YouTube and Turkeys

It's that time of year, when people start talking turkey. Well, some of us do anyway, especially when our minds turn to food. So, I'm talking with a friend about plans for Thanksgiving dinners past, present, and future (it was almost lunch time, and we were hungry!), and she tells me that turkeys are actually very stupid birds.

"They are so stupid," she says, "that they stand out in the rain with their heads up and almost drown!"

"Heh," sez I. "I wonder what would happen if you crossed a turkey with its head up in the rain with an ostrich with its head in the sand."

Her reply? "A really cool YouTube video!"

Day Last at the 2008 Georgia Conference on Information Literacy

The day began with a keynote address by Dr. Carol Simpson of the School of Library and Information Sciences at the University of North Texas. In her address, entitled "Can You? Should You," sponsored in part by Linworth Publishing, she discussed the "current fair use climate and the raging battle between those who think educators should force educational fair use to the wall, and their oppornents who advocate a more conservative approach." While she didn't present anything new for those of us who have been following IP issues (albeit, in my case anyway, marginally), nonetheless much of the information she presented was new to many in her audience. Her presentation was clear and well put together, using humor in the right places and in the right proportions. I especially like her use of the David Pogue video on RIAA at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7cHmyEJ-c.

I also attended Panel 35, beginning with "Just Google It: Bringing Students' Information Literacy to the Composition Classroom" by Susanna Coleman. I thought she had a very interesting spin, using text messaging skills to help students figure out keywords for Google and/or library database searches (so long as the students learn to spell the words out instead of "txt-ing" them!). She also showed a comparison of Google Advanced Search screen with an Ebsco database search screen, arguing that we can help students learn to navigate the admittedly complex world of scholarly databases by helping them see how it is similar to what they already know. Unfortunately, of course, in my experience few students use the advanced search feature in Google….

Thomas Ferstle next presented "Information Literacy the WIKI Way," in which he likened WIKIs to participatory, democratic (and fun?) forums, arguing that such forums enhance students' writing to each other and therefore tends to be "better" than students writing just for the teacher.

The panel ended with "Blogging, Information Literacy, and the College Classroom" by Catherine Ramsdell. She discussed how blogs have gone from early beginnings (c. 2000?) to mainstream in 2008. Students are excited about writing, she says, especially when they get comments from real readers.

Wow, there's SOOOOO much more I could have said about the great presentations and the wonderful people at this conference. But then, people might think I'm a bit biased since I'm one of the conference's organizers….

Ah, well, maybe those people will just have to come and see for themselves!

Georgia Conference on Information Literacy

Savannah, GA, September 25-26, 2009

Or, as they say in this neck of the woods,

"Y'all come!"

More Good Stuff from the 2008 Georgia Conference on Information Literacy

Panel 19

Lars Soderlund's presentation, Access and Competition: Profile of a Digital Information Literacy Business" was particularly interesting, I thought. Not only was his content interesting – an "information literacy contest," actually a business that learns from its contestants how people learn information literacy skills—but his presentation took the shape of an audio file. Why do I think playing an audio file to a live audience at a conference interesting? Well, maybe because there was a live person (Lars) sitting at the front table while it played so that, when it was done, he could answer questions. Ah, technology. How will "conferences" look in 10 years? Or will they all be virtual?

Amy England presented "Confessions of a Neo-Luddite, or How Changes in Access Have Changed my Attitudes toward Technology," which I thought was a definite turn-around from Lars' presentation. Only it wasn't really anti-technology, of course. Amy's discussion of access, however, was an appropriate foil. That is, access, she argued, is still not a "given." As a result, she continued, there is increased reluctance to use any but the most basic IT. The investment necessary to use IT is not just in dollars, as she so rightly pointed out, but in time and frustration as well. Is it worth it? (Well, to me, of course it is, though I have to admit that, given the frustrations of workload and time, sometimes I find myself backing off from learning things I'd like to learn or, even worse, "playing" with things I'd like to play with in the classroom.)

Workshop 3

I decided to attend Judi Repman's workshop on "Using Web 2.0 Tools to Teach Information Literacy in the School Library Media Center." What a good decision! I'm so proud of myself! There was standing room only for this well done workshop.

Judy was joined by two of her students, Lucy Bush and Diane Griffin, who discussed their use of Web 2.0 tools. Diane talked about creating a classroom resource WIKI page which students can add to throughout the semester (including a dictionary or glossary of key terms, a study guide, and many more valuable resources). Lucy talked about the use of Google Pages for a Virtual School Library.

Voice threads, twitter, microblogging, lions and tigers and google, oh my! So much to learn. So much to play with. Exhilarating! Exhausting! My department chair happened to be sitting next to me during this workshop, and I watched her furiously making notes. Maybe some of the barriers that Amy England talked about in her presentation (Panel 19, above) can actually be breached someday. J

Panel 26

I rounded out the day by attending "iPods, Inquiry and Information Literacy: Developing a Program for USC Upstate's First-year Students," presented by Louise Ericson, Brenda Davenport, and Andrew Kearns. They promised to address the important question of "What would a comprehensive information literacy program for first-year students look like?"

They had been introducing students to the library and its services with a tiered approach not unfamiliar to most of us:

1. library orientation
2. "You be the expert" - annotated bibliography assignment
3. Career exploration worksheet

Then, they said, they had an "Aha!" moment (I wish I could have one of those!). They re-created their library tour as a podcast, following ACRL standards as the basis for instruction. Their handouts for the presentation are available on the conference CD (visit the Georgia Conference on Information Literacy Web site at http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolit.html for more information).

They also incorporated a cell phone search and ACRL information literacy standards identified by students. I'm really not doing this presentation justice, of course. I have seen other libraries attempt to move their orientation and information sessions into podcast-land (visit iTunesU and I'm sure you can find some examples), but most of them are not interactive (yet). At any rate, visit their Web site at http://www.uscupstate.edu/library/ and you can find more information about their project.

Stay tuned for tomorrow!!