Blended Librarian (Techie and Traditional) Free Webcast

Blended Librarian Webcast: A Look at Newly Emerging Positions at Academic Libraries

Steven Bell and John Shank, co-founders of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community, and their guests Kathryn Shaughnessy, Instructional Services Librarian, St. Johns University and Sean Cordes, Instructional Technology Librarian, Iowa State University invite you to join the next Blended Librarian community event, “Blended Librarians: A look at newly emerging positions at Academic Libraries.” On Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 3 pm. EST.
Event Description:

This session will explore newly emerging positions at academic libraries that integrate instruction design and technology skills and knowledge. The session will start with an overview of a research study that analyzed recently advertised academic library positions such as Instructional Design Librarian, Instructional Technology Librarian, Instructional Development Librarian, and other variants on the Blended Librarian. The session will then focus on two real world examples of Blended Librarians and investigate the types of instructional techniques and technologies that these positions are utilizing to further collaboration with faculty and enhance the library’s integration into their institutions’ teaching and learning process.

Although this event is free, advance registration is required to reserve a virtual seat. If you are already a member of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community here is a link into the Learning Times Network that will get you to our Community and the registration page:

http://home.learningtimes.net/library?go=1199293

If you need to join the Blended Librarians Online Community in order to register (no fee to join):
1. Go to the Blended Librarian website at http://blendedlibrarian.org
2. If you are already a registered member of the Learning Times Network, use the login on the Blended Librarian home page to connect to the Learning Times Network. If you are not registered, click on the “Join” button and follow the instructions.
3. After you receive confirmation of your Learning Times account we recommend that you return to the Blended Librarians website to connect to the Learning Times Network – where our community is located. Once you log in to the Learning Times Network you will be on the “What’s New” page – and you should see the link to this program. Click on the link, and then register on the next page (you may need to scroll down to see the register button).
4. We recommend that those participating in the webcast obtain a microphone or headset in order to make use of the VoIP technology that allows conversation between the speakers and participants. A microphone or headset is not required to participate.

Thursday April 27th Meeting

On Thursday at 2pm in LL431, Brock Allen from CTL will be speaking with our Task Force on the following topic:

DATA < INFORMATION < KNOWLEDGE < WISDOM:
Transformative Roles for Librarians

Brock Allen, Director of the SDSU Center for Teaching and Learning on:
(1) challenges facing SDSU in fostering student learning and why LINFO might be our best hope, and
(2) changing notions of teaching and why librarians might be the best help.

Free Tutorial Creation Software

Carol Phillips received word of this freeware product from another IT person on campus who sai: "I found some free software that I've been playing with. You can capture computer screens and mouse movements, then edit the frames to add cometary and navigation buttons. When you are done, you can render a Flash movie to show it in a browser. You can also export as a PDF and the navigation buttons work in the PDF.  They have a new 2.0 version that came out this week that adds audio recording and editing."

Check it out here:  http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ 

Comparative Institutions

From Anne Turhollow.  This may come in handy at some point so I'm posting it here for safe keeping:

In the latest minutes from the Undergraduate Council, it appears that
they are working on a list of comparative institutions to use for
benchmarking.  Reading between the lines of the minutes, they appear
to have approved the following list on March 20:

Oregon State
University of Kansas
University of Arizona
Arizona State
University of Nevada, Reno
CSU Fullerton
CSU Long Beach
CSU Sacramento
CSU Northridge
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

ADVENTURES IN SPACE DESIGN – EDUCAUSE ELI WEB SEMINAR

ADVENTURES IN SPACE DESIGN

EDUCAUSE ELI WEB SEMINAR

APRIL 10, 2006

    The topic of this seminar is the redesign and management of the physical space in Emory University’s Cox (COX CABLE COMPANY) Hall to support student learning thru technology. Alan Cattier and Kim Braxton were the presenters from Emory University. (http://www.educause.edu/eliweb064).

    Cox Hall was built in 1991 as a 7500 sq/ft student computer lab with 80 workstations, no classrooms and was student staffed. The initial culture saw the space as a facility with one person, one computer with a small screen in a small cubicle. The philosophy was to cram as many students and computers as possible into the space. Late night gamers were the largest group of students using the facility and it wasn’t kept in good repair.

    In March, 2002 a new philosophy was developed that looked at the space as a collaborative computing environment instead of a facility. The goals were:

     1. Serve as a point of contact between the Faculty and Students

     2. Bridge curricular and co-curricular(gaming) needs

     3. Link classrooms and dorms

     4. Raise their academic profile

     5. Allow different kinds of collaboration (10 minutes or two week timeframes)

    The timeline, beginning in March, had construction set for beginning June, 2002 and completion set for November, 2002. These goals were accomplished but there was not mention of the cost.

    There were a number of aspects they considered in the new design. They felt that they needed to know who the players are. Also, they defined collaboration as:

    “People with different skills coming together to build something better than could be done individually.”

Next, they asked for the Library’s help with space design and they hired an outside architect. They looked at various classroom technologies and came to the conclusion that they wanted to create an environment that the people using it could feel good about. They established a dialog with students and faculty. They sent out surveys to students allowing them to comment on how they wanted their student fees to be used in this project. Also, their Campus Design studio helped make final decisions on furniture, colors and lighting. Wendy Maruyama in our Studio Art Design program would be our equivalent person to involve.

    They decided on creating a warm industrial vibe. The furniture should be fun, functional and comfortable. It must fit a live – work – play environment. Also a little bit of folly can create a positive energy in a space. Controlling noise was also an issue. A Starbucks Café was part of the original plan but got cut due to cost. This turned out to be a benefit because they came to the conclusion that commercial space detracts from academic space. Also, as an aside, a food court already exists outside the building.

    The plan that came together provided:

     1. 20 PC workstations with wide screens, flatbed scanners, MS Office, Adobe Photoshop and web page creation tools. Also, laptops can be checked out and wireless access is available.

     2. A fishbowl conference room that is open to the students

     3. Classrooms that are built into the space with Smart Boards, fully functional across discipline classes, have 60 inch plasma TVs and are available for student use. The two classrooms hold 15 people each.

     4. A gallery area for student art.

     5. A MAC bar and MAC pods with IMAC G5s. The tables are lowered so students can sit on cushions on the floor.

     6. Print station area

     7. Plasma poles with 60 inch TVs

     8. Wood floors with rugs under desks. The flooring , wall colors and lighting (halogen, soft florescence, and regular florescence) were chosen to create a fused, soft, comfortable environment.

     9. Furniture with wheels were chosen to allow students to design their immediate workspace. Flexible furniture, wiring with cable ties and table instead of table wire management were required because they get rearranged every day.

     10. Chairs were chosen that were dubbed ½ hour stools. They were comfortable but not for long periods of time.

     11. Whiteboards on wheels are supplied to encourage collaboration and flexibility.

     12. A coffee machine is provided which charges 50 cents a cup.

    The following operational information came to light once the new environment went live:

     1. Beeping turnstiles were annoying.

     2. Food rules were tried and dropped because rules constrain behavior and are not conducive to creative collaboration. The only sign left is: “Don’t eat over the keyboard.”

     3. It is important to build a relationship with the student assistants. Energy of the manager goes out to others thus making the new lab environment a relationship not a facility.

     4. Meeting Maker is used to schedule classroom and fishbowl conference room use.

     5. Music is sometimes provided by a jazz ensemble in the Art Gallery area.

     6. Need to provide cleaning supplies. Students do the cleaning of furniture and equipment. This approach transmits a sense of ownership to keep it clean.

     7. Sleeping people indicate an acceptance of the space/environment created.

     8. There are two Full-Time Employees, one shared LAN Engineer, and 20 student assistants helping in the environment.

     9. Usage is about a 1000 students per day.

    In conclusion a lot of good information was crammed into an hour’s time. We might consider creating a similar environment-based space in the Library.

BLACKBOARD USERS GROUP (BUG) Presentations

BLACKBOARD USERS GROUP (BUG)

RHETORIC WRITING CLASS PRESENTATIONS

APRIL 7, 2006

 

    Four instructors gave presentations on how they used Blackboard to enhance their students’ learning experience. The presenters from the Department of Rhetoric and Writing Studies were:

     1. Judith Annicchiario,

     2. Sandy Fimbres,

     3. Jill Holslin, and

     4. Terry Williams

    First, Jim Julius, ITS Associate Director, gave a quick overview of ITS and Blackboard. He mentioned that Mark Pastor is their Instruction Coordinator. He went on to say that on of the main purposes of Blackboard was to help Faculty to be more effective in presenting their subjects.

    Three ways that the word has spread about the advantages of Blackboard is thru marketing, students requesting instructors to put their materials on Blackboard and thru surveys, and informal social discussions between Faculty members.

    The following items can be included in Blackboard:

     1. Assessment module allows student to read material, take quizzes and get grades immediately.

     2. Buttons on home page can be customized to individual instructor’s needs. ( A button can be created to link to Library resources. Buttons act as containers of handouts. The order of the buttons can be easily changed.

     3. Copyright Info can be included on banner

     4. Dictionary of terms

     5. Essay guidelines

     6. External links to Library resources, MP3 files and other audio files

     7. Grade book module allows for setting of class absence policy.

     8. Grading assignments

     9. Handouts can be included

     10. Learning objectives

     11. Learning Units

     12. Links built into discussions to relevant websites allow students to get oriented before forming an opinion.

     13. Map links

     14. MP3 embedded files

     15. Notes from class

     16. Quizzes can be done online

     17. Uses Wikipedia

     Blackboard accomplishes the following:

     1. Allows everyone to print PDF files

     2. Allows for visual banners on pages that can change based on student work provided. Individual student writings are posted for group comment and they can provide pictures to be included in the page banner.

     3. Allows ongoing discussion of topics and interaction by students

     4. Allows posting of Visuals that provoke thoughts.

     5. Allows students to evaluate Internet resources to answer the question of “How” a source is scholarly or not.

     6. Allows students to contribute their piece of info to a project and share work and thoughts on topics

     7. Allows formal assignments to be saved in a digital dropbox or sent to the instructor by email

     8. Encourages discussion of copyright issues

     9. Gets students to look up words in word glossary

     10. Gets students to use Excel spreadsheets to organize data

     11. Improves reading strategies

     12. Posting of good (A) papers inspire students to take pride in their work.

     13. Provides a word glossary that helps students improve vocabulary and can be incorporated in student assignments

     14. Takes burden of manual work off instructor. Allows focus on teaching. Students do the research instead of the instructor which is a good marketing point. There was a major emphasis here.

     15. Use different text colors for each assignment

     16. Walk-thru of image upload process is provided.

    I asked the following questions of the first two presenters (time did not permit questions to the third and fourth presenters):

    1. How do you use the Library’s resources in your Blackboard sessions?

        The first presenter, Judith, said she included links, under her External Links button to specific pages on the public website (INFODOME). The second presenter, Sandy, said that she sets up assignments that force her students to go to the Library but didn’t link to any resources.

     2. How can the Library better support you in the future?

        The two ideas that the presenters agreed on was (time did not permit more in-depth discussions):

             a. Direct link access to full text articles.

             b. Create a web based interface to allow selection of article database titles, descriptions and URLs and include them directly into their Blackboard content. The current process of cut and pasting off of our databases web page is time consuming.

    Judith expressed an interest in looking at other ways we could provide support. She also complimented Marilyn Hall’s Career web page presentation to her students. She was impressed that Marilyn had read the preview material that had been sent ahead of the scheduled presentation.

    In conclusion, I learned a lot about how Blackboard is used in a real world situation. We have some very creative instructors pioneering new teaching methods using this technology to introduce critical thinking to students in ways that are fun and successful.

Report to Library Council

Our report to Library Council has been pushed back from April 25th to May 9th.  The rest of our timeline has not been changed.

InfoLit Task Force Meeting Notes from April 6th

James Frazee and Jon Rizzo from ITS came and spoke to our group.  Here are some highlights:

 

There are numerous building blocks that can be added on to blackboard (building blocks meaning third party software that integrates with Bb).  Some examples ITS is considering: 

• Turnitin.com (plagiarism detection software)
• Respondus for generating assessments
• Learning Objects to create wikis and blogs

In fall, ITS may hold a session to get faculty input on which building blocks they would most like to see at SDSU.  The Library may want to think of some building blocks that may help our cause.

 

ITS is working with pICT this summer to help a few departments make some broad moves to blended learning (online and in-person components to courses).  The primary departments are: Nursing, Accountancy and Social Work.  [Task Force: there may be some solid opportunities here to get infolit into these departments while collaborating with ITS and pICT].

 

If funding permits, by the year 2010, all centrally scheduled classrooms will be technology-rich learning spaces (or smart classrooms).

 

Turnitin.com is not heavily used on campus and ITS is looking for ways to promote it.  This may be an area that the library can assist with by offering more plagiarism awareness and instruction (ACRL standards 5 so this is definitely in our charge).  Pam chimed in that perhaps we can consider bring the tutorial she created over to support student learning in this area.

 

Blackboard licensing rules and other considerations: 

• Bb can be used for matriculated students and for faculty/staff
• We can create “Library Courses” to use Blackboard
• Please be sensitive to ITS’ workload and really try to be as self-sufficient as possible with our usage.

 

ITS is looking for more automated technology training to replace and/or supplement some of the BATS program.  [Maybe we can create an animated tutorial that specifically shows faculty how to integrate the library into Bb].

 

A few ways Bb is being used (other than for courses):

• RWS has an instructor portal in Blackboard.
• Accounting majors have a “homeroom” Bb site where the department can post jo information and items of interest to the professional development of students
• Latest ‘Tech Stars’ on the ITS website highlights how faculty are using Bb.

 

The Library could consider creating discipline-specific “courses” on Bb, even for every major, like our subject guide pages.  This could be linked to registration so all majors get the course on their WebPortal.  This could also be for specific levels…like Senior Biology majors get a different site than Freshman.  There are 72 academic departments on campus.

 

Newer faculty see Bb as a way to make their jobs easier.

 

There will be huge upgrades to Bb this summer, including hardware, upgrade to an Oracle server, upgrade Bb itself, an operating system.

Article on Next Gen Librarianship

Article of interest from Gloria:

Gordon, R. S. Next Generation Librarianship. American Libraries v. 37 no. 3 (March 2006) p. 36-8

link to full-text:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?F3A211BEC

Customizable Library Webpage Article

New articleof interest in the latest version of College & research Libraries:

Usability Testing of a Customizable Library Web Portal
Steve Brantley, Annie Armstrong, and Krystal M. Lewis

CRL 67(2): 146-163