The Screen is Flat

 OK, I admit it. I was a Librarian who didn’t do much in the way of assessment when I taught classes.  At the end my my sessions, my follow up typically consisted of a good natured “call if you need me!” speech. Why was I so hesitant about evaluation? Besides the fear of a bad review, I honestly struggled with knowing what and how I should assess mastery of the material. Most questions I came up with to test for knowledge seemed really rote based and, well, boring. 

I may have some insight now on why the assessment process was a challenge for me.

“It is relatively simple to test for subject matter content recall and it is difficult to assess independent thinking and creativity.” Making the Grade: The Role of Assessment in Authentic Learning By Marilyn M. Lombardi

Maybe I just didn’t know how to test for higher level critical thinking skills.  Coming up with a checklist to see if the students were able to combine subject terms, limit searches, and send the results to a printer, while important, addressed mechanical issues only.  I could check on these skills while walking around the room and checking up on the class during discovery exercises. (Or at least, I thought I had this list covered. Just humor me, OK?)

In a one shot session, I didn’t think I had much of a chance of determining whether students really had a achieved a higher level critical thinking goal. I wasn’t sure I even knew how to phrase a question that would get an answer that deep.  So, what should we be testing/measuring students on? Let’s open the floor.  How are you evaluating students on their work? How do you teach and test basic to more advanced skills and how do you know you have achieved your goal?

1. We admitted we were powerless of our information needs and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. We came to believe that a Librarian greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our information needs over to the care of a Librarian.

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and our information literacy skills.

5. We admitted to the Librarian, to ourselves, and our academic community the exact nature of our shortcomings as they relate to our information literacy skills.

6. We were entirely ready to have the Librarian remove all these defects.

7. We humbly asked the Librarian to remove our information literacy shortcomings.

8. We made a list of all search strategies we have harmed and became willing to make amends to the Librarian.

9. We made direct amends to the Librarian with either a Starbucks gift card, or a Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure.

10. We continued to take a personal inventory and  where we wrong with our search strategies, promptly admitted it.

11. We sought through prayer, RSS, and text messaging, to improve our conscious contact with the Librarian, seeking only for knowledge of their search expertise for us and the power to carry out these suggestions in our search processes .

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I’ll admit to a bit of smug satisfaction to read in the “information behaviour of the researcher of the future ” report that the ‘Google Generation’ is a myth.”  The authors of this report must have employed the psychic hot-line directly to my brain when they wrote:

“google generation: myth or reality?”
They are expert searchers 
Our verdict: This is a dangerous myth.
Digital literacies and information literacies do not go hand in hand.

In my experience, while students are generally technological savvy, many have no idea how to conduct Library research. Or put another way, students may know more about txt messaging than I do, (LOL) but they don’t necessarily know a search engine from a citation database, and this lack of knowledge hinders their ability to engage in research an scholarship.
 
Finally, there is a bit of research I can point to the next time I hear something like “my students don’t need Library based instruction on how to use research resources because they are really smart and use technology all the time.” I never said your students weren’t brilliant. I would merely like to point out that using Facebook and searching PubMed were too entirely different kettles of fish.

My collaborators in the TheScreenIsFlat propose that there are three different types of literacy’s: information literacy, a knowledge skill set, and a technical skill set. “Information behaviour of the researcher of the future” re-affirms our notion that all three skill sets are vital in today’s educational setting.  

As there are three different spheres of knowledge, there are three distinct, yet overlapping roles in the academic institution that teach these literacies: the librarian, the faculty, and the IT staff. All three players working in collaboration are necessary to effectively teach these vital skills to our students.

I have made a few references in my blog postings comparing the print versus the digital world. Let me be clear. I do not wish to go back in time. So, before you dismiss me as a technophobe, comfort shoe wearing type in a tweed skirt, I will argue that I do love technology. I am one of those Librarians who think it’s interesting to read database manuals.  I think its big fun to search PubMed all day long. Really.  Librarians are probably the only ones who share these interests.

As an educator, I am still thinking about what metaphors, visual aids, and terminology is best to employ when communicating how to conduct research in the digital world. I try to provide a framework, or context in my teaching. I want you to know the big picture; how any specific resource fits into the research process before launching into the specifics of how to utilize the digital product in question.

For those of us who were around pre-WWW, I think it’s sometimes easier to have a mental construct of what these digital resources are all about.  At some point we walked the floor of a library and used different resources for different purposes.

In the digital realm, information and traditional formats are all decontextualized.  The context for the complex world of information creation, publication, storage, and retrieval is too easily lost in the hypertext world.

I find it challenging to provide a mental road map to the web 2.0 generation.  The visualization process is different for this generation of students.  Without a physical or geographic space to rely upon, research and information resources are just links on page and product names to be memorized.

How can we do a better job of meeting these new challenges? How can Librarians provide meaning and context for this de-contextualized research world?

I have created numerous list type of research guides in the past on how to use the scholarly literature. Maybe a graphical approach would be better in representing the universe of information?   Has anyone created a discipline specific “world map” of the research process? Something that demonstrates how an idea travels from the lab/ meeting/research phase to eventual publication/press release/meeting abstract/website? A map that highlights what tools to utilized to find information at each stage?

Many libraries have virtual tours of the library as place. Has anyone created a virtual tour of the research landscape?  Cruise ships have visual tours, why not us?

Main Entry: da·ta·base
Pronunciation: \ˈdā-tə-ˌbās, ˈda- also ˈdä-\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1962 : a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search and retrieval (as by a computer) 

Back in the stone languages, when I was in Library school, I remember one instructor explaining that a database was simply a collection of data. A phonebook is a database.  A collection of recipes on the Food Network is a database.

Again, back in the stone ages, when everything was in print, we librarians liked to categorize resources by type: dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, journals, books, government documents, audiovisual, etc.

Now, it seems like everything is a database.  And when every digital resource is referred to as a “database” how can we as educators provide meaningful distinctions between digital resources that are very different in nature and function?Should we cease calling these products databases? What language or semantics should we be using?

For those of you who have read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, you may have guessed that the title of this blog is a complementary spin on this well known book. And in part, you would be right. The Screen is Flatconcept does refer to the reality that there are a lot of diverse people, resources, and ideas, located all over the planet, that meet up on the common space of your computer screen.  “The world, according to the title of the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s book, is flat. Thanks to advances in technology, the global playing field has been leveled, the prizes are there for the taking, and everyone’s a player—no matter where on the surface of the earth he or she may reside. “In a flat at world,” Friedman writes, “you can innovate without having to emigrate.“”

This title is also a catchy way of trying to capture the challenges and possibilities when a librarian, a graduate school professor, and a multimedia information designer share their collective talents and strengths to address issues of information literacy, personal learning environments, and the scholarly research and information landscape.  Each of our job descriptions contain distinct yet overlapping responsibilities in the academic environment.  We recognize that we are all on the same team, working toward some of the same goals.  It is important to nurture these important partnerships so that together, we can better plan for and meet the technological and educational priorities of our academic community.

The Screen is Flat concept represents many challenges for the Librarian. In the web 2.0 environment, it is impossible to separate out information from technology.  The information landscape is vibrant, complex, multidimensional, and constantly changing.  Yet this intricate world is very hard to capture on a one dimensional surface.  How can the Library best communicate about the resources and services available for research, teaching, and learning on the flat computer screen? 

Significant changes in information technology occur every 1-2 years.  While it is a significant investment of time and resources to learn and relearn these new  technologies, we must teach our students how to think cricitally about information so that they will be able to keep up with these changes.  The ability to adapt and synthesize changes in how information is created, stored, and accessed is necessary skill for a life long learner. 

As a Librarian, The Screen is Flat also represents the importance of asking good questions. Some of the questions I ask myself when working with the Flat Screen are: 

• Who creates the data or information?
• Where do these authors or researchers locate physically and virtually?
• Who funds the research?
• What institutions (academic, government, corporate, non-profit) are affiliated with the research?
• Who is responsible for distributing or publishing the data, research, or information?
• Of the commercial publishers, which companies are subsidiaries of other holding companies?
• What information/data is unique? What content is available from only one source?  What data is distributed or duplicated through multiple vendors or sources?
• What information is represented in a resource? Text, images, audio, raw data?
• What format or semantics would you use to describe what the resource is – database, book, journal, etc?
• How is the resource organized or structured? What classification or data structure is utilized to organize and assist with the retrieval of the information or data within the resource? Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal, MeSH, or another controlled vocabulary?
• Do you need to know a  specialized vocabulary (i.e. molecular biology, genetics) before searching the resource effectively?
• Who is responsible for maintaining and updating the resource?
• How frequently is the resource updated?
• How and where is the data backed up?
• How accessible is the resource for users on and off campus?
• Can I distribute the data in this resource through interlibrary loan processes or document delivery?
• What are the contractual restrictions that I will need to abide to in order to maintain the licensing terms for an electronic resource?
• Does copyright apply with this resource?
• What does the resource cost? Can similar information be found from a less expensive vendor or source?
• How often and how well is a resource utilized?
• How can I best communicate to a target audience about the availability and use of this resource?
• If this resource unavailable for extended periods of time, will there be any compensation for the Library?
• What staff are available both inside and outside of the institution to help the Library restore access when additional technical help is needed?
• What audience is this resource most appropriate for? Undergraduate? Graduate? Faculty? 
• Does this resource assist with the research and teaching of many, or a few within the organization?
• What is the best way to teach faculty and students how to best utilize this resource?
• What learning environments are best suited for learning about this resources?  Lectures, Study Groups/Problem Based Learning Groups, Blogs, Wiki’s, Podcasts?
• What tutorials and guides are available to best help people use this resource? 
• What formats or technologies help students learn how to conduct research? What accessibility options, learning styles, and preferences should I consider?
• What communication mediums should the Library employ to offer assistance with the use of this resource? Phone, Email, Text messaging, RSS, Social networking sites, Podcasting?