The readings about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 were interesting. The video definitely points out the need for a faculty that is more techno-savy and less attached to the textbooks and scantrons we have used in the past. Our students are definitely multi-taskers, but I wonder how much they are losing from each task they attempt at the same time. I've often remarked that if I could just blow myself up each class period in a battle with an idea or alien that I would certainly have the students' attention. Barring that, schools and libraries are facing a world that our students understand and function in easily while we are still working toward a basic understanding of the potential. With blogs, WIKIS, podcasts, Kindles, and almost unlimited Internet resources, we are forced to examine the methods we use to deliver information while still teaching students to be intelligent, critical inhabitants of this age.
One experience I had in summer school this week pointed out to me just how far we have to go in educating our students for this society. I showed my students some fraudulent web pages, one about a Velcro crop in California being threatened by drought and another about a small rodent type animal being boiled, chopped up and used in the making of cheese. Not one student questioned either page and when I prompted them that there was something wrong, they told me the type was too small. I think we have a long way to go with teaching students to think critically.
I particularly enjoyed the reading about taking the steps beyond Library 2.0 and moving into a 3D world in Library 3.0 or 4.0 and beyond in To A Temporary Place in Time. It makes you think about what's next in our journey.
Thanks for your comment on my blog Music be the Food. At our school we really try to connect and collaborate, but truth is a lot of it is "hallway integration" done on the fly. Maybe things like wikis will help us to be more thoughtfully connected.
ReplyDeleteBTW the way, just read an interesting article about web reading and book reading. One of the best thoughts was that books are centripetal, pulling us in, and the web is centrifugal, pulling us out. The web is invertebrate, amoeba-like, books are vertebrate, they even have a spine to hold!
Look forward to reading more of your thoughts!
I love the analogy of the books pulling us in and the web pushing us out like vertebrates and invertebrates. How true!
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that what makes the library and librarian relevant in this "everything is on the web" world is that we can guide students to authoritative sources, or at least help them evaluate search results. I think your point is well made, that even in embracing 2.0 tools to reach students, we still need to somehow teach them to evaluate the information they can so easily find. Thank you for your story.
ReplyDelete