ICT in Libraries – Social Media Online Communication and Collaboration Units

Check out the interactive poster here – http://bit.ly/ZkQ4R4

Find out more about the Social Media Units of the Professional Development Award for ICT in Libraries qualification delivered by Coleg Llandrillo Library.

If you previously took part in the ICTL before these units were added, please GET IN TOUCH!

Find out what our previous learners said about the course….

 

Foundation Degree Tweet-up!

Monday 18th February – Set your Twitter accounts to Stun!

Learners on the Library Foundation Degree courses in Grwp Llandrillo Menai and Glyndwr University are linking up for the whole week through Twitter – sharing, advising, supporting and ultimately helping each group explore the possibilities of Social Media for collaboration and professional development.

Using the hashtag #FDLIB Glyndwr learners will be completing their ‘Group Work in a Week’ project to develop a marketing campaign for World Book Night. You can also follow contributions from @LlandrilloLib and @glynlib

This is hopefully the first of many Tweet-ups Library Foundation Degree course learners can take part in to link across the region and work collaboratively to see the benefits of Social Media for study, work and life! We’ll be keeping track of the conversation here and on Storify, so if you can’t access Twitter during work you can still contribute.

Good luck out there!

Healthworks Collective

HealthCare SocialMedia Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in health care social media.  It is a peer-reviewed blog carnival; the host of each edition decides which of the posts submitted for consideration are suitable for inclusion.

Want your learners to be more independent? – Information Literacy Doing Overtime

At the RSC North West ‘Want your learners to be more independent?’ event I felt I had my eyes well and truly opened to the benefits of, and dare I say it, the necessity of embedding information literacy skills into learning provision – whatever form that provision that may take.

Anthony Beal and Hilary Thomas (RSC) asked us to start thinking about what our definition of  ‘Critical Thinking’ and ‘Independent Learner’ might actually be. Cue much head scratching and pen waving, but ultimately many similar ideas from a mixed group of tutors/librarians/learning support officers. Critical thinking suggestions included the ability to analyse, compare, contrast and assess information in a more in-depth way. An independent learner has a myriad of traits – motivated, self directed, responsible, reflective, engaged and (crucially) intrinsically motivated by making progress.

The term Information Literacy itself was queried – are teachers/tutors familiar with this term too – does it have meaning outside of the research or information professional’s toolkit? If you walked into a classroom and asked “hands up anyone who’s information literate”, would you be met with blank stares? And not only because you’re a raving stranger that’s just walked into their classroom……..

Deborah Millar and Joanna Neil from Blackburn College gave great insight into the uses and benefits of social media tools including Pintrest, Tumblr and Scoopit and how these sites help to support their learners to study, expore, research and reflect on the regular feedback they can offer as tutors. But their talk also gave us more to think about regarding the role of a tutor/teacher as ‘expert’ and the understanding of true collaboration within a students learning journey. It set us on the path to question our role titles and how that might affect provision (division of support) and also who ‘owns’ knowledge or information within an institution.

This insight paved the way for a talk by  Jane Secker and Emma Coonan, which was a quickfire but insightful overview of ‘A New Curriculum for Information Literacy ‘ (ANCIL) project, which they had both developed during their secondment to the Arcadia Project  -exploring the role of academic libraries in a digital age. While the main focus of the project was Higher Education, there were significant, transferable conclusions and new ways of thinking about Information Literacy that relate to the Public Library and Schools stream of the Welsh Information Literacy project. The Institution Audit Worksheet especially enabled the group to start discussing and investiagting who currently has responsibility for supporting students develop their IL skills in our organisations, broken down by strands including becoming an independent learner or resource discovery. When you really look at learner support provision in this way, it becomes clear quickly that in many cases several departments/staff groups are involved and not everyone collaborates to make it a seamless experience for learners.

I think this training day was the first opportunity I’ve had to really THINK about Information Literacy and make meaningful connections to help categorise or attempt to lasso all the different approaches in order to spread the word and support our advocacy activities. I feel it’s important to re-visit this question with a new WILP project team and also as we are approaching lots of new stakeholders who are encountering this for the first time.

Is it a concept, an ethos, a skillset, a scheme of learning, a framework? Well, yes to all – but also a pathway, a continuum, a cyclical process of learning, exploring and reflecting to enable people to cope with the demands of whatever information context they find themselves in.  Before we get too metaphysical here, I think the point I’m trying to make is that the question should really be “Am I information literate right now?” – do I have the information skills necessary to help me to be insightful and successful for my challenges today? And to make sure we ask ourselves and ask this question of our learners regularly. There are a set of identifiable skills, yes but potentially infinite levels of skill development – there is no ‘end point’.

We need to move away from thinking about Information Literacy as a set of finite, tick box competancies – definable, yes, measurable, yes but continually evolving. However, when we start talking about accreditation, impact and measurement there is a danger of falling into the trap of “right, you’ve done the test. You’re information literate now, put that in your PDP and off you go”. Embedding information literacy into our services and user/learner support should be about enabling a generation of life long learners – is that happening in your organisation?

You can contact the Welsh Information Literacy Project Team at wilp@llandrillo.ac.uk or on Twitter @welsh_info_lit

Living Books About Life

Living Books About Life is a collection of open access, curated books connecting the humanities and the sciences; funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and published by Open Humanities Press (OHP)

This series is an ongoing collaboration process of writing, editing, updating, remixing and commenting by readers.

Living Books About Life includes interactive maps, visualisations, podcasts and audio visual material.

The History of the Crusades

The following online resource was collected by Manchester University and lists a number of links covering all four crusades! Some of the links are dead but, there are still some very good free resources produced or hosted by universities and colleges.

Read extracts from historical documents written during the period of the crusades and accounts of the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin. 

Also, the library subscribes to the BBC History Magazine that this month contains an article by Thomas Asbridge who’s three-part series The Crusades is now on BBC 2. Back issues of magazines and journals can be taken out on loan; just ask at the library counter.

We also have the following books in stock! Click on the icons for readers reviews.  

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

JISC Collection

The JISC Collection provides various links to digital collections that cover areas such as history, social sciences, science and engineering.

 Try exploring the timeline:

Peer e-guide (Digital Literacy) Project

 

 

Coleg Llandrillo Library and Learning Technology Service are looking for students who will be offered training and support in the use of the college ICT network, Moodle, e-safety, Web 2.0 tools and searching the internet effectively.

Role of Peer e-guide

Peer e-guides will be offered a range of training and support to raise their awareness and knowledge of Digital Literacy eg accessing e-resources, use of the College ICT network, e-safety, Web 2.0 tools and searching the internet.

• Peer e-guides will act as a point of contact for other learners on the same course for informal advice on ICT/information skills.

• Peer e-guides will primarily promote the support available within the College in relation to ICT/information skills eg support and training sessions offered by the Library & Learning Technology Service and learning materials on Moodle.

• Peer e-guides will NOT be expected to train other students

Training and support will be provided in the following areas:

• Using the College ICT network
• Effective use of Moodle
• Finding and using information
• Safe use of the internet
• Educational use of Web 2.0 tools eg blogs, wikis, etc

Peer e-guides will be required to:

• Attend an introductory briefing session
• Complete a short ICT skills questionnaire
• Attend one or more of the core training sessions offered

What’s in it for the e-guides?

• Looks good on CV
• Improved ICT skills
• Possibility of gaining extra qualifications

Call in to the library for further details or email library1@llandrillo.ac.uk

Autology – Student Prize!

Autology Award

 Jenna Jefferson a BTEC Science student has received a merit award for her effective use of the Autology online resource, for the month of November 2010. 

She has made excellent use of the over £3000 worth of resources that are available to each student who has access to Autology.

Jenna said ‘She has found the Autology resource very useful for her course work”. Jenna is pictured below receiving her certificate and prize from Library Manager Dr Andrew Eynon.

  Autology is the world’s first ‘Sat Nav for Study, created for students aged 11-18. It is used by students in College and at home, at their own pace, to improve their results – helping with coursework and revision.

Autology combines a unique Online Library, filled with thousands of high-quality resources for students with intelligent, pro-active Research Assistant Tools that help students instantly access all the relevant information they need

Anti-Bullying Week at Coleg Llandrillo

 

This week is Anti-Bullying Week nationwide – how are you involved?

Coleg Llandrillo ILS and IT@B students will be selling BeatBullying wristbands in the heartspace today – get yours to support the cause. You can also get them at the Student Union shop on campus.

 Beat BullyingUK has started their Big March campaign – join up to spead the word and get access to some great resources

 Cybermentors is a online support forum when young people can support others who are the victims of bullying

 

 Don’t forget – the College Student Welfare team have specially trained mentors to help you if you are being bullied and also with any other concerns and challenges you might face during your time here.

**You can get more information on E-Safety and Fighting Cyberbullying on the College Moodle pages**