Gaining Digital Confidence: Reflective Blog Post

As I look back at the semester, I realize how far I've come as a digital citizen. I think the most important thing I've learned this semester is this: "I CAN." I can be in control of my education; I can direct my own learning; I can be current and knowledgeable about what is going on in the world; I can keep up with the digital age, and I can contribute to the world around me now in meaningful ways. This is what I call "digital confidence". I have developed digital confidence throughout this semester, and I feel empowered. Digital Civilization was much more than a class for me; it was a paradigm shift.

I must admit, the style  of the class still gets me. I thrive on positive feedback on how I am doing in the class, facilitated by test scores and grades throughout the semester. I'm really not ready to have all my classes run the way this one was. Still, there are some incredible things that I have gained through this class that could not have been gained any other way. (This image is Creative Commons Licensed by Adalberto.H.Vega.)

It was amazing to me that in the first half of the semester, each of the groups came through with really creative, awesome presentations to teach the class. I was quite impressed. It was then that I first noticed a change in myself. We were not given a grading rubric, nor were we even given a visible "grade" after our presentation. Still, I was motivated to create a quality product, despite the lack of a tangible grade attached. I fully participated, and sometimes acted as a leader in my groups. I felt driven because I felt responsible to teach the class.

The second half of the semester was even more incredible to me. It seemed like everyone wanted to do their part, and help where they could, for the sake of the project. It did take some grades to motivate us. The first release was a bit of a shocker to everyone... After that, however, I was excited about our project simply because we were doing something that would meaningfully contribute to our school, and hopefully our society. I felt a great connection and investment in our eBook, such that I felt sad and disappointed when we realized we would not get it finished in time to publish it by the end of the semester. This experience was not a bad one, though. It taught me other lessons in itself: accountability and team work. I realized that I could have done more to make it happen--there is always more that could be done. Still, it also depends the group, and everyone willing to do their part. I am glad that our eBook will live on, since some of the students will be finishing it. I am planning on working with my group to get together the Library Research 2.0 video and lesson plan after the semester ends.

Through the course of this semester, I have become both digitally savvy, and digitally responsible: from learning about TED Talks and Social Bookmarking websites, to using Creative Commons-licensed works.

Following is a list of the learning outcomes for the class, along with links to demonstrate my learning and development in these areas.

 History

 I was assigned the 20th Century, and my book was Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. My book mostly covered the present era, but I used self-directed learning to discover more about the other centuries.

• Elephants and Globalization 
• Economic Globalization, Free Markets and the Growing Divide   
• Hero from the 19th Century: A Woman Called Moses  
• History of the Trans-Atlantic Cable

Core Concepts

• Control
• Can You Hack a Refrigerator? 
• I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT SOPA  
• Birth Control and Small Businesses
• Information
• Predicting Technology's Effect on Society  
• Presentation is Everything--Especially in the Digital World 
• The Truth About Alternative Energy 
• Openness
• The Definition of Open Science: What Went Wrong With Cold Fusion?
• Participation
• President Obama's Weekly Address 

Digital Literacy

• Consume
• Getting Started with Inquiry
• A Counterargument For Inquiry: Making our Project Stronger (A narrative of of my personal experience with "consuming")
• Connect
• A Proposed Tweethis (Using social proof to refine our Tweethis)
• Spreading the Word--Inviting People to Our Event 
•  Create
•  Inquiry: Consume (My portion of the eBook chapter)

Self-Directed Learning

• Federal Research Public Access Act (I stumbled on this article that I thought would be useful for the Openness group. Even though the internet was invented in the U.S., the WWW was invented by CERNS to share academic articles.)
•  Coding a Better Government

Collaboration

• My groups have used Google Hangout, Prezi, and Google Docs to collaborate, as well as email, texting, and Google+
• Information Group Presentation

Spreading the Word--Inviting People to Our Event

I was surprised that I didn't have to look far to find people to invite. I went back to my blog post I wrote for the bibliography/social graph for the Inquiry chapter in the eBook. Since most of my research and social graphing has revolved around libraries, most of these people have something to do with libraries and how the digital world is integrating with them. Here is a list of the people I invited, and why:

1. Jason Griffey:  He was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal in 2009. He gave a presentation at the VALA (Victorian Association for Library Automation) 2012 conference entitled "Libraries and the Post-PC Era", which just took place this February. I watched an encore of this presentation that was embedded into his blog, given at Perth, Australia. He is very interested in the integration of technology into the library world.
2. Brian Kelly: I read his blog post entitled, "Is Web Interoperable Being Led By Global Social Media Services?", and I thought he might be interested in our event. He talks about social media being used in conferences and, I mentioned that we are using Twitter for our question and answer session. I also noticed that he wrote a paper called Implementing a Holistic Approach to E-Learning Accessibility. Our whole course has been dedicated to studying the issues that have come up in our world society due to digital technology, and this paper covers the limitations E-learning has for those with disabilities.
3. Brad Matthies: he is the Head of Access Services at Butler University, and he did a presentation entitled: "The Academic Library's Role in Fostering Digital Citizenship", which is right up our ally. He also had a list of authored articles and presentations that have to do with integrating the digital into the library.
4. Simon Barron: he is the E-resources Coordinator at Durham University. On his Linkedin Profile, it listed his "Specialties" as follows: "Digital asset management, use of technology in libraries, digital libraries, Web 2.0, the Semantic Web, library advocacy."
5. Johann Van Wyk: he is an academic librarian at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. On his professional home page, he listed his "Interests" as being Library 2.0/Web 2.0, E-Research, and Social Media Tools, among others.
6. Tim O'Reilly:  he is the inventor of the term Web 2.0. He is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., which host several technology conferences on various topics. He is a supporter of open source and free software movements, and is the author of a number of books and articles about Web 2.0
7. Julie Still: She posted on Google+ about a conference called Library 2.0 (TEDx for Librarians), and she gave a presentation at this conference called, Librarians Use of Social Media Profile Photos. She is a reference librarian at Rutgers University.
8. Jessamyn West: She is the founder of librarian.net, a website in favor of getting a better image for the librarian profession. She was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal in 2002. Her presentation entitled Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Librarian 2.0, and why it's no big deal, seriously has some great examples of how libraries have implemented Web 2.0 technologies into their services.
9. Steve Hargadon: He is very involved in Classroom 2.0 and Library 2.0. He is the author of "Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education". His blog is entitled : "Educational Technology: Web 2.0, Educational Social Networking, Free and Open Source Software, and the Future of Education." (I was thinking, "Jackpot" as I read this.) He also has a website called "Web 2.0 Labs", which shows all the projects he has consulted.
10. Karen Coombs: She is the product manager for the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Developer Network. She was named a "mover and shaker" of the library world, and was instrumental in developing "Five Weeks to a Social Library", which is a free online course about implementing social software in libraries.
11. Tyler Mix: My husband, who is a Chemistry major at BYU, working on his Masters' degree. I invited him because I thought he would have some useful feedback, especially about the science presentation.

In addition to this, I went and made an announcement about the event to Dr. Adams' Communications 101 Mass Communication and Society class. I told them that we were presenting a TEDx-style event about how we can become better digital citizens in the digital world. There are about 100 students in that class.

I was joyfully surprised that I received responses from four people plus my husband. The four said that they were unable to attend live, but that they would be sure to watch the recording. I found out that Steve Hargadon has two daughters who go to BYU, and he was very interested in learning more about our class, so I sent him the link for the description of it. My husband came, in person, to our event.

It was a learning experience to write to these people, and it was an example in social proofing itself. I received emails from two of the people before I finished inviting the rest, and they were confused about what I was asking them to do. They didn't know what I wanted feedback on exactly, the format of the presentation, or the content. I was able to tweak my email invitation to be more clear, thanks to the feedback I received from them.

Overall, it was a great experience to invite these people, and I was surprised again by how easy it is to get in contact with people interested in the same topics.

Inquiry: Consume

Most university libraries currently have excellent databases which aid students in consuming scholarly information. However, it is not enough to use these databases as an inclusive form of research, nor is it the most efficient way to do research. Students will gain a more current and accurate understanding of research topics, will gain enthusiasm for the material, and will save research time by using Rich Site Summary (RSS) Feeds, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites and blogs to find material. While these tools cannot usually be used as scholarly sources themselves, these methods actually lead students to find pertinent, quality scholarly articles in the shortest time possible. When used correctly, these methods point out sources that have already been deemed as being valuable by other researchers, and even experts, thus giving the student a spring-board to quickly decide what is current and what is important in their research area. It helps them see why other people are interested in the topic, fostering enthusiasm for the research. These methods also lead to students connecting with real people in the field, which is covered in the next section. Overall, students will get the most out of the research time they have. They will be directed to the areas that they need to focus on and cut out time spent trying to find what is most important in that field.

RSS Feeds

Rich Site Summary (RSS) feeds display search results from selected websites on selected topics, allowing you to stay current on a topic, as well as gain background information. A students’ research paper will be higher in quality if it includes acknowledges the current discussion that is being made on the subject, and students can be aware of the most recent discoveries about the research. If students focus so much on scholarly articles, that they leave out the context and the world conversation on the topic, their paper will be missing the binding factor of their paper, and even the point of them researching the topic. This would be an unfortunate case, since this is where most of the meaning in writing the research paper comes to the students. There is an assortment of free Feed Reader software available to download, and there are a number of books that provide more information on using RSS feeds. [Ref 2a, Ref 2b]

Social Bookmarking

The idea behind social bookmarking is that you are able to save, share, and manage internet links and scholarly articles. This also provides a convenient way of searching for content, whether it is an initial, get-your-feet-wet search, or in the concluding stages of a research project.  Searching social bookmarking sites helps students to find content through finding people. Once a student finds a person who is either interested in, or has expertise in their topic, they can find the material that person has bookmarked. Depending on the social bookmarking service used, students can find links to webpages or scholarly articles. Then, the student can see who  else has bookmarked that article, adding a number of new people to their list of interested parties. The student can then search the articles those people have bookmarked, and continue outward until a whole spiderweb-like network of people and sources has been discovered.  (Photo taken by Alan Reeves)

Following is a list of free social bookmarking services, along with a short description. Unless otherwise indicated, these sites will allow you to search them without setting up an account. Some of these services are strictly for scholarly articles, others have everything from news articles to blog posts, and some have a combination of both. It is important to choose the service that best fits the material being researched. The student, however, can use as many of these services as is needed to find sufficient content.

• BibSonomy (www.bibsonomy.org): Allows for bookmarking of both websites and publications, and will allow searching without getting an account.
• Citeulike (http://www.citeulike.org): Specifically for scholarly references.
• Delicious (http://www.delicious.com): Covers a wide variety of topics, scholarly and non-scholarly; organization of this site is by “stacks”, or topical bundles of links.
• Digg (http://digg.com): Has both search capabilities, as well as general topic pages. Links indicate how many people have bookmarked them, giving a sort of rating system.
• Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com): Strictly academic; allows downloading of PDF files, annotating of those files, and generating of citations and bibliographies.
• Newsvine (http://www.newsvine.com): Includes news and many other topics pages; features a unique tool called “Conversation Tracker” that allows you to keep track of discussions you have taken part in as well as track discussions of Friends.
• Reddit (http://www.reddit.com): Covers a variety of topics, has a ranking system that determines the order links appear on a webpage.
• Zotero (http://www.zotero.org): Has the ability to collect bibliographic information from a given website, and provides the ability to organize online references. Currently, it stores the references on a specific computer or a portable storage device, and it does not have an easy way of sharing sources. This research tool requires a log-in and download in order to use.

Social Networking
    Becoming part of a social network can greatly enhance consuming information, if it is used properly. Students can search social networks, such as Google+ or Twitter for people who have posted on specific topics, and then find both people and sources, as well as stay current with the most recent discussions on the topic. This is similar to the method used to consume information using social bookmarking. Consuming information by finding people who are invested in the topic will save time, and provide a more inclusive search.

Terry Wassall, a Principal Teaching Fellow of Sociology at Leeds University, shared the following about his use of social networks in doing research:

“I think social media made me a better researcher because I find stuff out a lot quicker. I now have a network of individuals I respect and am confident in their work. The network discovers and filters and discusses. I have connected my research to the real world in a way that would not have been so easy before and maybe not possible. For curriculum development and teaching this has connected with real issues that interest and engage students and has helped them become student researchers in their own right with a broader and more critical take on issues.” (Ref 2c)

With traditional research methods, the results that the student finds depends entirely on what the student searches for. The value that social networks add to consuming information is that the student can find facets of the research topic that they didn’t even know existed. By researching through people, the student can find significant information they didn’t think to search for. In addition, the student will gain enthusiasm for the research, since they are seeing how their research fits into the overall conversation on the subject.

Blogs
           Blogs can also be an extremely effective means of consuming information. Students can find out what others are saying about their topic and what is currently being done about a certain issue by exploring blog posts. Whether the blog is by an enthusiast, or a professional in the field, there is value in students understanding the entire picture of the topic. Also, if there is a clear central conflict or debate about the topic, most blog posts will refer a student directly to the source or original site of a conflict, allowing them to start their research with a clear understanding of the background of the issue. Some research groups and individual researchers have blogs that lists their publications and authored books, so students can find scholarly sources by searching blogs as well (See The Neuro Times). Again, the value here is that students can find developments on their topic that they did not know to even search for. The student’s research will be more complete and current. The following list contains some effective blogging platforms:

• Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/home)
• LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/)
• TypePad (http://www.typepad.com/)
• WordPress (http://wordpress.com/)

Inquiry Bibliography Post

I found these people by searching Google+ for library research 2.0, and by looking at some of these people's links:


People interested in library 2.0:

• Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus at UKOLN: Blog
• Karen Coombs, former Head of Web Services for the University of Houston Libraries in Houston, Texas, Product Manager OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Developer Network at OCLC: Blog
• Jason Griffey, Head of Library IT at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA, Presentation given

• Brad Matthies**, Head of Access Services at Butler University: Link to his academic articles

• Simon Barron**, E-resources Co-ordinator at Durham University: Blog, List of publications
• Johann Van Wyk**, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Academic Librarian
• Tim O'Reilly, publications

Some Elaboration on Consuming

Consuming:

                It can be tempting for the average student doing research to simply do a Google search, and take sources from the first few pages of the search results. Even a student using academic search engines may struggle to sort through several articles, let alone searching the many academic databases that are available. Library Research 2.0 tools can help students find information that has already been pointed out as valuable by other researchers, thus giving the student a spring-board to quickly decide what is current and what is important in their research area.

RSS Feeds

                A RSS (Rich Site Summary) feed allows you to stay current on a topic by displaying search results from selected websites.  This can be effective for an initial background search as well.

Social Bookmarking:

                The idea behind social bookmarking is that you are able to save, share, and manage internet links. This also provides a convenient way of searching for content, whether it is an initial, get-your-feet-wet search, or in the concluding stages of a research project.  Following is a list of free social bookmarking services, along with a short description. Unless otherwise indicated, these sites will allow you to search them without setting up an account.

• ·         BibSonomy (www.bibsonomy.org): Allows for bookmarking of both websites and publications, and will allow searching without getting an account.
• ·         Citeulike (http://www.citeulike.org): Specifically for scholarly references.
• ·         Delicious (http://www.delicious.com): Covers a wide variety of topics, scholarly and non-scholarly; organization of this site is by “stacks”, or topical bundles of links.
• ·         Digg (http://digg.com): Has both search capabilities, as well as general topic pages. Links indicate how many people have bookmarked them, giving a sort of rating system.
• ·         Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com): Strictly academic; allows downloading of PDF files, annotating of those files, and generating of citations and bibliographies.
• ·         Newsvine (http://www.newsvine.com): Includes news and many other topics pages; features a unique tool called “Conversation Tracker” that allows you to keep track of discussions you have taken part in as well as track discussions of Friends.
• ·         Reddit (http://www.reddit.com): Covers a variety of topics, has a ranking system that determines the order links appear on a webpage.
• ·         Zotero (http://www.zotero.org): Has the ability to collect bibliographic information from a given website, and provides the ability to organize online references. Currently, it stores the references on a specific computer or a portable storage device, and it does not have an easy way of sharing sources. This free research tool requires a log-in and download in order to use.

A Proposed Tweethis

This week I sent an email to Jessamyn West, founder of librarian.net, and named a "mover and shaker" of the library world by Library Journal. She gave her contact information on  her blog and said feel free to email her, as long as it wasn't "spammy." I'm still kind of new at this contact thing, so I just asked her a couple questions related to our project, and I was thrilled that she replied!

The first question I asked her was if she thinks there is value in teaching students Library Research 2.0 techniques beyond the typical research methods. She said  that she thinks it is a really good starting point to teach people that research doesn't have to be complicated and awful, in regards to these methods having good information and being easy to use. She also said it is important to cover the fact that there are still things you cannot get online in doing research. I think she is right, and in actuality we are not trying to do away with the curriculum in place, but rather add to it. I think it would be a good idea to include that idea, maybe even in our tweethis. What if we did something like this:

"Exploring the frontier of Library Research 2.0 will add cutting-edge techniques to the toolbox of the standard researcher." 

Ok it still needs some work, but I think we can get around saying anything about saving time and getting better results because really, that is entirely up to the user. These techniques are still a little underdeveloped as far as if they really will save time, but hey, we're walking on new frontier here. And I'm still a believer.

The second question I asked was if she knew of any university libraries that have tried to incorporate these techniques into their research "helps", since she had some great examples of Library 2.0 on a slideshow she had posted. She gave me the link http://libguides.com/ which has thousands of libraries, mostly of colleges and universities, and their library guide websites. I was not surprised that BYU has a guide on there. She also suggested doing a Google search of various libraries "discovery layers", which I found out are interfaces that libraries can choose as a platform for searching databases. An example of this is EBSCO. One thing I've learned from looking at the examples she listed as Library 2.0 is that Library 2.0 is a bit different than Library Research 2.0, as we're defining it. A lot of Library 2.0 is just libraries making more digital resources available to their patrons, or connecting to their patrons through digital means.

A Counterargument For Inquiry: Making our Project Stronger

We were able to focus the Inquiry group's project today in class, which was very exciting. We have decided to focus on librarians and teachers and try to get Library Research 2.0 incorporated into the BYU library research curriculum. However, I've thought of some counterarguments that we need to face before our project will really be marketable. The problem is, how can we really prove that Library Research 2.0 will actually improve and/or  save time for students' research? It is VERY true that students could waste loads of time by using these tools. There. I said it. The thing that will make our argument successful is if we demonstrate how to use it in order to save time.

The whole idea of Library Research 2.0 is using social media tools online in order to find sources for your research, and/or collaborate. I personally know plenty of people who already waste so much time using social media. Adding the distraction of using social media to the research process may just be too much for some students to handle. How do we handle these kinds of arguments?

I am personally a believer in Library Research 2.0 because I've tried it, and it works. However, I think I have a biased opinion because it is my project, and I've only tried it on doing research about Library Research 2.0. There's not much scope to my experimentation.

Here's how I did research about Library Research 2.0: I used Gideon Burton's Diigo bookmarks to find some sites about social media and research. (Site1, Site2) I found a link on the first site that gives a whole list of Library Research 2.0 tools, and their respective links. GROUP: there is a nice infographic-like representation of this that maybe we can get some ideas from, published by the Research Information Network (I think Prezi should be added to the Presentation Sharing Tools). They also published a nice paper called Social Media Guide. What I think is cool about their website is that they have several case studies of real professionals who use Library Research 2.0 tools in their daily work! 

By perusing these sites, I also found a blog that talks about why academics should blog. This Clarkson University blog is all about Neurology, and I looked at the sidebar and found some cool things there! They have a list called "Our Publications" which shows the articles they've published. They also have a link where you can send in a book or article you want them to review! I mean, they probably wouldn't appreciate getting a Freshman's research paper, but he gives you his contact information via the faculty directory link. Use it! There is a secret I've heard that if you've read a professor's papers, and you contact them, they are more than willing to talk to someone who has read their work, and is interested in what they are doing.

Woah, woah. Ok. So I've gotten a little side-tracked. I know I'm not supposed to be researching about Neurology, but if I was researching about it, I could find this blog, and it would be very helpful. Anyway, I didn't spend any time reading the articles, I just wanted to recognize the tools that are there.

This was quite effective in doing research. I was able to find starting-off points in just a few clicks. If I was doing research in Neurology, I might be even further along in the research process. The trick is finding people who are also interested in the subject, and you're set. Maybe we should demonstrate how to do that. I'll have to try it myself first, I mean, it was easy to find Gideon Burton because he's my professor.

The bottom line is, how can we demonstrate and convince that this will save students time and energy, and will make their papers better? Use academic articles as supporting evidence? Anecdotes? Case studies? An experiment?