Information literacy meets E-learning: let’s talk about interconnections and outcomes #wlic2012

At the IFLA World Library and Information Congress on 13 August, in Helsinki, is the session Information literacy meets E-learning: let’s talk about interconnections and outcomes. You have to register for the conference (11-17 August) to attend, but there are full-text papers online already here: http://conference.ifla.org/ifla78/session-93. I will be attending the conference, so I will blog the session here, too. The session is organised by the IFLA Information Literacy Section and E-learning Special Interest Group. The papers are:
- An online information literacy course for undergraduates: early experiences: ANNE WADE and JOANNE LOCKE (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) and PATRICK DEVEY (eConcordia, Montreal Canada)
- Micro-E-Learning in Information Literacy:NICOLE KRÜGER (ZBW - German National Library of Economics, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, Kiel/Hamburg, Germany)
- Proliferating Information Literacy - e-Learning delivery mode extends reach to IL learners in Singapore: GEE MIAW MIIN (National Library Board, Singapore)
- Embedding e-learning into Science and Engineering Graduate Information Literacy Course: WU MING, WANG CHUN, WANG LI, JIN YING and MA XIAOMIN (National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China)
- Form@doct: quels apprentissages en ligne pour des doctorants?:MARIE-LAURE MALINGRE and ALEXANDRE SERRES (URFIST de Bretagne et Pays de la Loire, France) with ALAIN SAINSOT and HERVE LE MEN (Service commun de documentation, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, France)
- Information literacy interconnections using a virtual learning environments: DAVID V. LOERTSCHER and BLANCHE WOOLLS (San Jose State University, San Jose, California, USA)
- Designing an interactive virtual learning environment (VLE) with a learner centered approach: LI WANG (The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
- E-Learning in Information Management Education in Sri Lanka: discussion of the impact of information literacy: NAMALI SURAWEERA, CHERN L. LIEW and JOCELYN CRANEFIELD (School of Information Management, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand)
The main conference website is at http://conference.ifla.org/ifla78
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Sheffield, August 2012.

Student retention ACRL discussion

The ACRL Student Retention Discussion Group is discussing the article: Emmons, M. and Wilkinson, M. (2011) "The Academic Library Impact on Student Persistence". College and Research Libraries, 72 (2), 128-149. http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/2/128.full.pdf+html
The discussion takes place throughout August. You can read the comments by visiting the page, and can also join the discussion if you sign up to ALA Connect (free, you don't have to be an ALA member): go to http://connect.ala.org/node/184729
Photo by Sheila Webber: My front door, August 2012

Project Information Literacy seeks volunteers

The USA's Project Information Literacy (PIL) is seeking further volunteer colleges and universities with calls to participate in forthcoming PIL research studies. In autumn they will begin "a year-long investigation of first-time freshmen in US colleges and universities" I think you have to be located in the USA. The PIL project does the actual research, only some time acting as liaison person is required. http://projectinfolit.org/volunteer/volsample.asp
Photo by Sheila Webber: Olympic park and cable car, on Saturday, viewed from the motorway bridge.

New book: Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy

Out in September: Andretta, S. (2012) Ways of Experiencing Information Literacy: Making the case for a relational approach. Woodhead Publishing. ISBN 1 84334 680 X; ISBN-13: 978 1 84334 680 7; £47.50 / US$80.00 / €55.00
More information at http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=2571&ChandosTitle=1
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Sheffield, August 2012

The Growing Shift to Video Explanations

The Common Craft video on Plagiarism was being tweeted a lot a couple of days ago, so I checked out their site again. You will probably know that they developed a style for explaining technological apps etc (e.g. wikis, Twitter) using paper cutouts and plain English, in short videos.
1) It did not seem straightforward to identify exactly when each video was made (and they haven't updated their Youtube channel for a while, I think to drive traffic to their own site). However, trawling through their news blog, the Plagiarism video was released in October 2011. More recently they have produced ones on Crowdsourcing, Cookies and Apps.
2) Some of the videos are available in 8 other languages e.g. Spanish, German, Japanese. To go to the sites in other languages, click on national flags at the top of the main website : http://www.commoncraft.com/
3) The art of explanation is a forthcoming book by Common Craft's Lee LeFever, which should be worth checking out. It has its own website at http://artofexplanation.com/, but there is not anything much there at time of writing, and the posts about its progress are on the Common Craft Blog.
4) One interesting blog post by Lee LeFever is 5 Trends Behind the Growing Shift to Video Explanations. I realise, myself, that I'm doing more and more short explanatory videos e.g. I made short video recordings to explain to my students how to get to unfamiliar rooms (like this one, one on how to fill in our research ethics application form (etc. etc.) LeFever finishes by saying "We could be at the beginning of a wave that will change how we think about the role of video in helping people feel more confident and informed in the face of a rapidly changing landscape. Perhaps soon we’ll see that the genres of video have a new and productive member. Drama, comedy, documentary, advertising and explanation."

Innovating Pedagogy: Open University report

The Innovating Pedagogy report is published by the UK's Open University (OU), and also has a blog. "This first report [published in June] proposes ten innovations in pedagogy that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education." The 10 are: Assessment for learning; Badges to accredit learning; Learning analytics; MOOCs n(Massive open online courses); New pedagogy for e-books; Personal inquiry learning; Publisher led mini-courses; Rebirth of academic publishing; Rhizomatic learning; Seamless learning. Some of these overlap with the NMC's Horizon report, but I think they are trying to get away from a purely technical focus (although there is still something of an emphasis on use of technology). The authors are Mike Sharples, Patrick McAndrew, Martin Weller, Rebecca Ferguson, Elizabeth FitzGerald, Tony Hirst, Yishay Mor, Mark Gaved and Denise Whitelock, all of the OU.
I think that in fact some of these "innovations" have already had an impact, and the short chapters do not explore all the issues (e.g. in the section about academic publishing), but it makes a nice starting point for discussion. The blog (from which you can download this first report, and comment on it) is at http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/innovating/
Thanks to ALISS news for alerting me to this.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Hydrangea, Hailsham, July 2012

Web 2.0 legal book; Social media seminar

Book: Oppenheim, C. (2012) No-Nonsense Guide to Legal Issues in Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing. London: Facet. ISBN: 978-1-85604-804-0. Info (including a sample chapter, chapter 1) at http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=8040

Event is: Social Media for Organisations: Getting the Basics Right, led by Megan Roberts and Ned Potter, a UKeiG event at York St John University, UK, 4 September 2012. "This one-day seminar will give attendees a basic grounding in social media so that they can get started using and making the most of the main platforms available. The seminar will focus on how to use social networking to market your organisation or service." Costs UKeiG members £180 + VAT; others £220 + VAT. More info at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/trainingevent/social-media-organisations-getting-basics-right-megan-roberts-and-ned-potter
Photo by Sheila Webber: Cow parsley, Hailsham, July 2012