library+instruction+technology

The last session of the day was the continued discussion with the keynote speaker Dr. Mark Taylor. During lunch Dr. Taylor gave an excellent presentation on the Millennials. He spoke about the generational cycles and what is assumed and true about the habits of the current generation of college students.

He continued his earlier discussion by focusing on the need to change to a pedagogy of engagement, activity, and options. Instructors continue to use classic teaching methods (e.g. lectures), which don't engage post-modern learners. His pedagogy of engagement is based on information/knowledge/content, application/skills/utilities, and meaning/value/caring. You have to start with information, show the application, then help the learner connect it to other experiences for meaning.

Class time is to valuable to teach information that can be easily found elsewhere. It is more important to relate knowledge to student's experiences and must show practicality.

He stressed the need for instructors to obligate the learner to come prepared to class and then class time can be spent on application and meaning. Instructors should also articulate their expectations of engagement, preparation, and participation.

Dr. Dave Dalton from Kent State University presented the fourth session that I attended. His presentation was very detailed. The presentation covered PBL basics, talked about how to create a problem, how to use it in the classroom, and how to assess learning.

He focused the majority of his time talking about the various model units that have been developed. He gave examples in math, science, language arts, social studies, and fine arts. His examples are from the K-12 setting. Most could be modified for use in a college classroom. He recommended two of Ann Lambros's books, Problem-based learning in middle and high school classrooms : a teacher's guide to implementation and Problem-based learning in K-8 classrooms : a teacher's guide to implementation.

He is developing a databases of PBL templates which will eventually be available on the instructional technology web site at Kent State. 

I work 1 to 9:30 p.m. on Mondays.  I just got home and went through the mail. I received from ALA a 9×12 white envelope stamped "ALA Ahead to 2010". Inside is a letter from Gorman encouraging me to vote for the dues increase, the ALA Ahead to 2010 plan, and a FAQ document on why I should vote for the dues increase.

All of these are nice informative pieces. The major drawback to this mailing is that I've already voted. I completed voting the same day I got the email with my voting password.

This would have been more helpful if it could have gotten here prior to the start of voting.  Maybe mine was lost in the mail?  It's business class mail coming out of Addison, IL which is 428 miles from my house.  Maybe the company ALA hired to process this mailing got them out late?  

Yet another head scratcher… 

The third session I attended at ODCE was given by give librarians from the University of Cincinnati: Pam Bach, Ted Baldwin, Jan Carlin, Cheryl Ghosh, and Olga Hart.  I have attended sessions given by many of them in the past at ODCE and ALAO and each time I come away with a little bit more. Towards the end of the session someone asked why the UC librarians are completely on-board with PBL. It was explained that a few years ago the University decided to focus on PBL to strengthen the academic program in hopes of retaining students. The librarians brought themselves up to speed and are using PBL in their instruction sessions. 

The main thing to remember with PBL is for everyone to understand their roles. Instructors are now mentors/guides and students are the ones truly in charge of the learning. 

A great problem includes:

• familiarity
• significance/relevance
• authentic
• dramatic appeal
• multiple solutions

Using PBL in library instruction:

• Problem is presented
• Students identify what they already know and what they need to know
• They brainstorm on where to start and then start conducting library research
• There is a feedback loop where they see where they are and if necessary start searching in another resource
• They solve the problem/complete the task
• At the end it is good to have a group wrap-up, mini lecture, class discussion, or group presentation to tie it all together.

Librarians as PBL instructors:

• Start with learning outcomes to make sure your problem asks the right question to achieve your objective.
• Use brainstorming, round robin, or prioritization to facilitate active learning and guide the students.
• Get feedback throughout the process to keep things on track and improve for next time

University of Cincinnati's PBL web site

University Libraries PBL web site with example PBL problems used in library instruction

The second session I attended featured Kelly Broughton and Bonnie Fink from Bowling Green State University. Their session focused on the intersection of online instructional design and problem based learning. Kelly described her experiences designing and using an information literacy module developed for an apparel marketing course. Bonnie spoke to her experience developing an online research module for technology students. Bonnie also spoke about designing instruction for adult learners.

The big points I came away with:

• start with an audience analysis to balance the competing nature of perfect instruction with how student's will use it
• context is critical for on-line learning
• the experience must be memorable and influential
• including quality feedback mechanism helps to validate and refine

After their presentation they distributed an annotated suggested reading list. They both recommended Michael Orey's eBook Learning, Teaching, and Technology and Martin Ryder's Instructional Design Models web site as excellent resources for online instructional design. A participant also recommended the PBL Clearinghouse at the University of Delaware as a good problem based learning resource.

There was a lot of discussion at the end about when to use PBL. Many participants felt that PBL works best with juniors and seniors. It was also suggested that if PBL is used with freshmen and sophomores the exercise should be smaller or the problem should be more defined.

Dr. Christina Bonner, Reference & Instructional Services Librarian at Ohio Dominican University Library presented the first session I attended. Christina described how they have developed an online information literacy and library orientation module that is used by their first year instructors as part of their seminars. The module includes a virtual library tour and four sub-modules that cover library research. The sub-modules include auto-graded quizzes.

The primary issues that came up during this project included: major time commitment, expectations of this module…not designed to replace face-to-face instruction, coordinating communication among all invovled, instructors having varying comfort levels with course management system, and gaining full participation by the first year instructors. Christina involved those in attendance by trying to think about the different roles a librarian might play in a similar project.

I sat next to Christina during lunch and had a chance to ask her about how they did first year library orientation and instruction prior to this online module. She indicated that they use to have an opportunity to meet with the students twice, but that number had recently been reduced to a single visit and they were trying to figure out how to fit everything in.  I told her we were in the same position here at Muskingum and we're still trying to find a better way to get the first years comfortable with the physical layout of the library as well as get them prepared for finding, evaluating, and using information effectively. 

Christina's slides, course syllabus , and selected reading list are mounted on the ODCE site.

I'm long overdue sharing what I learned at ODCE 2006. I only attended one day this year, March 7. This is a very good conference that brings together faculty, librarians, and instructional technologists from Ohio and some neighboring states. 

The sessions I went to this year ended up having a theme, problem based learning:

• Convergence of the Library and Freshmen Experience: Instructional Collaboration and the Online Environment
• Modules and Online Instructional Design Promote Problem-Based Learning
• Spinning Hay into Gold: Moving from Information to Scholarship
• Developing Engaging Learning Units with PBL Templates
• Continued Discussion of "Meeting Generation NeXt: Today's Postmodern College Student

Many of the presentations from the two days have been added to the ODCE web site. They have also created a conference blog.

I wasn't gone, but I have been neglecting this blog. I did find time to upgrade to WordPress 2.0.1 and then 2.0.2 in the past couple of months…

Work has been busy as usual. In addition to the normal instruction and reference tasks I have been spending a lot of time on collection management activities.  I represent the Library as a voting member on the Curriculum Committee. We've been discussing two new academic program proposals since September. Both programs received faculty support at last Friday's meeting.  So, we're on our way to add multimedia design and engineering to our slate of offerings. I've been spending a lot of time looking at potential resources that would support these two programs.

I've also been spending time on selecting books for our juvenile collection and our education collection.  We don't use an approval plan…so we have to select the old fashioned way. The other reference librarian has been busy weeding our reference collection.  I've been reviewing what she is deselecting and withdrawing the titles from our catalog.

I've also been busy at home. We finally finished the two guest bedrooms upstairs and have all the furniture back where it's suppose to be. That completes the entire renovation of the upstairs.  We're now working downstairs.  The room we were using as a family room is our current project. We're currently painting. It's going to become the dining room when we're done. We will hopefully be done renovating our 106 year old house this Fall. The kitchen is going to be the big projet on the first floor.

When we're done, we will have all new electric (replacing a lot of knob and tube), insulated external walls, new windows, new plumbing…basically a new house on the inside with Victorian stylings.