Teaching Information Literacy Across Time and Space

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Teaching Information Literacy Across Time and
Space 

• Empire State College Library's 
• Online Information Skills Tutorial
• http//commons.esc.edu/informationskills
• Sara Hull 
• Sarah Morehouse

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Across time space
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METAMORPHOSES
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The stage is set
http//www.sunyulster.edu/library/information_lite
racy/ppt/index.htm
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Enter the ESC librarians
http//www.esc.edu/ESCONLINE/ACROSS_ESC/LNS0ESCOPY
04.NSF/web?openview
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Cue WordPress
http//commons.esc.edu/informationskills/
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The final act?
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ETHOS
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Our wish list

• Jargon
• Verbose
• Computer literacy
• Focus on specific tools

• Plain English
• Succinct
• Visual
• Evaluation
• Active learning
• Easily navigable

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CONTENT
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We were online, but still in the habit
ofchalkboard thinking
This slide shows a cartoon depicting a classroom.
A child is holding a piece of chalk and looking
at the chalk board in confusion. The teacher
standing next to the child is saying, There
arent any icons to click. Its a chalk board.
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We consulted with the faculty and looked at other
tutorials
This slide shows a cartoon depicting two men, one
standing with his arms full of papers, and the
other on the phone at a desk with a computer and
piled high with papers. The first man says to the
second,Get all the information you can, well
think of a use for it later.
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We broke it down and organized it under a new
structure, in a wiki
This slide shows a flow-chart like diagram that
illustrates the rough-draft organizational schema
that we applied to our content. It proceeds from
left to right Choose Topic, Get Background
Information, Refine Topic, Create Search, Gather
Results, and then simultaneously Cite Sources and
Write Paper. Above this diagram is a photograph
of Dana Longley looking happy and wearing a hat.
Dana is one of our fellow librarians and she was
the one who developed the diagram.
Dana Longley
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1. make the content extremely modular
This slide displays two photographs. One is of a
honeycomb composed of hundreds of hexagonal
pockets interlocked with each other. The other is
of a nautilus shell, which is a spiral of
segments of increasing size.
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2. remove computer literacy material
This slide displays a close-up photograph of an
illuminated computer power button, crossed out in
red.
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3. reduce jargon
This slide displays a cartoon drawing of an
belligerant womans face, with a speech bubble
saying Look it up. The speech bubble is crossed
out.
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4. avoid talking about specific library tools
This slide displays the logos of a number of
common databases, all crossed out in red.
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5. break up big blocks of text
This slide displays a photograph of a messy pile
of cards that all say blah.The image is crossed
out in red.
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6. more audiovisual and interactive elements
This slide displays two photographs. One is of a
stylized eye made of circuit boards and computer
parts. The other is of a pair of hands moving
around glyphs on a big touch
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7. More emphasis on critical thinking and
evaluation
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PLATFORM
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Old Info Lit Study was a web site built on a
Lotus Notes database
Screenshot of the index of Learning Modules in
the old Information Literacy Study. You can see a
live version of this page at http//www.esc.edu/ES
CONLINE/ACROSS_ESC/LNS0ESCOPY04.NSF/web?openview
. Underneath several headers and navigation
elements, the content of the page is divided into
the rather small main box of Learning Module
links on the right, and two other menus of links
on the left. The main box is outlined in red and
there is a caption saying, This is how much room
we had for content!
This is the main content!
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We had no control of the layout and design
This page shows a screenshot of one of the pages
of the Information Literacy Study, inside the
back end Lotus Notes database. The edit
interface is a rudimentary and awkward WYSIWYG.
At the lower right is a photograph of a wet, very
angry cat.
 
Unacceptable
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We decided on the ESC Commons
This slide shows a screenshot of the Empire State
College Commons site creation page. It is
captioned, E.S.C.s instance of WordPress,
intended for faculty and staff blogs and personal
web sites. Overlaid on that screenshot is a
black and white photograph of a happy man in a
suit, which is captioned, Josh Gaul, Academic
Technologies. Josh is the person who helped us
set up our site in the Commons and continues to
provide support.
(ESC's instance of WordPress, intended for
faculty and staff blogs and personal web sites.)
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WordPress has a web-based back-end
This slide shows a screenshot of the Pages
section of our sites WordPress Dashboard. There
are menus on the top and left column, while the
pages to be edited are displayed in the larger
middle section. The screenshot is captioned, We
can edit while on the road or working from home.

WordPress
We can edit while on the road or working from
home.
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Josh built us a custom WordPress template
This page shows a screenshot of one of the pages
of the Information Skills Tutorial, which is
meant to show off our custom template. There is a
set of tabs going across the top, and the mouse
is hovering over one of them, displaying the menu
of pages that are hierarchically under that tab.
The content displays in the main section beneath
that. To the right of that section is a column
with a survey form. The screenshot is captioned,
Josh built it for us.
tabbed menu!
Josh Gaul, Academic Technologies
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CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
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More work to be done   
This slide displays a photograph of an astronaut
repairing the International Space Station. Its
captioned, Get this thing launched, then make
improvements on the fly. And here we are.
Get this thing launched, and then make
improvements on the fly. and here we
are.
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Accessibility for disabled users
This slide shows a set of four glyphs arranged in
a square. Going clockwise from the top left 1.
person using a wheel chair, which is captioned,
Work closely with Office for Students with
Disabilities. 2. pair of hands speaking in sign
language, which is captioned, Closed captions.
3. person using a white cane to navigate, which
is captioned screen reader-friendly alternative
formats. 4. outline of a head with a brain in
it, which is captioned Multimodal, chunked
learning.
work closely with office for students with
disabilities
closed-captions
screenreader-friendly alternative formats
multimodal, "chunked" learning
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Interactivity, learning in parallel channels/modes
This slide shows a close-up photograph of a
circuit board with its various nodes and
circuitous, parallel lines.
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PROMOTION AND USE
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Currently getting the word out via

• Reference interactions
• Webinars
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Library blog
• Quarterly e-mails to faculty from
  subject-liaisons
• Information Literacy (EDU-232012)

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Future promotion via

• Directors of Academic Support
• Coordinators of Student Services
• Student Services newsletter
• Coordinator of Instructional Development
• Integration into
• ANGEL
• Educational Planning courses
• Planning Finalizing the Degree (EDU- 232092)
• Writing Resource Center
• This conference!

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DISCUSSION
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Questions

• How can we get faculty to USE it with their
  students?
• How can we convince students that this is useful
  to them?
• How can we convince the higher-ups that
  information literacy needs to be addressed
  outside the library, across the curriculum? 
• __________________________________________________
  _
• Davis, A. (2010, May 17). Open education Web log
  post. Retrieved from
• http//blog.timesunion.com/alandavis/open-educatio
  n/45/
• SUNY Council of Library Directors Information
  Literacy Initiative, Final ReportSeptember 30,
  1997. Retrieved from http//www.sunyconnect.suny.e
  du/ili/final.htm
• SUNYConnect Information Literacy Course Chosen.
  (1999, October). SUNYergy. Retrieved from
• http//olis.sysadm.suny.edu/sunyergy/4ILC.htm
• SUNYLA 2000 Ulster County Community College
  information literacy initiative Presentation
  slides. Retrieved from http//www.sunyulster.edu/
  library/information_literacy/ppt/index.htm