Parkes / Walton Web 2.0 and Libraries

Impacts, Technologies and Trends
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-78063-185-1
Verlag: Elsevier Science & Techn.
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 208 Seiten

Reihe: Chandos Information Professional Series

In a world where computing power, ubiquity and connectivity create powerful new ways to facilitate learning, this book examines how librarians and information professionals can utilize emerging technologies to expand service and resource delivery. With contributions from leading professionals, including lecturers, librarians and e-learning technologists, this bookl explores strategic approaches for effectively implementing, living with, and managing revolutionary technological change in libraries. - Explores the impact of the social and technological aspects of Web 2.0 on libraries and library services - Draws on empirical research - Experienced practitioners

Autoren/Hrsg.

Parkes, Dave

Walton, Geoff

Leseproben

1 The changing teaching and learning environment
Mark Hepworth In higher education (HE) and further education (FE) a plethora of debate, discussion and advice about how to teach, the ‘new’ learner and the new technologies available for teaching bombards educators and researchers and filters out into the public domain. This is delivered via the usual channels: conferences, articles and books, websites, discussion lists, blogs, videos and other evolving media. The speed of change and the quantity of both good and poor information is daunting. This introduction attempts to tease out some of the factors driving these changes and to set the scene for the chapters that follow. The latter explore in more depth the experience of people implementing and managing the new learning environments. In particular this chapter seeks to answer two questions:  Do the changes that have taken place reflect a reprioritisation of norms and values or are they something fundamentally new?  Are the new technologies driving change or enabling us to do what we already know should be done? This discussion is structured under four headings: the cultural and social context, the learner, the teacher and teaching interventions, and tools and technologies. The cultural and social context is explored in more depth by Dave Parkes in Chapter 2; the learner by Geoff Walton in Chapter 3; teaching interventions again in Chapter 3; the teacher by Jenny Yorke and Helen Walmsley in Chapter 4; and finally tools and technologies are explored by Brian Kelly in Chapter 5 and David Ley in Chapter 6. The cultural and social context
Over the last 20 years we have seen greater value being placed on human capital – skills and knowledge and the commodification of information (World Bank, 2007) – and the services that facilitate access to information in both domestic and organisational domains (Hepworth, 2007), whether they identify the ‘best buy’ or are sophisticated corporate or scientific data-mining solutions. This has been accompanied by a desire by governments and employers for all people, rather than a select minority, to have what has been termed key transferable skills, and phrases such as information literacy, digital literacy and media literacy have become commonplace (Hepworth and Walton, 2009). Such key skills include the ability:  to develop information and knowledge management strategies  to understand information needs  to develop critical and creative thinking including the ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesise information and data  to organise and manage information  to be effective at seeking, communicating and sharing data, information and knowledge whether face-to-face or via text, numbers and images electronically or using other media, including networking and collaborating  to be aware of the etiquette and ethical issues that surround these processes  to be able to motivate oneself, manage time and continuously learn independently. These skills are recognised as important for individuals, furthering personal empowerment and enhancing a person’s quality of life, and for members of organisations or society at large. There is no longer a small number of highly disciplined learners who are used to and willing to accept relatively dull forms of learning delivery, or people who seek out information and intellectual stimulus independently, or even produce information and knowledge as part of their being well-rounded, fulfilled, individuals. There are no longer people who were destined for a small number of professional roles and the higher echelons of society, who consumed and produced relatively scarce information products and services. Independent learning norms and the value previously placed on them for the few is, as implied above, not new. However, these norms have become an expectation for a larger proportion of people in our society and this to some extent may explain the decision by governments in the developed world to encourage all young people to aim for a place in FE or HE. This in turn has led to changes in the educational environment where the number of students has exploded and students come from a greater range of socioeconomic backgrounds than in the past. This has also been associated with an exponential growth in the number of technologies that enable the production, organisation and dissemination of information – formal and informal – commonly linked with concepts such as ‘information overload’, ‘self-publishing’ and ‘social media’. The learner
Numerous terms have been used to describe the ‘new’ learners – ‘the Google generation’, ‘digital natives’, ‘the Y generation’, ‘millennials’ – as if they were a completely new phenomenon. The ‘new’ learners have been characterised (Howe and Strauss, 2000; Prensky, 2001; Windham, 2005) as being pragmatic (only doing what is necessary to achieve reward or concrete outcomes); unable to concentrate for long periods of time; wanting an active learning environment where they can access learning when they want, in a form they want (brief, colourful, with little text, to the point, using multimedia); multitasking; and expecting learning to be entertaining. Learners seem to be highly gregarious, enjoying social interaction and being part of a social cohort. The latter may not have changed. However, the consumer society with its attendant expertise at branding and marketing may mean that this feeling of alliance with a group – a reflection of the need for market segmentation, and the associated transient commodities and technologies, such as the MySpace or the Nintendo generation – has been enhanced. In contrast learners are expected to be highly motivated and independent, and to have the key skills identified above. Educators are often frustrated by this contradiction between society’s expectations and the apparent characteristics of the ‘new’ learner, but I would argue that the characteristics of learners have not changed. Most people, whatever their age or background, get bored and lose attention after 20 minutes of listening to a speaker who uses the old-fashioned lecturing style that many of us older folk were used to in our school and university days. It has long been recognised that people use the method that requires least effort from them when they seek information. However, we knew no different and had no choice. Nowadays people can choose how they learn and are presented with information and learning in a variety of forms and media – video, animation, music, printed text, web text, chat and so on, via phones, the internet, television, theatre or magazines. The professions associated with information dissemination, including school teachers, have also honed their art, drawing on the long history of communication and using the expanding range of media, hence raising expectations. This has meant that learners are perceived and perceive themselves as consumers of education, particularly in HE where they now have to pay tuition fees. They have high expectations about information provision and the learning environment. This includes expecting the learning experience to meet their needs, wants and desires, and being less used to adapting passively to a traditional conception of learning. This trend is likely to continue as educators in primary and secondary schools gradually introduce more active forms of learning, use materials presented in a more imaginative way, draw on the available information and communication technologies (ICTs), and in general teach in a way that relates to the needs of learners, including, for example, their individual learning styles. In addition there is likely to be a shift away from assessment-driven learning in schools to a more flexible approach where independent learning is encouraged (QCA, 2007). The teacher and teaching interventions
The teacher in FE and HE has experienced:  a dramatic increase in the number of demanding students who come from diverse backgrounds and have high expectations of learning  an increase in the number of students who need to be assessed  a reduction in the number of staff compared with student figures  an increase in external and internal assessments of teaching quality. In addition, as younger students move into FE or HE they bring with them different norms, values and skills, in particular ICT skills and a familiarity with new media. Furthermore the regrading of polytechnics as universities has meant that people with a greater focus on teaching have joined the HE sector. These factors have encouraged a reevaluation of current practice and a more professional approach to teaching and learning. This has been reflected in the creation of more personalised, active learning environments that relate more to the needs of learners. This has been accompanied by a...