From alist on Flickr

The main reason for this is the lack of barriers for people to connect, share ideas, and mash up other peoples’ ideas.  Things like wikis, cloud computing, social-networking, etc. are making it possible, unlike ever before to work collaboratively.

We used to have to worry about coordinating everyone’s schedule. Now it’s possible to not even have to know what your co-collaborators even look like. People can work on projects in their own way and on their own time.  They use their own strengths and interests to contribute to the whole.

An example of this is Wikipedia.  Not many people care or even know about the Penny Red.  But enough people do so that you can now know what it is.  In this way very successful products are created.  In the case of Wikipedia the product is a great storehouse of shared knowledge, and a place to go for quick answers.

In the academic world it should be no different. Professors should be assigning more group work, not only the traditional research paper. We do hold that up as a standard of scholarship, but at least at our institution, we are not trying to create scholars.  We are trying to create successful citizens of this country and this world.  We are trying to prepare them for careers where they will need to be easily adaptable and be able to work as a group.

Research papers are worthwhile and fine in small doses. But we should be getting more creative with assignments.  How about one where they research and add successful edits to a Wikipedia entry?  How about creating a Common Craft like video explaining their topic in an easy to understand way?

A research paper is so personal and often only the student and professor see it.  Editing Wikipedia is beneficial for everyone and teaches collaborative, 21st century skills.

I have heard that you never really know something until you teach it. There is a lot of truth in this. I think I am gaining a much better understanding of what information literacy is and how it influences our daily lives.

Teaching the same session over and over can become pretty dull, but it also helps you to polish the session and find your groove.  Every first-year session I did went well, but I think that I really found my groove in the last one. I knew what I wanted to get across and even kept it interesting by telling related anecdotes from my own life or even stupid jokes. This makes a session more personal and less robotic.  By bringing your real self into the classroom you are able to connect better with students.

One example was when I was talking about finding information.  I told them that they were not just looking for stuff but the right stuff.  Like the New Kids on the Block. Then I sang the “oh, oh, oh, oh, oh” part of the chorus.  It was super lame, but I got a few pity laughs.  And the students knew I wasn’t some phony preaching to them. I was just a dude having a discussion with them about information.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the script or lesson plan and just go through the motions, but if you can personalize it and actually put yourself into your teaching, you will serve the students much better.

I am looking forward to the holidays and a little break from teaching though.  I need to recharge for next semester.

from STML on flickr

Mark Edmundson in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, had a great article called Geek Lessons about why one cannot be “cool” and a good teacher.  I think there are a number of good insights in this article.  Parts of it hit somewhat close to home.

The most common way to become a hip teacher now — there have been other ways; there will be more — is to go wild for computers. Students love computers; you get points for loving them more. I’ve heard tell of a professor — whose energy and ingenuity I have to admire — who provides his students with hand-held wireless gizmos that have a dozen buttons on them. (I understand they look like TV remotes — not a good sign.) Every 10 minutes or so, the professor stops and checks the kids by polling them on the clicker to confirm that they have understood him. Many other teachers have turned their classes into light and laser shows. Three-D glasses are around the corner.

I have actually used those clickers in the past in sessions at UW-Madison.  I thought they were kinda neat and they brought some variety to the same old song and dance.  But the situations they were used in often felt contrived.  Questions were made up for students to answer without much real visible benefit to them or me.  I think it is very important to never let the technology drive your teaching.

The most important point I take away from this though is not just for teaching–it is for life.

Uncoolness can be a state that anyone slides into, a state in which we’re more open, vulnerable and susceptible to being surprised than when we’ve got the cold, deflective armor on. Teachers live for the moments when their students — and they themselves — cast off the breastplates and iron masks and open up.

Showing more of yourself, being curious, and not pretending to know it all is when you gain some of the best insights and make real connections to people.  Especially in teaching, when it is really important, don’t worry about being cool.  Worry about if your students are learning.  Worry about if they are connecting with the ideas and information that you are discussing.  And in life, try to take off your armor sometimes.  You can afford to be a geek every once in a while.  You will learn a lot more about yourself, and maybe even take up D&D.

Photo by Eric @ Flickr

Tonight I remembered why I went into librarianship in the first place — to make a difference and actually help people.

Often in your career (and in life) you get caught up in the mundane, day to day stuff: going to meetings, prepping for classes or presentations, whatever project you are working on next.  You put yourself on autopilot or stress out about things that do not go your way.  Or, especially with librarians, you get overwhelmed with all that you have to do, often leading to burnout.

Sometimes though, it is nice to step back and recognize, “hey, there is a reason I am doing this,” or “is this really worth worrying about…isn’t this just minor in the grand scheme of life?”

Every once in a while you get reminders of this.  One great example are reference sessions when you are able to find the perfect information for someone and they get really excited and thank you for all your help.  You can actually see yourself making a difference.

Tonight I did an instruction session with a Sports Management class.  I thought it went pretty decent for my first one of the year, except for a slight setback with setting up wireless for laptops.  The one thing that I really was pleased about was the information literacy gem that I presented them without even realizing I was going to do it.  I told them that sometimes in order to find information you must be creative.  You can’t get caught up always going to the same place for your information, no matter if that place is Google or the library catalog, or your uncle Jerry.  Information comes from a plethora of different places.  You may need to go out and observe a basketball game and document it, or e-mail someone at Burton Snowboards to get what you are looking for.  Don’t handcuff yourself by using only one source of information.  Think creatively…be a detective!

I didn’t say all that, but that was my general message.

What was really rewarding though was that after the session the instructor e-mailed me and told me, based on student feedback, that I “opened their eyes.  One said you hit a home run.”  I guess that is a little Sports Management humor.  Getting comments like that would make anybody’s day.  But it really made me realize once again why I went into this profession.

I take two things out of this:

1. Write more thank you letters.  They are really powerful and appreciated.
2. Even if you don’t get praise every day, try at least once a day to step back an look at the big picture.  We may get caught up in the mundane, but seeing things in their larger context puts things in perspective.  Stressful things don’t seem to be as big of a deal, and simple things have some of the most power to them.

I am also very excited to start implementing some of my own ideas.  I would like to make some video tutorials, and similar tools after I do some teaching and talk with people about how they should look.  Hopefully this would take some strain off the teaching librarians.  Moreover, I have a number of ideas to improve the website.  My overriding goal is to make the library and its services more user friendly.  Many library services are not even close to being intutive.  Users struggle through using our tools to find information.  We have to make the experience easier and more enjoyble, not a chore.  I hate seeing users getting frustrated and shutting down when they run into problems (such as no results in a database or catalog search…Google at least gives them something).  So, I am going to do what I can to allow users to have a pleasant successful research experience.

I know that I enjoy using tutorials and learning on the web, especially because they are free. Moreover you can learn at your own pace. You can replay something, or watch the tutorial at 3:00 in the morning. They are there at the point of need.

I look forward to doing this more and playing with other free screen capture programs and applications like Jing and CamStudio.

To teach a class you first need to figure out what you want the students to be able to do after the class is over.  In other words you must design learning outcomes.  Secondly, you have to figure out how you are going to teach them these skills.  Finally you have to make them prove it.  This means you need to design an activity or worksheet or some other method of seeing whether they can actually do what you want them to.  These steps are not easy either.  They take a lot of thought and creativity.  On top of that you actually have to get up “on stage” and teach them these things, making sure they get it.  Teachers are pretty talented people.

I directed a staff training session today to familiarize everyone with IM-ing, buddy lists, and away messages. I had everyone sign up for Meebo accounts, add each other to their buddy lists, and then start chatting with one another. It worked well because people could joke about IM lingo and emoticons, but they also asked a number of good questions. By having them jump right into an IM setting and trying it out with each other they actually learned much more quickly than if I was simply up there lecturing. They quickly got the hang of buddies and how to send and receive messages. I recommend this form of training for anyone who is teaching others to IM. It gets results.

At the actual reference desk we will be using the IM client Pidgin because it has better alerts and is more customizable than the web-based Meebo.  So, I also plan on sending them some practice reference questions before the semester starts so they can become used to the Pidgin client. But they have the basics of IM down which was what I was trying to accomplish.

The training was not as easy to develop until I met with my “Library Instruction” practicum adviser earlier in the week.  Among other things, we eventually discussed “learning outcomes” which I had never heard of before. They are basically what you want your learners to be able to accomplish once they leave the classroom. This then made it much easier to design my training session. I simply took what I wanted the library staff to be able to do and then built my course around those goals. It sounds obvious but I hadn’t looked at it that way before.

After the training session our web librarian posted our Ask A Librarian page that we had worked on (mostly him) and our IM service was finally up and running. The web librarian and I posted our new status on the liswiki and the libsuccess wiki to include our names among the other distinguished virtual reference libraries. I am excited to see what kind of response we get. I will continue posting on how it works out.