Article on my Informed Learning Research Now Available in LISR

I have written (with my doctoral supervisory team) about the initial findings from my study of how information literacy is experienced in the subject-focused classroom. The article came out just today in the journal Library and Information Science Research (LISR):  

Maybee, C., Bruce, C., Lupton, M. & Rebmann, K. (2013). Learning to use information: Informed learning in the undergraduate classroom. Library and Information Science Research, 35(3), 200-206.

Abstract

“Informed learning” is a pedagogy that focuses on learning subject content through engaging with academic or professional information practices. Adopting the position that more powerful learning is achieved where students are taught how to use information and subject content simultaneously, the research reported here investigated an informed learning lesson. Using phenomenographic methods, student’s experiences of the lesson were compared to what the teacher enacted in the classroom. Based on an analysis of student interviews using variation theory, three ways of experiencing the informed learning lesson emerged. Some students understood the lesson to be about learning to use information, i.e., researching and writing an academic paper, while others understood it as focusing on understanding both subject content and information use simultaneously. Although the results of this study are highly contextualized, the findings suggest criteria to consider when designing informed learning lessons.

If you don't have access to the journal, the accepted author version is available in the QUT ePrints repository: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/60579/ or Purdue's ePubs: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lib_fsdocs/41/

...and the Kitchen Sink: Bringing Together IL, DIL, & SC Initiatives

Purdue colleagues, Lisa Zilinski, Dave Scherer, and I will be presenting a breakout session at the Indiana University Libraries' Information Literacy Colloquium this August. Since I will be away at my doctoral workshop, I will have to do my presentation in an electronic format. Anyways, this group (soon to be joined by a few others) has begun to think about how libraries can address the educational aspects of three Libraries' initiatives:  informed learning (IL), data information literacy DIL), & scholarly communication (SC) holistically. Our evolving ideas concerning this topic began when my colleagues attended a presentation at ACRL 2013 by the Committee on Research and the Scholarly Environment. This Committee reported on a white paper they wrote titled, “Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy.”In this, our first presentation on this topic, we will be discussing bringing the three initiatives: IL, DIL, and SC, together to support undergraduate research.

Poster at ACRL Conference this Spring

My peeps from Colgate, Francesca Livermore (now at Yale) and Sarah Keen, Colgate Archivist, and I will be presenting a poster at the ACRL Conference in Indianapolis this April. The project, titled, "Making History: Using Digital Storytelling to Teach Discipline-specific Information Practices to Undergraduates," describes our collaboration with two history faculty at Colgate to develop information and primary source literacies in an undergraduate history course using a digital storytelling model. The students researched and constructed a short documentary film about the history of Colgate using primary visual and textual source materials from the University Archives.

If you attend the ACRL conference this year, please do stop by our poster session. 

Article now available in January issue of C&RL News

Find our article about IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation) in the January issue of College and Research Libraries (C&RL) News. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, this article (written by my Purdue colleagues Tomalee Doan and Catherine Fraser Riehle and myself) discusses Purdue's IMPACT program, which is a collaborative effort by several departments to aid faculty in redesigning courses to make them more student-centered. It provides an excellent opportunity for embedding information literacy into courses because we are there when teachers are making curricular and pedagogic decisions.