Web 2.0 - Ideas for instructors of information literacy

Wednesday I attended a Web 2.0 Roundtable hosted by the North Carolina Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. As I looked around the room at all of the possible stations, each featuring some mix of Web 2.0 tools, I found myself asking, "Why did I come?" I already knew about each of the tools at each of the tables. I have my del.icio.us bookmarks tagged and bundled, I'm already a Facebook and LinkedIn junkie, and my RSS feedreader is already jammed full. I even wrote my Master's thesis on how special librarians were using Web 2.0 tools to market their libraries. I went into the roundtable sessions thinking, "Well if nothing else, at least I get a little break from the normal routine and I get to see my former colleagues and friends."

Although I already knew how to use the tools, I was pleasantly surprised in many cases to hear some good sharing of ideas. I was glad that people were focusing less on the tools themselves, but how they might be of use and save time. I also found it useful to consider how these various tools might be combined into mash-ups.

After attending the session and reflecting on it, I decided to take a different view point. I already knew a lot about how to make use of these tools from a librarian's perspective, and many of them I use personally. Instead of looking at the Web 2.0 tools as a librarian, I decided to consider how I might use them as an Instructor of Information Literacy. In my experience working with students at my current position, as well as in my previous academic library experience, many students have no concept of what a periodical is, nor why they should think about using one in their assignment. They are very familiar with surfing the Web for information, and believe Wikipedia is an excellent place to find evidence for a research paper. So how can Web 2.0 help me to teach students about information literacy?

First, I started by thinking about my objectives and other considerations:
1. I want students to be able to evaluate the information they find based on certain criteria.
2. I want students to be able to work collaboratively and learn actively.
3. I want to be able to update students with the latest news and helpful tidbits of information.
4. I want students to be able to communicate with me.
5. I want to be able to somehow evaluate or assess what students are learning.
6. I want students to have access to multiple ways of learning the same thing.

I think all of these considerations lend well to various elements of the Web 2.0 line of thinking.

One of the first ideas I had was to create my own information literacy blog directed at students. A blog would be a great place to let students know about new library resources, helpful hints for searching, and other general topics of interest. Because blogs are useful for timely topics, they may be especially useful as a resource for current student assignments. By using RSS feeds, students could keep current w/the latest posts. It would be even better to have a feed post a few lines of the most recent postings to the main library website.

Teaching students about the value of creating an online profile can also be done using Web 2.0 tools. Many students already have MySpace and Facebook profiles, but they often don't know how it can be used against them. Prospective employers are increasingly looking at this information when making hiring decisions. It is important to teach students about networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as the importance of privacy settings and establishing a professional persona online. Though this isn't the typical version of information literacy, teaching students about these topics does allow them to understand how information is used and displayed.

Other sites, like Flickr and del.icio.us also have really great instructional advantages. Flickr could be used to create online tutorials or tours in the form of slideshows, show students images that depict the differences between scholarly and popular journals, or give students visuals of important reference materials, such as the MLA handbook, so that when they enter the library, they know what to look for. By placing Flickr slideshows on a library instruction page, students don't need to look any further than the site they are already familiar with. Del.icio.us is also useful in its ability to tag, categorize and bundle important links. An instructor could create a del.icio.us site specifically for a class, or import the most recent links into an already established site.

Google Docs are great collaborative Web 2.0 tools that allow a user to post a document that can be edited collaboratively. This is great for group work, especially in an instructional situation. By creating a Google Docs account, students can all log on to complete group work in class. They can then share their work on a projection screen with the class. Especially when learning about citation styles, it is handy to have students type out and format their Works Cited pages, or share in-text citations in their actual papers and assignments.

That's all I've got for now, but I know there are a lot more ideas out there. Feel free to comment with your own!