LIBE 467: Post 8

While subscription-based online databases available to students through their school's library tend to be one of the best resources for authoritative content, another praise-worthy--and absolutely free and easily accessible--resource is the Internet Public Library (IPL).

IPL describes itself thusly:

ipl2 is a public service organization and a learning/teaching environment. To date, thousands of students and volunteer library and information science professionals have been involved in answering reference questions for our Ask an ipl2 Librarian service and in designing, building, creating and maintaining the ipl2's collections. It is through the efforts of these students and volunteers that the ipl2 continues to thrive to this day.

Similar to Open Access (OA) and Open Journal Systems (OJS) (which I discuss in another blog), the IPL exists as a great first-choice online database for students to refer to when researching. Available by simply visiting the site from any computer (as opposed to perhaps using passwords to log into a school library's fee-based subscription database), the IPL describes itself as featuring "Information You Can Trust" and should be a first-look resource for teachers of all subjects in the secondary education world. My English students are regularly directed to it for information on such topics as author biographies, literature by time period, and schools of literary criticism.

While not meant to take the place of subscription-based online databases offered by such companies as Gale and EBSCO, the IPL does stand out as a reference source that offers a refuge of quality, authoritative information in the midst of the big world wide web of information on the Internet.

LIBE 467: Post 7

I have been intrigued for the last few years by the way in which Wikipedia exists: it is, in many ways, a wonderful example of the inherently organic nature of language. Language changes over time to reflect the times, and that is what is occurring with Wikipedia--that is, really, how Wikipedia is possible: the technology provided by the Internet allows a phenomenon like Wikipedia to exist in the first place. So, in that way, Wikipedia is, for lack of a better phrase, a "neat artifact" of our time. I like to think that in 100 years people will look back and say, "Oh yeah, right: in the 1990's the old Internet was born and one of the things that came out of that was the whole Wikipedia thing...I can't believe that that was ever a 'new' idea. Did you know that before Wikipedia they actually hired people to write articles on encyclopedia topics?"

At the same time--and though I have done some reading in this area for the past 18 months--I still can't totally wrap my brain around the idea that any Wikipedia-esque project is reliable and totally valid: at the end of the day, without a "standard" in place (an expert in charge of a particular topic in the encyclopedia), I have a hard time putting my personal trust in "the collective human brain" as an author that can be trusted (what does this say about my trust in humanity?).

One of the interesting voices writing today regarding the notion of "the collective human brain" (i.e., corporate authorship) is Jaron Lanier, specifically in his book You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, in which he outlines some of the ways in which web 2.0 tools and practices--while, yes, convenient, and while, yes, offering up some neat features and products in the "whiz-bang" realm of slick, candy-coated stylings--actually diminish our capacity for originality and creativity in that web 2.0 users are more prone these days to create a "piece or art" (a new creation) using essentially a templated, pre-programmed slice-and-dice gadget or app rather than creating a thought-out, personalized, original piece of art. He challenges readers to make a digital creation that takes at least 100 times longer to create than is the running time of the end product.

As a reference--and, as many people in class have mentioned, as an initial source of information in the research process--Wikipedia "has its place" within the realm of learning. While I do not think that Wikipedia is necessarily diminishing the creative capacities of its users or creators simply because of the fact that it is a templated, web 2.0 product (was there ever much room for creativity with regards to form when authoring new encyclopedia entries?--the author knows that the entry is going to be printed alongside thousands of other entries, in alphabetical order, with perhaps an illustration), it is certainly very worthwhile to be aware of how form always affects function, how form always affects understanding, and to remain cognizant of this fact when using Wikipedia. Always think to yourself: This information could be presented differently...and as such, how might a different presentation make the meaning or impact different?

LIBE 467: Post 6

Google Lit Trips is a fantastic application of the reference resource that is the atlas...in an online-, web 2.0-friendly format.

This resource is great for a number of reasons:

--It appeals to learners who naturally enjoy the visual aspect of learning that occurs with maps.

--It is accessible to students at any place and at any time (so long as a computer and Internet connection are available).

--It takes the classic resource of the map and applies it within the context of literature (something that I think literature teachers sometimes think would be neat to do, but balk at following through on applying the idea because the educational payoff does not always seem to warrant the (at least perceived) amount of work that might go into preparing materials and lessons for an activity centered around mapping a piece of literature). In doing so, it is a nice example of engaging students in the stuff of "21st Century Learning"--using, building, and sharing work online.

--It allows for students to recommend a title that they would like to see featured on Google Lit Trips.

While some works lend themselves better to utilizing maps than others, there are some neat exercises that can occur. I use maps when my students read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because the novel is centered around a trip down a river, and a visual representation of this movement provides a helpful sort of context that serves to concretize the narrative in the reader's mind. A book like Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer would be another example of a book ready for mapping; it, in fact, displays individual maps throughout the text, but a cohesive, complete map of Chris McCandless's entire journey could assist some students immensely in terms of gaining a clear understanding of plot movement.

LIBE 467: Post 5

As a literature teacher, I love databases. I love the fact that students can have their eyes opened to a whole new world of content and ideas that they never knew existed.

For my senior-level students, the simple act of locating and reading articles from respectable journals relevant to an author, work, or topic that we are studying fills them with the sense of doing "serious work." Students are intoxicated by the idea that they are doing "university-level' work, researching and reading articles from journals (not "magazines") that tend to feature at least a few "dictionary-worthy" words in each piece. In this way, databases provide a quick and easy doorway into the early realms of the world of academia; for students who are keen for this, databases become their best friends. For students to reach this state of "best friendship," there must be some front-loading on the part of the TL or teacher in terms of learning the skills to successfully search, navigate, and locate information--I find that perhaps the biggest impediment to students developing a positive affect with regards to databases is early frustration: if the first few attempts to use databases yield no or little fruit, then--like with many endeavors--the easy reaction is to quit. "Why bother?" ask students, "when I can just keep accessing (albeit suspect) information on the Internet?"

My school subscribes to the following databases:

-World Book Encyclopedia
-Britannica Online
-Thomson Gale suite, including: "Biography in Context," "Gale Virtual Reference," "CPI.Q Canadian Periodicals," and "Global Issues in Context"
-EBSCO

With all these great tools literally at students' fingertips, it bears repeating: TLs and teachers need to spend more time explicitly teaching digital literacy skills to students--help them first experience success, and then watch them continue to experience success.