Turning on the Lights: Key Challenges For Learning, Libraries And

Teaching In A Googleised World

Dr Ross J ToddDirector, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries

Rutgers, The State University of New Jerseycissl.scils.rutgers.edu rtodd@scils.rutgers.edu

KeyAssumptions

The fusion of learning, information, and technology presents dynamic challenges for all educators and students in 21st century schools.

School libraries are essential for addressing essential learning standards, the complexities of learning, and quality teaching in information- and technology-intensive 21st century schools.

Enabling the transformation of information to deep knowledge and deep understanding, and the development of personal, social and cultural agency is the core of the VELS, and the core work of teachers and teacher librarians

Are the LightsOn or Off?

Educational Leadership (March 2008, Vol 65, No. 6)

Marc Prensky “Turning on the Lights” P. 40 - 45Powering down in school – not just devices, but brains

“It’s their after-school education, not their school education, that’s preparing our kids for their 21st century lives – and they know it” (p. 41)

“When kids come to school, they leave behind the intellectual light of their everyday lives and walk into the darkness of the old fashioned classroom” (p. 42)

The Google Generation

Current research in adolescent information seeking and use, and information technology presents significant challenges and possibilities for schooling:

- curriculum- role of school libraries- classroom instruction- student research tasks- professional development- school’s technology policies

All About Possibilities

Pew / Internet – American Life Project (2006)Telephone interviews of a randomly generated sample of youth 12-17 and a parent or guardian, and involved 935 parent-child pairs.

National School Boards Association 2006: Creating and Connecting: Research And Guidelines of Online Social and Educational NetworkingOnline survey of 1,277 9-17 year olds; Online survey of 1,039 parents; Telephone interviews with 250 school district leaders

Rowlands, I. & Nicholas, D. (2008). Information behaviour of the researcher of the future. A CIBER Briefing Paper. Commissioned by British Library & Joint Information Systems Committee. Centre for Information Behaviour & the Evaluation of Research (CIBER), University College London (UCL), 11 January. Retrieved 2 February 2008, http://www.bl.uk/news/pdf/googlegen.pdf

Key Studies

The Google Generation

Using libraries less since they first began using internet research tools;

Search engines are the primary starting point for information searching;

Horizontal information seeking - shallow / skim viewing a small number of pages then “bounce” out, often never to return;

Spending as much time navigating virtual libraries as actually viewing what they find;

“Power Browse’ kind of reading: scanning rapidly targeted to quick decisions, clicking extensively and making little use of advanced search capabilities;

The Google Generation

Squirreling behavior - stockpiling content in the form of downloads;

Little attention to evaluating the relevance, accuracy and authority of information;

Tendency to use simple search strategies that miss relevant documents; undertaking repeated searches;

Having an unsophisticated mental map of the Internet as a networked entity of multiple providers.

Behaviors confirmed by teacher librarians and teachers

And Then ComesWeb 2.0

Web 2.0 asCommunity

2nd generation of web-based environments

Functional rather than transmissive space: social network sites, blogs and online diaries, wikis, podcasts, videoblogs, content creation mechanisms eg Facebook, MySpace

Seek to facilitate community, communication, collaboration and creativity between users.

Extensive engagement with microcontent: “posts” and “discussion threads”, constantly building microcontent into new content forms

Shift in focus from finding locating and evaluating information to one of using information, creating knowledge and sharing of ideas.

The Web 2.0Environment

Use of OnlineCommunities

Rich picture of teens’ and adults’ engagements with Web 2.0

For teens, online activities are deeply embedded in their lifestyles, and rivaling television in terms of time commitment.

90% of teens with online access using social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging and visiting social network sites, with many visiting such sites on a daily basis

Majority of online teens have created a personal profile online

Almost half of 12-13 year olds report posting a profile to an online social network

Girls dominate the bloggosphere; boys dominate in video watching and video sharing

Places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; opportunities for making new friends

Use of OnlineCommunities

Active, not PassiveInvolvement

Increasing engagement in content creation

Go beyond basic actions such as downloading and uploading music, photos and videos and updating personal profiles

Engaging in highly creative activities : - Blogging- Posting messages- Creating and sharing virtual objects- Remixing content into their own creation- Participating in collaborative projects- Sending suggestions or ideas to Web sites- Submitting artistic and creative works such as artwork, photos, stories, videos to sites- Creating polls, quizzes or surveys

Most common topic of conversation on the social networking scene is education and school work (59%)

50% talk about school work

Careers / jobs, choice of university, politics, religion, morals, learning outside school work (sharing / discussing about personal interests)

They share and dialogue about their projects

What do theytalk about?

break online safety or behavior rules;

have extraordinary set of digital skills

typically report lower grades in school

engage in experimental behavior / engagement/ ideas / creative imagination

are very active on chat-vines; share new “stuff’ very quickly (websites, games, simulations, tech products)

learn new software and teach others; promoters; recruiters (getting others to visit their sites); organizers of online events; very active net-workers.

OnlineNonconformists

CyberbullyingCyberharassment

Low levels of cyberbullying / cyber harrassment reported

Typically in form of: - pressure by strangers to meet with teens- receiving inappropriate content, pictures, and language- being drawn into uncomfortable conversations- forwarding or posting private email, IM, or text- spreading rumours online- sending a threatening or aggressive email or message- posting an embarrassing picture without permission.

Acknowledge that these are similar to problems encountered in everyday life and through television and popular music

More likely to be bullied offline than online

Stringent rules against nearly all forms of social networking during the school day

Limited use for collaborative projects either with staff or students

Great potential to help students: - “get outside the box” in some way or another;

- introduce students to “new and different kinds of students”; - “learn to express themselves better creatively; - improve social skills”; - “develop global relationships”; - “help students improve their reading or writing or express

themselves more clearly”; - “learn to work together to solve academic problems”;- “improve children’s ability to resolve conflicts”.

And the School’s Response?

What of Learning and Libraries in the Near Future?

Need to imagine a different information landscape and learning environment for young people

Teens leaving behind the traditional world of print

Teens not satisfied with being passive consumers of other people’s information, but becoming active users of information to create new knowledge products.

Need to consider how we more effectively structure schooling and school libraries to provide a rich interactive learning community for them, using tools of Web 2.0

Need to ensure that the deep knowledge and deep understanding, not just of learning standards, but of their complex information worlds that they are drawn into, are achieved.

I have to pick another “bird”, “dinosaur”, “planet” “animal”, “disease” and do a 1000 word essay?

I can go on to: schoolsucks.com, phuckschool.com evilhouseofcheat.com and get the essay I want?

I fill out another worksheet, fill in the blanks, do another 5 para essay, perhaps a diorama

Preparation of the drones?

Why do school work, especially when …?

Major Shift in Instructional Focus

Kids are running home to open MySpace and other spaces and read and react and provoke and argue

Harness social networking tools in educationally meaningful and compelling ways that break loose from static ways of learning that often confines and stifles creativity

Instructional program centering on inquiry, knowledge construction and communication will be the distinguishing feature of schooling and school libraries if they are to flourish in this environment.

Major Shift in Instructional Focus

Provide students with the essential knowledge-based competencies: - critical thinking and communication competencies- knowledge creation processes- developing arguments and positions and viewpoints- dealing with conflicting ideas and evidence (including dealing with unwanted, offensive information inputs)- constructing creative and meaningful representations of new knowledge- communicating ideas in thoughtful ways.

Explore social networking sites, learn and try out the kinds of creative communications and collaboration tools that students are using, so that your perceptions and decisions about these tools are based on real experiences.

Kids investigate and analyse their lives and the world in-depth with authentic resources and tasks

Meaningful Inquiry: learn to ask deep questions, seek knowledge, understand multiple perspectives, and wonder about the world, draw conclusions, state viewpoints, argue positions, to create solutions and solve problems, and to use the IT tools and resources to create, share and use knowledge

Moving beyond reading as a laborious “school thing”

Sustain the fire and the light that engage kids in their everyday lives

School libraries as a place where kids power up their brains and their devices

Rethinking Pedagogy

Re-imagining School Libraries

Need to rethink the school library as the school’s physical and virtual information-to-knowledge commons where literacy, inquiry, thinking, imagination, discovery, and creativity are central to students’ learning in all curriculum areas

Provide intellectual and social tools across these multiple environments to foster creativity, knowledge creation and production, both individual and collaborative, and to foster the intellectual, social and cultural growth of our young people

24/7 environment vs the “place” paradigm

Re-Imagining School Libraries

Library spaces designed for collaborative learning

Flexible workspace clusters

Flexible collections (20/80% rule)

Wireless technology / surface computing / multiple HD wide plasma screens

Self-help graphic services, colour imaging, audiovisual editing, collaborative production, knowledge representation and presentation software

Physical designs: functionality, sophistication, creativity, inspiration

Re-Imagine School Libraries: Example

Data/Info Commons - the reference collection, building background knowledge, both physical and virtual reference

Knowledge Commons – in-depth resources targeted to deep learning across the curriculum (flexible collection)

Leisure Commons – diverse free-choice reading, listening stations, iPod zone, e-zines and e-books

Networking Commons – collaborative spaces with walls of flat screen monitors for students to create, share, compare, display

Tech Commons – for small and large group instruction, information searching

Collective Commons – flexible discussion group spaces

Café Commons

Core Values

Community

Creativity

Collaboration

Communication