Clickers: An Engaging Tool for Library Instruction

In 2008 Anne C. Osterman published an article online for librarians about the potential of student response systems (SRS) or clickers in the library instruction setting.  College & Undergraduate Libraries published it with the title "Student Response Systems: Keeping the Students Engaged."  (It appears the the print version came out first in 2007.)  She introduces the topic by mentioning many factors that go against participation in the library instruction classroom: unfamiliar setting, short opportunity (one shot at teaching library skills), and content many would not consider exciting. 

Librarians do what they can to invite participation.  They will work to make the instruction tied directly to an assignment, develop hands-on exercises, create handouts, and sometimes divide classes into groups to work together (50).  Osterman writes: "These tools do little, however, to help with one more inherent difficulty of library instruction: a wide variety of experience levels among student" (50).  Then she identifies "the two greatest fears of a library instructor [...]: (1) boring the students because they've seen it all before; and (2) losing the students because the territory is too foreign to their knowledge and experience.  Both lead students to tune out" (50).

"bored-students."  by cybrarian77 on Flickr.com.

This resonates with my own experience.  These are two of my greatest fears, and I have wondered how to deal with this.  Well, the most obvious thing to do and what Osterman calls "the last tool in the box: asking the students questions" (50).  Unfortunately, this does not always work, and Osterman recognizes that all the previous difficulties just mentioned will make this effort less effective as well.  Encouragingly, she writes: "Never fear--there is another solution" (50).  The Student Response System can make a difference, increasing participation, engaging students of all personalities and abilities, and offering a mechanism that prompts the instructor to adjust in the classroom needs and address deficiencies without belaboring the subjects students have mastered already.
Osterman observes that instructors can ask students questions spontaneously or "on the fly" (51).  She suggests questions like:

1. Have you ever used X (JSTOR, Academic Search Complete,  CQ Researcher, etc.)?
2. What kinds of materials do you think you would find in X (the library catalog, the Special Collections digital archives, the Primo search, etc.)?
3. Should you cite Wikipedia in a research paper?  Should you do X?

Osterman explains that the polling system remains open, then students can see what everyone else has answered (51).  Often this means that students who are embarrassed for answering incorrectly see that they are not the only ones who do not understand, so their embarrassment decreases dramatically, and they focus more on the learning than the embarrassment.

Osterman describes the two types of clicker systems: radio frequency and infrared.  Plus, she identifies some of the pros and cons of each (51).

In the next section of her article, she addresses the question: Why use clickers?  Citing the extant educational literature, she give at least five reasons:

1. Combat passive learning environment
2. Promote active learning
3. Help with participation problems
4. Provide instant feedback
5. Interrupt lecture.

Additionally, she address the anonymous nature of the system: "Some instructors believe that anonymity makes students more comfortable and likely to participate, and this has been supported by research in students' opinions of these systems" (52).  As mentioned previous, because of the anonymity, fear of embarrassment is eliminated or at least lessened (52).  What really gets me excited is its potential for increasing the level of learning that takes place in the library classroom.  Osterman claims: "Also by encouraging students to make an actual decision about a question, the SRS makes them less likely to sit back and let the information wash over them unabsorbed.  Instead they evaluate a question and answer with engaged minds" (52).

"Law Students Use PRS."  by jonalltree on Flickr.com

As you can tell, this article really caught my interest; I can hardly stop from quoting from it.  The next section talks about how library instructors can and ought to adjust their instruction when using an SRS tool.  She talks about an average library workshop, then suggests that student questions and answers can determine the little parts of instruction that should be taught once more, passed over entirely, or explained more thoroughly.  With some forethought, instructors could devise some questions to generate discussions.  Likewise, sensitive questions could be asked that could then be compared to published data.  Along these lines Osterman suggested that students could be asked about their incomes, and then those figures could be compared with data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau as it pertains to their particular locale, for example (53). 

The system could be used to ask students to predict what might happen.  When they are required to answer, they become more committed and, thus, engaged.  She offers a pair of questions related to Boolean operators, which invite the student to predict if more or fewer results will be retrieved.  For the serious-about-learning types, she tells how some SRS systems collect the data, so they can be analyzed, which would allow for instructors to adjust their methods even more (54). 

We often hear that technology should not replace teaching, that it is just a tool to enhance learning.  This is true.  We should remember this.  As with any technology, pros and cons exist.  Osterman warns that with this technology less content may be taught, it may "distract instructors from their teaching," and students may forget clickers, use them to cheat, and may even walk away with them.  Fortunately, the benefits of learning "might easily outweigh" the con of less content being taught, and libraries who buy their own systems would not need to worry about students forgetting their clickers, though students could walk out the door with them at the end of class if one wasn't careful (54).

The last section of the article discusses "The Experience of American University Library" where Anne Osterman works.  In it she talks a bit more about vendors, different systems, training library instructors, necessary adjustments, some sample questions, using the SRS in library training sessions, and questions to ask with the system.  Encouragement and support should be given to those using the system for the first time.  Making the system available for individuals to practice with is best (55). 

From the experiences of her colleagues as well as her own, Anne Osterman writes: "Just as many beginning library instructors try to teach too much in the short amount of time they have and gradually slim their material down to an amount that is digestible, some instructors found that their first attempts in creating questions for a class were too complex" (56).  She recommends that librarians use the same questions in a series of classes; this will help instructors know how one class is different from another.  Again, the question "Have you used X resource?" may be a great standby.  "Overall, the response from library instructors at American University Library who have used the system has been very positive" (56). 

In summary, Osterman repeats that anonymity and novelty of the system generate an engagement with library instruction that increases learning.  If money is an issue, then a home-grown system may work or a "Web-based voting system" (56).  The short list of references looked helpful as well.

This article drove home the idea that polling students can really increase engagement, participation, and learning in the classroom.  Anonymity helps students participate more readily, and simple questions need to be the norm.  I really liked the sample questions she included.  This was quite helpful.

Work Cited

Osterman, Anne C.  "Student Response Systems: Keeping the Students Engaged."  College & Undergraduate Libraries 14.4 (2008): 49-57.  Print.

Information Literacy and Clickers

In my ongoing research related to audience response systems, or clickers, I discovered an aticle written in August 2009 by Patricia A. Deleo, Susan Eichenholtz, and Adrienne Andi Sosin.  Titled "Bridging the Information Literacy Gap with Clickers," this article explains how a graduate course in an Educational Leadership and Technology received information-literacy instruction with the help of clickers.  The authors used the term Class Performance System (CPS), but other education researchers call them Audience Response Systems.

They set forth the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants" and discuss the differences between those who are more technologically savvy than others.  Mostly, they point out that "even technologically competent students overestimate their ability to effectively search for and access information" (439).  Likewise, "graduate students display overconfidence with regard to both their research and technology skills" (439).  But how does an instruction librarian make students aware of their lacking skills while promoting learning at the same time.  Who likes to hear that they are not as competent as they think they are?

The authors of the article rightly claims that "attention to the differential level of each student's information literacy capatilities is ncessary in designing information literacy instruction" (439).  With students of different technology and information-literacy abilities in the classroom, how does a library instructor teach so that all can learn without feeling entirely lost or utterly bored.  Deleo and company write: "Information literacy classes where technology skill competence widely varies among students complicates the pedagogical situation" (440).  What can a librarian do to succeed in this environment of complexity?

Certainly, Deleo and her colleagues make an apt observation: "We have discovered that making assumptions about student technology or research skills is not effective, predictable, or advisable" (440).  Well, if one cannot rely on assumptions, what direction should be taken?  Clickers can enable librarians to hurdle some of these issues and do so gracefully.  "Clickers were initially adopted as a pre-lesson assessment tool to assist the librarian in setting an appropriate starting point at the students' levels" (440).

From "Accessibility in Education" by Lucy Greco.

One of the most valuable parts of this article may be the types of questions they asked with the clicker system.  An appendix to the article lists the questions they have required students to answer, but here is a little taste of what they looked for.  They wanted to know if students could distinguish qualities or aspects of the Library of Congress Classification System and the Dewey Decimal System, their ability to finding books in the catalog, students skills with documenting references in APA format, their understanding of popular and scholarly publications, and their knowledge of internet terminology. 
My favorite part of their article was the discussion.  It came alive and highlighted their positive experiences using the system, mentioning how it engaged students, enlivened discussions, created a sense of community, and increased interaction with the librarians.  They described how they promoted this engagement in conjunction with the technology: "After each student had clicked in their answers to a question they were instructed to turn to their nearest classmate and discuss that question and the answer they had chosen [...] As a result of inserting 'turn and talk' into the CPS procedure, the engagement level of the class rose significantly" (443).  I can see how this would generate even more interest. 

"Getting Interactive in the Classroom with Technology!" from eLearning @ Liverpool

It also takes some of the burden off of the instructor, because some of the students will/may answer the questions correctly.  At any rate, this does promote critical thinking skills.  Students will defend their answer or they will accept their classmate's answer.  Deleo, Eichenholtz, and Sosin write: "The process generated a higher level of anticipation for feedback as well" (443).  The authors explain how they would like to make the one-shot instruction session become a two-shot class.  The areas in which students were deficient could be addressed more fully in a second class (443).

The authors conclude with comments about the future potential of clicker systems in library instruction.  Essentially, the continuation of this methodology, they argue, may rely on student behavior.  They write: "student willingness and the librarian's skill at conducting the clickers session will be the larger issue, not the technology" (444).  In summary, they recommend that librarians investigate this technology.

Work Cited

Deleo, Patricia A., Susan Eichenholtz, and Adrienne Andi Sosin. "Bridging The Information Literacy Gap With Clickers." Journal Of Academic Librarianship 35.5 (2009): 438-444. Library Literature & Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 11 May 2012.

"Participatory Technologies" Article by Meredith Farkas

Meredith Farkas has written a good article for librarians involved with information literacy.  She celebrates the advantages of incorporating participatory technologies into the information-literacy classroom.  Using Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis in the classroom can increase student learning and responsibility.  In fact, she claims that these tools "have the potential to create a more engaging learning environment.  Increased learner autonomy give[s] students a greater sense of responsibility for their learning and has been shown to improve student achievement" (84). 

One of the great advantages of blogs in relation to information-literacy learning is that blogs encourage reflective thinking, which can potentially guide students to think about their own research process.  Farkas notes that blogs can invite "reflection within an environment of peer interaction" (84).  Students will often listen to their peers before their instructors; they may be following the rule "Don't trust anyone over 30."

In theory, Farkas also extols the constructivist model, which naturally downgrades the traditional model of the teacher being the authority figure.  Students can learn and grow more when they interact with each other, challenging each others' ideas.  Of course, she explains this a bit more eloquently: "Constructivist pedagogy views students as active participants in learning who construct knowledge based on their existing understanding as well as interactions with peers and their instructor.  Unlike in behaviorism, the instructor is not seen as being wholly responsible for student learning" (86).  She ties this teaching theory to Web 2.0 and calls it Pedagogy 2.0, though I have not verified if she is the one to coin this term.

Microsoft Office Clipart.

As an instruction librarian myself, her final section appealed to me the most: "Information Literacy and Pedagogy 2.0."  She emphasizes the importance of evaluation:

In a world where the nature of authority has come into question (Chang et al., 2008), students will need to evaluate information in more nuanced ways then they are currently being taught at most colleges and universities.  Information literacy needs to be increasingly focused on teaching evaluative skills to students; skills that go well beyond determining whether or not something is peer-reviewed.  (90)

 Four or five years ago it seemed that librarians, myself included, still showed bogus websites to their students to raise awareness of the importance of evaluation.  In certain cases, this may still be appropriate and get students attendance.  However, it seems that college students need to evaluate information at a more sophisticated level.  Farkas' claim that "students will need to evaluate information in more nuanced ways" (90) makes sense.  Rather than looking at sources to see if their are black or white, legitimate or bogus, genuine or fake; students need to determine if information is relevant to their research question, to understand if it is credible, objective, current, accurate, and authoritative. 

The hardest thing for students to determine may be the accuracy of information, so looking at credibility, objectivity, and authority may give necessary clues for them to determine accuracy.  Most of all, they should be concerned with the relevance of sources, yet some students seem to be too quick with the gun at killing sources.  Part of college involves creativity at understanding how the broader subject relates to the more specific paper topic.

Meredith Farkas addresses a new issue, at least it did catch me off guard: "Those teaching information literacy will also need to focus on developing in students the dispositions needed to be a successful consumer and producer of knowledge" (90).  It seems easy to teach content and research strategies as a librarian, but developing new dispositions in students seems a tall order, not to say it is not desirable.  With one- or two-shot sessions how much can library instructors really do? 

Undoubtedly, this work of influencing student attitudes in the direction of knowledge creation may seem daunting for library instruction, yet it may also insert some life into the instruction.  This goes beyond just showing the steps of how to use a database and taking advantage of the features that can be easily explored independent of the instructor.  Therefore, I agree with Farkas, though it may require some stretching for most library instructors.  "It is important for librarians to consider how we can help students develop the attitudes that will make them critical and effective information seekers through learning activities" (Farkas 90).  Indeed, librarians should take the time to reflect on how to inspire students in this direction, but it may start with librarians becoming more passionate and confident about their own information-seeking abilities.

How does this translate to the library instruction classroom?  It means that librarians need to get students actively engaged in the process.  Farkas writes:

Librarians still offering lecture-based information literacy instruction need to explore ways to make their instruction more engaging and student-centered through collaborative, problem-based learning.  The Library literature is replete with case studies suggesting creative active techniques for enhancing student learning.  (90)

She goes on to encourage more questions, dialogue, and group work.  Rather than creating a set outline, librarians should conduct formative assessment to understand the constituents of their classes (91).  Each class coming to the library consists of a different group of individuals with different experiences.  Bending the instruction focus to meet students' needs seems to be more effective.  Going a step beyond this, it seems that success in the library instruction room may increase if the formative assessment is sent out and completed prior to attending the library workshop.  This allows the librarian time to think about where adjustments should be made.  Not all librarians like to adjust on the fly.

I agree with Farkas when she says the students do not reflect: "Students rarely reflect on their research process, which can result in the need to re-learn skills they used in their last assignment" (91).  Working with the instructor, a librarian may be able to leverage a reflective requirement, and they could do so with a blog (91).  I have always liked this idea, and Farkas explains why blogging and wiki creation are such good ideas.  "Blogs could also be used to have students investigate the social origins of information and identify bias within writing.  Students can engage with the peer review process through reviewing the work of their classmates on blogs and wikis" (92). 

Participatory technology, then, engages students in the peer-review process, invites them to critically assess the research process, provides "teachable moments" for the instructor, and increases student learning (92).  "These activities can generate an understanding of peer-review at a level far beyond simply checking a box in a database search interface" (92).  They can also increase the sense of community, enliven the classroom, allow the instructor to offer guidance and feedback, and lead to positive student learning outcomes.  Moreover, it may even increase writing and communication skills.

 

 

This article was very well written and offered a number of insights into the value of participatory technology as it relates to library instruction in higher education.

 

 

I do recognize her from American Libraries as the author of numerous technology columns.  She is a librarian at Portland State University and writes the blog titled Information Wants to be Free.

Work Cited

Farkas, Meredith.  "Participatory technologies, pedagogy 2.0 and information literacy."  Library Hi Tech 30.1 (2012): 82-94.

What's Happening to All the Creative Writing PhDs?

Guest post: by Sofia Rasmussen

Sofia is a graduate student in journalism, concentrating primarily in education and technology.  After spending years in crowded classrooms where most felt left behind, or held back, and listening to years of debate surrounding funding for education, she is fascinated with the whole industry of higher education.

Writers considering a graduate degree face a number of dilemmas when choosing an institution and program, especially now that distance learning and online doctorate degrees are available. Many are often unsure if the value of a graduate degree in that particular field will warrant the expense of attaining one at all.

For students seeking a position in teaching creative writing at the university level, the acquisition of an MA, MFA or PhD is a foregone conclusion. But for writers seeking gainful employment as an editor, full-time blogger or freelancer, the situation is not so simple. For novelists and poets, the decision to pursue a graduate degree is even more complicated.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, a full 70% of professional authors and writers were self-employed in 2008. This category includes freelancers who essentially work a regular job with one company, but the numbers should give pause to creative writers who are seeking employment outside of the educational sphere.

The University of Iowa’s world-renowned Creative Writing program and Writer’s Workshop consistently ranks at the top of prominent lists for quality of education in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. In addition to high job placement and fellowship placement rankings, UI’s MFA grads regularly move on to win prestigious awards for poetry and novels. However, like most creative writing MFA programs, the University of Iowa focuses on literary fiction.

For literary writers, there are dozens of excellent programs to choose from. The well-regarded annual Poets & Writers Top 50 list provides statistics on funding and job placement.

Would-be novelists seeking a degree in popular fiction are harder pressed to ascertain the quality of a graduate degree program and there simply aren’t as many to choose from.

Like many literary programs, Seton Hill University’s MFA in Popular Fiction and the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing offer expert guidance and feedback, as well as the time needed to pen a polished manuscript and different opportunities for employment after graduation. Grads who fail to land a profitable publishing contract can seek editing work with a publishing house or magazine.

For creative writers, the axiom is true: Writing is rewriting. Perhaps the best that can be said for genre creative writing programs is that they offer regular interaction with intermediate and professional writers alike, as well as the dedication of time to honing craft. The mention of a graduate degree may or may not cause a manuscript to garner extra attention for a manuscript in an agent’s slush pile; in the end, it’s the quality of writing that will secure a contract for novelists.

Funding is of course the key deciding factor for many graduates pursuing matriculation in literary fiction programs. Like that of the University of Iowa, others generally offer at least partial assistance. Genre and popular fiction programs usually require out-of-pocket expenses and student loans. PhD students are likely to find substantial tuition assistance, discounted or free housing and even a monthly stipend.

PhD students frequently find employment through or with the institution from which they earn their doctorate, often as professors. The additional time and money required for a PhD ultimately results in access to secure, reputable positions that afford the creative writer opportunities at publication.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 6% job growth for writers and authors from 2010-20, compared to a 14% growth in all occupations. The BLS foresees a 13% growth in jobs categorized as Media and Communications - something many writers could pivot toward. Creative writers seeking job security outside of academia may find better prospects when equipped with an undergraduate degree in Journalism, Technical Writing or English, which are beneficial in many fields.

Being a writer has never been easy, and now that the costs to learn how to do so in college are so high, it is likely that many aspiring writers will need to find alternate means of being the next Kurt Vonnegut.
 
You can contact Sofia for more information at sofia.rasmussen11 [at] gmail.com.

Library Handout for English 1102: English Composition

Today I taught an interesting library workshop in which students had to find peer-reviewed articles about video games and violence. The instructor asked that I show a few of the specific databases where they could find information on their topic. She also wanted me to share some ideas for thinking about keywords and offer some advice for evaluating the research results in the sources they found.

The assignment includes the following scenario: "You are a juror in a civil case where a video game company is being sued. You need to decide if the video company is culpable. Your purpose for this paper is to state your decision and persuade your fellow jurors to vote teh same way as you are." Students must consider the following stakeholders: parents of the child killed, the video game company, parents of the teenagers accused of the killing, and consumers of the video games.

Take a look at the handout; it includes suggested databases, potentially useful keywords, contact information to librarians, and sample searches.  See other library handouts for English 1102.  It does seem like an interesting topic, and I enjoyed doing some of the preliminary research myself.  I never new Arnold Schwarzenegger was involved in legal court cases involving video games and violence.  Nor had I ever heard about Entertainment Merchants Association.  Wow, their site says that the home entertainment industry is a $35 billion dollar industry.  I can believe it.

When talking about evaluation, these were some of the questions I used to invite a discussion:

• What does a list of references at the end of an article indicate about the article?
• What does a list of references tell us about the article itself?
• What kinds of articles include lists of references or a bibliography?
• What makes an article accurate?  How do we know?
• When is an article not current?  When is it out of date?

See Mehan's blog post: "Anyone Up for a Bit of the Ultraviolence?"

Gathering Feedback with Free Online Tools

Polldaddy.com, LetsGoVote.com, and Polleverywhere.com all offer free online software to let anyone in the world create online polls.  Personally, I have more experience with Polldaddy.com and the surveys, polls, and ratings I can create and share online.  LetsGoVote and PollEverywhere let users create polls that can be answered with cell phones that can text message responses. 

Because cell phones are nearly ubiquitous and text messaging is definitely mainstream (at least in the United States), providing quick polls that can be answered with text messaging makes sense.  Most college students have cell phones, so these spontaneous polls can be created "on the fly" in the classroom for immediate feedback to the instructor. 

Students do not always want to answer questions in front of their peers for fear of being embarrassed after a wrong answer or too much attention from the instructor.  Text messaging lets students answer anonymously, still giving the instructor a sense for the understanding of his/her class.

A couple of years back, I got excited about Google Documents, and the surveys, quizzes, or polls that can be created with them.  I had forgotten about them, recalling how clunky and unintuitive they were to use and create, but I have taken another look at them recently.  They are free.  With that in mind, it takes a few more steps to get some things accomplished.  The results of a survey are listedin a spreadsheet format; however, the three tools listed above can automatically display results in visual graphs, which are much more appealing. 

Still, a lot can be done with Google Documents, and I do not believe that users are limited to a certain number or responses received to polls/quizzes/surveys or number of surveys created.  On the other hand, the three tools mentioned above do limit users to 100 responses a month, or 20 responses per survey, or 40 audience members per poll. 

Below is a presentation I created for a workshop yesterday:

Gather Immediate Feedback Online, in the Classroom, and with Mobile Technology

View more PowerPoint from Spencer Jardine

What do you think of online surveys? Do you create polls to gather feedback? Are they helpful? How?

Which questions invite discussion best?

Which questions have you asked that generated a thought-provoking discussion?  Please leave answers in the Comments. 

Here are some questions I have used in the past to gather feedback.  Some of these originate from Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross's Classroom Assessment Techniques, which is printed by Jossey-Bass.

• What's the most important thing you learned today?
• What questions do you have that remain unanswered?
• What is the muddiest point?
• What would you like to learn today?

Not sure if I have asked some of these others, but they seem like good ones:

• How does this apply to your own life?
• How can this information be applied outside of this class?
• How do you find research for your college papers?
• What makes a source good and/or reliable?  What makes it worth using?
• What is a reference resource?  Why would you want to use one?
• What is the difference between popular and scholarly articles?  Between newspaper/magazines and academic journals

Here are some questions that may be good to ask with audience response systems, clickers, or text messaging software:

• Have you searched for books in our catalog?
• Have you searched for books on the shelves?
• Have you found articles in the library databases?
• How can you typically distinguish the journal title or book title from the rest of the cited reference?
• What makes a source good and/or reliable? What makes it worth using?

Ratings Widget in Polldaddy

I am trying a new thing with the ratings widget from polldaddy.com.  I hope this works.

Do you like to rate things? How often do you take surveys? For many, I can think of teachers, authors, and business owners, it is important to get feedback to know how effective your efforts are. For teachers, understanding your audience can really enhance your ability to teach them what they need. In a library instruction setting this can be quite valuable.

When writing a blog, feedback can give the blogger or author a sense for who and how they are reaching their audience.  It is nice that Polldaddy is free, though it has limited offerings.

Please rate this post below and add a comment. I would like to see how well the widget works.

Polldaddy Survey Sharing and Experience

Polldaddy has been a useful tool for me in the library instruction classroom.  It gives me a better sense for what the students know and understand.  This offers me a bit more confidence as I teach them.  I am able to correct errors and provide useful feedback.  Hopefully, student have learned a bit more as a result of this tool.

Polldaddy makes it easy to share polls and surveys.  They let you share surveys and polls with hyperlinks, emails, Twitter buttons, Facebook buttons, iPad apps, and even QR codes.  If you are interested in some of the questions created for students, take a look at this English 1102 Follow Up Survey. 

The QR code for this same survey looks like this:

Please take the survey.

 Have you used polling software in presentation or instruction settings?  Do you use it in social media, such as on Facebook or Twitter?

YouTube Videos to Prompt Information-Literacy Conversations

Yesterday I started reading Bill Badke's book Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog.  His style is relaxed and a bit casual, which seems to be aimed just right for his audience of undergraduate students.  It seems that I alternate between being a little annoyed and actually enjoying what he writes.  Naturally, considering that this is the fourth edition, he has some things worth saying about information literacy.

Like other articles in library- or information-focused publications, it includes many links, and I am tempted to search them all out to see them.  At the conclusion of a section on the Web 2.0 concept he writes: "If you want to see visions of the information world of the future, try these YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj8ZadKgdC0 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY5hBd8_Q-E&feature=related" (16).  These videos are titled "Prometeus - The Media Revolution" and "Prometeus - The Media Revolution part 2."

What will the information world look like in five or ten years?  Which issues will arise?  They talk about copyright issues, digital versus traditional forms of information, and the virtual world.  The narrator speaks as one in the future might when talking about the past.  In fact, it is a future avatar character.  Anyway, these could be good videos to spark discussion in an information-literacy classroom.

Boolean Search Strategies - Videos

Some students learn more from videos.  In library land there are many educational videos to help students develop better search strategies.  In my delicious account I have tagged several Boolean operator videos.  Many of these I have watched more than once, and occasionally I have shown them in library instruction sessions.  Here's a direct link to a video I just learned about, which was developed by the Kansas University Libraries titled "Effective Searching."  It has a more text in it than images, but it seems to explain the basic strategy without wasting the viewers time.

If you have taught basic library instruction it might not hurt to show a video, especially if you have a tendency to explain the concept too quickly, thinking everyone must already know it.  This information continues to be new and useful to novice researchers.  Boolean operators still remain important elements of effective search strategies, particularly in database searching.

One of our library pages discusses Boolean logic, including useful images.  Titled "Boolean Searching in Library Databases and on the Web" it explains how it works, provides examples, and visually demonstrates the concepts with Venn diagrams.

Below are a few more visual examples of how Boolean operators work or can be entered in searches.  This first example is a Venn diagram:

Circles colored red represent the kinds of results retrieved from such a search.



Library catalog interface showing a Keyword Boolean search with AND plus the OR operators.

 Today I also discovered a Boolean search tutorial created by the Colorado State University Libraries simply titled "Boolean Searching."  It is not a video, so individuals need to advance from slide to slide, but the flash component keeps it from being bare and boring.  From an educational standpoint, it assesses student learning to check for comprehension of principles taught.  Certainly, it is not fancy, but I like it and think it is less obnoxious and more professional than several of the videos I have seen on the topic.  The user has complete control over the speed of the tutorial, which I would think they appreciate. 

Their "Advance Boolean Searching" tutorial follows the same pattern, only it goes into greater specificity on Boolean searching.  These two tutorials do not take long to complete, and it seems that they could easily be completed within a library workshop.

For brevity, this "Boolean Logic" tutorial takes the cake.  It is only 27 seconds.  During that short time frame it quickly introduces George Boole, then it displays Venn diagrams that illustrate how AND, OR, and NOT work.  Finally, it extends an invitation to talk with a University of Illinois librarian if you want to learn more.

Miniture Golf and Vanishing Breed Shirt

Miniature Golf in the Library.  ISU's Eli M. Oboler Library

Last weekend we hosted a miniature golf event in the library.  It seemed that not as many people came to the event.  We may need to do better at advertising our event and inviting people personally or via Facebook to the event.  Proceeds of the event go to our book budget account.  This event is sponsored by our Friends of the Oboler Library group, which is commonly known as FOOLs.  It's a fun name and one with meaning behind it as well, referencing the fools in medieval times that often spoke the truth in the presence of the king--the only one who could do so without negative consequences.

Those who volunteered could wear and keep a free shirt with the phrase "Save a Vanishing Breed."  The image of a reader with a book appears on the shirt.  Personally, I do not like this, because I think that there are many readers today--that reading is not a rare event in modern society.  However, I am a librarian surrounded by readers.  As a previous experience in a library workshop attests, it may not be so uncommon for a half of any group of college freshmen to have never looked up a book in a library before, which supports the argument that fewer and fewer individuals may be reading extensively.

Question 10 of a recent survey I gave to another class indicates that many college students struggle reading scholarly research, even in upper division courses.  I should look this up, but I remember seeing somewhere that an educational organization or some association identified reading as the most important skill of the 21st century.  It is a fundamental skill.

Polldaddy Results for English Composition Workshop in the Library

In a recent library workshop, only half of the students said they had ever looked a book up in a library catalog.  Five of the 14 polled, said they check out library books all of the time.  This workshop was for a group of English 1101 students, and most of them are traditional freshmen. 

When asked if they had ever used a database to look for articles before, 69% said they had never done this.  My perception is that once undergraduate students learn how to find articles, that is all they use.  They like the ease of access; they can conduct research in their pajamas at home.  Unfortunately, it seems that no matter what happens in the library instruction room, some students will still go back to Google for all of their research needs.  As a librarian, I think of Google research for academic sources to be a clumsy tool.  Perhaps I am overly enamored with the slick look of the EBSCOhost databases; we have Academic Search Complete as our default database on our home page (See the Quick Articles tab.)  It does provide quick and easy acces to scholarly sources.  The features in their interface make it easier to narrow results down to something useful--a set of understandable results.

The short survey I created for the English 1101 class gave me sense for who I was working with.  Being able to see the results in real time (I just had to refresh the results in Polldaddy periodically).  Of the 13 that answered the question, only two said they had already received library instruction of some sort.  Sometimes it is nice to be the first librarian to have contact with a class.

I like to ask what students want to learn.  This seems to get them thinking about their responsibility to pay attention and participate, at least I hope it does.  Plus, it gives me an idea what they think is important for them to get out of the day's instruction.  More than one student expressed interest in finding a book or learning about cool books that we have.

Considering that an English 1101 class may have a lot of students in which this may be their first time in a college library, I ask them if they have ever found a book on the library shelves before.  Seven out of 13 confessed that they had never done this before.  This knowledge justifies my idea that we need to let everyone in the class have this opportunity, so I can make it a priority for the class.  Success with this one activity may increase their confidence, willingness to listen, and learning in the class. 

As a student and a person, I like when teachers seek to understand me and my level of understanding.  The learning experience improves when the teaching is directed to meet the immediate needs of the students.  One of the biggest challenges, then, is to teach so that those with the lowest level of understanding learn something without being frustrated, and those with the highest level of understanding take away something new without being bored the entire time.  This is tough.  Seeking input or feedback with a survey or poll at the beginning of class may be a good way to gauge the kinds of participants in the class.  The anonymous gathering of information, via the online survey systems, can prevent students from being put on the spot. 

Annotated Bibliography, Evaluating Websites, and Sports Law

Many college freshmen do not understand what an annotated bibliography is.  Mary George provides a definition in her book The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know:

A list of sources that includes a brief summary of each, which may be descriptive, critical, or both.  Faculty may request that students submit an annotated bibliography during the library research process as a way to tell what sources students have discovered and how they expect to use them.  Scholars sometimes publish extensive annotated bibliographies on a topic, either as long journal articles or as whole books.  See also abstract; review; survey article. (166)

For many freshmen it sounds like some big scary thing, but once they understand that it is just a Works Cited or References page with a short paragraph or two describing and evaluting each source, then it makes more sense. 

At the end of the course I taught last semester, I had a day in which we evaluated websites, worked on doing this in groups, and discussed the final project, or the annotated bibliography.  The outline has been posted to my ACAD 1199 webpage.  When evaluating sources or websites I still think that the CRAAP Test provides a good list of criteria to consider.  However, in the end, it seems the most important criteria is whether or not a source is relevant or not.  Will it support my argument or not?

A couple of weeks ago, I taught a physical education class to upper division students.  The class focuses on disabilities, and students are required to give a report on a single disability or someone with a disability.  A colleague of mine helped me teach the class.  She taught the students about the health science resources, and I talked about basic search strategies and the sports sciences resources. 

My colleague created a wiki page with the title of the course: PE 4494.  I went back to look at the page, and she had updated it.  Interestingly enough at the bottom of the page a note appears telling how many times the page has been viewed: "This page has been accessed 1,785 times."  This was interesting.  It appears that many have seen this page.  It does have useful resources for anyone needing to look up information on disabilities.

Analyzing Library Skills Survey Results

Following are the questions included in a recent survey designed for a class that met in the Library for instruction.

1. How do you keep the related terms grouped together in a search statement? Results
2. What will a truncation or wildcard symbol do?  Results
3. Which Boolean operator reduces the number of results the more times it is used between search terms?  Results
4. Which Boolean operator will typically return the largest set of results?  Results
5. When you need to find the full text of an article for which you already have the full citation, which tool works the best?  Results
6. Have you had library instruction before?  Results
7. Do you understand the assignment for this class? Results
8. Which of these databases have you used? Results
9. Have you chosen a disability to research for the assignment in this class? If so, which one? Results
10. What one thing would you like to learn today?  Results

For several of the responses it appears that a good number chose the correct answer, but the majority did not answer it right.  Ten out of 18 seem to know that parentheses keep related words grouped together in a search statement.  Only seven understand that a truncation code (the asterisk in most databases *) will help find variations on a word. 

Question 3 provided two correct answers, so I should have thought through that a bit more.  Both the Boolean operators AND and NOT will continue to reduce your results.  If I did this again, I would delete the operator NOT from the list of possible choices.

Eight correctly chose OR as the operator that brings back more results, while nine chose AND.  Only five selected the A-Z Journal List as the place to go to find the full text of an article.  This is one of the least understood research tools on our campus, so it is no wonder.  We need to do better at instructing students on its use.  Ten students chose the library catalog as the place to go for the full text, two chose Google or Google Scholar, and one said their smart phone. 

Fifteen stated that they had received library instruction before, though 11 said it was a long time ago.  One claimed that he/she could teach the class, because he/she had attended so many times.  This is the person that I need to involve in teaching the class.  How can I do that?  I need to get the students to teach each other.

Admittedly, I goofed on the database question, not making it possible for them to select more than one database, so this was not as accurate as it should have been.  Still, it gives me a sense for which databases they know.

I wish I had looked at the answers for question #9 and searched the topic(s) they entered in the survey.  Indubitably, this is a learning experience for me.  They wanted learn more about Down Syndrome, Asperger's Syndrome, and prominent persons like athletes with disabilies.

Photo found on Aspergers and the Alien blog written by Amy Murphy.

Following are the comments provided when asked what they wanted to learn in the class:

• I would like to learn more about notable figures who have down syndrome
• how to find articles that are to the point
• Find reliable and easy to read sources
• find articles on Downs
• I would like to find an athlete that i would like to report on
• i would like to learn how these data bases can help me find valid information quickly and effectively.

It strikes as interesting that bullet points two and three speak to the challenge of finding reliable, credible, and scholarly sources that are easy to read or understand.  It seems that many of today's college students really struggle reading the peer-reviewed articles.  This is something I encountered during the one-credit course I taught last semester.  In fact, one of my colleagues has begun to conduct some research on the reading levels of college students.  Well, this is a hard thing to gauge, so she has gathered their bibliographies that are attached to actual research papers and calculated the reading levels of the articles they cite.  I'm uncertain whether or not she includes the grades they receive on the paper, which might offer clues on their comprehension of the cited sources, but it seems she has not as that may conflict with policies governing research subjects. 

Anyway, reading abilities, or the lack thereof, do inhibit many college students from succeeding in higher education.

Young Girl Reading by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Photo by Cliff1066 on Flickr.com.