NELIG Annual Program 2003
Creativity in Instruction:
Librarians Leading the Way

Beyond "Active Learning":  A Constructivist Approach to Learning  
 - Sue Cooperstein, Loyola/Notre Dame Library and Liz Kocevar-Weidinger, Longwood University

As technology has transformed library instruction classrooms, librarians have worked to transform their teaching strategies to take advantage of these new educational settings.  They have embraced concepts such as active learning, hands-on instruction, and cooperative learning.  Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Kolb, among others, are often cited as the foundation of these “active” lessons. But a careful study of the concepts proposed by these educational theorists, which should also include Maria Montessori, reveals that these theorists meant much more by active learning than providing hands-on activity, encouraging class participation or having students move around the room.  Active learning as prescribed by these theorists, and more appropriately called constructivist or discovery learning, moves from experience to learning and not the other way around. Using constructivist techniques, we will explore constructivist principles and ways to apply these principles to library instruction. We will turn active instruction into constructivist learning. 

 
Driving the e-train: Keeping Library Instruction on Track: An overview and a discussion
 - Marilyn H. Steinberg, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

From the early 1990s and prior, we saw library instruction evolve from the lecture style format to the much preferred, interactive style of the early 2000s, to computer classrooms with hands-on experiential format.  To analyze how the students and faculty have both benefited from this evolution, we have to consider the technology and the curriculum, to see exactly how that evolution took place, and perhaps predict where instruction is headed over the next 3-5 years.  Investigating the history of instruction, and looking at where we have been may help us to see where we are now headed.  With the fast-moving, technology-driven profession we are in, what exactly have we learned in the past 5-7 years?  Since we leapt on the e-train, we are holding on tightly in an effort to secure our jobs, display our abilities to the rest of the college or university faculty, and win over those students who previously saw no need for our knowledge.  We are sitting on committees helping to decide the requirements for commencement in the literacy realm, participating in designing spaces for additions or entirely new buildings, and we must have the expertise to feel confident giving our opinions.  Reviewing what we have learned about the e-world can give us that confidence.  Discussing with others, reviewing the literature, and openly evaluating the instruction that takes place in our various institutions will undoubtedly bring us to conclusions of what might be.  Marilyn suggests that we can not only succeed but excel as we speed along the e-track!

   
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Full-text
 - James Miller, Springfield College

James will explore what to do now that Google (used here as a stand-in for most search engines) has created the expectations of instant gratification.  Students come into the library (or go to our online databases) with the expectation that they can get everything they need to fulfill the requirements of an assignment immediately with little training, evaluation or time.  Whether librarians like it or not, this pervasive expectation should have an effect on the way that we teach information literacy.  His presentation will be centered on teaching in an environment with these expectations.

   
Learning Station: Actively Engaging Students in the E-Classroom
  - Shelly Davis, University of Maine at Farmington

Learning stations are different spots in a classroom where students (in small groups) work on various tasks simultaneously.  The stations include all materials the students need to explore a given concept, and they are provided with processes to follow and tasks to complete that guide this exploration.  This instructional approach allows for cooperative, exploratory, self-guided learning.  The role of the teacher is to briefly instruct the students in how to complete the activity and then be present to circulate among the groups guiding students' work and answering questions that arise.  Learning stations have been used successfully in elementary classrooms for years.  Could this teaching strategy work with a library instruction session for undergraduate students?  Shelly will describe how she effectively implemented learning stations and the tremendous potential for library instruction.

   
E-Learning in Distraction Wonderland--Controlling or Reducing Diversions during Instruction Sessions
 - Kwasi Sarkodie-Mensah, Boston College

E-Learning presents wonderful opportunities to teach library instruction and information literacy skills, but teaching in e-classrooms presents a wide variety of challenges. Students may be deeply engrossed in other activities that not only prevent them from following the sessions but also increase the level of distraction to others in the class. E-mailing, instant messaging, surfing the web, playing games are a few examples of the ingredients that go into making the recipe of distraction in the classroom.  Kwasi will discuss various methods of minimizing these distractions in library instruction sessions.