LOEXcess
Another excellent LOEX day…for a day and a half conference, I have to say this is one of the more practical and useful conferences I’ve been too. So many ideas to mull over and consider. A brief recap of what I went to yesterday and today for now and then I will elaborate later:
Friday–I already mentioned the Brain Research talk. Wow.
Cloning ourselves–using videocasts to create tutorials
Media Literacy–using media literacy as a lens for teaching information literacy in general. Some resources: Alliance for a Media Literate America; Center for Media Literacy
How to Embed a Librarian–a different take on the process…this librarian actually attended the class and did the readings and “infiltrated” the course.
Dynamic Duo–Collaboration between Writing Centers and Academic Libraries–can’t wait to talk to the Writing Center about some of what I saw here. Here’s a link for more info: http://dynamicduo.pbwiki.com. More later.
Saturday:
The morning plenary was a panel of faculty who gave their perspective on having library instruction in their courses. Lots of good discussion…I’ll elaborate more on this later.
Phenomenography–researching users’ perceptions by asking them questions to describe their experiences using information.
From guest lecturer to assignment consultant–today’s highlight. Lots of info to apply to the Tech Fellow proposal, I think. More on this later, too.
Game-based multimedia approach to library orientation–the game on this site will be live soon: http://library.osu.edu/sites/fye
Instruction 2.0–this was a discussion group. Lots of cool things going on. This site has great examples: http://loexsd.pbwiki.com (let me know if you want the password–don’t want to publish it “live” online since it’s not my site).
The conference concluded this afternoon with us being asked to say who we met at the conference that we’d like to follow up on (I want to learn more about a strategy of letting the students pick the agenda for instruction sessions by asking them “what do you want to learn” which Tracey Mayfield, one of the LOEX coordinators told me about [I sat next to her at lunch today]), an idea that we want to incorporate (too many to pick just one right now–need to think them through and priortize) and, what part of our daily workflow we’re willing to drop to make room for these new things–the hardest question of all.
I leave you with a picture of the view from my “Tower” window:
and…
a baby duck!
LOEX-a-palooza
Wow–14 hours of library instruction and information literacy today. But first things first…here is a picture of a cute wood duck (did I mention the exotic bird aviary here and the duck pond area?)
No, his head isn’t on backwards and, yes, he has both of his legs–he’s just hiding one in this picture. I caught him in mid-preen.
And while I’m at it, here are some shots of the seals that live over at the conference hotel. They are rescue seals that were found stranded:
This one has learned the fine art of relaxation.
Check out his flipper nails:
Looks like he’s ready to get a manicure.
And look at how happy this seal is:
OK, enough with the animal side show here (although, one more thing related to animals and then I’ll get back to info lit…I got to pet a baby alligator at dinner tonight! I just had to mention that.)
The plenary speaker this morning was so interesting–Dr. Pat Wolfe spoke about brain research and what it means for how we think about instruction. Basically, it has only been in the last thirty years or so that the technology has developed so that we can actually see what live brains do in response to various tasks. Now that we know the brain responds in certain ways, she emphasized that we need to teach to the brain and it behooves anyone in education to know about how the brain works. “We’ve been working with brains that we don’t understand.” She said that if we don’t, then it’s like going to a doctor who says “Yeah, I know kind of where the gallbladder is and I think you may have a problem with that–here’s a prescription. Try it and if it doesn’t work, come back and I’ll give you a new prescription. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try it again.” In the case of education, educators have known approximately where the brain is and it has been policy makers writing the bad prescriptions.
Traditionally, education has been about content manipulation–rote memorization and regurgitation of subjects studied in isolation from one another (“put away your math book, it’s time for health. put away your science book, it’s time for history”). If you can do well on the test, then you’ve “learned.” Dr. Wolfe referred to this as educational bulimia.
Our job as educators is not to help students do well in school but to do well in life, but most students can’t apply what they’ve learned. Dr. Wolfe highlighted four areas of brain research that can apply in the classroom:
“We don’t just teach, we shape brains.” Neurons that aren’t fired and “reinforced” wither away–experience shapes everyone’s brains.
The brain seeks meaningful patterns and we can only make sense based on what we already know–if we can’t connect to it, the info is dropped quickly. A student might be able to cram for a test and remember enough to pass that day, but unless a meaningful experience is hooked to the new information (through metaphor, analogy or simile) or unless you create the experience with them, then the time spent is not effective. Dr. Wolfe gave an example of a paragraph of gibberish to illustrate this.
There are two kinds of memory: Procedural (habits, things we do unconsciously because they have become automatic) is 98% of our memory. Declarative (anything we have to relate [or declare]–from our name, to our phone number to how to search a database) is only 2%. Dr. Wolfe said that reciprocal teaching is key to increasing retention–have the students show each other what they’ve learned. Have an exercise where they tell a partner what just went on in class–go around and listen to make sure they are getting it. “Practice doesn’t make perfect–it makes permanent connections.” If someone isn’t getting it, it will only be reinforced unless it’s corrected quickly.
Two useless questions to ask your class–Do you understand? and Any questions? Dr. Wolfe said that this only confirms whether or not their neck muscles are working.
If you’re concerned with Procedural memory then rote rehearsal works best–repeat things over and over. But for everything else, elaborative rehearsal works best. This includes reciprocal (or peer) teaching, metaphor and analogy, problem-based learning, visuals and graphics, simulations, hands-on activities and rhythm, rhyme and rap.
Finally, emotions are a part of the learning process. Learning is enhanced if the emotion generated by a learning experience is pleasant. Otherwise, fight or flight kicks in and learning shuts down–think test anxiety.
Dr. Wolfe had so many great examples and exercises for us to do while she taught us about the brain–she really put her theories into practice. You can check out her web site at www.patwolfe.com I’m also going to check out her book call Brain Matters: Translating Research Into Classroom Practice when I get back.
That was just the first hour and a half today! I heard about a lot of other cool projects and other ideas but I will write more about those later so that this doesn’t turn into a blog post/dissertation.
Safari vs. zoo
While on the dessert extravaganza boat tour outing tonight, I met a Canadian librarian who had an interesting analogy/metaphor about what we do as librarians these days, given the changing technological environment. She said that we used to be more like zoo keepers–everything had it’s place and we gave tours and followed a simple map. Now we’re more like safari guides out in the wilderness–we’re there to guide, but we’re not always sure the path. She articulated it in a clearer way, but you get the idea. Her powerpoint slides (which were a little too large for me to download here) can be found on her site here: http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/ (click on conferences/workshops).
She also had a neat exercise where she worked with some history students–she broke them into groups and gave each of them a selection of web site print outs, book sections, encyclopedia entries and journal articles (scholarly and trade and popular) and had each group rank the usefulness of each source (all of the material was geared towards a particular topic). She plotted the results on the board and drew a line to show that the resource they considered most useful peaked above books, followed by journal articles. Then she asked them where they thought they should be spending the majority of their research time and they could immediately see.
I also heard some people talking about the teaching resources section of the LOEX site which offers additional exercises…can’t wait to go through it more thoroughly once I’m back: http://www.emich.edu/public/loex/teaching_resources.html
Why wifi is a good thing
Sometimes wires bog you down and make things complicated…when I first arrived tonight I looked for the ethernet cable that was supposed to be in my room…nothing. A call to tech services (support numbers were readily available and I got through to someone immediately, luckily), had me looking behind my TV for the cord. Here’s what I found (it’s hard to tell in this picture, but I had to lug the dresser out from the special TV nook it was wedged into) :
So now instead of using the desk, instead I’m set up like this: 
Sometimes digging behind the TV can turn up cool stuff like this soldier guy I found:
And, as you can see, I’m online, so it could have been worse. But it could have been a little easier, too, and not taken an hour and furniture moving and laying on the floor to type. On the plus side (besides finding the soldier guy), there are cool ducks here at the hotel, the plants are amazing *and* I can see (and hear) the ocean. All in all, laying on the floor to type is not such a bad thing. I’ll post pix of ducks and plants and ocean views later.
Resort blogging
As I’m thinking about what last-minute things I need to do before I leave for LOEX tomorrow, it dawned on me that if I’m planning to blog about the conference I should probably make sure there will be easy internet access. Otherwise, why even bother to lug my laptop across the country?
I couldn’t find any info on the Catamaran’s web site but then I noticed they had a “Live Help” link. Just for kicks, I tried it and was immediately chatting with Chuck. No wait time at all–impressive. Although they don’t have wifi there, I can at least hook up via an ethernet cable for free. Looks like lappy is going to San Diego!
Here’s a recap (note that it only took about 5 minutes for me to get the info I needed–sometimes calling an 800 number takes that long just to get through to a person):
Chat start time: 2007-MAY-2 11:33:9 (Pacific)
Chat end time: 2007-MAY-2 11:40:51 (Pacific)
Chat transcript:
celia from IP Address 192.217.153.253 called for help
Chat Started at 2007-MAY-2 11:33:6 (Pacific)
Welcome to Live Helper, our online chat for Evans Hotels. Which of our resorts may I assist you today? The Bahia Hotel; or the Catamaran Resort and Spa; or the Lodge At Torrey Pines in La Jolla?
Chuck : Welcome celia, this is Chuck with you. How may I help you today?
celia : Hi there…I’m checking in tomorrow and was just wondering if there was free wireless anywhere–the rooms? Lobby?
Chuck : no wireless connection unfortunately
celia : whoops…forgot to tell you I’ll be at Catamaran
celia : is there anything at the Bahia?
Chuck : tha bahia pool has a few “hot” spots but both properties have limited wireless
celia : can I purchase internet access so that I can use the internet on my laptop?
Chuck : its complimentary by way of ethernet
celia : perfect! That will work, too…I don’t necessarily need to be wireless. Do I just ask for a cable? Or are they already in the rooms?
Chuck : they are already in the rooms
celia : great! thanks for your help, Chuck. Have a good afternoon!
celia : PS This chat help service is excellent…very handy and much appreciated!
Client has left the session.
Chat ended at 2007-MAY-2 11:40:49 (Pacific)
No sleep ’til the red-eye flight home
It will be a busy, busy few days in San Diego. The schedule for LOEX is non-stop. Here’s what my days will look like:
Thursday:
- 10:45am Leave Chicago
- 1:00pm Arrive San Diego
- 7:00 – 9:30pm Dessert Extravaganza and Boat Cruise (“For Extreme Conference Enthusiasts”)
Friday:
- 7:30 – 8:15am Breakfast
- 8:15 – 8:30am Welcome & Announcements
- 8:30 – 10:00am Plenary Speaker: Brain Research and Education: The Vital Connection
- 10:00 -11:00am Cloning Ourselves: One Librarian’s Experience
- 11:00 – 11:15am Break
- 11:15am – 12:15pm Quarantined: The Fletcher Library Game Project and/or A Sexier Literacy: Information Literacy through Media Literacy
- 12:15 – 1:15pm Lunch
- 1:15 – 2:00 pm Poster sessions
- 2:00 – 3:00 pm How to Embed a Librarian
- 3:00 – 3:30 pm Break
- 3:30 – 4:30 pm The Dynamic Duo: Collaboration between Writing Centers and Academic Libraries
- 4:30 – 6:30pm Break
- 6:30 – 9:00pm Friday Dinner & Speakers (I love this part of the description: “Note: The talks will include actual animals.”)
Saturday:
- 7:30 – 8:15am Breakfast
- 8:15 – 8:30am Announcements
- 8:30 – 10:00am Plenary Panel: Through the Lens of the Course Instructor
- 10:00 – 11:00am Understanding Undergraduates: What Does Phenomenography Tell Us about Learners
- 11:00 – 11:15am Break
- 11:15am – 12:15pm From Guest Lecturer to Assignment Consultant
- 12:15 – 1:15pm Lunch
- 1:30 – 2:30pm A Game-Based Multimedia Approach to Library Orientation
- 2:45 – 3:45 pm Instruction 2.0: Teaching and/or Incorporating Web 2.0 Technologies in Your Classroom
- 3:45 – 4:15 pm Wrap Up
Sunday:
- 8:00am: 8K Race for Literacy (this isn’t affiliated with LOEX–just a coincidence that Literacy is the theme): Since I won’t have much time to run the rest of the weekend and since I couldn’t get a flight home until later, I thought I’d do this 5-miler. The Soldier Field 10 Mile is just a few weeks away!
- 10:00 am – 10:00 pm: Wander the streets of San Diego, thinking about information literacy and instruction
- 11:00pm (Sunday)- 4:45am (Monday): Fly home!
