Tag Archives: development of information literacy

ETL501: Critical Reflection

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I undertook ETL501 in order to understand more about effective design choices. My school is currently modernising our library space (Hahn, 2021, July 3). Assessment 1 allowed me to identify solutions to the pain points. Main changes now planned are the creation of distinct zones and use of half-height shelving to delineate those spaces and to act as traffic-management devices. Nicole Bolden (Bolden, 2021, September 21) suggested that signage should be prioritised: a solid idea because, not only does it allow library users to locate the resources they need, but the process of creating it also assists the new TL to become more familiar with the collection – a vital understanding to develop, teamed with an understanding of the needs of the school community.

Resource selection for my Library Resource Guide needed to be teamed with presentation. I needed to consider how to present content in a way that is open enough to encourage emerging independent inquiry skills, but structured enough to provide quality, engaging resources for content learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015). In order to achieve desired depth of understanding, I needed to significantly narrow my scope of content. Some students would have limited independent reading skill. This presented significant challenge. Using the readability tester from Webfx, I was repeatedly reminded that, often, texts present more challenge to students than expected, highlighting the difficulty students have in negotiating the online (and print) environment, underscoring the importance of digital curation in the role of TL (Cherrstrom & Boden, 2020). By including commentary on difficulty, expected content and suggestions for integration of new knowledge into existing schemas, skills of source selection, analysis and critical thinking were developed.

While inquiry learning aims to develop skills for independent and lifelong learning (Kuhlthau et al, 2015), most students in Stage 2 could be expected to need significant teacher support. Consequently, I chose to create my Library Resource Guide to include information for teachers and to present sources that would provoke discussions, allowing the teacher and TL to model and explicitly teach needed skills. Scaffolding and developing information literacy skills is a vital component of the role of the TL (Aisah et al, 2018) and so, as well as narrowing the content focus of my Guide, I also narrowed the information literacy skills taught to allow students to deepen their understanding and familiarisation with each skill in order to overcome the superficial use digital resources described by Coombes (2019).

Creating digital learning resources is an important aspect of the work of a TL. In the Module 5.2 forum, I commented that specialised and nuanced subject knowledge required to create effective research guides for secondary libraries is different to primary school libraries, where the subject content is less technical. This is not, as Jodie Lednor (Lednor, 2021, October 1) suggested, to say that secondary TLs cannot or should not create such resources, rather articulate the importance of collaboration with subject specialists. One of my 2022 learning goals is to develop my skill in reference interviews. I believe these techniques could establish exactly what a teacher requires students to do and understand as a result of their inquiry, and therefore guide the development of resources. Ross et al (2019) offer guidance on this topic and I look forward to implementing their strategies and learning others during ETL507.

References

Aisah, M. A., Abrizah, A., Idaya Aspura, M. K. Y., & Wan Dollah, W. A. K. (2018). Development of an information literate school community: Perceived roles and practices of teacher librarians. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 23(2), 63–75. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.22452/mjlis.vol23no2.4

 

Bolden, N. (2021, Spetember 21). Effective Information Service. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241160_1&message_id=_3804327_1

 

Cherrstrom, C. A. & Boden, C. J. (2020). Expanding role and potential of curation in education: A systematic review of the literature. The Reference Librarian, 61(2), 113-132. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1080/02763877.2020.1776191

 

Coombes, B. (2009). Generation Y: Are they really digital natives or more like digital refugees? Synergy, 7(1), 31–40. https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/10.3316/aeipt.178236

 

Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2015). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century, 2nd Edition . Libraries Unlimited.

 

Lednor, J. (2021, October 1). Re: Creating Resources. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_57506_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_114042_1&forum_id=_241159_1&message_id=_3808932_1

Ross, C. S., Nilsen, K. & Radford, M. L. (2019) Conducting the reference interview: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians, 3rd edition. ALA Neal-Schuman. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csuau/detail.action?docID=5850100

Note taking

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I see no need to limit students to one form of note-taking. Different forms serve different purposes. The point is that students record the information they find in a way that they can locate information later, and then, over time, they transform those notes to serve as repetition and reinforcement of the ideas.

Some key strategies are:

Cornell system for recording prose notes

Concept mapping to visualise the main ideas and how they are connected

diagramming or making notes visual.

In all cases, it is the transformation of the notes that leaves the lasting impression. Holland (2017) recommends a variety of techniques and thinking routines to help students synthesize their notes and the concepts involved.

I believe that it is necessary to teach a variety of techniques to students and to point out not only how to use them, but when and for what purpose, and then to give them lots of opportunities for practise in real situations.

 

Holland, B. (2017, August 17). Digital note taking strategies that deepen student thinking. KQED: MindShift. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/48902/digital-note-taking-strategies-that-deepen-student-thinking

Web 2.0 and 3.0 and constructivist learning

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In order to place web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies within the realm of constructivist learning, it is necessary to first establish what exactly is meant by each of those terms.

In the begining,  websites were static; created by experts in their fields and designed to convey information and data. Later, websites began to offer users the opportunity to interact both with each other and with the website. Users were now creators as well as consumers. This was known as web 2.o. A further development in web technology saw the technology trying to understand the intention of the user and act to facilitate the task they are trying to achieve. An example of this is semantic searching, or “Did you mean…”, “People also ask…”, “Displaying results for…”. Machines try to understand and react to natural speech and information needs. They tailor search and information results to the individual user with the idea that this will be more likely to suit their needs. This is web 3.0. The next generation, web 4.0, suggests Spivack (2007), will involve distributed searching and intelligent personal agents. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence that can act as an online personal assistant is a direction in which Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant have already travelled. The danger of allowing technology to tailor responses to our usual needs is that we may miss out on unexpected results when we attempt to find information or complete tasks that are not within our usual paradigm. Searching for information showing an alternate point of view becomes more difficult. Students who engage significantly with this technology through social media may be led to believe that opinions and world views that are different or opposing to their own simply don’t exist. A dangerous position indeed for a constructivist. A constructivist learner makes their own meaning by gathering information and evidence from their own experiences. If technology that is designed to increase our access to information is actually acting to limit easy access to information that agrees with that which we have already engaged with, we, as learners and teachers, need to be purposefully engaged in seeking information and perspectives of others in order to widen our world view. This is not an easy task, and one that many students, at least in my experience, resist. Here in lies one of the most important jobs of the teacher librarian. Exposure to information and stories about the experiences of others, teaching students to search for, find and analyse other perspectives is our bread and butter, our schtick, our reason for being.

 

Spivack, N. (2007, October 4). Web 3.0: The best official definition imaginable.