The document discusses innovative approaches to information literacy (IL) instruction that were implemented in different educational and library settings. These include using the virtual world of Second Life to create KnowHow Island at Murdoch University, incorporating multiple intelligences into IL instruction at UCLA Library, and collaborating with various schools, libraries, and universities in California and Chile to teach IL. It concludes by mentioning the future of further innovating IL instruction through combinations of different approaches.
Hi! I’m Esther Grassian, Information Literacy Librarian in the UCLA College Library, UCLA’s undergraduate library. I’ve got about about 10 minutes to talk with you about innovative information literacy in SL.
I’d like to begin by saying that I’ve already seen some creative IL uses of a virtual, highly visual world like SL I’m going to show you snapshots of KnowHow Island, Murdoch University, as well as an interactive multiple intelligences site. Then I’ll talk about use of the UCLA Library for some undergrad courses & a presentation about that I’ll end with how I used SL for the Info Lit course I taught in the Spring to UCLA MLIS students
1 st , this is KnowHow Island, created by Austin Community College with a number of innovative, interactive and attractive IL features
At 1 st glance, this display looks pretty standard It describes ways in which you can choose & develop a topic But it goes on to tell you to select objects in the area to try out topic selection & development—e.g., clicking on a bag of trash gets you a notecard labeled “Pollution” that lists ideas for narrowing this topic
In this interactive Boolean pool you get to practice using the Boolean operators, and, or, not by moving objects around in the pool
Not my favorite acronym—CRAP—but it gets your attention & then you get the message—look for Currency, Reliability, Authority & Point of View in information sources you find
When you click on it, this fortune teller gives you a notecard with an IL puzzle to solve. If you can find the puzzle pieces in the shops ahead…
you get tokens that should match what appears on this sign that offers a kind of self-check mechanism…
Kathryn Greenhill at Murdoch University has developed this simple looking, yet quite beautiful area, called “Steps to Research.” Each ball is numbered & labeled, beginning with the white ball on the bottom step, #1 Analyze When you click on a ball, you get a notecard with detailed help and instructions re that step
Now while strictly speaking, this site is not focused on IL, it does remind us that people learn differently It ‘s an interactive site, created by Zotarah Shepard, a Masters in Education student at CSU Monterey Bay, based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences If you go to this site, you can try out activities related to musical intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, literary intelligence, and more http://slurl.com/secondlife/Koru/43/219/22/
Now, switching over to the UCLA Library in SL…
Here you see a lower-division undergraduate English class using SL, taught by Lisa Gerrard, a Lecturer in the English Composition Dept.
Leigh Harris, another Lecturer in the English Composition Dept. at UCLA, also teaches undergrad English classes in SL, in the UCLA Library There I am talking with her students about critical thinking in virtual worlds, as an extension of critical thinking about all sorts of information tools and resources
Leigh and Annelie Rugg, the Head of our Center for Digital Humanities did a presentation at the Sloan C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning, June 18, 2009—in RL in San Francisco & in SL on Entropia, DLF’s SL island: http://www.slideshare.net/annelierugg/sloanc-2009-leigh-harris-and-annelie-rugg You can find their slideshow on & Leigh’s bibliography on slideshare.net. . Just search for Rugg
Following their presentation, I mounted Leigh’s slide show on the 2 floor of the UCLA Library in SL, where Leigh teaches those English courses
At the other end of the room I put a copy of art pieces done by one of Leigh’s students, Asmara Carbado Her exhibition is called “Intersectionality: Black female experiences in the U.S.”
Finally, I put out a call for volunteer librarians to serve on a panel or do a poster for one of my class sessions for the UCLA IL grad course I taught this past Spring to MLIS students a number of librarians from around the country & even a librarian from Chile volunteered I required each of my students to get an SL avatar & I gave them 3 weeks to do that & get oriented to SL For the panel & poster session we were all in SL & in our RL classroom as panelists talked about IL at their academic, school, public & special libraries I didn’t get any snapshots of the panelists, unfortunately—Valibrarian was one of them! But here are a few snapshots from the poster session so you can see the range of types of libraries represented & the librarians’ creativity…
Here’s Elizabeth Jacobsen Marrapodi (Brielle Coronet) poster about IL in a special library -- Trinitas Regional Medical Hospital, New Jersey (Special Library)
James Sherman (Frank Quixote)’s poster is about IL in a public library -- Los Angeles Public LIbrary
Elvira Saurina (Mariae Habana)’s poster is about IL at a private university in Chile -- Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Teal Smith did a poster about Il at another University of California campus -- UC Merced
Ann Owens (Annot8 Greatrex)’s poster is about IL at another California public library -- Sacramento Public Library
Jeanne Swedo (Veronica Piers)’s poster is about IL at a private high school -- JSerra Catholic High School Library
And finally, this is actually 1 of the 1 st snapshots I took in SL. It was a tour of Info Island, that started in front of the first library in SL This is a group of librarians going on the tour, led by Abbey Zenith I was in awe then of the creativity and artistry I saw in SL, and that awe has only increased over time I’ll just end by saying that Innovation is Second Life’s middle name… and I’m so happy to say that librarians are right in there reaching out & innovating with the best of them!