It's been a year since the last update. Some good projects over the last year and will provide updates.
I'm giving a 'minute of madness' talk at this conference and thought to put the text somewhere accessible. So here we go!
Research at Loughborough
At Loughborough we focus on people’s information experience and enabling effective use of information.
We’ve worked with young people to get a fundamental understanding of their perceptions of information.
We’re researching the ‘ingredients’ of successful community engagement in collaboration with Derbyshire, Leicester City and Leicestershire public libraries.
A current two-year project with Leicestershire County Council is exploring how to develop an information and knowledge management culture throughout the organisation.
We are using innovative participative techniques to research people’s information needs living in marginalized communities.
Plus we are developing cutting edge natural language processing techniques to organise and manage the email archive of the Welsh Assembly.
Numerous, funded, projects have taken place in the area of intellectual property.
We are also developing methodologies to evaluate the impact of information and knowledge management.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Saturday, 8 August 2009
IFLA Presentation
The session has been designed to facilitate exchange of ideas. As a result the presentation is short - only six slides. The hand drawn images are an attempt to convey ideas quickly and effectively. Unfortunately Slideshare seems to have cropped the images - so may delete this, unless someone can tell me how to rectify.
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkHepworth
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkHepworth
Friday, 10 July 2009
Community cohesion, social justice, community empowerment, community engagement, community participation
An interesting convergence of ideas is taking place, crystalised through a meeting with John Vincent. John runs The Network an organisation concerned with tackling social exclusion http://www.seapn.org.uk/. John kindly agreed to meet with myself, Gill Ragsdell and Hui-Yun Sung, a PhD student, who is studying models of community engagement and public libraries.
In the U.K. and overseas there are a number of initiatives whereby public services and, from my perspective most interestingly, public libraries are actively seeking to engage with their 'public'. The underlying philosophy is tagged by a host of terms: community engagement, community participation, creative collaboration, social justice, community cohesion, community empowerment; each having its own flavour or driver. These vary, some focusing on the political right to access resources 'equal citizenship' to sustainable development to developing user-centred information services.
Great examples of current U.K. public library activities can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT2vKs0KrTM where videos of winners of the CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award 2009 are shown.
The convergence is with ideas of 'participation' in developing countries. Over the last 15 years participative methods have evolved that lead to genuine participation of 'the community' in the development process. Robert Chambers is one of the main advocates and authorities on this approach http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/idsperson/professor-robert-chambers. See his books on Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ideas-Development-Robert-Chambers/dp/1844070883 . These approaches are leading to sustainable change.
Andrea Cornwall, who also works for the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Brighton, has been active in applying these ideas to engagement with communities in the U.K. See http://www.demos.co.uk/people/andreacornwall . This is echoed in a CFE publication on community budgeting and how lessons from Brazil could be applied in the U.K. http://www.cfe.org.uk/uploaded/files/Participatory%20Budgeting.pdf
Lot's of good practice and lessons to be learnt that can be applied to the provision of information services and information literacy ... underpinned by a belief in:
In the U.K. and overseas there are a number of initiatives whereby public services and, from my perspective most interestingly, public libraries are actively seeking to engage with their 'public'. The underlying philosophy is tagged by a host of terms: community engagement, community participation, creative collaboration, social justice, community cohesion, community empowerment; each having its own flavour or driver. These vary, some focusing on the political right to access resources 'equal citizenship' to sustainable development to developing user-centred information services.
Great examples of current U.K. public library activities can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT2vKs0KrTM where videos of winners of the CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award 2009 are shown.
The convergence is with ideas of 'participation' in developing countries. Over the last 15 years participative methods have evolved that lead to genuine participation of 'the community' in the development process. Robert Chambers is one of the main advocates and authorities on this approach http://www.ids.ac.uk/go/idsperson/professor-robert-chambers. See his books on Amazon at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ideas-Development-Robert-Chambers/dp/1844070883 . These approaches are leading to sustainable change.
Andrea Cornwall, who also works for the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Brighton, has been active in applying these ideas to engagement with communities in the U.K. See http://www.demos.co.uk/people/andreacornwall . This is echoed in a CFE publication on community budgeting and how lessons from Brazil could be applied in the U.K. http://www.cfe.org.uk/uploaded/files/Participatory%20Budgeting.pdf
Lot's of good practice and lessons to be learnt that can be applied to the provision of information services and information literacy ... underpinned by a belief in:
- people's right to have access to and the ability to use the information and the knowledge available in society to enrich their lives and achieve their objectives;
- respect for the individual's and community's capacity to use their knowledge, of their experience, to define the services that they need.
Community engagement
A talk will be given on community engagement on the 14-15th July by John Vincent at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield
http://www.umbrella2009.org.uk/JohnVincent.html
http://www.umbrella2009.org.uk/JohnVincent.html
Interesting spin on a search engine
WolframAlpha's long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.
This search / information retrieval tool (it's not a search engine since it does not search the WWW but its own repositories) deals with factual information. 'It's a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.'
Enter a place name or a chemical formula and see what you get.
This search / information retrieval tool (it's not a search engine since it does not search the WWW but its own repositories) deals with factual information. 'It's a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.'
Enter a place name or a chemical formula and see what you get.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Teaching information literacy book
Geoff Walton and I are finally seeing the proofs of our book 'Teaching Information literacy for inquiry based learning'. It should be available in September and can be found at the Woodhead - Publishers site. [Woodhead now incorporates Chandos]. (click title above to connect to publisher).
The content of the book is as follows:
Teaching Information Literacy for Inquiry-based learning
MARK HEPWORTH AND GEOFF WALTON
Part 1: Four faces of learning and their implications for teaching
information literacy 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Learning and information literacy 15
What is learning? 15
What is literacy? 15
A plethora of literacies: transliteracy and information literacy 16
What is information? 18
Why are we seeing such an emphasis on how we learn and independent learning? 22
Information literacy 26
What do we need to know about the learner and learning to help foster information literacy? 32
3 The learner as a physical being – a sensory approach 37
Physical metaphors as a means of shaping thinking 39
Fundamental metaphors for thinking 42
Developmental aspects of learning 44
Approaches to learning 44
Implications for information behaviour 52
Implications for information literacy 53
4 The learner as a thinker – a cognitive approach 55
Thinking skills frameworks 56
Assessing thinking skills 60
How the SOLO learning outcomes relate to information literacy,
in this case, evaluating information 62
Knowledge and understanding 64
Demonstrating knowledge through language 66
5 The learner as a sense maker – a constructivist approach 69
The role of reflection in learning 73
Constructing meaning 75
Learning as an active participative process 76
Motivation 78
Inquiry-based approach to participation in learning 82
Implications for information literacy 84
Evaluating impact 86
Investigating information literacy 87
The learning context and its implications 90
6 The learner as a social being – a social constructivist approach 97
Learning as a community of practice 98
The importance of language 100
Embedding information literacy 105
Demography and information literacy 116
Culture and information literacy 118
Conclusion 123
Part 2: Teaching interventions 125
7 Introduction 127
The learning environment 132
The reflective practitioner 133
8 Learning intervention 1: understanding learners’ information needs and identifying that aspect of their knowledge base that they want to develop 135
Purpose 135
Context 136
Physical learning environment 136
The underlying pedagogy 137
Levels of complexity 139
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 140
Examples of interventions 141
1 Example with Master’s students 141
2 Example with undergraduates 149
9 Learning intervention 2: understanding the information landscape 151
Purpose 151
Context 152
Physical learning environment 152
The underlying pedagogy 154
Levels of complexity 156
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 157
Examples of interventions 158
1 Example with undergraduates – orientation to sources 158
2 Example with Master’s students – evaluating sources 162
3 Example with Master’s students or undergraduates –
exploring a source 165
4 Example with undergraduates – evaluating search engines 166
10 Learning intervention 3: using information retrieval tools and techniques to locate information 169
Purpose 170
Context 170
Physical learning environment 171
The underlying pedagogy 172
Levels of complexity 174
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 175
Examples of interventions 176
1 Example with new undergraduates – searching e-resources 176
2 Example with Masters’ students – a participative approach
to fostering information literacy 183
3 Example with undergraduates – accessing e-resources 186
11 Learning intervention 4: interaction with and use of information 193
Introduction 193
Purpose 193
Context 194
Physical learning environment 194
The underlying pedagogy 195
Levels of complexity 197
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 197
Examples of interventions 198
1 Example with undergraduates – evaluating information using online collaborative learning 198
2 Example with undergraduates – evaluating information using blended learning 204
3 Example with any learners – finding information in a book 216
4 Example with primary school children – evaluating a book 218
12 Learning intervention 5: enhancing information literacy in the workplace – a holistic approach 221
Ways of achieving information literacy 223
The complexity of incorporating information literacy 225
Part 3: Conclusion 227
13 Concluding comments 229
References 233
Index 249
The content of the book is as follows:
Teaching Information Literacy for Inquiry-based learning
MARK HEPWORTH AND GEOFF WALTON
Part 1: Four faces of learning and their implications for teaching
information literacy 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Learning and information literacy 15
What is learning? 15
What is literacy? 15
A plethora of literacies: transliteracy and information literacy 16
What is information? 18
Why are we seeing such an emphasis on how we learn and independent learning? 22
Information literacy 26
What do we need to know about the learner and learning to help foster information literacy? 32
3 The learner as a physical being – a sensory approach 37
Physical metaphors as a means of shaping thinking 39
Fundamental metaphors for thinking 42
Developmental aspects of learning 44
Approaches to learning 44
Implications for information behaviour 52
Implications for information literacy 53
4 The learner as a thinker – a cognitive approach 55
Thinking skills frameworks 56
Assessing thinking skills 60
How the SOLO learning outcomes relate to information literacy,
in this case, evaluating information 62
Knowledge and understanding 64
Demonstrating knowledge through language 66
5 The learner as a sense maker – a constructivist approach 69
The role of reflection in learning 73
Constructing meaning 75
Learning as an active participative process 76
Motivation 78
Inquiry-based approach to participation in learning 82
Implications for information literacy 84
Evaluating impact 86
Investigating information literacy 87
The learning context and its implications 90
6 The learner as a social being – a social constructivist approach 97
Learning as a community of practice 98
The importance of language 100
Embedding information literacy 105
Demography and information literacy 116
Culture and information literacy 118
Conclusion 123
Part 2: Teaching interventions 125
7 Introduction 127
The learning environment 132
The reflective practitioner 133
8 Learning intervention 1: understanding learners’ information needs and identifying that aspect of their knowledge base that they want to develop 135
Purpose 135
Context 136
Physical learning environment 136
The underlying pedagogy 137
Levels of complexity 139
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 140
Examples of interventions 141
1 Example with Master’s students 141
2 Example with undergraduates 149
9 Learning intervention 2: understanding the information landscape 151
Purpose 151
Context 152
Physical learning environment 152
The underlying pedagogy 154
Levels of complexity 156
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 157
Examples of interventions 158
1 Example with undergraduates – orientation to sources 158
2 Example with Master’s students – evaluating sources 162
3 Example with Master’s students or undergraduates –
exploring a source 165
4 Example with undergraduates – evaluating search engines 166
10 Learning intervention 3: using information retrieval tools and techniques to locate information 169
Purpose 170
Context 170
Physical learning environment 171
The underlying pedagogy 172
Levels of complexity 174
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 175
Examples of interventions 176
1 Example with new undergraduates – searching e-resources 176
2 Example with Masters’ students – a participative approach
to fostering information literacy 183
3 Example with undergraduates – accessing e-resources 186
11 Learning intervention 4: interaction with and use of information 193
Introduction 193
Purpose 193
Context 194
Physical learning environment 194
The underlying pedagogy 195
Levels of complexity 197
Methods of assessment and learning outcomes 197
Examples of interventions 198
1 Example with undergraduates – evaluating information using online collaborative learning 198
2 Example with undergraduates – evaluating information using blended learning 204
3 Example with any learners – finding information in a book 216
4 Example with primary school children – evaluating a book 218
12 Learning intervention 5: enhancing information literacy in the workplace – a holistic approach 221
Ways of achieving information literacy 223
The complexity of incorporating information literacy 225
Part 3: Conclusion 227
13 Concluding comments 229
References 233
Index 249
User training or system training
This is a link to a presentation I gave at the JIBS conference that may be of wider interest.
The question I was asked to address was whether we should spend time training the user of information retrieval systems or whether the focus should be on developing better systems.
There is a common assumption that young users/learners do not want to bother with learning how to use more complex information retrieval (IR) systems. I think this is mistaken. Yes, as Zipf noted, people put as little effort as possible into seeking information. But this is not unique to the young. It may be exacerbated among the young due to the prescriptive, assessment oriented education, that they have experienced, that tends to foster a pragmatic approach to learning.
Nevertheless I have found that, given the appropriate learning environment, learners do see the benefit of learning how to use information retrieval systems that are more complex than Google and provide access to different types of information. This can be seen from the quotes I have included in the presentation. Gradually the penny drops ... moving from reluctance to appreciation. The quotes, and the language used, also give an indication of 'levels' of information literacy.
Nevertheless, the design of IR systems plays a crucial role. I was pleasantly shocked that a representative of one of the library automated systems had actually read Marcia Bates and some of the literature on peoples' information behaviour. Slowly these systems have paid attention to the needs of the users. For example, automatically generated tag clouds help a user define their topic and identify useful search terms. Federated results means that the user can retrieve information from multiple sources rather than have to search each separately (although to critically evaluate the results they still need to know where the information is coming from and the relative merits of various sources). Faceted searching can help the user narrow down or broaden their search.
However, IR systems still need to pay more attention to the actual problems users experience and find ways to help them. For example, depending on the results received, systems could actually suggest ways to broaden and narrow a search. Faceted searching and tag clouds could be used more to help navigate the subject domain or a set of results.
Nevertheless, however user oriented the systems the learner still needs to be knowledgeable of their information environment and be able to use, critically, the information resources around them. They also need to be conscious of the processes and procedures of being informed - so that they can reflect and be strategic in their approach to learning.
The question I was asked to address was whether we should spend time training the user of information retrieval systems or whether the focus should be on developing better systems.
There is a common assumption that young users/learners do not want to bother with learning how to use more complex information retrieval (IR) systems. I think this is mistaken. Yes, as Zipf noted, people put as little effort as possible into seeking information. But this is not unique to the young. It may be exacerbated among the young due to the prescriptive, assessment oriented education, that they have experienced, that tends to foster a pragmatic approach to learning.
Nevertheless I have found that, given the appropriate learning environment, learners do see the benefit of learning how to use information retrieval systems that are more complex than Google and provide access to different types of information. This can be seen from the quotes I have included in the presentation. Gradually the penny drops ... moving from reluctance to appreciation. The quotes, and the language used, also give an indication of 'levels' of information literacy.
Nevertheless, the design of IR systems plays a crucial role. I was pleasantly shocked that a representative of one of the library automated systems had actually read Marcia Bates and some of the literature on peoples' information behaviour. Slowly these systems have paid attention to the needs of the users. For example, automatically generated tag clouds help a user define their topic and identify useful search terms. Federated results means that the user can retrieve information from multiple sources rather than have to search each separately (although to critically evaluate the results they still need to know where the information is coming from and the relative merits of various sources). Faceted searching can help the user narrow down or broaden their search.
However, IR systems still need to pay more attention to the actual problems users experience and find ways to help them. For example, depending on the results received, systems could actually suggest ways to broaden and narrow a search. Faceted searching and tag clouds could be used more to help navigate the subject domain or a set of results.
Nevertheless, however user oriented the systems the learner still needs to be knowledgeable of their information environment and be able to use, critically, the information resources around them. They also need to be conscious of the processes and procedures of being informed - so that they can reflect and be strategic in their approach to learning.
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