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"Penn State University education professor Maryellen Weimer
urged academic librarians to shift from "covering content" to using that
content to teach skills and inspire learning. Weimer addressed her comments to those who teach information literacy skills in the classroom as well as to those doing one-on-one work with students in the library. Her message ranged from how to hold the attention of 18-year-olds to educational philosophy, suggesting that librarians serve as a coach or midwife in instruction sessions, "to be there at the birth of learning."
"She offered several practical suggestions on how to hold student
attention. Have students summarize what they have learned, Weimer suggested, by reviewing notes and talking to others. Promote active learning by having them suggest test questions. These activities are especially useful at
the end of an instruction period, when student attention lapses. Weimer also
suggested that librarians involve students more by sharing key
decisions and offering more choices in "ethically responsible" ways. For example, offering assignment choices (paper, project, or exam), but with hard due dates.
"Especially when it comes to learning information skills, stress more
than grades by talking about careers. Where course credit is involved,
however, she urged instructors not grade on a curve but to "set absolute
standards."
"With the explosion of available content, teaching as a transfer of
information is a model that is past its prime, Weimer posited, noting
that everything simply cannot be taught, and that therefore content should be used to "build a knowledge base" and to develop learning skills and
learner self-awareness. "Teach as a way to promote better learning, not better teaching," she said, urging instructors to teach the development of
lifelong skills, such as information retrieval and evaluation" (LJ Academic Newswire, Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 via email).
ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS HELP DEVELOP ETS LITERACY ASSESSMENT TOOL
Information literacy is a key issue, but assessing the information skills of
students has been a vexing problem. Thanks to work done by a group of colleges and universities since 2003, the Educational Testing Service (ETS),
Princeton, NJ, has launched the first-of-its-kind literacy assessment tool, a simulation-based testing program that measures students' problem-solving
abilities within a technological environment. The tool, on display at
ALA, was designed with help from a core team of librarians and faculty from
eight institutions that worked with ETS to help review, plan, design, and
test the many scenarios included in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment tool. Specifically, it measures how a student defines, accesses, manages, integrates, evaluates, creates and
communicates information in a technological environment.
"For a demo, visit: http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy/demo.html "(LJ Academic Newswire, Sent: Tuesday, July 05, 2005 via email).
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