If Only They Knew How To...

An academic librarian has compiled a list of what she wishes college freshmen knew about research. Which means, what she wishes they would learn in their K-12 experience. Her original list was created in 1989 and published in Research Strategies: A Journal of Library Concepts and Instruction 6, no. 4 (Fall 1988): 189, but she revises the basic ideas in a blog post at Inside Higher Education Blog U. Among her "great expectations:"

1. Knowledge, information, and opinion: what they are and how they relate...
4. Primary and secondary sources: an understanding of their nature, distinction, variety, and use in all fields...
8. Databases: concept and experience retrieving citations or data; fluency in Boolean logic...
9. What resources, services, policies, and procedures to expect in any library...
10. The importance of accurate citations and a research log.
11. Principles of selecting and evaluating sources:

Some of these are the same things the panel of academic librarians mentioned; others will come up as we work on MILI throughout the year. Nice to know we are all on the right track, at least according to this librarian!

Book Trailers

We all know about movie trailers--those few minute peeks at upcoming attractions. This catch- their-interest technique is the latest way to promote books. Book trailers use multimedia to capture readers' interest with a preview of characters, plot, and action. Publishers, teachers, students, and authors are all making trailers to promote new books or old favorites. This is a way for students to create book reports or to show their fellow students their favorite books. Equipment is minimal, students engage with the book and each other, and the trailers encourage reading for pleasure.

Here are some resources:

• How to make a book trailer
• Bookscreening aggregates a collection of book trailers for all types of books and readers, including more than 100 for youth
• Fiction Notes lists many book trailer resources
• Digital Book Talk is an award-winning site with resources for making book trailers and finished trailers for books of interest to K-12 readers.

Let us know if you try this out. We'd love to see your book trailers.

"Prepare Us for the Future, Not Your Past"

Here is a video to begin the school year and MILI. I Need My Teachers To Learn demonstrates some ways old rules interfere with new teaching and learning.



The video was made by Kevin Honeycutt and his friend Shawn Gormley. Honeycutt works at ESSDACK, a Kansas education services and professional development agency.

"Life Writing"

This article by Clive Thompson from Wired magazine offers an interesting perspective on literacy. Many have bemoaned the lack of writing skills in "today's youth" but the Stanford Study of Writing found that students write more than ever. The study, conducted by Andrea Lundsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, says writing has increased,

"... because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning 38 percent of it took place out of the classroom—life writing, as Lunsford calls it."

Here's the MILI connection, as stated by Thompson,

"The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing."

That should sound familiar from our discussions of authentic, global audiences that students can reach through blogging, video production, and more. As Thompson points out, good teaching matters. Teachers and media specialists are the guides for students as they create their content in a reliable, responsible manner.

I really like that phrase "life writing."

iPhone in the Classroom

Minneapolis MILI participants may be interested in this summary of research done on a college that implemented iPhone/iTouch use in their classes. The Unofficial Apple Weblog describes the program and talks to the minds behind it at Abilene Christian University.

Play to Win

You can test your knowledge of books and of Google Book features by playing a contest Google announced. It is running a contest for the next ten days ( July 27, 2009 and ends at 11:59:59 P.M. PT on August 5, 2009) on the Google Books site where contestants can win a Sony Reader eBook. You hunt for literature-related trivia using the site's new search inside the book feature. Find the right answers (and offer a 50 word essay on the "reading experience") and you will be entered into a drawing to win a Sony Reader.

Plagiarism Checkers

You know we prefer the "fence to the ambulance" plagiarism-proofing approach to assignments, but we know that sometimes tools can help teachers find those incidents of plagiarism. Make Use Of offers a summary of five plagiarism checker tools in this post.

Finding Information on SlideShare

We have talked about SlideShare as a place to upload and share your slide presentations, but it is also a source of information for you to use in class or for inspiration as you prepare a slide presentation. For example, the White House page includes content about the Road to Recovery, green collar jobs, healthcare reform and much more. You can follow the White House page, too, so you know when it is updated.

Search a keyword to find information on almost any topic. Here are some other informative slide presentations:

• Ways to Use Wordle in Your Classroom
• How Our Kids Are Using the Internet
• Web 2.0 Tools and Their Educational Applications

If you haven't explored SlideShare, take some time to do so the next time you need a slide presentation or inspiration.