Prezi in information literacy instruction

posted by swatkin6. comments: 1

The presentation tool Prezi is one of those tools that I have wanted to explore in more depth for a while, as it seems like it might be useful for creating instructional presentations that have a little more zazz than the typical series of Powerpoint slides. Prezi is Flash-based and it lets you present information in dynamic ways, with a lot of zooming in and out, rotating, and more.

Recently, the makers of Prezi have made this product free for educational use, so anyone with a “dot-edu” e-mail address can use it at no cost. Here’s a relatively simple example of a Prezi presentation (created by Becky Canovan) that illustrates the process of narrowing a research topic down to a manageable scope for a short paper. Click the Play button (the forward arrow) at the bottom to start, and click the same arrow to advance the “slides.”

Another cool feature of Prezi is that you can easily copy and re-use existing presentations that others have made, so that you don’t have to start from a blank slate every time.

Now that Prezi is free for educational use, that’s one less reason for me not to give it a try. If anybody is using this for information literacy instruction, please share a link in the comments. I’d love to see what folks are doing with this.

New Library Workshop Opportunities

posted by bbrodeur. comments: 0

New at Arlington Campus Library are three workshops: Zotero Advanced; Free Swim: Open Library Lab; and Diigo for Research. April Kelley, the Reference Assistant at Arlington Campus Library, made the following remarks to Educational Services about two of the new workshops:

On March 15, from 6-8pm, the library will host a “Free Swim” by opening the Arlington Campus Library Instruction Lab for students to work on research assignments and projects at their leisure. A Librarian “life-guard” will be on hand for students to consult with or to answer any questions that may arise during the research process. Students can use this opportunity to learn new search strategies, brush up on citation skills, or get a refresher from a previous workshop.

Diigo for Research will take place on April 5, from 5-6pm and will be held virtually using Adobe Connect. Rick Reo of the ITU’s Learning Support Services department will lead the workshop on Diigo, a social bookmarking tool/website that is similar to Delicious, with more emphasis on collaborative research. Participants can attend this workshop from any location, since a computer with internet access and a phone is all they will need. The ACL Instruction Lab will also be open to host those who would prefer to attend in the library.

Arlington Campus Library will also be offering a workshop on the new beta version of Zotero 2.0. Designed for those who’ve already mastered Zotero 1.0, this workshop will highlight new features available only in Zotero 2.0 including syncing and backup of Zotero libraries, automatic detection of PDF metadata, and support for Endnote export styles.

To register for these and other library workshops please visit the Educational Services website or register via the IT Training site.

Library Research Basics

posted by jsipes. comments: 0

Educational Services recently launched the first version of Library Research Basics, a series of online tutorials to instruct students and faculty on basic library and research skills.  The tutorials cover a range of skills and concepts relating to the following topics: getting started with academic research, searching for information, finding books, and finding articles.  Some of the individual tutorials include how to use “pre-search” as a search technique, how to find a book in the library catalog, and how to distinguish the difference between popular and scholarly articles.  Undergraduate students who are new to academic research, or writing a research paper/project for the first time, may especially find these tutorials helpful.  Faculty or graduate students may find these tutorials helpful in assisting those undergraduates who are new to research in an academic library.  Tutorials can be easily embedded into Blackboard or linked to from a course Web page.  The tutorials can be completed as a whole by clicking through the navigation links, or viewed individually.

In the future, Educational Services plans to have more tutorials available in other formats such as video screencasts.  If you have comments on Library Research Basics, or suggestions for new tutorials you’d like to see, we would love to hear from you!  Faculty, librarians, and students are encouraged to provide feedback.  Email edserv@gmu.edu.

Exploring iTunes U at Mason

posted by bbrodeur. comments: 0

Last month, a group of library staff members met to discuss podcasting at Mason Libraries. The purpose of this meeting was to start a conversation about how University Libraries might use Mason’s implementation of iTunes U, a service that utilizes Apple’s iTunes to provide podcasters at Mason a vehicle for creating and sharing a broad range of audio and video content, which is available for students, faculty, and staff, with optional public access. Other universities that use iTunes U to great effect include Yale, Duke, and Cornell.

Some potential ways that podcasting might be employed in Mason Libraries contexts include:

• Instructional content
• Highlighting of Special Collections content
• Self-guided library “tours”
• Various audio content provided for the visually impaired
• General library news and announcements
• Information about new collections, new databases, etc.
• Interviews with Mason faculty authors about their books in the library

At the meeting, Scott Watkins demonstrated podcasting.gmu.edu and the iTunesU interface, sharing what he’s learned from Rick Reo, Instructional Designer at DoIT.

Since then, Special Collections has volunteered to come up with some image ideas for the overall graphics of the University Libraries podcasting “course.” Scott has contacted Rick Reo to schedule an informal workshop session for those interested in getting started. We should know more very soon!

For information on how to get started with iTunes U, including how to access and create content, please click here or contact Rick Reo directly.

Free Writing and Research Help for Students

posted by bbrodeur. comments: 1

Starting next week, Writing Center tutors will be holding hours in both the Fenwick and Johnson Center Libraries. Writing Center tutors will be at the Fenwick Library Reference Desk on Tuesdays from 12:30-3:30 p.m. Tutors will be in the Johnson Center Library Atrium on Wednesdays from 12:30-3:30 p.m. Please stop by if you need help with research or writing. Appointments at both locations can be made here.

In addition, Sarah Sheehan and Michael Killian will be holding research assistance hours in the Writing Center (Robinson 114A). Sarah Sheehan is Liaison Librarian for the College of Health & Human Services. Michael Killian is Liaison Librarian for the School of Management and the Economics Department. Students can make appointments through the Writing Center website or drop-in (appointments will take precedence over drop-ins). Please contact Kelly Jeon, Andrea Baruzzi, or Educational Services if you have any questions.