Author Archives: Heather Hersey

I recently watched a video of Daniel Pink discussing his book, Drive, with a group at my school to discuss its implications for education, which, of course, led me to think about its implications for student research.  As Pink explains, studies indicate that extrinsic rewards only work if the task is above “rudimentary cognitive skills” — “for simple, straightforward tasks…tasks that are algorithmic, a set of rules where you have to just follow along and get a right answer.”  We all know that true research or inquiry is the polar opposite of this type of task.  No matter how many processes we create to explain the process of inquiry (Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process, Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s Big6, Stripling’s Model of Inquiry and many more) even those frameworks acknowledge that it is not a linear process; it’s messy and murky and a perfect example of the type of task that Pink describes as needing “conceptual, creative thinking.”  Yet, even with the incredible opportunity that an inquiry project provides; I still hear students say that they’ve done this before “tons of times.”  They describe it as a hurdle…something they have to get through for the class.  These descriptions definitely don’t scream intrinsic motivation, but I believe we can change that.  

Firstly, there might be some issue with the tasks we assign and how we label them.  When I was still teaching English, I realized that I was using the term research for both smaller reporting projects and an extended inquiry project when they are quite different tasks and involve far different skills.  As Carol Gordon explains,

The research assignment acts as a reporting exercise when student involvement is limited to information gathering, which is usually demonstrated by reading, taking notes, and writing a summary. Reporting has masqueraded as researching for so long that the terms are used interchangeably.

For example, when students were doing brief reports on historical aspects of a novel to help their understanding before reading it, I called that research.  When I was expecting them to do in-depth inquiry that required skills such as the development of their own topic and questions, the synthesizing of multiple sources, and the creation of an original argument, I still called it research.  Though this might seem like a small distinction, it shouldn’t surprise me that students began working on the in-depth research project in the same way as the report – building lists of facts from a source and moving on.  They didn’t realize that the in-depth research project required skills extending far beyond those of reporting until we did some explicit lessons and scaffolding assignments geared toward breaking out of “reporting mode.”  However, this is just one thing we can learn from Drive; next time, we’ll look closely at the factors Pink describes as leading “to the better performance, not to mention personal satisfaction” and how those can relate to research. 

Gordon, Carol. “Students As Authentic Researchers: A New Prescription for the High School Research Assignment.” American Association of School Librarians. American Library Association, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Pink, Daniel. “RSA Animate – Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.” RSA Animate. N.p., 8 Apr. 2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.

Cross-posted on Flying Off the Shelf

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”

– Francis Bacon “Of Studies”

Francis Bacon knew what he was talking about!  He realized that reading and writing were simply not enough.  Conferring was the step that he put at the middle like a bridge between taking in ideas and creating our own.  But what has happened to that bridge in schools?  Sometimes it is misperceived as cheating among students or providing too much assistance if the conference is with a faculty member, but even in schools that encourage it, conferring is sometimes overlooked as an important research process tool.

This is my second year doing research conferences with our junior US History/American Studies students.  One of the main goals of the conference is modeling how to attack a difficult research task.  As you would expect, each research conference is different because they come to us at different parts of the process and with different skills.  It involves a lot of deep questioning and investigating on our end…kind of like a doctor’s visit.  Students often have tunnel vision when it comes to research, so we model approaches to various research skills that students may not traditionally take.  We may focus on strategies for narrowing topics, finding varied levels of sources, or connecting ideas.  The result is an email of the sources we found together and discussions we had so the teacher can see where the student is.  It also allows us to clarify some of the comments we make about their citations.

Initially, I thought the conferences would be all about sources and search strategies, but as I do more of them, I see that several students need scaffolding for how to approach the assignment.  I find myself asking more (and hopefully better) questions of the teachers regarding the assignment itself, so I can help direct students.

This time we asked students to send us the following in an email beforehand and then used their response to prep for the meeting.  This brief email also served as a way to gage their progress so far.

Tell me about your topic, including how it has developed/changed since you wrote your proposal.  Then tell me a bit about the information you have found so far, which sources have been most helpful, and what types of information you still need to look for or have been unable to find.

I have to admit that I really let myself go astray several times during this round of conferences.  I got caught up with being a “source superhero” instead of ensuring that the conferences were just as much about skills and strategies that can transfer to other projects.  I became too focused on speedily providing cool sources and content.  The tension between giving students great sources for a project and providing them with skills and strategies for the current project and the next is a dilemma we will always have, especially with our time-stretched teens.  However, next time, I am committed to making sure students do the majority of the searching, keeping my question-asking stance, and focusing on skills and strategies that they can use on any future research task.

Recently, a group of my colleagues and I read Brain Rules by John Medina.  It was a fascinating book filled with practical implications.  This year, thanks to my colleague, Janelle Hagen, I also learned how to use Camtasia and combine it with animation tools like GoAnimate.  Inspired by the flipped classroom movement, the library team decided to focus on creating tutorial videos.  I was excited by the fact that teachers could assign a video for homework, have students take our quiz, and instantly get feedback on how much support they need for this topic.  However, after reading Brain Rules, the use of videos in the library curriculum encourages me for a different reason.

In the chapter titled “Sensory Integration (Rule #9),” Medina urges educators to “stimulate more of the senses.”  He refers to the work of cognitive psychologist, Richard Mayer, which shows that students learn better when information is given through two modes (i.e. sight and hearing) versus one.  Not only did students have better recall but it also lasted longer (208). Two of Mayer’s other findings made me feel like we were on the right track with our videos.  According to Medina, Mayer’s work has shown that

“Students learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.”

“Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text”  (210).

Though I have a long way to go in my video creation skills, this research has strengthened my resolve to make quality videos with engaging animations and narrations that students can then watch and re-watch if necessary.  This can also free up time for the library team to meet with students more frequently to focus on the process of research rather than the features of it (e.g. in-text citations, how to find preformatted citations).  They can also serve as a precursor to concepts that require more critical thinking, such as paraphrasing and evaluating sources.   Videos and their accompanying quizzes can provide an overview of basic content and check for understanding, so librarians will know where students are and what to cover during our precious time in class with students.

Though they take a long time to create, the promise of library videos to improve student learning makes them worth it.  Too see our current collection of videos both created by us and by the companies of the products we use, see our LibGuide.  You can also see all of our “homemade” videos on our Vimeo channel.

Recently, I saw Cory Doctorow speak at Elliot Bay Books in Seattle.  (A similar reading was filmed at Word in Brooklyn.)  He was promoting his new novel, Pirate Cinema, which starts with a boy who loses Internet access for his entire family because he is making mash-ups of copyrighted movies.  If this sounds like an incredible piece of fiction, think again.  Doctorow discussed the The Digital Economy Act in England and how his novel represents a scenario that could easily become reality.

But we’re fine in the USA, right?  The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was defeated after all!  Not so fast…Doctorow warns us not to be complacent.  Firstly, SOPA was postponed not completely defeated, and there has been other legislation introduced similar to it.  Secondly, Doctorow brought to my attention a new initiative from The Center for Copyright Information, “a collaborative effort between U.S. content creators in the movie and music industries and leading” Internet Service Providers.  Getting surprisingly little attention given the uproar over SOPA, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) is

“part of a progressive educational system to help subscribers understand the significance of protecting copyright in the digital environment, to advise them about the importance of avoiding inadvertent or intentional online distribution of copyrighted content, and to suggest legal ways to obtain digital content.”

This is just one of many alert systems being instituted around the globe.  Wikipedia provides an overview of these various “graduated response” systems.  The US system “applies to peer-to-peer file sharing of digital copyrighted content.  It does not address other possible forms of online copyright infringement involving the downloading or streaming of copyrighted content.”

In our the meme-saturated, mash-up world, young people need to be aware of these issues not only so they can protect themselves but also so they can protect their rights.  As Cory Doctorow explains on his website while discussing why he recently altered his Creative Commons license to include “NoDerivs:”

“Copyright gives you, the public, rights. Fair use is real. Fair dealing is real. De minimum exemptions to copyright are real. You have the right to make all sorts of uses of all copyrighted works, without permission, without Creative Commons licenses.

Rights are like muscles. When you don’t exercise them, they get flabby. Stop asking for stuff you can take without permission. Please!”

Copyright is not a standard part of a school curriculum.  There might be lessons about finding copyright free images and music, and I’ve had discussions with students about Creative Commons.  Librarians are often charged with policing or being able to provide answers about legality rather than being asked to teach the reasoning skills that are required for a law that should not be treated as black and white.  To truly grasp the concept of copyright, students need opportunities to look at case studies, discuss with others, reflect on their own uses of information, and do a lot of practice thinking through real applications of fair use.  Cory Doctorow clearly believes that if we don’t use it, we’ll lose it, but we have to understand it first.

I love databases like JSTOR and Academic Search Premier; however, they are quite expensive.  With a growing number of online courses like those provided by the Global Online Academy, which hosts students from a variety of schools with varying levels of access, finding free scholarly sources is more important than ever.  This month, Joyce Valenza wrote about this issue on her blog, NeverEndingSearch.  In a post titled “New tricks for academics,” she discusses changes to Google Scholar, a rediscovery of Microsoft’s Academic Search, and the connective power of Mendeley.  Today, a new academic source appeared in my inbox.  According to the email,

Academic Room is an online platform that was conceived at Harvard as an independent initiative to facilitate multidisciplinary engagements among scholars and researchers around the world. Our mission is to democratize access to scholarly resources, which are organized in over 10,000 academic sub-disciplines. We share the conviction that easy and unimpeded access to quality educational resources should be a right and not a privilege. Our platform allows academics, researchers and students to create highly specialized portals for their subfields. These portals can be enriched with professional directories, scholar profiles, video lectures, bibliographies, journal articles, books, reviews, images, ancient manuscripts and audio recordings.  Scholars can now promote their work to a much larger audience than allowed by traditional channels.

Even without registering, a user has access to a variety of multimedia.  A quick look at the “History of North America” page reveals full text articles such as “Psychological Warfare in Vietnam” by James O. Whittaker and videos like “Malcolm X interview at UC Berkeley (Oct. 11, 1963).”  A quick search for “civil war” finds 752 items including lectures, books, reviews, and bibliographies.  Academic Room and other scholarly search portals are more than just repositories of information because they add the opportunity to create scholar profiles.  As Valenza notes, there is great potential for them to “become an interesting source for discovering experts, for assessing authority, and for identifying relationships among research and researchers.”  Not only are some of the walls coming down around scholarly sources, but these tools are also creating powerful paths for us to travel as we research.