This week's teaching tip comes from the EDUCAUSE Review (March/April 2008). Peter Brantley's rallying cry for digital libraries offers a number of thoughtful and thought-provoking comments about the nature of libraries in today's digital environment. Particularly relevant to the library's teaching role are his comments on libraries as "architects of collaboration" between communities, and - in his mantra that "Libraries must help people learn" - the increasingly flexible, multimedia nature of teaching today.

To read the full text of Brantley's article, go to:
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/ArchitecturesforCollabora/46313

Posted by Amy Hoseth at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new report from Primary Research Group is particularly noteworthy for the picture of library instruction that it paints. The report, "College Information Literacy Efforts Benchmarks," was released just last week and appears to confirm that, yes, librarians are being asked to provide more instruction. Among the researchers' key findings:

- The mean percentage change in the number of classes or presentations provided by academic libraries between fall 2006 and fall 2007 was +20.26%

- Business, psychology, sociology, education and English were commonly listed as one of the top three academic departments requesting library instruction

- Librarians surveyed estimated that nearly one-quarter (23.5%) of their students had not taken any formal IL training and knew just a few essentials of Boolean searching (such as using quotation marks, "or", and "and")

For more information from the report, see Primary Research Group's press release online here.

Posted by Amy Hoseth at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This week, here's a thought-provoking article about the correlation (or lack thereof) of research and teaching in terms of student learning. The article, from Faculty Focus, outlines some new research done in the field of engineering education:

"Teaching vs. Research: Finally, A New Chapter"

Posted by Amy Hoseth at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One simple way to help students engage with the material that you present in class is to ask them questions. Sometimes this works, but sometimes it doesn't. This week's teaching tip is intended to get you thinking about the questions that you ask in class. Are they the "right" questions? And how could you make them better?

To read this week's tip, go to: http://tilt.colostate.edu/mti/tips/pdf/tip66.pdf.

Posted by Amy Hoseth at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)