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Truth be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age

This is an important study and Gary Price’s comments are worth reading too:

New: “Study Shows Universities May be Failing to Sufficiently Teach Basic Research Skills”

Access the Full Text of: “Truth be Told: How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age” (72 pages; PDF)
by Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg

This is a huge issue and libraries must move to the next level. We must start collaborating on national and international scales to build new scaffolds for teaching research skills.

The future depends on it!

Stephen

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Posted on: November 16, 2010, 7:18 am Category: Uncategorized

4 Responses

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  1. Jeff Trzeciak said

    Librarians need to make library instruction more engaging and more relevant to students. We also need to make it easily accessible. Right now the way we handle instruction is generally the “one off”. Faculty member brings in the prof for the one-time “fix”. Several problems there….not the least of which is that students get the same boring instruction program multiple times through different faculty. It’s time for us to develop more online material that is engaging and available at point of need – while at school, in their homes, in their offices, etc. Modular library instruction sessions could be integrated into course management systems where they would be available to all students. Students would learn at their own pace.

    I know a lot of us are doing this already but it’s time for us to work together to develop something we can all benefit from. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Blackboard or Desire2Learn didn’t develop a commercial “library skills” tutorial series that would be marketed to our institutions as an added option to their product. Maybe Gale should do it….

  2. The real challenge is that few of us academics understand the enormity of the gap in student understanding and skills. This is not like teaching someone how to use a piece of software. It’s like teaching a second language until the student is fluent. Having taught information literacy/research skills at undergraduate and graduate level for 25 years, I think I’m beginning to grasp the challenge.

    Professors need to talk to the academic librarians, who understand the problem intimately. And we must all become intentional about teaching the process of academics (identifying research problems, determining the information needed to resolve them, finding that information efficiently and effectively, evaluating it wisely, and applying it to the problem skilfully and ethically) in every course. We are great with content, but we have to become equally great with process

  3. I agree with Mr. Badke, but I would add that part of the problem (in my limited experience) is properly connecting with the faculty and getting beyond the idea that they are the expert in teaching. What I mean is that librarians seem to be frequently brought into class development at the last possible moment – basically after everything in the syllabus is set and the faculty member remembers that they need to have a librarian come in to help students get started with their research. In my opinion, it would be much better to be involved earlier in the process when research projects are being designed and the syllabus developed. That way, we can offer input on how to develop and effective project that utilizes the proper resources.

    Why doesn’t this happen? Again, in my opinion, I think that it’s because it cuts too close to the sphere of teaching that faculty are supposed to be experts at. To many faculty, librarians are not teachers so why on earth should they be involved in the design of my class? (yes, I know that not all librarians know how to teach, but I’m talking more about a general concept) The more I work with educational technologists/instructional designers, the more I realize that we’re all trying to do similar jobs when it comes to assisting the faculty in developing a quality class. I just wished it happened more.

  4. Batarang said

    I think, like so many other things, that a better foundation for research skills needs to be laid in primary and secondary schools before the students get to the college level.