Todd Grappone
Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and IT
University of California, Los Angeles

Solving informational problems for users is a core idea at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library. This requires an understanding of how users operate (user research), the interactions they prefer (ux/ui), and the needed expertise to build the interactions for the devices they use (mobile/web). Numerous mobile apps for higher education have been developed over the years, and these products have been extremely popular with campus administrations and libraries, as well as with students and faculty. UCLA Library stepped into this marketplace with a different approach to development than most of the other offerings. The UCLA Library Simul8 team of developers is made up exclusively of students. The benefit of a team of student developers is twofold: first, user research is implicit within the group, since the developers themselves can inform the app development; second, the students tend to have familiarity with the latest programming languages for web/mobile apps, so the skill sets are more available.

This session will discuss the principles behind the formation of the group, the start-up culture of development, the tools and infrastructure utilized, and how projects are created and brought to fruition.

Presentation Slides

  Susan Vajoczki
Director, Centre for Leadership in Learning
McMaster University Jeffrey Trzeciak
University Librarian
McMaster University Julianne L. Bagg
Undergraduate Assistant
McMaster University

There is growing interest in geospatial instruction across all disciplines on our campus.  As a result, geospatial literacy now accounts for nearly 40% of the library’s instruction and outreach activities.  While the need is great, the reaction of undergraduates to a traditional instruction approach has been lukewarm, at best.  This session will include a description of the process used to initiate, develop, create, and assess the geospatial literacy blended learning approach used at McMaster University. The project represents collaboration between faculty members, library instructional staff, pedagogical, and technical staff from McMaster University.

This project involves, specifically, the introduction of blended learning instruction on geospatial literacy in three undergraduate courses: Environmental Science 1G03 (400+ students); Geography 1HA3 (1200+ students); and Geography 1HB3 (1200+ students). Previously, these three courses received this instruction in a face-to-face model within the university map library, facilitated by map library staff.

The modules produced as part of this project, and available to students on-demand through the University’s learning management system, will be highlighted as part of the presentation. The pedagogical underpinnings of this approach will be highlighted and preliminary assessment will be shared. The project commenced in May 2011 and modules were first introduced to students in September 2011.  This approach will likely be of interest to both administrators and instructors who would like to expand geospatial literacy while maintaining costs associated with instruction.

Renee Hobbs
Founder of the Media Education Lab
and Professor of Communication
Temple University

Creation of online videos is a newly popular activity for today’s college students. New research reveals complexities in how students use video creation technology such as cell phones, video cameras and editing software. This session will discuss changing definitions of new literacies (visual, media, news, information, digital, etc.) and demonstrates how everyday video creation projects cross disciplinary boundaries. It will include a review of results from data collected in September 2010 from first-year students at a highly selective research university and provide recommendations for practitioners who are seeking to support student online video creation. This briefing will help educators and librarians to offer educational technology support and instruction.

Handout

Presentation

Oct. 14, 2011

In this podcast, CNI director Clifford Lynch reports on several recent conferences:

• A plenary presentation given by Steve Kelling at the ASIS&T annual meeting on eBird (http://ebird.org/)
• The Internet2 fall meeting
• Theory & Practice of Digital Libraries Conference (TPDL), formerly European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries (ECDL)
  http://www.tpdl2011.org/
• ARL-CNI Fall Forum 21st-Century Collections and the Urgency of Collaborative Action
  http://www.arl.org/events/fallforum/forum11/index.shtml

Joan Lippincott, CNI’s associate director, talks about the Net Gen and generational differences in the use of technology, and regarding assessment, the importance of knowing your use communities.  Joan references the following sources in her discussion:

• NPR Story

  http://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140813332/political-ads-target-tv-but-not-everyone-is-tuning-in

• Pew Internet & American Life report

  http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Cell-Phone-Texting-2011/Main-Report/How-Americans-Use-Text-Messaging.aspx?src=prc-number

• Char Booth’s blog “info-mational”
  http://infomational.wordpress.com/
• Project Information Literacy.  October 12, 2011 report.
  http://projectinfolit.org/

We hope you enjoy this program and we welcome your feedback.  For questions or comments related to CNI Conversations, please contact CNI Associate Executive Director Joan Lippincott at joan@cni.org.

On October 11, 2010, EDUCAUSE, in collaboration with the League for Innovation in the Community College, the International Association of K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL), and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced up to $20 million in funding for campuses, consortia, organizations, and government agencies as part of the first wave of grants for Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC). NGLC is a new effort to identify and scale technology-enabled approaches that dramatically improve college readiness and completion, particularly for low-income young adults. In this interactive session, attendees can learn more about NGLC, including future grant opportunities, and participate in an open dialogue with initiative staff.

http://nextgenlearning.org