Jennifer Sharkey and Catherine Fraser Riehle, Purdue University librarians, conducted a workshop this morning called “Beyond the Entertainment Factor: Integrating Multimedia into Information Literacy Instruction.”  Jennifer and Catherine drew upon their experience with information literacy and instructional design to share theoretical and practical ideas with workshop participants.  Following is what I took away from the workshop:

• Learning goals are broad (e.g. Students will understand the value of using scholarly resources), while learning outcomes are specific (e.g. Students will differentiate between scholarly and popular resources)
• The ICT (Information & Communication Technology) model combines with information literacy with technology literacy.
• Information literacy instruction can be enriched by using education and instructional design theories.
• Establishing learning goals and objectives is essential for deciding what you want to teach and why, especially when integrating multimedia into instruction.
• Keep in mind: ”In general, students don’t know as much about technology as we give them credit for” (Jennifer Sharkey).

Well done, Jennifer and Catherine! 

Friday morning’s workshop, Primary Sources: Out of Special Collections and Into the Curriculum, was led by librarians from UC Irvine and Marymount College and focused on creative ideas for using primary sources in various instruction settings. 

After discussing ways of collaborating with faculty members about primary source instruction and stressing the value of marketing one’s institution’s archival materials, workshop leaders led participants in a hands-on evaluation of various primary sources.  My group evaluated three primary sources on the history and how-to of 1980’s break dancing and brainstormed ideas about how to teach with these resources. 

This very interesting workshop ended with some of the best resources for finding primary sources and ways to assess instruction for using and evaluating primary sources.  Best resources for primary sources include WorldCat, local catalogs, History Matters (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/), American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html),  JSTOR’s new archive of British pamphlets. 

Thanks to the presenters for illuminating excellent teaching methods and theory for primary sources!

Primary Sources: Out of Special Collections and Into the Curriculum