Tutoring the Virtual Student – WILU 2009

Here is a post of the WILU 2009 Conference presentation I delivered with Irene Tencinger on the Social Constructivist theory of Scaffolding and it’s application in Virtual Reference.  This was my first attempt at attaching sound to a presentation and although I sound strange due to a sore throat, I think it went well.  I apologize for the poor sound quality when people are asking questions.

Here is a brief description of the presentation:

This presentation will provide a response to the issues/problems that are holding back virtual reference from becoming a truly instructional forum by providing the best ways to translate theory into “sound” instructional practice in virtual reference. By applying the theoretical principals of scaffolding with practical examples, the participants will learn techniques and strategies to apply in training librarians in an instructional methodological approach to information literacy in the virtual environment.

For a reading list, just drop me a line.

Elementary Algebra and Boolean Logic – Making the Old Framework New Again!

Keeping it Together - Algebra and Keywords, It's All The Same!

As a part of my role as member of the Information Literacy team, I created a presentation with a colleague Sarah Coysh on instructional theory.  We decided to talk about humanist, constructivist, behaviorist, social situational, and transformational theories.  Although it was a bit of a whirlwind experience, 5 theories in 1 hour, the feedback was fantastic.

The most successful part of my section of the session (which covered the constructivist and social situational theory) was the examples of how I incorporate these models of instruction into my own lessons.  Theory in practice… sometimes a difficult transition.  We can understand that knowledge in constructivist theory is socially created, but how do we do this in the classroom?  To illustrate the transition I talked about Boolean Logic and elementary algebra.

The scenario is as follows: I am teaching first year undergraduate students about the use of AND and OR to narrow and broaden a search and to create a search string.  I have them place the entire search string in the keyword search field and attempt the search.  They receive an error message.  I question why.  After some conversation, which rarely comes to the correct conclusion but is important to the co-construction of knowledge as it asks the students to be engaged in the learning process, I take them back in time.  Well … not literally.  I create a framework that is familiar to them.  I state:

I want to take you back to grade 8 math class.  You are learning some basic algebra and the concept of like concepts.  Your teacher is at the board and states “When like concepts have to stay together, we have to put them inside what?”

The lights suddenly go off for the students.  There is a moment where there is a mental connection between like concepts in a keyword search and like concepts in algebra.  The same action but in a different context.  An old mental framework incorporated into a new mental model.

This type of example of theory in practice is of key importance in discussing instruction for librarians.  Many librarians do not have training in instruction.  As such the comfort in knowing that what they are doing has some root in sound instructional practice is limited.  By sharing practices that connect to pedagogy we can create  instruction that is more successful.