DO Get Technical! Using Technology in Library Instruction WILU 2011, Regina, SK

摘要

Today’s post-secondary students are digital natives. Much has been said and writtennabout how to reach this generation, and the consensus seems to be that we need tonmeet them on their turf. In this session, presented at WILU 2011 in Regina, SK, twonlibrarians from the University of Lethbridge shared their experiences with usingntechnology to engage students in library instruction. The hands-on session introducednsome simple tools librarians can learn quickly and apply to spice up their instruction withntechnology. These include creating online animated videos using Xtranormal, a lowcostnway to create polished and humorous videos to introduce or summarize keyninformation literacy concepts; and adding interactive polling to PowerPoint presentationsnusing a tool called Poll Everywhere, which is an effective way to instantly engagenstudents in instruction using the web or web-enabled devices. Interactive pollingneliminates many of the challenges of using clickers which are prevalent in many postsecondarynlibrary instruction environments. The presenters also discussed how theynhave experimented with wikis to encourage active learning and student collaboration inna series of library instruction sessions. Wikis allow for free and paperless studentnparticipation in knowledge creation in an online forum. Finally, they demonstrated hownthey have used Skype to deliver library instruction at a distance, including the use of thenscreen sharing feature. The presenters stressed the ease of use of these free or lowcostntools to improve classroom engagement and add interest to sessions.