Monthly Archives: May 2007

Emerging technologies for learning (Becta)

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A friend (thanks Heather) sent me the details of this site. Becta is an organisation which aims to improve learning through technology and they produce some excellent publications, which often give a broad overview of an area. This one, entitled “Emerging technologies for learning[volume 2 2007] includes the following chapters:

Emerging trends in social software for education
Learning networks in practice
The challenge of new digital literacies and the ‘hidden curriculum’
How to teach with technology: keeping both teachers and students comfortable in an era of exponential change
Games in education
Ubiquitous computing


Part of my herbaceous border (for Caitlin!)

http://partners.becta.org…ap_03&rid=11380

Durham Johnston School joins my project

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This is the last UK school which will be participating in my research at present, though I am also expecting that students from one or more schools in New Zealand will be joining in in the next few weeks. Time and distance constraints mean that these students will fill an online version of the ranking exercise, rather than the paper version which I have used up to now. Chemistry students at Newcastle and Canterbury (NZ) Universities are also currently filling in the online version. If this works sucessfully, then there is potential to widen it out to include more schools and universities, both in the UK and overseas. I’ll never have time to go back to my real job!


Aquilegia in the garden

Targeting “Academic Champions”: A Short-Term Solution for Integrated Information Literacy?

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This article by Claire McGuinness has just been published in the new online journal Communications in Information Literacy Claire argues that targeting individual academics in order to integrate IL into the curriculum will only ever be a partial solution and that aligning IL objectives with the overall academic mission of the institutions so that IL is recognized as a core educational value is a more sustainable approach. She outlines several strategies to achieve this. Our Newcastle IL Forum, whilst it is a “bottom up” approach, does still have the potential to develop in this way, I think.


Another of Meg’s NZ photos

http://www.comminfolit.or…pring2007AR3/14

Information, interactions and impact

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I’ve just been invited to present a short paper at the i3 conference at Robert Gordon University at the end of June. I hope by then that I’ll have analysed some of the data from my schools visits and this will be my first opportunity to tell people how I’m getting on. The conference has a wide range of interesting speakers, so I’m very pleased to have been asked to join them.


Bramley (on the right) went missing for 4 days over the weekend. Pippin is glad to have him home!

http://www.i3conference.org.uk/

Phenomenography: a conceptual framework for information literacy education

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The paper by Susie Andretta has just been published in Aslib Proceedings (vol 59, No 2, 2007, p152-168). Although it’s quite theoretical for a quick read, I found it very helpful in summarising some of the concepts of phenomenographical research. Phenomenography is about how people experience a phenomenon, so relating to IL, we can think about IL and learning as they are expereinced by the learner. This is the basis of Christine Bruce’s relational model which is informing my own research project. Through her 6 Frames model, Christine explores how people’s perspectives of T&L influence their interpretation of and attitude to IL


Another of Meg’s pics of NZ,

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0001-253X.htm

Library support for research – researchers’ views needed!

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Although it’s not directly relevant to info lit, I thought I’d add a plea to readers of this blog to help me to get in touch with researchers around the world. Over this last year, I have been involved in writing a book about research support and libraries (make sure you order a copy!)and as a result we have had a paper accepted at a conference in South Africa in August. I shall be on holiday then so sadly can’t go. Pat Gannon-Leary is presenting the paper but we are currently working on the data together.
We want to extend the research we did for the book by including more views from researchers outside the UK – if you have any contacts, or are a researcher yourself and can assist us by filling in the survey or passing it on, I’d be delighted to hear from you. More UK views will also be welcome of course.
If you can help, please email me moira.bent@ncl.ac.uk and I will reply with a copy of the survey.

Libraries without Walls 2007

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karen Senior, the Librarian at Bolton University and I will be presenting a paper at the LWW7 conference this year. It is based on the work we’re doing on library support for international students and is entitled Discrete Library Services for International Students – how can exclusivity lead to inclusivity?


This photo of Routeburn, New Zealand, was sent to me by Meg Upjohn, Chemistry Librarian at the University of Canterbury, Chrsitchurch, NZ

http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww7/