Transcript Slide 1
From Google Scholar to YouTube
Ways to engage the internet
generation
Peter Godwin
University of Bedfordshire
The educational background
The Web generation
Google and beyond
Web 2.0 tools
New approaches
New IL Programme Content
The future
JakeBrewer flickr
Future of Higher Education
Technological change
Competition
Population change
Student expectations
Learning & teaching methods
Funding
Web generation
Lifelong learning
Innovation
Branding
Our buildings and services say “I am to be admired, not used!”
We have to let them carve out
their own information landscapes
Zarin flickr
The content has left the
container
Electronic books
Institutional repositories
Google and search engines
Decline of scholarly monographs
Open access journals
Decline of reading lists?
Web generation
Dates from 1981
Wants single search boxes like Google and
Amazon which give instant satisfaction
Find our databases too hard to use and are t
not where they want to work i.e. in their VLE
Boolean logic – no thanks!
Don’t bother to ask a librarian!
Web generation
Likes collaboration, teamwork and social networking
Navigates the Web by trial and error and won’t use
manuals or help sheets
Sees research as a self-directed process, which is
likely to be non-linear
Has grown up with PCs and video games
Used to multitasking
What is written down must be correct
Will cut and paste rather than read and digest
Web generation and IL
Combined with the Google effect they
need :
Help with search strategy and keywords
To learn to think critically, and be able to
evaluate and interact with material
To be aware of the ethical use of
information
How do we respond?
Accept that they will use search engines
Teach Google and Google Scholar as
legitimate sources where appropriate
Watch and recommend Google Print as
a source of full text
Remember Microsoft also have huge
digitisation projects with major libraries
for their Live Search Books
Become Information Gurus and
recommend other search engines as
alternatives
Quintura
CrossEngine
Exalead
Academic Live Search
Ms Dewey
Web 2.0
RSS feeds
Wikis
Blogs
Mashups
Podcasting
Tagging
Vodcasting
flickr
del.icio.us
MySpace
YouTube
Instant messaging
Bleu celt flickr
Blogs
A Weblog or blog is a
web page which can
be used to post
information, usually
like a diary
Anyone can
comment but they
cannot alter content
Wikis
A piece of software which lets users
freely create and edit Web page content
using any Web browser
Allows collaborative sites to be formed
using open editing
“With enough eyeballs, all bugs are
shallow”
(Eric Raymond)
Wikipedia
This open content
encyclopedia is the most
famous wiki
Founded on trust, and now
has over 1,696,000 articles
in English on 8m pages!
Content gains validity and
keeps up to date through
constant editing
Accusations of vandalism,
bias, inaccuracy
Social networks and MySpace
Social bookmarking
Tagging and Folksonomies
YouTube
RSS
Rich site summary or Real simple
syndication
Enables you to get an update of the output of
RSS-enabled websites, blogs or podcasts
without continually visiting the sites.
Works like a subscription which you collect in
an aggregator like Bloglines.
RSS feeds can be collected on Desktop or
portable devices
Mashup
A website or web application which uses
content from more than one source to
create a completely new service
Podcasts
A form of broadcasting allowing individuals to
record, publish, find, subscribe and listen to
audio over the internet on a portable player
Has been described as the new “tranny”
Use RSS feeds which enable your
subscriptions to bring you up to date stuff
which you can then move to your mp3 player
when you are ready
Instant messaging
Communication using text in real-time
between two persons e.g. via web
What it means for us
New ways of
working
FUN
New skill sets to develop
Webchicken flickr
Who is using Web 2.0?
JISC SPIRE project Online Tool survey
Oct-Nov.2006 at Oxford University showed :
Wikipedia the most popular across all ages.
Blogs read by 40-60% across ages
RSS feeds, Bloglines and Technorati all below 20%
for all ages
Overall engagement with tools predicted to expand
and flatten off in 2-3 years for age groups 18-34
Web 2.0 and our opportunity
We could engage the Net generation, meeting them
where they are, so that we are seen as relevant and part
of their experience
Web 2.0 is interactive and we can make our sites and
materials more visual and active, e.g. games
We have new opportunities to use deep and active
learning methods and peer-based learning
How can we do this?
How does it affect the content of our IL teaching?
New approaches - blogs
Blogs encourage community and
reflection, and help writing skills
Create a blog for a course who receive
IL teaching and allow comments, and
link to subject guides
New approaches – blogs & wikis
Wikis encourage group work and peer review
PBWiki and Blogger v Blackboard
Can be used in our teaching and could collect
student content into the teacher’s aggregator
New approaches - podcasts
Podcasts to deliver tours, specific information,
previews of talks. Supercede audiocassette
recordings
Becoming easier to do
We can use podcasts for tours and other IL teaching
New approaches - podcasts
Can use iTunes, which allows users to jump
around chapters
I-tunes Kresge Dash Library Univ of Michigan
examples
Useful for academics and librarians who have
wonderful voices!
Allows students to time-shift
Can be used in a car, while
jogging….anywhere
New approaches - YouTube
Create our own Blogs, YouTube and iTunes
videos for promotional programmes
“Databases” USF Tampa Library
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nik3pyJwaYI
Augustana Information Literacy DVD trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riazxG6yqm0
New approaches - tagging
Use tagging as part of critical thinking, making links
which involve evaluation, categorising, and
formulating keywords. This helps sharing and joining
together of sources.
Tagging of catalogue items. E.g. University of
Pennsylvania PennTags
Imagine a Library catalogue with subject headings
plus tags or a system that could recommend a
reader toward a subject heading…
New approaches – instant help
Instant messaging for quick response
Use MySpace and FaceBook to provide
assistance
(see Get Connected blog A campaign idea)
New approaches - flickr
Flickr for storage of our photos
and for presentations
New IL Programme Content
The “blogosphere” is becoming like a global
brain and is a vital part of online culture
Blogs are very current and becoming a valid
information source : a good place to get ideas
about a subject
Need to teach best
sources for
searching blogs
e.g.Technorati
Need to teach how
to evaluate a blog
e.g. Kathy Schrock
New IL Programme Content
RSS feeds allow researchers to
subscribe to regular content from news
services and relevant content from
databases
New IL Programme Content
Use Wikipedia as a legitimate starting
point measured against other reference
sources, understanding its strengths and
weaknesses
Teach ways of searching for podcasts
e.g.Yahoo
New IL Programme Content
Del.icio.us as a research tool
helps students to organise what is found with easy
storage of bookmarks, accessible anywhere…
assists referencing
encourages tagging of subjects by users which is central
to the linking of ideas, and aids sharing of resources.
Zotero for capturing bib records from OPAC and
organising them
The future
Use of gaming
e.g. Ohio State University gave out interactive game
using Captivate to all new students
The future
Remember
“Information literacy increasingly should not be
considered a given….the information literacy skills of
new students are not improving as the post-1993
Internet boomlet enters college….in a sea of usercreated content, collaborative work, and instant
access to information of varying quality, the skills of
critical thinking, research, and evaluation are
increasingly required to make sense of the world”
Horizon report, 2007
We can play a key role in creating
information literate citizens
We should recommend best web search
engines alongside intute and our
databases
We should now include wikis, blogs and
other new sources
We have a whole new set of tools to help
us deliver our material!
Canlosa flickr
And finally
It’s a world of perpetual beta so let’s
experiment! Using these tools we need only
be constrained by our imaginations to
engage our users as never before!