From Google Scholar to YouTube Ways to engage the internet generation Peter Godwin University of Bedfordshire

The educational background The Web generation Google and beyond Web 2.0 tools New approaches New IL Programme Content The future

JakeBrewer flickr

Future of Higher Education Technological change Competition Population change Student expectations Learning & teaching methods Funding Web generation Lifelong learning Innovation Branding

Our buildings and services say “I am to be admired, not used!” We have to let them carve out their own information landscapes Zarin flickr

The content has left the container Electronic books Institutional repositories Google and search engines Decline of scholarly monographs Open access journals Decline of reading lists?

Web generation Dates from 1981 Wants single search boxes like Google and Amazon which give instant satisfaction Find our databases too hard to use and are t not where they want to work i.e. in their VLE Boolean logic – no thanks! Don’t bother to ask a librarian!

Web generation Likes collaboration, teamwork and social networking Navigates the Web by trial and error and won’t use manuals or help sheets Sees research as a self-directed process, which is likely to be non-linear Has grown up with PCs and video games Used to multitasking What is written down must be correct Will cut and paste rather than read and digest

Web generation and IL Combined with the Google effect they need : Help with search strategy and keywords To learn to think critically, and be able to evaluate and interact with material To be aware of the ethical use of information

How do we respond? Accept that they will use search engines Teach Google and Google Scholar as legitimate sources where appropriate Watch and recommend Google Print as a source of full text Remember Microsoft also have huge digitisation projects with major libraries for their Live Search Books

Become Information Gurus and recommend other search engines as alternatives

Quintura

CrossEngine

Exalead

Academic Live Search

Ms Dewey

Web 2.0 RSS feeds Wikis Blogs Mashups Podcasting Tagging Vodcasting flickr del.icio.us MySpace YouTube Instant messaging Bleu celt flickr

Blogs A Weblog or blog is a web page which can be used to post information, usually like a diary Anyone can comment but they cannot alter content

Wikis A piece of software which lets users freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser Allows collaborative sites to be formed using open editing “With enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” (Eric Raymond)

Wikipedia This open content encyclopedia is the most famous wiki Founded on trust, and now has over 1,696,000 articles in English on 8m pages! Content gains validity and keeps up to date through constant editing Accusations of vandalism, bias, inaccuracy

Social networks and MySpace

Social bookmarking

Tagging and Folksonomies

YouTube

RSS Rich site summary or Real simple syndication Enables you to get an update of the output of RSS-enabled websites, blogs or podcasts without continually visiting the sites. Works like a subscription which you collect in an aggregator like Bloglines. RSS feeds can be collected on Desktop or portable devices

Mashup A website or web application which uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service

Podcasts A form of broadcasting allowing individuals to record, publish, find, subscribe and listen to audio over the internet on a portable player Has been described as the new “tranny” Use RSS feeds which enable your subscriptions to bring you up to date stuff which you can then move to your mp3 player when you are ready

Instant messaging Communication using text in real-time between two persons e.g. via web

What it means for us New skill sets to develop FUN Webchicken flickr New ways of working

Who is using Web 2.0? JISC SPIRE project Online Tool survey Oct-Nov.2006 at Oxford University showed : Wikipedia the most popular across all ages. Blogs read by 40-60% across ages RSS feeds, Bloglines and Technorati all below 20% for all ages Overall engagement with tools predicted to expand and flatten off in 2-3 years for age groups 18-34

Web 2.0 and our opportunity We could engage the Net generation, meeting them where they are, so that we are seen as relevant and part of their experience Web 2.0 is interactive and we can make our sites and materials more visual and active, e.g. games We have new opportunities to use deep and active learning methods and peer-based learning How can we do this? How does it affect the content of our IL teaching?

New approaches - blogs Blogs encourage community and reflection, and help writing skills Create a blog for a course who receive IL teaching and allow comments, and link to subject guides

New approaches – blogs & wikis Wikis encourage group work and peer review PBWiki and Blogger v Blackboard Can be used in our teaching and could collect student content into the teacher’s aggregator

New approaches - podcasts Podcasts to deliver tours, specific information, previews of talks. Supercede audiocassette recordings Becoming easier to do We can use podcasts for tours and other IL teaching

New approaches - podcasts Can use iTunes, which allows users to jump around chapters I-tunes Kresge Dash Library Univ of Michigan examples Useful for academics and librarians who have wonderful voices! Allows students to time-shift Can be used in a car, while jogging….anywhere

New approaches - YouTube Create our own Blogs, YouTube and iTunes videos for promotional programmes “Databases” USF Tampa Library Augustana Information Literacy DVD trailer

New approaches - tagging Use tagging as part of critical thinking, making links which involve evaluation, categorising, and formulating keywords. This helps sharing and joining together of sources. Tagging of catalogue items. E.g. University of Pennsylvania PennTags Imagine a Library catalogue with subject headings plus tags or a system that could recommend a reader toward a subject heading…

New approaches – instant help Instant messaging for quick response Use MySpace and FaceBook to provide assistance (see Get Connected blog A campaign idea)

New approaches - flickr Flickr for storage of our photos and for presentations

New IL Programme Content The “blogosphere” is becoming like a global brain and is a vital part of online culture Blogs are very current and becoming a valid information source : a good place to get ideas about a subject

Need to teach best sources for searching blogs e.g.Technorati Need to teach how to evaluate a blog e.g. Kathy Schrock

New IL Programme Content RSS feeds allow researchers to subscribe to regular content from news services and relevant content from databases

New IL Programme Content Use Wikipedia as a legitimate starting point measured against other reference sources, understanding its strengths and weaknesses Teach ways of searching for podcasts e.g.Yahoo

New IL Programme Content Del.icio.us as a research tool helps students to organise what is found with easy storage of bookmarks, accessible anywhere… assists referencing encourages tagging of subjects by users which is central to the linking of ideas, and aids sharing of resources. Zotero for capturing bib records from OPAC and organising them

The future Use of gaming e.g. Ohio State University gave out interactive game using Captivate to all new students

The future

Remember “ Information literacy increasingly should not be considered a given….the information literacy skills of new students are not improving as the post-1993 Internet boomlet enters college….in a sea of user- created content, collaborative work, and instant access to information of varying quality, the skills of critical thinking, research, and evaluation are increasingly required to make sense of the world” Horizon report, 2007

We can play a key role in creating information literate citizens We should recommend best web search engines alongside intute and our databases We should now include wikis, blogs and other new sources We have a whole new set of tools to help us deliver our material! Canlosa flickr

And finally It’s a world of perpetual beta so let’s experiment! Using these tools we need only be constrained by our imaginations to engage our users as never before!