Brian Cox, #Census2016 and Naplan

By Suzana Sukovic

Last night on Q&A Brian Cox said exactly what librarians have been saying for years, but it echoes much better coming from him. Tony Jones started by quoting Cox: “Changing your mind in the face of evidence is absolutely essential to the civilised democratic society” and continued, “The questioner is asking, ‘Who should we listen to?’”

Cox’s full response could be found here (section starts at 41:58), and (again) this is the gist of his answer:

What do we need for democracies to work?
…An education system that functions extremely well. You need a population for a democracy to work that is aware of how to think, how to select information. We have a vast amount of information available to us, some from reputable sources, some from unreputable sources. So those skills to allow your population to look at the information that’s out there to be able to come to a reasoned conclusion…to be able to get a sense of where the expertise lies, where the considered views are .

Share this quote, dear library and information people. Make it visible! It is important. Nothing less than the future of democracy is at stake.

The Census has been a good reminder recently.

#CENSUS2016

Twitter has covered #Census2016 and #CensusFail thoroughly. After so much that has been said, right now I am more interested in what we as citizens and individuals need to know to make decisions and contribute to current conversations in an informed way. So, here is my non-exhaustive list of issues:
•    Participation in Census: What is it? How should we complete the Census? Should we do it online or use a paper form?
•    Privacy: What are my entitlements and duties? Should I protect my privacy? How? How do different technologies and government processes affect my privacy? What are the legal and personal implications of my decisions?
•    Use of technology: How do computer security and hacking work? How is data linked?
•    Social media: Should I participate in online discussions? Why? How?
•    Society: Why do groups of people decide to hack? How is this Census affecting our knowledge about who we are as the society?

And the list goes on…

In understanding these issues and making decisions, it is crucial to be able to think critically. A good understanding of and skills to deal with information, technology, and issues of citizenship is necessary to make decisions that may have far-reaching consequences.

NAPLAN

Similarly to the Census, NAPLAN discussions can be a big ask for someone who skim reads the paper. Explanations of why Australian students are not advancing as we would like range from funding issues and selection of students for teaching courses all the way to the influence of technology or diverse ethnicities of the Australian population (see also an old but still relevant post about international test results). Whatever factors may be at play, it is sure that numeracy and literacy are quite complex and teachers are certainly not the only people responsible for their development. Last week, for example, we heard about research, which points towards a positive link between playing computer games and academic results, including science, math and reading. Alberto Posso, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, reportedly said,

When you play online games you’re solving puzzles to move to the next level and that involves using some of the general knowledge and skills in maths, reading and science that you’ve been taught during the day (see Guardian article).

Gaming is not an isolated example of a possible influence on test results. Some of the reasons for achievements in mathematics may be that the student is an avid reader who enjoys classics or a keen musician. Research shows that both music and reading, especially of complex fictional texts, have significant influence on improving cognitive abilities. The most important questions about NAPLAN results, in my mind, concern the complexity of learning and development rather than the narrow focus on Math and English classes. 

QUITE FRANKLY, WE NEED MORE INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS (and, no, I am not biased)

Transliteracy is all over these news stories with significant implications for education. Transliteracy is a framework that combines information and ICT capabilities with citizenship, creativity and critical thinking to prepare our students for a life in a fast-changing and information-rich society. It develops students’ capacity to apply their knowledge and skills in different situations, by using digital and analogue media and technologies, and to communicate with different audiences. And who is in a better position to work with information across the board than your knowledgeable and friendly librarian?

ALIA has recently pointed towards studies showing that we need more school librarians. Developing transliteracy at school means supporting students’ ability to think critically and creatively in life situations and jobs we don’t know today. A transliterate student needs to develop their numeracy and literacy in many different ways across all their subjects. S/he will be able to decide how to contribute to any future Census, to assess government decisions, and participate in public and private conversations about societal issue in an informed way. None of their teachers knows the issues she will face and cannot teach her answers she will learn by heart. S/he will, however, gain the skills to be an independent learner and thinker because school librarians will know how to work with teachers to develop essential skills in a systematic way.

Learning doesn’t finish when we get school diploma or a professional qualification. Library and information professionals in various settings are best life-long learning guides. We need more of them.

As Cox said, “Changing your mind in the face of evidence is absolutely essential to the civilised democratic society”. We need to serve the quote regularly with a good dose of fresh evidence.

Parts of this article were previously published in the Bulletin of St'Vincent's College, Potts Point where Suzana works as Head of the Learning Resource Centre.

#EBLIPRG 25 August: Journal club impacts

By Megan Fitzgibbons

Our next discussion will focus on a recent study on the impact of participation in journal clubs--a topic that's close to home for #EBLIPRG participants!

#EBLIPRG Journal club impacts
Facilitated by Megan Fitzgibbons

The reading is:
Fitzgibbons, M., Kloda, L., & Miller-Nesbitt, A. (2016). Exploring the value of academic librarians' participation in journal clubs. College & Research Libraries, crl16-965.

Join in and discuss:

• Why do journal clubs matter?
• Findings on individual and organisational benefits
• Methodology: can this qualitative approach be applied elsewhere?
• Sharing experiences and tips on participating in professional journal clubs or reading groups

WHEN? Thursday, 25 August 8 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne) on Twitter #EBLIPRG

Culture, behaviour & transformation #EBLIPRG

By Suzana Sukovic

Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Reading Group had another hour of lively discussions on 28 June. The facilitator, Fiona Macdonald, captured this #EBLIPRG chat on Storify.

Our next meeting is on 25 August. Let us know if you wish to facilitate this or any of the future meetings (contact from this blog or use #EBLIPRG on Twitter). All LIS people are welcome to give it a go. 

#EBLIPRG Culture, behaviour & transformation

By Fiona Macdonald

Where is the evidence? 
Join in and discuss recent blog post from Stephen Foreshew-Cain – Executive Director in the UK of the Government Digital Service.

If you foster the right environment of creativity, of trust, of empowerment, you get better results from your team

This relates to the conversation started in our last Twitter chat about distributed leadership and community building.

Discussion questions

1. What does management by the team look like?
2. What examples do people have of grass-root initiatives that have had an impact?
3. How are our expectations different in a digital age?

4. How easy is it to change a culture?

WHEN? Thursday, 28 June 8 pm AEST (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne) on Twitter #EBLIPRG

Part 1: Transliteracy, the art and craft of ‘moving across’

By Suzana Sukovic

Imagine an environmental sculpture recorded from outer space. A global artist collective covers the earth landmasses with pieces of double sided print paper. Fast forward a couple of decades later, a layer of books covers the earth, then only 3 years forward - two layers of books cover the land …And then the recording speeds up so much that it seems no mountain will peak above the last layer.

The imaginary filming of the installation illustrates the proliferation of information. The global memory stored in technology roughly doubled every three years in recent decades, from less than 3 exabytes in 1986 to about 300 in 2007, according to Hilbert. ‘Had we chosen to store this on double printed book paper, we could have covered every square centimetre of the world’s landmasses with one sheet of paper in 1986, with one layer of books by 2007, and by 2010 with two layers of books’ (Hilbert, 2012, p. 9). Closer to the reality of our information environment, we should imagine books, computers, phones, tapes and much more covering the landmasses. The presentation of information covering the earth has a symbolic value as our interactions with information are happening in our physical surroundings. Hilbert points out that our bodies have about the same informational capacity as all our devices put together. With all the incredible growth of information enabled by digital technology, a significant part of our information world is analogue and embodied.

Transliteracy captures the idea of our capacity to interact with information in whatever form it takes. The practice has been in existence for a long time. The concept, however, is relatively new, arising in the context of increasingly complex information and communication environments characterised by multimodality and new roles of creators and consumers. Transliteracy concerns the ability to apply and transfer a range of skills and contextual insights to a variety of settings. Rather than focusing on any one skillset or technology, transliteracy is about fluidity of movement across a range of contexts. It has attracted a great deal of interest in the library and information field, particularly among practitioners, as it captures the experience of daily work with information. Unlike many other approaches to understanding the way we work and create in interaction with information and technologies, transliteracy is a holistic approach. It is concerned with skill and knowledge transfer on which most deep learning and creativity are based. It exists on the intersection of disciplinary divisions, between theory and practice. Possibly most importantly, transliteracy is focused on the movement and transfer, which requires constant questioning of boundaries.

Transliteracy intuitively makes sense to most people, but what exactly does it mean? And how do we develop the art and craft of a transliterate ‘movement across’? After a decade of interest in and applications of transliteracy in the practice of information work, an evidence-based answer remains elusive. One reason is that transliteracy is everywhere, constantly in process and movement, hence difficult to pinpoint and capture. Another reason is that the answer to the deceptively simple question requires solid research data and analysis, but research in this area has been scarce.

Transliteracy in complex information environments, a book to be published by Chandos, an imprint of Elsevier, in a couple of months, offers some evidence-based answers about transliteracy. The first book on the topic (as far as I am aware) is concerned with learning and knowledge creation as information intensive processes. The transliteracy study presented in the book is based on data gathered from teenagers in high school and humanities researchers in university settings. They provided insights into a transliteracy range on a learning continuum from young teenagers to senior academics. A prolonged investigation provided solid evidence for understanding transliteracy from different perspectives.

In the book, transliteracy is considered in relation to other literacies as an overarching framework rather than replacement of existing information, digital and media literacies. Applications in education and lifelong learning are discussed. Social aspects of transliteracy are considered in relation to academic cultures and broader social trends, particularly hybrid cultures. 

To me as the author, the book is a way of participating in discussions about the nature of change ignited by technological developments. It is also a way of thinking about living creatively and moving freely across information landmasses.

Reference

HILBERT, M. 2012. How much information is there in the "information society"? Significance, 9, 8-12.

PART 2: What is transliteracy?

Book orders from Elsevier Store

Distributed leadership #EBLIPRG

The last meeting of the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Reading Group (#EBLIPRG) was on Thursday, 30 June. The LAICD Group from Ireland facilitated this meeting and prepared a storify version below.

There are some useful links to further information about distributed and participatory leadership. 


Thanks, @LAICDGroup, for a great meeting.

Show&Tell Online wrap-up

By Suzana Sukovic

Show & Tell last week was a historical occasion - LARK's first online event ever. Online report tells us 14 people logged in. Our guest speakers presented their interesting projects and people sent questions and comments, mainly via chat. Technology behaved most of the time and, when it didn't, Alycia Bailey was on the case promptly. Altogether, a very enjoyable event thanks to everyone's participation.

Our presenters have kindly made their slides and links available for sharing.

Sally Pewhairangi (@sallyheroes) - Director, Finding Heroes

Project: Library as a classroom for library staff

Sally explain how she used the Creative Classroom Research model to address the limitations of traditional professional development and how this has resulted in the library as a classroom for library staff.

Slides 

Eight elements of digital literacy 

Digital literacy skills

Mary Coe - PhD student and indexer

Project: Search tools in ebooks

Mary's investigation compared the use of search tools, including indexes, in nonfiction print books and ebooks.

Mediaval helpdesk was an entertaining introduction into Mary's talk

Slides

Sally shared this related link on Twitter after the meeting

How do you skim through a digital book?

Janet Chelliah - Library Scholarly Information Manager, University of Technology, Sydney Library

Project: Flipping the textbook: student created textbook for Masters of Data Science and Innovation students

The aim of this project is to investigate the processes and procedures required to embed open education resources as a key component for student learning in a course. Alycia presented Janet's slides and read her notes.

During the presentation the following related link was shared on chat.

Hacking a textbook - how University of Otago Librarians supported a new academic initiative

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Thanks to everyone for sharing.