Information and Critical Literacy: Aberdeenshire - a joint development event for Network Librarians and Literacy Co-ordinators

I was up in Aberdeen speaking at the Aberdeenshire Library and Information Services (ALIS) Joint development event for Network Librarians and Literacy Co-ordinators last week. It was a great day with librarians and teachers (primary and secondary), literacy co-ordinators working in partnership together seated at mixed tables (5 or 6 people at each table) to look at, discuss and work on Information and Critical Literacy material and activities, Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. 

The first session was by Kathryn Russell, Literacy Development Officer 'Literacy across learning: working in partnership'. Kathryn tasked the groups / tables with the following:

Literacy across Learning: working in partnership

1. Please give an example of successful partnership working between teacher(s) and librarian(s). What factors were key to success?


2. Barrier / constraint to effective partnership: Suggested solution


3. Looking to the future  ... how would you like to see the working relationships between teachers and librarians evelove?

There was much lively discussion with 'what worked' going in a box in the shape of a book and 'what didn't work' going in a small wasterpaper bin.  Sue Cromar, Information Literacy Librarian, ALIS who organised the event and is writing a guide to partnership working collected all the information. The guide should be available in August / September this year.

Next up was Alison Bruce, Information Services Librarian, ALIS  - online resources for pupils and teachers. Alison demonstrated Credo Reference using a Science Experience and Outcome relating to the lungs. The retrieved resources demonstrated had pictures and texts plus source citation. The resources could also be shown as a Concept Map (Mind Map, Spider Diagram) with items linked to the references. The map could be simplified or expanded and the main topic could be changed. It was very impressive.

After tea / coffee break I did a presentation and workshop on Integrating Information and Critical Literacy across the curriculum . The workshop centered on each group / table unpacking a Curriculum for Excellence Experience and Outcome.

Librarians, teachers and Literacy Officer unpacking a CfE Experience and Outcome

  Participants in mixed groups:

• choose a Curriculum for Excellence Learning Experience and Outcome – Science or Health and Well Being


• unpack it using CfE template  created by Edinburgh Science QIO and used by Holy Rood High School, Edinburgh (link to  case study and template)  - unpacking is effectively a mapping exercise which allows the opportunities within the learning outcome to be explored.


• link to Literacy across learning experiences and outcomes  specifically ‘information and critical literacy’ activities


• identify relevant ‘information and critical literacy’ resources.

The workshop went well and it was interesting to hear the discussions and see librarians and teachers working in partnership to unpack their chosen experience and outcome. One school librarian was keen to replicate the exercise in her school as part of an in-service day.

After lunch there was a carousel exercise were groups (different groups from the morning) started at one table to hear about information literacy activities created and or used by Aberdeenshire schools:

Joint Geography Library Webquest

Table 1: Evaluating online resources - using Learning and Teaching Scotland's online Information Literacy material

Table 2: Note-making and mind-mapping - RISK (Research and Investigation Skills) developed at Meldrum Academy by the Netwwork Librarian and teaching staff. A CD of the programme and material was included in the event pack of information given to everyone.

 Table 3: Webquests - joint working between Geography Principle Teacher and school librarian  

Table 4: Online resources - more in depth look at Credo Reference

Read it! Write it! Reference it!

Table 5: Plagiarism, referencing and bibliographies - A guide to referencing for S4-S6 pupils Read it!  Write it!  Reference it! written  by a school librarian who previously worked in Colleges. Copies of the guide was included in the event pack of information given to everyone.

Also included in the event pack of information given to everyone was a copy of :

• Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service Draft Information Literacy Strategy


• Libraries Supporting Learning from 0 - 18  Information Guide for Parents and Teachers

The day was a great success and Sue Cromar recorded aspects of it for the Libraries R 4 Learning Project: Information Literacy Multimedia clips .

 

Libraries R 4 Learning Project: Information Literacy Multimedia clips

Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service started filming last week on their Libraries R 4 Learning Project: Multimedia clips. As one of those approached, I travelled north last week (2nd and 3rd February 2010) to do some filming. It was an interesting process writing the scripts for the introduction sections on Information Literacy, Information Literacy in schools and Information Literacy in the workplace and then filming them. A new experience for both myself and the film crew (Sue Cromar and one of the network librarians whose name I have forgotten - my apologises to her). I now have a great respect for news readers, it is not as easy as it looks.

During my two day visit I also had a meeting with some of the Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service staff - Primary School Librarian and Early Years / Young People in Schools Librarian plus one of Aberdeenshires Literacy Development Officers (Katherine who is an English teacher on secondment). We had an interesting session where I shared information on the information literacy work I'm involved with specifically the LTS Real and Relevant – Information and Critical Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner’ (Early and First Level) CPD Toolkit.

Katherine was amazed to hear that Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service is not just about books, they also have objects / educational tools - religious artefacts, puppets, costumes etc that teachers can use for lessons. As a teachers she is probably not alone in thinking that libraries are just about books. She was also not aware that tours of the service have been organised for probationer teachers and that several teachers have requested visits once they heard of the resources available from the probationer teachers. I made a note to myself to remember to include Library and Information Services as a resource for teachers in the Real and Relevant  CPD Toolkit.

I also had an interesting conversation with the network librarian at Meldrum Accademy about transition initiatives (primary 7 - S1) and also about my experience todate of information literacy in the early years specifically regarding my thoughts that information literacy involves all our senses (sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing) plus our memories not just reading of text from books and or the Internet. I think we forget about the power of visual images and how this helps us learn languages, remember / recall past experiences, knowledge etc.

Open letter to PM re UK school libraries

An open letter to the Prime Minister re UK School Libraries has been sent by various organisations, including the CSG Information Literacy Group,  in response to the statement made by the Government about the online petition to make school libraries statutory.

CILIP supports the call for statutory school libraries

CILIP supports the call for statutory school libraries


A small group of people from the Youth and School Libraries Joint Committee are putting together a Libraries for schools manifesto. The text below is the latest draft February 2010:

Every child, at every stage, is entitled to:

• designated library staff able to encourage 'wider reading and reading for pleasure'


• a 'skilled library practitioner' to teach pupils to handle 'information overload', lifelong learning and employers' demand for 'problem-solvers and independent thinkers'


• a safe library environment inside and outside school hours, with help, resources and advice 


• high-quality, wide-ranging, easily accessible resources to support the curriculum, carefully selected to suit their age, learning style and ability


• be valued as an individual, with reading materials 'exploited by a knowledgeable person' to support the whole person.

Every teaching team is entitled to a designated library professional who:

• understands the curriculum and their pastoral needs


• collaborates on curriculum planning and teaching 


• works with other organisations within and beyond the school

Surveying software used to produce learning objects for Information Literacy

There was a posting on LIS-LINK@JISCMAIL.AC.UK by Karen Rolfe, Assistant Librarian User Services @ National Oceanographic Library summarising the information she received to a question she had posed about the technology\software\applications that people are using to support information literacy.  Which I thought might be of interest to some of you.

_______________

 Total number of responses received 10

 Questions and replies (number of responses in brackets)

1. Do you produce your own online learning objects to support Information Literacy skills?  - Yes (10)


2. Do you produce them just for computers or for computers and mobile phones? -  Just PCs (6), Just PCS but considering mobile phones (4), 


3. What applications or software do you use to produce your learning objects?  Articulate (1) + (1 - another respondent would like to use this instead of the application they are using) Audacity (1) Basic HTML (2) Camtasia (2) - screen and audio capture Captivate (4) CourseGenie (2) Echo 360 (1) - record lectures eXe (1) Flash (4) - animated learning objects Glomaker (1) Hotpotatos (4) - quizzes INFORMS (4) - real time tutorials Java script (2) Moodle (2) -VLE Sproutbuilder (1) TOIA (1) - quizzes Turning Point (1) Udutu (1) Viewlet builder (2) - screen and audio capture Wimba Create (1) - mini website tutorials Wix (1) Xml (1)


4. Why did you choose the software you are using?  - Cost / It's Free/ Open access  (4) Staff expertise - e.g. in house developer (2) Easy to use (2) Recommended/ being used by others (3) Suitability for the task (3) Pedagogic ethos (1) Compatible with University network (2) Accessibility (1) Customisable/Flexibility (2)


5. Are there some examples of your learning objects that we could look at available on your website? 

*      Articulate tutorials with Captivate and Informs outputs embedded  http://libraryonline.leedsmet.ac.uk/pages/subject_guides/law/types_of_information/law_reports_and_other_case_info

*      Information Literacy Resource Bank - http://ilrb.cf.ac.uk<http://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/> which contains a variety of IL learning objects 

*      http://www.staffs.ac.uk/ask/

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/refzone

*      Some of our tutorials (many of these are a bit out of date now, so we need to update them) http://www.library.bham.ac.uk/searching/infoskills/Brum.shtml

*      This page should allow you to look at most of our Camtasia films http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/infoskills/libflicks/index.html

*      http://iskillzone.uwe.ac.uk/

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/iskillzone/evalBook/book.html

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/iskillzone/evaluate/wiki/Wikipedia.swf

http://iskillzone.uwe.ac.uk/FileStore/Constellations/Constellation69/broadcast.swf

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/media/findbook/start.html

        6. Is there any information or advice that you would share with us about creating learning    objects for information literacy using your chosen software?

*      Keep text short and simple where possible, enable interactivity wherever possible, get colleagues to test afterwards.

*      Be aware of the need to maintain LOs which are up-to-date and relevant, plus the need to train or have staff  with skill set required to use software.

*      Currently we have concentrated on specific IL skills for certain subject areas where student numbers made IL teaching nearly impossible, however we are starting a project just now on developing an assessed stand alone IL tutorial based on our Little Book of Information Skills. This will again utilize Articulate instead of web pages as we prefer the interactive nature and free navigation this software offers us. The software does not require any formal IT skills, and we currently just have two people working very few hours on our output. As with most things you can spend as long or not creating your tutorials, but most people know how to use PowerPoint so can easily transfer work into a more interactive openly navigable output.

*      We feel that the key to a successful learning object is to keep it fairly bite-size, try to keep the content as generic as possible and keep branding to a minimum.  This helps to ensure its suitability to a wide range of teaching and learning scenarios.

*      Some quick and dirty advice would be to avoid creating a scroll of death, interminable pages of text students and staff simply won't read. Contextualise any skills development.   Incorporate self assessment and possible peer review evaluation - wiki or live chat 

*      CourseGenie was very basic, which was good, because it was quick to learn how to use it, but unfortunately means it is not very sophisticated.  For example, if you wanted to put photos on, it was almost impossible to line them up to where you would like them.  There has been very little use of this learning object by the students - I think we might have had more usage if the program had been more interactive.

*      Ask your students/ users what they need first (not what they want) before doing anything and assume nothing. Make sure that any text you use is in plain English. Use a balance of textual/ visual/ animation/movie media (ASK is still too text heavy). What ever time you put aside for development multiply by 3! Keep it simple.

*      Regarding eXe: I would undertake basic training and talk to IT about it's limitations (we wasted a lot of time trying to solve technical issues ourselves). We've had problems when trying to play videos on our SunRay PCs (the servers which support these PCs haven't got the right media player application), which only became apparent when we were well into the project.

*      What we have learnt so far though, is that we don't have enough time to spend on this at the moment and that we need some training on the software and on the pedagogical implications of what the software can do.