/wilu2012/

Terrified of technology - notes from a conference presentation

The final session that I attended at WILU was entitled "Mobile Technology and Learning: Information Literacy Beyond the Classroom", presented by Robin Canuel and Chad Crichton.

The presentation began with a thought provoking discussion on determining the needs of the end users which is something that we are very concerned with in libraries. Their argument - does Steve Jobs ask us what we want or does he tell us what we need?

They then briefly demonstrated types of technology that could be incorporated into the library such as Google Goggles, GPS and QR codes.

The next portion of their presentation focused on the challenges of utilizing technology which they identified as:
- expertise
- cost
- competing priorities
- perception of librarians as perhaps technology illiterate
- licensed vs. owned content (DRM)
- speed
- coverage

The opportunities:
- engage students with the use of compelling technology
- harness the librarian's expertise (I am not sure in which context I wrote this comment down - but I like it - so I am leaving it!)
- the ability to re-emphasis traditional information literacy skills

They stated by the end of their presentation, members of the audience who didn't already own a smart phone would be inticed to run out and buy one. Hmmm... I don't own a smart phone, I found their presentation compelling, but I am not sure if I am ready to make that leap just yet!

* As a side note: I played whirly word on my friends' iPhone for several hours last weekend. That game is only available for iPhones - now I feel the need to have a smart phone!!!

** I love their idea of QR codes. I think I am going to add them to the stacks where I work and see what happens.

Information literacy skills - notes for a conference presentation

Well, I am finally getting back to my notes from the WILU conference, so expect two blog entries today as I report on the last two sessions that I attended at the conference.

On June 3rd, I attended a session entitled "New Horizons: Information Literacy Skills of Incoming University Students", which was presented by an academic librarian and an M.L.I.S. candidate from the University of Alberta.

From their research findings, they identified several key areas where students struggled with information literacy skills upon entering an academic institution.
- search strategies
- Boolean operators
- understanding of academic journals and the publication process
- use of databases

The strengths they identified were:
- evaluation of the resources
- ethical use of information
- print resources

Implications of their findings:
- students entering university with underdeveloped literacy skills
- there is a gap between curricular mandates and learning outcomes
But
- there is significant potential to develop information literacy skills at university
- there is also an opportunity for academic librarians to provide these programs

Get active - notes from a conference presentation

My second day at the WILU conference began with an extraordinary presentation by Amy Fyn entitled "Let's Get Active! Using Active Learning Techniques in a One-Shot Library Instruction Session". Immediately I knew that I would love this session as a beach ball went flying by my head. Part of me did not want to catch the ball because I was afraid that I might get the answer wrong in front of my library colleagues, but the other side of me was delighted and definitely engaged with Amy's instructional techniques!

Amy infused methodology with her message into a fun and thought provoking session. I was so pleased that she offered actual tips and examples that could be utilized within a classroom setting.

She stated that generally there is a perception of learning and where / how it is supposed to happen. But if you change the activity or the venue, your audience will be forced to sit up and pay attention. It will stand out. She gave the example of field trips in grade school, which are typically more memorable than the day to day activities of a classroom. She proved her point as one audience member recounted in detail her experiences on a field trip some twenty years ago, including what she wore and ate that day and who she was sitting with!

Amy echoed Fu Zhuo's sentiments on making connection through instruction. If you start by estabilishing what the students already know, you can build upon this knowledge throughout your session. This technique is called scaffolding and can be very benefical when the instructor is given a limited opportunity to present their materials.

Throughout her session she demonstrated many active learning techniques including the beach ball marked with library questions and a thumball with ice breakers, both of which succeed in forcing the participant to look up (or risk getting hit) instead of down at their materials. She utilized a slow moving telephone where participants passed along a message. The slow moving telephone could be used to demonstrate the concept of primary / secondary sources; paraphrasing and plagarism. Learners in this session participated in a think-group-share. The individuals were broken into groups based on which playing card suit they had in front of them. My ultimate favourite learning technique that she used was "Be My Google" where the room is becomes the Internet and is involved in a discussion on relevancy.

Her blog is http://activelibrarians.wordpress.com; join her conversation.

Advocate for accountabilty - notes from a conference presentation

The last presentation I attended on June 2nd at WILU was Jane Forgay's session on "Library Instruction: Success in an Age of Academic Accountability". She provided an overview of a model for library instruction that she facilitates within the History department at her institution.

Her instruction is curriculum driven, acknowledges provincial and institutional educational standards and targets complusory courses within the first year of study. The model is broken into smaller components that occur throughout the semester and are weighted in the final course grade. Her model will build upon this foundation throughout the student's university career with additional courses provided each year. The success of her program lies in the fact that she has a strong library advocate within the History faculty.

Follow the instructional recipe - notes from a conference presentation

Fu Zhuo presented "Fu Can Cook" at WILU in Regina last week. I was very curious to see how he would link cooking techniques with library instruction.

He suggests that higher student engagement can occur when an instructor is effectively able to make an association between something that the student knows already, in this case Chinese food, and then inserts the unknown, in this case library instruction, into the 'mix'.

Personally I am intrigued by the use of metaphor and analogy in instruction as it oftens makes a memorable connection for the student. I am aware of the comparison of research databases to department stores as an excellent way to describe general reference and subject specific resources.

Zhuo suggests that the benefits of using analogy in instruction is that it enriches and promotes diversity in teaching and in practice. Yet, library instructors are challenged with ensuring that they are using concrete examples that will appeal to their audience.

I believe that his cooking analogy has an additional benefit as it challenges the student's perception of libraries and librarians. The student becomes part of the instructional conversation.

Techniques from a thespian - notes from a conference presentation

I attended a session at WILU 2011 in Regina last week that infused acting techniques into the practices of instructional librarians. The speaker, Sarah Polkinghorne, started by making the distinction between entertaining your audience as opposed to directly connecting and engaging your audience. There seems to be a lot of focus on entertainment in modern teaching pedagogy, yet the presenter suggested that "entertainment teaching" is actually rooted in the methodolgy of traditional lecture format as the focus is still on inputting knowledge into your participants.

She suggested that in acting the content cannot be seperated from the body, that there is a physical presence of the content. Teaching is ultimately not about the teacher, it is the message that you are trying to convey. Modern classroom focus on more collaboration, more discourse and actively learning through participation.