Tag Archives: information literacy

Curation not Hoarding

Posted on by
Ask a teenage student to show you their desktop, or for that matter, ask a teacher. Without doubt in most cases you will see an assortment of files, links and short cuts dumped on their home screens. Welcome to the age of digital hoarding. The art of curation is a necessity for everybody in a digital learning environment and teacher librarians are best placed to instructional lead their institutions in best practice (Valenza, 2012).

Content curation has always happened at schools, but the digital information overload and the rate it is happening at is leaving some washed in its wake. We are both consuming and producing information at a phenomenal rate, and no more so than in an educational setting, where emails and communications fly.  Think of the information we collect – emails, documents, music, videos, photos. How can students cope with this influx unless we teach them the valuable skills of curation? Curation is the art of not only collecting but organising and adding value to those resources (Wheeler & Gerver, 2015).

When I picture well curated resources, strangely I think of Marie Kondo and her method of decluttering spaces called KonMari (Kondo, 2015). The KonMari method gets its’ followers to work out what you want to keep first – Does it bring you joy?  The second step is to organise by grouping. Finally, it is the storing and labelling.

Curation takes a very similar path. Before we can teach both students and teachers how to curate, we need to teach them how to declutter and decide what is worth keeping or curating.  A good curator will also ask key questions – do I need it? And is it worth it? Only the individual curator can answer the first question, need is very subjective.  The second question of ‘worth’ is one of evaluating validity. The CRAP method is a popular choice for students’ evaluation of sources, possibly due to its crass mnemonic.

C – currency

R – reliability

A – Authority

P – Point of view or purpose.

(Charles Sturt University Library, 2019)

Once a resource has been deemed worthy of collection it is time to organise it.  Where will you store it? Is it worth sharing? How will you label it – so you can find it easily when needed or so it has relevance to those you share it with? This is where folders, playlists, and tagging come into their own.  By labelling resources with key terms that will group it with other similar resources we improve our workflow.  Today’s digital affordance allows us to group, sort and store in multiple places for multiple uses, maximising our curated resource exposure. Through adding tags and grouping items we are adding value to the resource, ensuring its usefulness.

There are two types of curation:

  1. Personal Curation – finding, organising and labelling resources for your personal use. Some examples are:
    • Storing of personal files
    • Cataloguing of emails
    • Using bookmarks on web browser with folders
    • Signing into Youtube and creating private playlists or channels
    • Spotify/Music Online – creating playlists.
    • Images into albums on your devices.
  2. Collective Curation – The ability to curate resources together and comment on others’ curations. Some examples are:
    • Website Curation tools like Diigo, Pinterest, Pearltrees, Elib…
    • Openly sharing resources through networks and social media.

Collective curation builds collaboration and enhances communication.  Teaching students the ability to curate, and then engaging them in projects which utilise collective curation has the potential to deepen learning and create higher order thinking (Gonzalez, April 15, 2017). Mobile Digital Curation allows for learning to happen anywhere, anytime and breaks the walls of the classroom. Mobile devices have opened our ability to find, select, organise, create and share resources.

Students need the digital literacy skills that will enable them to do this well, and in the process curate themselves a positive digital footprint.

 

Charles Sturt University Library (Producer). (2016). How to evaluate information. [Online Video] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hp5xasNuHL8

Gonzalez, J. (April 15, 2017). To boost higher-order thinking.  Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/curation/

Kondo, M. (2015). The life-changing magic of tidying. London: Ebury Publishing.

Valenza, J. (2012). Curation! (Vol. 29).

Wheeler, S., & Gerver, R. (2015). Learning with ‘e’s : Educational theory and practice in the digital age. In. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=1918927

 

 

The changing nature of our school libraries

Posted on by

Photo by Tuur Tisseghem from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/books-bookshop-bookstore-business-626986/

The trend of purchasing and viewing books through an online environment has had a profound effect on school libraries and their collections, changing both the nature of the catalogue of materials held and the user of the libraries themselves.  School libraries, like all businesses involved in the production and sale of books, are corks “floating on a digital stream”, and as the digital world changes libraries adapt to the environment (Shatzkin, 2015, para. 6).

The  school library catalogue was once the font of all knowledge, just as book stores were the primary place of purchase for printed media.  Today, students can complete their assessment tasks without stepping foot inside the physical building of the library.  We are facing the same challenge that books stores today face, where our quality resources are ignored for the simplicity of a google search (Shatzkin, 2016, para. 13).  Our customers, students, want ease of access to quality resources.  We need to be able to provide them with electronic resources, such as databases and online journals that meet their needs, and at the same time teach them to how to evaluate the information they find for ‘free’ and remind them of the value of printed books.

The way we purchase for our collections is having a profound effect on the reading environment of our society.  Once you could find a bookstore anyway.  Now you have to hunt for one, as they slip into the state of becoming endangered species.  We have to admit that when we opt to  purchase our books through online companies, such as Book Depository or Amazon, we are squeezing the physical presence of the little bookshop down the road out, even though that may be the very place that we were promoted the book before purchasing online (Shatzkin, 2016, para. 21).  When these stores go, so does the passionate individual who has possibly encouraged many of our students to become readers in the first place by recommending the “magic book”, as Mem Fox terms it, to the parent of a reluctant reader that sets their children on a life long journey of the joys of reading.

 

References

Shatzkin, M. (2015, November 17). Big focus at DBW 2016 on the tech companies that are shaping the world the book business has to live in [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.idealog.com/blog/big-focus-at-dbw-2016-on-the-tech-companies-that-are-shaping-the-world-the-book-business-has-to-live-in/

Shatzkin, M. (2016, January 10). Book publishing lives in an environment shaped by larger forces and always has [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.idealog.com/blog/book-publishing-lives-in-an-environment-shaped-by-larger-forces-and-always-has/

Digital Storytelling is Our Future

Posted on by

Unless you have been living under a rock, technology and digital texts have become the staple for our world population. Technology has afforded us the ability to connect not only locally but worldwide and this has had a profound effect on our school programs.  We have shifted from using technology as  a substitute for a typewriter/word-processor to being a fundamental tool that is embedded  throughout all aspects of the learning process. It is for this reason that digital texts must be included in our programs. We need our students to be digitally literate and this will only occur when we use technology collaboratively, by both teachers and students, in producing and consuming information in a way that complements the curriculum (Combes, 2016).  The digital texts that are used or produced, must be for an authentic purpose that is relevant to the user (Mills & Levido, 2011, 89).  This push for authentic purpose can be seen in the Australian Curriculum’s drive to inquiry learning and  2017 Horizon Report’s push for collaborative learning (Adams Becker et al., 2017, p. 20).

What better way than incorporating digital texts than in the form of storytelling, a process that neuroscientists have confirmed helps us internalise the information we are receiving – “illuminating parts of our brains that are only active when we experience something”  (Schwertly, 2014).  By having students not only engaging with digital stories for information, but allowing them to produce them as part of our program, we are incorporating critical thinking skills, building their digital literacy skills and allowing them to produce material that is relevant to their interests through a process of collaboration.

I personally loved the model that was outlined by Mills and Levido (2011) – iPed, as I can see how I could build a class of digital storytellers.  There are so many fantastic tools available for our students to use which I think are worthwhile exploring and using.  Below is a brief outline of a few of my favourites with descriptions:

  • SWAY – Microsoft’s way of creating interactive presentations, reports, newsletters and stories
  • Newsmaker – a program that lets you become a news reader – reading scripts off tellypromts while filming
  • Verse – a program that lets you make interactive videos
  • Twine – an interactive non-linear story maker
  • Sutori – a program that lets you create an interactive timeline incorporating visual stories
  • StoryJumper – currently used in our school to create story books.

Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Giesinger, C., & Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC horizon report: 2017 higher education edition. Retrieved from The New Media Consortium website: http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2017-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN.pdf

Combes, B. (2016). Digital literacy a new flavour of literacy or something different. Synergy, 14(1). Retrieved from https://www.slav.vic.edu.au/synergy/volume-14-number-1-2016/reflections-and-actions/611-digital-literacy-a-new-flavour-of-literacy-or-something-different.html

Mills, K.A., & Levido, A. (2011). iPed: pedagogy for digital text production. The Reading Teacher, 65(1), 80-91, DOI: 10.1598/RT.65.1.11

Schwertly, S. (2014). The Neuroscience of Storytelling. Retrieved from https://www.ethos3.com/2014/10/the-neuroscience-of-storytelling/

 

Recognising Aesthetic Synergy

Posted on by

As I am completing the reading for my subject INF533: Literature in digital environments I am constantly thinking I – How are we using digital literature educationally?  James & De Kock (2013) called paperback books closed environments and commented that with digital literature the reader decides their level of engagement (p. 120).  I would argue that we as readers have always decided our level of engagement.   You can have two students read the same piece of literature and yet see it completely differently depending on how ‘engaged’ they are with the text.  Yes digital literature allows for interactions and exploration during the reading text, if the reader chooses to, but are they engaging or simply viewing?  Are they simply getting lost in the world of hyperlinks and digital features.  We as educators need to empower our students with the skills required for them to judge the quality of what they are reading in both a digital and non-digital form.  Walsh (2013) outlined the aspects of good literature as  the “aesthetic synergy between the technical features, artistic creation of text and the ideas within it” (p187).  In our information overloaded world this ability to recognise good literature when a lot of material is self-published needs to be taught.  Students need to be able to recognise  the devices that an author or producer of good text uses in order to produce their own quality material, which as Yokato & Teale (2014) highlighted is central to being literate in the 21st century (p.584).

James, R. & De Kock, L. (2013). The digital david and the gutenberg goliath: the rise of the ‘enhanced’e-book. English Academy Review, 30(1), pp. 107-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2013.783394

Yokota, J. & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital world: educators making informed choices. The Reading Teacher, 34(6). Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/3886534/Picture_Books_and_the_Digital_World_Educators_Making_Informed_Choices

Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment (Ch. 13). In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers. Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). https://www.csu.edu.au/division/library/ereserve/pdf/walsh-m3.pdf

 

 

Forum 5.3 – 1  Discuss either Lupton’s or Bonnano’s  analysis and their potential impact on the need for an IL model in your school.

Posted on by

Bonanno (2015) has clearly outlined the Australian Curriculum content descriptors, general capabilities and suggested the introduction of inquiry skills for F-10 in the curriculum areas of History, Geography, Science, Civics & Citizenship, Economics & Business, Design & Technology and Digital Technology, in an easy to read table format.  Included in the reading is the core skills and tools of the Guided Inquiry Design Framework with suggested web tools to assist implementation.  The progression of implementation of a school based approach to information literacy is evident in all areas.

 

When there is an information literacy model in place in a school, students would develop and build their inquiry skills to the point that the process becomes natural and transfers across curriculum areas.  Unfortunately, not all students are experiencing this progression.  Assignments tend to be topic based with little range of choice.  When the student identifies the problem or question that they want to answer on the topic they would be more deeply engaged in their learning.  However, if method of information literacy is only deployed sporadically across year levels and departments the process would be daunting, for both the teachers and the students.

 

Bonanno, K. with Fitzgerald, L. (2014) F-10 inquiry skills scope and sequence, and F-10 core skills and tools. Eduwebinar Pty Ltd.

Perspective and Context in Information Literacy

Posted on by
Coloured puzzle pieces being put together by different hands.

mohamed_hassan / Pixabay

Behavioural or Sociocultural approach?  Skillset or concept?  Information literacy is a complicated and has a diversity of definitions and understanding.  What has become apparent to me through reading the literature in this module is the importance of perspective and context.  These two factors determine our view of information literacy.  If our job as teacher librarians is to prepare students for the workforce or further study, we need to focus on the metacognitive skills that will allow students to be adaptive in the changing information landscape that is determined by the context they will be engaging with it.   This will give students a broad skillset that is applicable to them in whatever context they find themselves in.

Information literacy instruction needs to instruct students using a behaviourist approach engaging them in contextual applications of the skills required to engage, but include sociocultural aspects of the world we now live in.  Context and purpose of information literacy needs to be visible to our students if we want them to transfer their school based information literacy skills into their wider life.

The aspects of skill transfer or lack of it really interested me. Herring (2010) found that although both teachers and teacher librarians recognised the importance of information literacy skills, there was not a collective understanding of what they were, how they should be taught and reinforced with students (p294).  If a school as a whole cannot define what it is they want their students to achieve, how can we ask students to be information literate?  As teacher librarians I believe that we can be instrumental in initiating and pursuing that our schools have a whole school approach to information literacy as we are specialist who see the across all curriculum covered in the school.  Only when students are getting the same instructions and similar experiences across all classes will they understand that the skills they are learning can be transferable not only across subjects but into their personal lives.

Herring, J. (2010). Year seven students, information literacy skills and transfer: a grounded theory (Doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga). Retrieved from http://bilby.unilinc.edu.au:1801/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1491002155919~448&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

 

Forum 5.1 Information Literacy – What I have learnt so far…

Posted on by
Open book with random letters floating off open pages
Open book with random letters floating off open pages

Mediamodifier / Pixabay

The new formats and delivery modes or multi-modal resources do not require users to have different literacy skills, but do require extensions of the traditional literacy definitions.

The National Secretariat for the International Year of Literacy (1990) stated the “the goal is an active literacy, which allows people to use language to enhance their capacity to think, create and question, in order to participate effectively in society” (School of Information Studies, 2017, p. 1).  I believe this statement could have been written at any stage in history.  Literacy has not changed, but society, through technology has.  The fundamental skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and understanding evolve with society.  Technology has changed how information is shared, the fundamental skills to interpret, process and use information effectively in this changing complex world essentially have not.

The world we and our students live in is more culturally and ethnically diverse than ever.  This does not mean we need different skills, but a deeper understanding of how context affects the way we process information and use it effectively in the various multi-modal methods available to us.  Throughout time there has always been variance in how language is used in context to different situations and method of delivery.   The expanding nature that technology is playing on methods of information transfer just means that we as a society need to have an understanding of the context we are in.  An example of this is having students understand the ‘netiquette’ rules may be different when emailing a teacher compared to a friend and writing your assignment in ‘netlish’ is not an appropriate use of language in that situation.

Our definitions of literacy and the literacy skills that we teach need to be seen as evolving concepts, not static, if they are going to prepare our students for the world of tomorrow.

School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University (2017). Introduction to teacher librarianship, semester 1 Module 5 (ETL401). Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University.

Forum 4.1 Are the acquisition of 21st century skills and the focus on accountability mutually exclusive?

Posted on by

NO the acquisition of 21st Century skills and the focus on accountability are not mutually exclusive.  Of course we can develop the skills required for the 21st century and sill have accountability.  We need to have accountability in any system, the problem is what is done with the information gained from the tests we are currently using and what abilities are not reflected in these tests.  I feel as a both parent and a teacher that often the information is misused.  We have parents who started selecting schools based on lead tables and results from standardised tests.  Schools that started using standardised tests, such as NAPLAN, as a means of screening potential students.  This, I believe, has led to many schools teaching to the test or screening students out of tests to improve their results which in fact are skewing the data, and it’s not what the test results should be used for.

 

As the cartoon in Bruce Stewart’s reply shows one test cannot give an accurate depiction of a student’s ability.  It brought to my mind Howard Gardiner Multiple Intelligence Theory and a quote that is often attributed to him “it is not how smart you are; but how you are smart”.  Learners in the 21st century have the opportunity to respond creatively, collaboratively and exercise problem solving skills through inquiry based learning that will allow them to construct meaning and develop 21st century skills.  How we assess our accountability in this process is hard to measure quantitatively, but I feel is still necessary.

(Stewart, 2017)

Education System (Stewart, 2017)

 

 

Stewart, B. (2017, April 10). Forum 4.1 [Online discussion group]. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&forum_id=_84756_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_42098_1&course_id=_23912_1&message_id=_1116816_1#msg__1116816_1Id

Information Literacy???

Posted on by

jambulboy / Pixabay

Behavioural or Sociocultural approach?  Skillset or concept?  Information literacy is a complicated and has a diversity of definitions and understanding.  What has become apparent to me through reading the literature in this module is the importance of perspective and context.  These two factors determine our view of information literacy.  If our job as teacher librarians is to prepare students for the workforce or further study, we need to focus on the metacognitive skills that will allow students to be adaptive in the changing information landscape that is determined by the context they will be engaging with it.   This will give students a broad skillset that is applicable to them in whatever context they find themselves in.

Information literacy instruction needs to instruct students using a behaviourist approach engaging them in contextual applications of the skills required to engage, but include sociocultural aspects of the world we now live in.  Context and purpose of information literacy needs to be visible to our students if we want them to transfer their school based information literacy skills into their wider life.

The aspects of skill transfer or lack of it really interested me. Herring (2010) found that although both teachers and teacher librarians recognised the importance of information literacy skills, there was not a collective understanding of what they were, how they should be taught and reinforced with students (p294).  If a school as a whole cannot define what it is they want their students to achieve, how can we ask students to be information literate?  As teacher librarians I believe that we can be instrumental in initiating and pursuing that our schools have a whole school approach to information literacy as we are specialist who see the across all curriculum covered in the school.  Only when students are getting the same instructions and similar experiences across all classes will they understand that the skills they are learning can be transferable not only across subjects but into their personal lives.

 

Herring, J. (2010). Year seven students, information literacy skills and transfer: a grounded theory (Doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga). Retrieved from http://bilby.unilinc.edu.au:1801/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1491002155919~448&usePid1=true&usePid2=true