TALIS Insight07 and a Gorilla

I have just returned from the excellent TALIS Insight07 Inspiration for Change Conference at the Hilton Metropole, Birmigham NEC. With over 300 delegates from all over the UK this was far more than a LMS sales pitch. I gave a presentation on "From Google to YouTube to SecondLife : the challenge to information literacy". See Overdue Ideas blog for detailed posts on most of the presentations.
But what do I remember particularly? The use by Dave Errington of the Cadbury's (Phil Collins)Gorilla as an inspired trigger for making us think. Must try it out with some students next week...

Information Literacy skills for Business students

In this YouTube video, Louise Klusek, Head of Reference at the Newman Library, Baruch College, talks about her responsibilities of teaching in Business 1000 and BPL classes, showing students how to do company research and industry research, and answering business-related questions. Speaking from her own experience as a corporate librarian working on Wall Street, Professor Klusek stresses that "information literacy skills are very important for students who are going to enter the business world...investment bankers spend 80 and 90 percent of their time doing research...they are doing the same kind of research that students are doing here."

True not many of our students from the UK will end up on Wall Street, but this little talk might have some credibility in making the connection between their studies and their future and the importance of being able to manage information searching.

Contra Costa County Library

Public Libraries in the US seem to be increasing their presence on MySpace. Its a way of outreach to younger patrons who may not otherwise use libraries. This example from Contra costa County California is worth looking at : sparkly background, loud music and all.

Web 2.0 Backpack or Web 2.0 apps for Students

Just in case you have missed this magnificent post from Read/Write Web here is the link. How far is it our job as Information Literacy teachers to tell students about the best applications? How do we keep up with them anyway? Well here's a great start! Surely its just a matter of recommending where appropraite as part of our IL "Curriculum" and also utililising them in our teaching where appropriate, working with our Academic and IT colleagues. I can hear someone sighing "if only it were that simple..."

Tags help make Libraries del.icio.us

There's an interesting article 'Tags help make Libraries del.icio.us'(for public and academic librarians) in Library Journal 15 Sept 2007 by Melissa Rethlefsen, which neatly summarises the power of tagging and includes some examples who have taken up the challenge.

Web Literacy

This Secondary ICT- Web Literacy programme is a very useful tool helping teachers to provide guidance to their pupils when using the internet for research. Vetry useful resource for schools, and possibly higher level education.
A group of Year 9 pupils at Wortley High School in Leeds are asked to look at three websites. The subject matters are Martin Luther King, the holocaust and Victorian robots.
None of the websites are what they seem. The first two are fronts for racists and holocaust deniers. The last is a good-natured spoof. None of the pupils spot any problems with the validity, reliability or authority of the sites and many say they would cut and paste information from the sites for use in homework or other projects. James Green leads a lesson that reveals the truth to the pupils, passing on valuable tips on website cross-checking and validity.