Mortal Kombat , Academic OneFile and the Legend of Zelda : Teaching Research Skills to the Modern Student

1. UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE LIBRARY Presentation for Faculty and Instructors of the Writing Program who teach English/E110 : Writing Program In-Service Session February 5, 2010 Mortal Kombat, Academic OneFileand the Legend of Zelda: Teaching Research Skills to the Modern Student Meg Grotti Assistant Librarian and Coordinator, Library Instruction University of Delaware Library

2. A Definition and Framework for Information Literacy

3. Information Literacy is NOT: • Computer savvy • The ability to quickly find lots of informational stuff… • Library skills

4. Information Literacy Defined • The ability to identify, locate, and use information effectively. -Association of College and Research Libraries “Information literacy occurs at the intersection of teaching, thinking, and learning, within the broader environment of technology.” - Patricia Iannuzzi

5. ACRL Information Literacy Standards Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

6. ACRL Information Literacy Standards Standard Two: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.

7. ACRL Information Literacy Standards Standard Three: The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

8. ACRL Information Literacy Standards Standard Four: The information literate student, individually or as part of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

9. ACRL Information Literacy Standards Standard Five: The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

10. Producing Life-Long Learners Together: Library and E110 Partnerships

11. 2009 Syllabus Study • Provided a structured analysis of the curriculum • Identified areas within the curriculum in which the ACRL standards were already being addressed. • Filled in the gaps EXAMPLE: evaluation of electronic resources

12. Student Learning Outcomes for E110 • Students will identify keywords, synonyms and related terms for their information need. • Students will construct search strategies using appropriate commands for the system selected. • Students will consult a variety of search systems to retrieve information in a variety of formats. • Students will use classification schemes to locate information resources within the library. • Students will identify specialized services to retrieve information needed.

13. Assignment Analysis • Librarians view class assignments • May include one or two additional outcomes depending upon E110 instructor input

14. Why Care? How do Information Literacy Skills Impact us as Students, Citizens, or Consumers? Activity

15. A Scenario Your daughter has been complaining of pain in one side of her face and in her jaw. She tells you her doctor told her she has a severe case of TMJ, and that she may need surgery. You want to find out what therapies or treatments may exist that are not as extreme as surgery.

16. Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Students

17. Video Games vs. Information Retrieval Player probes the virtual world- looks around, clicks on things, tries some actions Player builds a hypothesis about what discovered elements (texts, objects, artifacts, or actions) may mean or signify Player re-probes the world with a hypothesis in mind to see what effects occur Player treats the effect as feedback from the game, and based upon this feedback, accepts or rethinks the hypothesis. (From Johnson, 2005.)

18. Students as Problem Solvers • The modern student is already an adept problem solver, used to investigating rich virtual worlds and ever-changing online interfaces • Importance of hands-on practice • Trial and Error

19. Students as Problem Solvers… But May Need Guidance • Vol 23(1), 223-227. …. huh? • “I’ve been searching Google since I was like, three. I don’t need to learn how to search anything else.” • “This article must be from a trustworthy, scholarly source because it has a graph in it.” • “If someone put it online in the first place, they must not care if I copy and paste it into my presentation.” Leave the tools to them, but provide guidance on core Information Literacy concepts.

20. Challenges and Rewards • Rewards in a video game context… keep you seeking, probing and hypothesizing • Researching rewards... When you search well, you get good results … in Google … in a $150,000, scholarly database It is not enough to teach them to find …. we must teach them to think.

21. Works Cited • Iannuzzi, P. (1998). Faculty development and information literacy: Establishing campus partnerships. Reference Services Review, 26(3), 97-102. • Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you. New York: Riverhead Books. • Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information literacy competency Standards for higher education. Retrieved February 1, 2010 from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm