Evaluation and Reflection

Social Technology for Information Professionals – Evaluative Statement

In evaluating my learning over the entirety of the course I feel that the essence of what I learned breaks down into three general categories. The role of the Internet and social technologies in people's lives. The role of social media and the Internet as a tool for education, and the policies and issues regarding the use of social media and information technology. My point of view is as a high school librarian and as an individual.

In my very first post, March 7^th, http://mellowlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html I discussed my belief that social technologies equaled global communication and global communication equaled a global community. While I still believe that statement, I think I understand why that is true more fully now. I remarked in a more recent post that humans live in a dual world now, the physical and the online. The Internet and social technologies like Facebook and Twitter have become ubiquitous. People cannot succeed in our current incarnation without an online presence. On online presence is required to succeed in higher education and the business world. Perhaps I am late to this trend but I've recently come to believe that it's necessary to stop viewing social media as a tool (which it is) but instead as an intrinsic part of everyday life. That means that we are required to govern our online behavior in the same manner we govern our behavior in the physical realm. I always viewed, and I think many others did too, that the Internet was a platform for anonymous communication. It was a place where people could express themselves freely without fear of being “discovered.” That view of the Internet is now completely false. The Internet is highly transparent and visible. We may post our comments from the privacy of our living room couch but our presence on the web is none the less immediate and tangible. There was a time when our private information, such as physical address, etc. was inaccessible to the people we encountered on the web, now that information is available to anyone willing to pay a small fee or expend some effort in research and investigation. In some ways, we are all sitting in each others living room right now.

According to the video Did You Know 4.0 YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace receive 250 million visitors per month. According to the slide show Welcome to the New Media World by Oxiem, “73% of American teenagers ages 12 to 17 have used an online social network. 86% of teenagers post comments and create posts to their friends.” “1/3 of employees don't think about what their boss of customers might think before posting material online.” Essentially, social media technologies are flourishing whether an individual chooses to participate or not. Therefore, as educators and librarians, it has become essential for us to use, understand, and teach our students how to become and remain good digital citizens. Because we are indeed all digital citizens.

As educators it is imperative that we teach our students how to be good digital citizens just as we teach them to be good citizens in the more traditional sense. It is also imperative that we teach our students to take full advantage of all the resources that the Internet and social media have to offer. We must strive to provide students with as much open access as possible and we must protect their rights to the same freedom of information that we adults enjoy. With both of these directives comes a lot of responsibility. In my April blog posts, http://mellowlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

I discussed the various advantages and useful tools of web 2.0 technologies. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on the necessity of a good library website. One of the reasons for a good library site is about marketing, we need to establish a presence in our community to stay relevant. Librarians have

a wish to establish ourselves as interdisciplinary experts with regard to information literacy;

a desire to be the center on campus for conversations about the evolving information environment; and a continued focus on collaboration with others across campus. (Pressley, 1).

Because information is so easily accessed by anyone with a computer and an Internet connection it is even more important for librarians to teach students how to find, analyze, and thing critically about the information they are seeking. It's not enough to find an article on Wikipedia, our students need to be able to trust themselves to determine if the source is trustworthy. Librarians need to also continue their own professional development to find and learn to use new and interesting technologies that can support our students education now and in the future. The use of Facebook as a meeting place to have conversations about a class, the creation of Wiki's, blogs, and other content is common now but will become synonymous with education in the near future. Librarians, as information experts, are uniquely positioned to help our students. Because the Internet is so ubiquitous and important the responsibility of use is also huge. Embracing web 2.0 technologies in the classroom can allow librarians to develop meaningful collaborative experiences in the classroom. The American Association of School Librarians recently issued new information literacy standards:

The new AASL Standards for the 21st-Century learner (AASL, 1–7) identify four purposes for which learners use skills, resources, and tools:

1. To inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge
2. To draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge
3. To share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society
4. Pursue personal and aesthetic growth.
   

The new standards are an attempt to affirm that library education encompasses multiple literacies of which web 2.0 and social media technologies are two.

The last category is the development of policies surrounding social media and web 2.0 technologies for libraries specifically and schools generally. Some of my more recent blog posts deal with the necessity of a social media policy in libraries in general, and school library's specifically. http://mellowlibrarian.blogspot.com/2011/06/drafting-social-media-policy.html

Policies should be developed by a cross-departmental group. They should be specific and unambiguous. All policies should be approved by legal counsel. Policies are meant to establish community expectations and responsibilities bearing directly upon the behavior of community members online. Policies also protect the organization and the individual. Policies should address issues of privacy and First Amendment rights as well as spell out unacceptable behavior and the consequences of engaging in unacceptable behavior. After a policy is established, all employees, and students should be trained. It is necessary that we arm our students and employees with the knowledge required to utilize web 2.0 tools effectively and responsibly.

Citations:

Needham, Joyce. "Meeting the New AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner via Big6 Problem Solving." Library Media Connection 28.6 (2010): 42-3. Library Lit & Inf Full Text. Web. 10 June 2011.

Pressley, Lauren, and Kevin Gilbertson. "Librarians as experts: Using the Web to assert our value." Computers in Libraries 31.4 (2011): 19-23. Library Lit & Inf Full Text. Web. 9 June 2011.

Reflective statement:

This has been a difficult class for me. The subject matter was really interesting and important but the entirely online format proved challenging. I had a great deal of trouble staying on track and I allowed my admittedly busy life get in the way of my focus on this course. I did however, learn a tremendous amount.

I wouldn't have called myself a skeptic in regards to the importance of social media when I began the course but I definitely did not understand the far reaching implications of web 2.0 in my life and my students right now and in the future. Because I came of age without the Internet, I've maintained a fairly old school attitude. I've mostly viewed Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as entertainment sites and not as intrinsic to communication as they actually are. As a librarian, I am on the web all day long – accessing Google, and various research databases and primarily I've considered those two 2.0 tools as the necessary ones to my profession. Facebook remained(s) a site that I visit in my free time and occasionally update my status or comment on other peoples content. But I have noticed a slow creep of other web 2.0 technologies into my daily life. I've started, without intention really, reading various blogs on a daily basis to remain informed about stuff happening in the library world. I've subscribed to several RSS feeds to receive my daily news. These things slowly crept into my daily life as a natural progression of my information seeking. If someone, like myself, who grew up on the cusp of digital life has noticed this “infiltration” how important are these technologies to my students who haven't known a life without them? Obviously the answer is very.

As my understanding of social technologies has grown through out the course I've come to realize that the digital world and the physical world not only exist side by side but are now inextricably woven together. I won't say that doesn't freak me out a little, but the other part of me finds it really exciting. I feel that, in a truly idealistic sense, that as our global community expands the distance between all of us,whether that distance is geographic, or cultural will slowly dissipate and we will truly all become part of the same global citizenry. Perhaps if we are all part of the same global community we will begin treating each other with more respect and consideration. I said it was idealistic! But... in all seriousness, because I do believe that my students will become part of a global community it becomes even more important to teach them to become good digital citizens. They must come to accept that what they post on the Internet has an impact on everyone who views that post. We must teach them to respect their own privacy and that of others. We must impart the importance of copyright and fair use and we must update their knowledge as the rules develop. We need to teach students to use good judgment and to accept responsibility for the content they create. We need to help them share their true authentic selves and not hide behind false pretenses. We need to teach them to be safe and how to identify possible threats as well as employ critical thinking skills whether developing relationships or seeking information. We need to teach students to consider their audience and ask themselves whether or not their mom or their boss might see posted content and how that might impact their future. We also need to encourage our students to remain active seekers of information and to develop new and creative ways to use the Internet. Their discoveries can benefit the entire world.

Social technologies are changing our world in ways that we cannot imagine and it is truly exciting. Libraries have traditionally been the repositories of information but now we are right in the middle of an information revolution. Libraries can and so still store information but we can also be creators of information as well as help our students and patrons be creators of information. The level of collaboration that we can engage in as a global community is dizzying. The potential for collaborating with someone an entire continent away that you've never met and creating scholarship that impacts the entire world is not only possible but is already happening right now, probably right this very second. Listening to the radio this afternoon, I heard about a new program through the Smithsonian Institute where someone out for a walk can take a picture of a leaf and upload it to a server where a computer program will analyze the leaf and then tell the photographer what kind of tree that leaf is from. This is amazing on a lot of levels – not only does the individual learn something about the natural world that they didn't know but the scientist also learns somethings. They learn that some particular kind of tree is growing in this particular place and at this certain time of year. As more and more people start to use this service the scientists will have quantifiable data that they can use to understand what plants are growing where and when. Overtime they can track that information and get real-time information regarding trends in vegetation growth, cycles, and climate patterns. This one simple collaborative program has far-reaching implications that aren't even quantifiable yet. To me, this web 2.0 technology is a good example of the potential of all web 2.0 technologies. This is a really exciting world we're living in and every day if becomes more apparent what a privileged position being a librarian is. We are on the cutting edge of this developing digital world and we are education the citizens that will go forth and continue to change our world.

Social media policy annotated links

Protection, Not Barriers: Using Social Software Policies to Guide and Safeguard Students and Employees
Protection, Not Barriers 
 This article was written by Sarah K. Steiner and Brian K. Kooy and published in Reference & Users Services Quarterly. The authors, having recently written a social media policy for the University of Georgia, wanted to share their learning experiences because they both felt that academic librarians have been using social networking services and sites for the purpose of improving services to patrons for a long time but very little attention has been paid to drafting social networking policies. 


Libraries and Social Media
Libraries and Social Media 
The focus of this article published in Information Outlook, is on the legal reasons libraries should have a social media policy in place. Brian M.Carson believes that the issue of copyright and privacy laws. His concern is that the legal implications of the use of new technologies like Facebook and Twitter are based on old laws drafted long before social networking technologies and the Internet existed. He therefore, strongly suggests that libraries have social networking policies in place and that any existing policies should be carefully reviewed.


Librarians and Teen Privacy in the Age of Social Networking
Librarians and Teen Privacy 
This article by Nancy Kranich, published in Knowledge Quest an AASL publication focuses specifically in policies protecting teenagers right to online privacy. In the interest of providing teens safe access to the Internet, librarians should know and understand their rights and students rights under state and federal law. Librarians are defenders of the First Amendment and therefore it is necessary to draft policies regarding students rights to freedom of information and privacy for their and the libraries protection. It also recommends that libraries frequently review and update their policies to make sure that new and developing technologies are covered.

Hudson High School Social Networking policy  
Hudson High School of Learning Technologies (02M437)
351 W 18th Street New York, NY 10011  
http://www.hudsonhs.com/social-networking-policy 
I've included this social networking policy as an example of what should not be done. This is a reactionary policy drafted out of fear. From what I gather from the preamble (this was sent as an email to parents of students) the school was having a problem with bullying via Facebook. The school chose to crack down and ban the usage of Facebook rather than educating the students about responsible use. Perhaps their intent is to teach responsiblity and digital citizenship but I can't tell that from the policy. Aside from the reactionary banning of Facebook this policy is also bad because it's called a social networking policy but only addresses the use of Facebook. 

Bishop Lynch 
Ferguson Rd., Dallas, Texas 75228

http://www.bishoplynch.org/netcommunity/page.aspx?pid=1771 
This is an example of a really good social media policy. The first thing they do is to outline why they have a policy, and the purpose and intent of the policy. From the tone, the culture of the school is explicit and the high standard they expect their community to live up to is also very clear. The policy then extends into general community wide expectations and then is further broken down into faculty expectations and student expectations. The document is clear and open and doesn't allow for very much ambiguity. This is a policy I would feel comfortable adopting in my own library.

Drafting a social media policy

Developing a social media policy for an organization requires several steps. Creating a team to develop the policy, what to include in the policy, determining what behavioral expectations are in your community. According to the literature - 1/3 of employees in the U.S. don't think about what their boss or customers might think of what they post online. 73% of American teens ages 12-17 used an online social network and 86% of teens regularly post comments. Cleary social media policies are a necessity. So, first organizing a team to develop the policy:
1. Create a cross-departmental team.
2. Determine how employees, students, or other members of your organization are using social media.
3. Decide what the purpose of your policy is.
4. Develop an overall philosophy regarding the use of social media
5. Review existing company policies

Developing the policy:
1. Use a wiki platform to write the policy, that way it can be updated or changed easily.
2. Be really specific - develop acceptable use guidelines for a variety of platforms like blogging, Facebook, Twitter and other micro-blogging services.
3. Establish clear guidelines for both professional and personal posts.
4. Focus on user behaviors and what they can do rather than what they cannot.
5. Institute employee/staff/faculty training on social media across the entire organization or community.

Basic social media expectations/guidelines (this could be a lot more than 5)
1. Use good judgment
2. Be yourself
3. Respect copyright & post accurate information
4. Accept responsibility for your posts and content
5. Be respectful of other individuals & don't share secrets.

Social media policies should be very specific to the institution that creates them. There is no one size fits all policy and organizations shouldn't adopt one they find. Legal counsel should be consulted when drafting a policy. All people who use social media should use common sense and the same goes for drafting a policy. Focus on what people can do rather than what they can't. If possible keep the policy simple and easy to understand. Make sure everyone in your organization understands the policy implicitly. Social media is not going away, it is only going to become more ubiquitous. The lines between professional lives and personal lives are growing ever thinner, therefore it is necessary for every organization that uses social medis or has employees who use social media to develop a policy.

take home message

   It's difficult to narrow my learning to only two take home messages but I'll suggest two because I think they encompass the topic of digital citizenship and the 2.0 world. The first is that the limits of what school librarians are responsible to teach their students extend far beyond the academic. The skills we teach: critical thinking, research, the ethical use of information, privacy, safety to name a few are as important in the world outside of the classroom as they are in the classroom. Traditionally the tools we utilized in the classroom and the safe use of them remained in the classroom. The advent of the Internet has changed that and classroom tools, ie: the Internet have become life tools. Therefore, our responsibility is ever greater and has farther reaching repercussions. We must teach students how to find information, we must teach them how to create information, and we must teach them how to responsibly use information. These three simple things have far reaching consequences and are far more complicated to teach than the words may imply. I like this quote from the Lorenzo article because I think it articulates a librarian's responsibility very well.
                            In a 2.0 approach, information literacy instruc-
                            tion is integrated across the curriculum. The
                            library serves as an instructional center on
                            campus and as the hub for a campus-wide com-
                            mitment to preparing students with the infor-
                            mation skills needed for success in the 21st
                            century.
http://www.edpath.com/images/IFReport2.pdf

The second lesson is that the digital world exists along side our physical world and online identities are just as important as our physical identities are. We are living simultaneously in two worlds and that means our responsibilities as educators and individuals are doubled. It's also necessary that we recognize online identity is absolutely crucial to the success of ourselves and our students. In order to succeed in the future, our students must have an online presence that they manage skillfully and well. What all of this boils down too is the need to recognize our digital citizenship which is also a global citizenship. The traditional definition of citizenship is: to be a member of a community. Being a member of a community connotes that we understand and accept that our actions have an effect on the others in our community groups. Digital citizenship, though invisible, connotes that our online actions have an effect on the other members of our digital community and in fact probably has a much farther reaching consequence considering the millions of people willingly participating in this online community. The tricky part of digital citizenship is it's invisibility, it can be hard to remember in the moment that what you're putting out there millions of people will be able to see. The relationship feels much more personal than it actually is. Teaching students the ethical use of information is imperative to the health of our digital communities.

Social networks and privacy

As I've said in previous posts, as a high school librarian I am very concerned with the safety and digital footprint of my students. It is anathema to me to live my life so completely online as they do, the idea of sharing what I did last night, what my friends did, what I drank, what I ate, who I don't like, who I love, who I'm mad at etc. etc. I grew up in an era where we only shared these things with close friend groups and we probably shared the information either online or by telephone both venues of relatively private communication. However, the way my students view their social lives is completely different. These students have never lived without the Internet. The Internet to them, is a natural form of communication as the telephone was to us in the 1980's and 1990's. Therefore their view of privacy and communication is entirely different which doesn't make it wrong. As stated in the Wikidentities article by Mallan and Giardina, our students are concerned about their privacy but they employ "privacy pragmatism" meaning that they are willing to trade some of their privacy for something good. They want to participate in the online community - in fact if they don't participate in an online community they are shut out of most of their peers lives. Having an online presence is the new norm. That means that it is OK with them if a friend of a friend finds out that they got drunk last night and they don't neccessarily mind if 2 billion people find out that they broke up with "Bobby" last night. They are aware of the necessity of using the available privacy settings offered by Facebook and other SNS's. They are aware, perhaps even more so than we adults, that these settings are not impervious.  What we need to teach them is to be more aware of what they are personally posting within the context of those privacy settings. Teens remain impulsive so we need to focus on helping them monitor their own impulsivity in postings. We need to discuss issues like posting sexually suggestive pictures, pictures of themselves intoxicated or doing drugs, posting phone #'s or personal email accounts and other issues like these. We cannot tell them not to live their lives in such an open way - they've already drunk the kool-aid and it's not going to change - trying to change theit attitude is not going to succeed and we'll just be wasting valuable time that we could spend helping them to simply be more reflective about their posts and the potential repercussions of what they've posted. It's also important that we teach them to respect others privacy and discourage creeping, posting stuff on their friends pages and other activities that might infringe on someone else's privacy. We need to teach them that privacy is a two-way street. School's also need to develop policies that deal with issues of creeping, hacking, etc. Because teens are impulsive we need to set up safety nets o protect them as much as possible while they are learning to become good digital citizens. We need to allow them the space to practice and make mistakes - learning from mistakes will help them become practical users of these sites which is what we want. Limiting their access doesn't work - it just forces them to be subversive and dishonest. We must maintain an honest and open communication regarding Internet and social networkign use.  Lastly, we need to be mindful of our own digital footprints and practice what we preach. Schools need to establish a social networking policy around SNS's and being friends with students on these sites. It is for our own protection.

Privacy and Acceptable online use

Working in a high school library - I have many concerns about the Internet and it's use. One of my biggest areas of concern is whether my students are safe online and what sort of digital footprint they're creating. While these two issues are different they fall under the same category - digital citizenship.

Librarians have many responsiblities regarding the Internet. We must provide equitable and reasonable access for our students. We must provide them freedom to follow their own inquiry - so we need to limit blocks. We need to provide our students access to materials on the Internet that would enhance their education - like Youtube for example. We must try to keep them safe. We need to enable our students to be self-directed and self-policing. We also have to recognize that our students are citizen's of the digital world and their view of access to information is extremely different than ours. Our final responsilities are to teach, teach them to respect copy right, and creative expression. We must teach them the difference between reasonable access and plaigirizing. We need to teach them the effect of living their lives on line - what kind of presence they create and leave on the Web and how that could affect them in the future. What will a college see?  What will a future employer see?  We need to teach them to critically evaluate the information that they do find and the friends that they might make. This is atwo-fold issue, being safe and being discriminating and discerning. We need to teach students to be concerned with their own privacy and with the privacy of others. Hodson's article, while focusing more on the issue of privacy in archives, brings up several points that should concern everyday citizens. The Internet is growing increasingly ubiquitous. The amount of information available on the web is growing exponentially. The amount of an individuals own private information available on the web is growing exponentially. The amount of individuals willing to search for an use private information should concern us all. Librarians must teach their students in some kind of real way how they can be affected by privacy issues.

So librarians must do two things essentially - provide access equitably to their students/patrons and they must teach/assist patrons/students to be smart, ethical citizens on the digital world.

The need for social technology policies.

Social networking has obviously changed the way that people access and spread information as well as the way that we communicate with each other and the change has been really rapid. According to the video, "ABC, NBC and CBS collectively have had 10 million visitors over the last 200 collective years while there are 250million visitors per month to Myspace, Youtube, and Facebook none of which existed 6 years ago." "There has been more video uploaded to Youtube in the last two months than if NBC, CBS, and ABC had been airing new content 24/7 365 days since 1948." "93% of American adults own cell phones and the average U.S. teen sends 2,272 texts per month.The above numbers are totally staggering and I haven't even addressed other services like Facebook, and Twitter, or RSS feeds, blogs, Google Images, itunes, etc. etc.  To me, it's obvious that not only will libraries have to begin communicating with their patrons via some of these services but when they do begin using them, policies will have to be created to govern their use.

My specific library, because it's a high school library, needs to create policies surrounding Web 2.0 applications dealing specifically with intellectual property and copyright issues, privacy and digital footprints, safety, and acceptable use, online behavior and ethics. One of a library's responsibilities is to help students become good digital citizens. Parents and educators have always worked hard to teach students about copyright, privacy, safety, and ethics , in other words to become good citizens. Now it could be said that our students live in two worlds at once - a physical world and an online world therefore we must teach them to be citizens of both. Having policies in place to regulate and mediate issues regarding digital citizenship is a must.My current library has no such policies but I feel vulnerable without them.

Some policies will pertain to the library only but others need to be decided in conjunction with other departments. Internet filtering is such an area. Any U.S. school who receives some type of federal aid must agree to a strict filtering policy prior to receiving government funds. Libraries and IT departments must develop policies to fulfill government requirements while striving to have as open a policy as possible. The school I work at is a private school and therefore we're allowed to determine our filtering policy ourselves. Our school tries to employ a very open filtering policy. Not only is this a first amendment issue but teens are very good at bypassing internet filters. Honestly, I think it's more important to teach teens to be responsible users of the Internet rather than just block or impede their access. It makes more sense to have an open dialogue rather than creating walls and nurturing a culture of deceit or sneakiness.

Another issue to consider when developing policies aroung the Internet and social technologies is equal access to patrons. While many students have online access and the appropriate gear at home and school, there are still some students who do not. Therefor, it's necessary to create a structure that ensures those students without access at home receive ample access at school. The Internet is intrinsic to all students success and the library should be able to guarantee access to it for all patrons.

Everyone's access to online information and content is only going to grow more ubiquitous. The library must have policies in place to help our patrons be successful and responsible digital citizens, the library must provide equal access to online resources for all its patrons to the best of its ability. The library must strive to protect its patrons while allowing as much freedom of inquiry and expression as possible. Access to the Internet, to me, is a First Amendment issue. Policies allow the library to define its position and provides the necessary structure to deal with issues and concerns that arise from Internet use.