Indiana State University Library
Office of Library Instruction

Information Services Support for Learning Communities
Handbook, 2000 edition, continued


 
5. Additional Campus Support (non-IT) 6. The Role of the IS Team Member Assigned to an LC 7. The Role of Information Technology in Learning Communities 8. The Information Services Liaison and the Eight Competencies
Carol Kuhlthau's model of the Information Search Process

 
 
5. Additional Support (non-IT)

Faculty Technology Resources

Instructional Development and Faculty Technology Resources
Faculty Computing Resource Center, Student Computing Complex SCC110
8:00am-6:00pm, http://fcrc.indstate.edu

The' Faculty Computing Resource Center (FCRC) is available to assist faculty who wish to learn about using multimedia, the Internet, and courseware authoring technologies. While FCRC resources are available to all faculty, it focuses primarily on helping faculty enhance ISU's instructional program. Help and instruction for a variety of multimedia software is available primarily for Macintosh and PC platforms.

A limited amount of software is available for checkout to faculty members who wish to practice techniques they learn, or who might simply like to experiment on their own. In addition, workshops are scheduled during the semester to cover topics related to multimedia authoring, classroom presentation, and innovative uses of the web for instruction.

 For more information on faculty computing services, please visit the IT Faculty Guide at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/facultyguide.html.

For more information on student computing services, please visit the IT Student Computing Handbook available at http://web.indstate.edu/acns/user-serv/handbook/content.html.

TOP
6. The Role of the IS Team Member Assigned to an LC

The IS Team Member can assist faculty with incorporating library work (especially in fielding creative ideas for assignments), computing skills, etc. into a syllabus; assist in the creation of library assignments; find useful Internet sites for a particular class, project, or subject area; connect faculty to other services/resources.

The IS Team Member can help students in large or small groups, or individually, in narrowing topics for research projects, instruction in the online catalog, evaluating web pages.

The Office of Library Instruction (LI) prepares library users for academic research by providing them with the skills needed to effectively use either paper-based or electronic library resources. Library Instruction can provide you with library assessment samples. You can either use them or develop your own. Do not simply ask students:

==Do you know how to use the Library?
==Do you know how to use the Internet? For the 2000-2001, Information Technology Services staff will not be assigned as LC Liaison; instead, you or your Liaison (librarian) will contact IT staff as necessary, depending upon your needs.
TOP
7. The Role of Information Technology in Learning Communities

Information Technology (IT) is a service unit organized to provide computing resources to Indiana State University students, faculty, and staff. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Information Services, Information Technology supports several mainframe and minicomputers, a host of data communications hardware, 14 microcomputer laboratories for use by students, faculty, and staff, a campus wide local area network, and connections to the Internet.

Information Technology is available to support learning communities in a variety of activities. Hands-on workshops can be conducted on computing at ISU, computing basics, or software applications.

Computing at ISU could be used to explore information technology at ISU, including the availability of student network accounts, email, Internet access, network access, lab usage, and availability of help and training services.

Basic computing workshops could cover operating systems Windows 98 or Macintosh. Students could learn to access class discussion groups, Blackboard accounts, or email.

Lessons on specific software applications can support course content. Excel could be taught in conjunction with building a simple budget. A lesson in Word could cover formatting a report. A PowerPoint or web publishing lesson might support the students' presentation of research results.

Training documentation on the web or in print can be provided as reference tools.

TOP
8. The ISL and the Eight Competencies

Information Services support can be utilized within any/all of the basic competencies. While more obvious within some competencies than others, the examples below illustrate how course assignments can be developed to build upon the basic instructional experience. Some of the examples would work better in the subject class, some in the Univ 101 (or equivalent), or the LS Team may coordinate/breakdown the assignment between both courses. Students can/should utilize electronic resources, not just when they need to find materials for a research paper; they can begin to see how knowing where to go and what to do when they get there can help them in all aspects of their academic and personal life. Throughout their freshman year (and perhaps throughout all of their collegiate career), students can build a portfolio of articles, citations, websites, etc. to represent their personal interests, academic major/minor, specific projects, etc.

Competency 1: Communicating Effectively and Interpreting with Insight

Have students participate in a chat room or listserv on a particular topic. Perhaps they could talk about some of the competencies. Teach netiquette rules. Competency 2: Orienting toward Academic Success Students have an open discussion (in class or on class listserv) sharing thoughts about their high school libraries and how they were expected/taught to use them (if they were), computers/Internet access, a paper they wrote when they were seniors and how they researched it. Students look at all of their syllabi for library or computer-related assignments and project what they will need to learn in order to complete the assignments. Students use the Library Research Planners to outline each assignment they find. Competency 3: Enhancing Critical Thinking (a) Give students URLs to two web sites which treat the same topic differently (bias or agenda) and ask them to compare and contrast what they find. They should incorporate evaluation criteria into their comments.

(b) Have students read a popular magazine article and a research journal article on the same topic and compare and contrast what they find. They should incorporate characteristics of magazines and journals into their comments.

 Competency 4: Setting and Tracking Goals for Living and Learning Students are paired an upperclassmate in their major who shows them the types of research papers and other projects they will be expected to produce. The upperclassmate talks about how she/he gained the necessary skills (or didn't). Competency 5: Developing the Personal Life
  1. Student chooses hobby, non-academic interest to share with classmates. Student gives class a list of 1-2 books and 1-2 articles (good for listserv practice).
  2. Student expresses opinion on class topic or personal topic; cites 1 newspaper article, 1 magazine article, one website.
Competency 6: Developing the Social Self
  1. Use DION to find an event to attend on campus or in TH. Attend and give an oral report on the event.
  2. Find a magazine in the Current Periodicals Browsing collection that they are unfamiliar with. Review it for the class.
  3. Compare newspaper articles on a topic (chosen or assigned within the last two weeks from a) Terre Haute Tribune Star or Indianapolis Star; b) New York Times or Washington Post, and one of the international newspapers (some are in English, some not).
  4. Students develop a list of print and online resources they will use to stay informed of current events.
Competency 7: Maintaining Well-Being Student chooses from among the Univ 101 Wellness topics (nutrition, sexual responsibility, interpersonal behaviors, stress management, ethical behavior) and looks for recent articles and/or websites to share with class. Perhaps used to develop the course website resources or the LC website. Competency 8: Surviving Financially
TOP
Carol Kuhlthau's model of the Information Search Process is helpful to visualize the PROCESS (see bibliography):
 
Model of the Information Search Process
Stages* Task initiation Topic selection Prefocus exploration Focus formulation Information collection Search closure Starting writing
Feelings Uncertainty Optimism Confusion, frustration and doubt Clarity Sense of direction/confidence Relief Satisfaction or dissatisfaction
Thoughts   Ambiguity --------------------------------------------------à specificity    
        Increased interest --------------------à  
Actions    Seeking relevant information -----------------------à Seeking pertinent information
*Task Initiation: the point at which a research assignment is made and students realize they have an information need (librarians traditionally not involved at this level).

Topic Selection: students identify and choose a research topic (librarians traditionally not involved at this level).

Prefocus Exploration: students examine information on their topics in preparation for developing a focus. (often the most difficult stage for students)

Focus Formulation: students consider the information discovered, and identify ideas or areas on which to focus.

Information Collection: students gather and assimilate information related to the focused topic

Search Closure: students conclude the information search and get ready to write or present their research findings.

TOP
Back to Table of Contents
Next Section
Library Instruction
Library Home Page