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.