Note: don't rely on your blogging tool to use paragraph codes automatically, Blogger doesn't.
I've written from time to time about how to cite electronic sources for APA style reference lists, yet it took me a while to discover a way to achieve online the appearance of hanging indents required in APA style for papers in print.
Students. BEFORE you freak - you might not need to use that code at all.
I think educators who are encouraging students to write online, if they require students to include proper APA style in-text citations and reference lists at all, possibly wouldn't be insisting on the hanging indents. This could be because many such educators (who may be but a few online experiments ahead of their students) may not yet themselves have discovered html code that will work. Or more likely because the priority reasons that educators want their students writing online do not (and shouldn't necessarily) include in-depth familiarity with html code.
So, if you are really required to be writing academically in a blog or otherwise online, and are required to include references in APA style, you might like to check first whether your assessor wants the references hanging.
At work this afternoon I overheard Haze chatting with a patron about the library course, and when it seemed they were chatting about web2.0 technologies I looked up.
It was Di-Dee! Naturally I had to pin her, to personally introduce some of my favourite web2.0 technologies.
But at this early stage in explorations, the most immediate item I hope Di-Dee took away was how to enhance her posts with hyperlinks. If possible, I will insert a quick little video on creating hyperlinks in Blogger, for the students and colleagues newly lured into web2.0
Over a week later, after CaptureFox shut down Firefox dozens of times, and after I couldn't access any video I created with CamStudio, I've finally tried Jing to get the above, please tell me if it doesn't work for you.
Before I could make the video, I was distracted by pondering the thought that once one knows HOW to, there is still the questions of why: whether, when, where.
Immediately I began pondering that question I remembered a book I enjoyed recently. Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters - it took me ages to rediscover the title of that book as it was not in my reading history at CHRLC or UB, because I had borrowed it through BONUS from UTS or Massey (interesting aside, I will be wanting to look up Dewey again because these libraries chose slightly different numbers: 303.4833 .v. 302.231). Say Everything... was immensely readable. Maybe because the interesting societal perspective was balanced with personal, intimate stories of some of the people who are the history of blogging.
Just because hyperlinks = the web and blogging began as regular sharing of hyperlinks, doesn't mean that every blogging purpose is served by hyperlinks. There are plenty of writers about the value of hyperlinks to blogs whose goal is moneymaking and that's why I'm not linking to them. Others like Julie Schopick express their value to expertise sharing, and reputation building. One might see few to no hyperlinks in news blogs (as long as they are truly first with the news) or maybe opinion blogs (although we still expect to see links to online sources that trigger the development of opinion, and the quality of the opinion might be enhanced by quality hyperlinks) or even fiction writers' blogs.
One purpose that probably applies to most blogs is Conversation - and that *is* served by hyperlinks - at least ... oops, I have absorbed that as a fact, without this moment being able to explain just how... can someone help me out with that? Good, yes thanks Julien Frisch:
"If their only function would be to be the glue between those who are writing, a system of reference and reverence, they would already fulfil an important function, one that I consider to be one of the main elements of blogging.
But in fact, the use of hyperlinks is not only a way to create connections to others. Hyperlinking allows completely new forms of writing about ... [fill in your sphere here]...
If hyperlinks become an active part of the language we speak when we write online, we can help to build bridges between those who are already inside the debate and those who want to join. ...
Links are used both as reverence mechanism between peers but also as cognitive bridges for those who would not understand the full extend of an article without this relational guidance by the author, without forcing the latter to (re)write what has already been written before." (Frisch, 2009, ¶8)
Darn it, this is turning into another long post I shouldn't be spending time on with all the shopping, booking and packing I still need to do... but having found such interesting articles I do want to share them....
Julien's inspiration: Venkatesh Rao's The Rhetoric of The Hyperlink is another must-read and I recommend it also to my writer friends. I will only quote one of his interesting comments, which happens to sum up the point of hyperlinking shared by for-money, for-giving-expertise, for-conversation and for-the-writing blogs: becoming reliable:
"Real hyperlink artists know that paradoxically, the more people are tempted to click away from your content, the more they want to keep coming back. There is a set of tradeoffs involving compactness, temptation to click, foreshadowing to eliminate surprise (and retain the reader), and altruism in passing on the reader. But the medium is friendlier to generosity in yielding the stage." (Rao, 2009, ¶8)
Actually that conversation probably gives me a partial answer to my question: when?
I had sought to find ready-made advice on when and when not to hyperlink...unsuccessfully.
However I did find: Penny Coutas with the same question amongst others in her mind when puzzling over a style for hyperlinking in her online academic writing. In fact, fellow CULLB602C students may find it useful to consider Penny's thoughts when preparing their own assignments online.
I am glad Penny mentioned her discovery that online academic journals do not optimise the use of hyperlinks but rather use print-based referencing styles. I have found the same. Penny also has an answer (no) for morgan who once asked if I knew whether APA allow a different rule for online publications.
Personally I recommend when writing for academic purpose online, do both. As Felix Salmon (2010) concluded in his opinion piece Why links belong in text "Someone writing online should no more put their links at the end of their essay than a university professor should first give the lecture and then run through the slides." When the medium is online, optimise for online reading. If the purpose is academic and if there is either academic requirement or the possibility of print publication, then use print referencing style too. (If you're writing in html spaces rather than pdf or other web-accessible docs you might seek clarification on whether you need hanging indented paragraphs in the reference list.).
Felix wrote Why links belong in text in response to Nicholas Carr's complaints about how distracting hyperlinks can be. Felix dismisses nick's point about the big distraction - being drawn away from the original article: "In these days of tabbed browsing, there’s a difference between clicking and clicking away: most of us, I’m sure, control-click many times per day while reading something interesting, letting tabs accumulate in the background as we find interesting citations we want to read later." (Salmon, 2010, ¶6) That's certainly how I avoid losing my place.
However I would sometimes (particularly when there are 'too many' links) relate to nick's second point: "Other times, they're tiny distractions, little textual gnats buzzing around your head. Even if you don't click on a link, your eyes notice it, and your frontal cortex has to fire up a bunch of neurons to decide whether to click or not. You may not notice the little extra cognitive load placed on your brain, but it's there and it matters." (Carr, 2010, 2010, ¶3). I also relate completely to Felix's response that in certain situations (particularly when author's cite someone else) " I expect a link and there’s much more cognitive load placed on my brain — there’s much more buzzing in my frontal cortex — if there isn’t a link there than if there is." (Salmon, 2010, ¶1)
Pursuing the notion of "too many hyperlinks" for advice from a different perspective. I found that Torley (yes of Second Life video tutorial fame) advises to hyperlink sparingly, and shares his approach (2008, ¶7) "I'll hyperlink to shed light on inspirations + influences behind a post. I'll hyperlink to provide contact info, and "further details" too onerous, too rich to cram onto a single page."
To other bloggers: how do you decide what to hyperlink?
For me, the hyperlinks I create are for a reader like me, they offer links I think I'd find potentially useful:
explaining an idea better than I have
providing a reference or credit for material I quote (or further reading)
backtracing my stimuli
To avoid an excess of hyperlinks:
If you're using Zemanta don't link every word in your post for which Wikipedia has an article.
Remember that readers can select words or phrases we need clarified and right click for a google search. (for that fact I appreciate the reminder from Jack, one of Venkat's readers).
That last point is also advice to readers... for whom I have more:
To online readers who may be stressed by "too many" hyperlinks - adapt the rules for crossing a road safely: Before you click: Stop Look Listen Think.
Stop: Don't click, just hover and; Look: read the URL "where it goes" displayed in browser footer Listen: listen to the article you're already reading Think: do you really need or want to explore that link?
Then if you still want to check it out, use Right-Click, Open in New Tab
I will also be looking into the Readability plugin that apparently helps readers by removing all the extraneous stuff around the article we want to read. It has recently been updated with an optional feature so that (if I understand it correctly) hyperlinks are made less visible (can still be seen on hover) but listed completely as footnotes.
And just for the practice...
References
Carr, N. (2010, May 31). Experiments in delinkification [Web log post]. Rough Type. Retrieved from http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/05/experiments_in.php
Coutas, P. (2010, June 7). Wikipedia as style guide? [Web log post]. Exploring the Hype(r) of Languages Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.exploringthehyper.net/blog/2010/06/wikipedia-as-style-guide/
Frisch, J. (2009, July 7). Creating a European public sphere: the hyperlink story [Web log post]. Julien Frisch. Retrieved from http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/2009/07/creating-european-public-sphere.html
Rao, V. (2009, July 1). The rhetoric of the hyperlink [Web log post]. ribbonfarm.com Retrieved from http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/07/01/the-rhetoric-of-the-hyperlink/
Salmon, F. (2010, June 2). Why links belong in text [Web log post]. Reuters. Retrieved from http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/06/02/why-links-belong-in-text/
Torley. (2008, April 21). Hyperlink sparingly [Web log post]. Musical dream journal. Retrieved from http://torley.com/hyperlink-sparingly
Thanks to my sister getting her wiggle on and not only posting to her new blog (Caterpillar Contemplations), but also thinking of her likely readers who may want to get her updates by email...
But I'm not going to describe how because all the (very simple) instructions are at Blogger Tricks. I do suggest you read all the instructions - I read the first and then raced in to my sister to tell her it goes through Feedburner and we basically puzzled the rest of it through. Only when I came back here to tell you (fellow library students at UB) about it did I notice the rest of the instructions that would have saved us so much time!
Something somewhere commented on the simplicity of getting started blogging with Posterous. Lately I’ve been watching fellow students start an exploration of web2.0 technologies in relation to libraries and information literacy – with a first blog at Blogger.
Blogger is very easy to get started with. But I wonder if it is easy enough for people who are not already motivated … I mean for those who wouldn’t have been looking to blog at all if not for the subject in their course?
Via their default methods, Tumblr is even simpler than Posterous for getting started, although Posterous also have a simple online sign up page. Their default methods:
Naturally I had a go at setting up blogs at both. I did try to capture the process, but unfortunately CaptureFox didn't seem to like my setting preferences and shut down Firefox on me. I give up on that particular idea for now. In fact, considering I have so much to do to prepare for the family trip to US/Canada I must not let myself be diverted into trying out these services thoroughly.
Instead, I perused reviews:
Chris Foresman concludes in favour of Tumblr, citing its "myriad options for posting"; "design flair"; variety of themes; "separation of content types" and options for text editing. Chris acknowledged Posterous' "ease of posting via e-mail"; "clever auto-uploading and auto-formatting of attached media"; that some might prefer its "spartan design aesthetic".
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry believes the chief difference (demonstrated in their default sign up methods) is that Tumblr's apparent focus on design gives it an edge over Posterous' engineering focus.
Anna Frenkel's very thorough comparison was more thorough in detailing the advantages of each over the other, and I ended up with the impression that the choice will depend on the potential blogger's purpose and preferred way to post.
Perhaps for ?mature? students who are very comfortable with email and aren't interested in fussing with the appearance of their blog Posterous might be the way to go. For first time bloggers who don't feel attached to email or perhaps want more appearance options Tumblr could be preferred.
I will note that a (?second) step in the setup process for Posterous (I think) was an offer to look for my "friends" through other services and then suggested I set up my friends with a daily posting from my Posterous. I don't like either option. I particularly don't like them being offered in the setup stages.
Something I have not discovered is how each handles comments - which for social web students is an important element to explore. Can someone clarify for me whether either of them simply feature commenting without any special addons or plugins?
As the students I’m thinking of are library students I went looking to see whether any libraries or librarians use either service:
I have now subscribed to Julie Cornett's adventures as a Frontier Librarian via Posterous - after her post on Information Competency using Interactive Television caught my eye, I found interesting library stuff (and/or beautiful photos) in all her posts. And she has comments that don't appear to have required any plugins.
Not since I reduced my carb intake. But before that quite often, unless it was a meal or there were no snacks available.
What is your favourite drink while reading?
Tea: Daintree if available; white; no sugar
Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
I have not discovered a way to be certain to retain the material I want from a book, but marking a note *in* the book definitely does not seem the way to get the point *out* of it.
How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat?
Bookmark of some sort, if I can't get at the supply (which are in a magazine box on the non-fiction shelves which are in mum's room which has been converted from a sitting room).
Fiction, non-fiction or both?
Both, although I'm less likely to be spell-bound by non-fiction.
Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere?
Wherever I am not in the grip of the author's words.
Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
Although I couldn't say for absolute certain not, but I don't think so: I might growl and close the book with a snap but place it down with exceptional restraint.
If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
If I absolutely cannot make sense of the point without doing so, or if it seems like it might be an interesting word. Though I do remember when I was a teen, reading Leslie Charteris' Saint books I kept notepaper and pen as bookmark and jotted down every unfamiliar word to look up when I got out of bed the next day. I am sure he made some words up.
What are you currently reading?
Davies, C. (2005). Finding and Knowing: Psychology, Information and Computers. London: Routledge.
Parker, R. S. (1977). Effective Decisions and Emotional Fulfillment. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
White, H. S. (1992). Ethical Dilemmas in Libraries: A Collection of Case Studies. New York: G.K. Hall.
What is the last book you bought?
A pile of weeded books on librarianship
Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
When I'm awake.
Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
Neither/both. I like the story to be told well, without waffle, whether it takes one book or more or less.
Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
People I know are too different, they all relate to different things. But my catalogue can be sorted to show those I give highest rating, though they're not otherwise sorted by genre.
How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
It depends on the space available. Non-fiction (and some fiction and games) by Dewey; Children's separate and then by size/shape/reading-age; General fiction alphabetical by title; My fiction roughly by author's last name but less favoured works are relegated floorwards regardless. And then there are the piles of recently obtained books as yet uncatalogued.
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?
As my sons would report, it doesn't really matter once I'm reading.
Just in case anyone from CULLB602C wants to pick up the meme, here are those questions sans answers: Do you snack while reading? What is your favourite drink while reading? Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat? Fiction, non-fiction or both? Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere? Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? What are you currently reading? What is the last book you bought? Do you have a favourite time/place to read? Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)?
Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence?
Scott Adams riffed on the notion that it is absurd to have an opinion on whether it was a good idea to create a certain movie (or other things for that matter).
I wonder whether opinions say more about the opinionator than the content of the expressed opinion? e.g., one who says "that's a bad idea" is revealing that they simply cannot imagine an expression / execution of the idea that they would enjoy. Which might lead their listener to wonder about the quality of the opinionator's imagination, or preferences.
Which reminds me about another opinion on opinion:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
)... "not all opinions are equal". While I'm sure she's not the only one to express that truth, 'tis Sandra Dodd of unschooling fame, whose expression of it I always remember... vaguely....
Of course, one of the reasons this comes up in relation to Sandra is in the matter of freedom of expression of opinion. If I recall correctly, and I hope someone will point out if I misrepresent it, Sandra expresses the opinion that place may limit freedom of expression. For example, in a Yahoogroup or mailing list, made or owned by an individual - the rules for expression in that place may be declared by the owner and maintained through eviction from the group if necessary. Similarly for private homes, or other privately-owned buildings. I have not investigated whether the law supports private-space-right-to-suppress-speech.
OOOh, but that reminds me of a recent post by Kathryn Greenhill, about the library's role (as a public institution) in the provision of information when there are many opinions on a topic: that of not censoring, no matter whether the available information is, in the librarian's opinion, bad in some way.
I think the following of Kathryn's comments sum her overall view, though I recommend the lively presentation in her whole article:
A library’s role is not to supress ideas – not matter how dangerous or loony I may believe those ideas to be, nor how wrong I think they are. ... A library’s role is to provide access to information and connect people to that information. We seek to provide a balanced and varied collection, but not to judge the information we are providing, nor the people who are seeking it. ... I am not arguing that ideas should be heard without rebuttal, argument, critical thought or judgment. I am arguing that they should be heard and that libraries exist as a vital institution to protect the right for that to happen...
I think an important point to remember is the breadth of material that comes under the label "information". "Information" is not only facts, but also theories with or without reasonable support, opinions of varying quality and fictional representations.
Something students in CULLB602C@UB will be exploring is the library's role in teaching Informacy, ie: educating its patrons in evaluating the sources of information they peruse.
Just a quick mention in relation to Zemanta: I chose (as somewhat related in area of interest) the above articles from those suggested by Zemanta. As I scrolled through the list of suggestions again after my second selection I was disturbed to note that an article was marked "Clicked" (ie selected) that I had *not* chosen. It is possible that I may have mis-moused or mis-clicked in making my selection; and I have no way to be sure - but as the "clicked" item I did not choose was a PROMOTED article, I intend to carefully double-check my selections in future.
I've noticed Zemanta at other sites once or twice before, particularly with related article recommendations at the bottom of posts, but being busy with other things didn't explore it. With this 30 posts in 30 days effort, and my personal ambition to not spend so long (hours/days/unending) creating a post... I wonder whether Zemanta will prove useful. Students in CULLB602C@UB might like to take a look too.
It came back to my attention via Blogger Buzz, although I'm not sure how I landed there (and I do hate not remembering my backtrail). The following quote came from Zemanta's reblog feature that you can now see bottom right of this post. Options with reblog are to publish or copy code, I'd prefer a save as draft option. In the quote Rick is talking about how the add-on works:
Here's how it works: while you write your blog post in Blogger, Zemanta opens up a sidebar next to the Blogger post editor. After you've written a few sentences, Zemanta analyzes the words in your post and suggests images and video that are relevant to your post; with one click, it inserts them into your post. Rick Klau, Blogger Buzz: Zemanta helps you "blog smarter", Jun 2009
The whole article is worth a read.
It was very quick to get started, takes a little longer to optimise - at least optimising is what I was trying to do by adding my blog and rss feeds with preferences, only now I'm not receiving any content recommendations. Oh well, must go shopping for gear for the trip so will look again next time.
Via Twitter I heard Kathryn Greenhill, famous in the Australian library blogosphere share the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.
Now while Kathryn's personal goal after years of blogging already is to keep up her think posts; Mine will be to not be too focussed on think posts: to stop gabbing, stop over-thinking, stop reading even more related stuff, and actually finish and publish a post even if it means it doesn't go out perfect.
SO how about it? Make your own rules or variations for yourselves - but your first one could be accepting the challenge.
Although, technically, I guess I'm not really IN the cohort, because I was granted RPL (see my echo still clapping)... I'll be cheering on the 2010 batch of CULLB602C@UB students with their remarkable and daring new unit structure. Kudos to Loretta Kelly for braving the waters and plotting an interesting course.
Course... of course - when I first began imagining a melding of web2.0 with LearningLibrarianship (even before it received a boost of inspiration from 23 Things) I knew it would be most effective beyond one unit. Our course coordinators have made efforts here and there: this unit or that used a wiki or an eportfolio or the CMS discussion board or online documents. But I felt many students who didn't have a big picture of how libraries are developing an interactive online presence missed appreciating the opportunity they had in those tools, AND that there were so many tools of which they were unaware that could enhance their research, their informational input, and their sharing - throughout the course.
So I envisaged a unit that would be a first unit. But with such a huge learning curve - and a goal of it making sense and fitting together with a wide range of web2.0 tools and aspects of librarianship - it really needs to span the whole course (at least 2.5 years full time). How can that be done? TAFE courses are usually run in discrete, short-time-frame units. How might it be possible for this kind of activity to span the whole course, not just as a side issue, but for engagement in the activity to contribute to assessment for other units? Am I dreaming too wildly?
As part of my "fun" I looked at "The Big 6", and included this as one part of my application:
"
It is amusing and confusing to see what I consider to be a perfectly natural (untrained) process labeled, copyrighted and marketed with apparent success. When researching for and writing my April 2007 post “How does one cite a blog post in APA style?” I used the same natural mental processes I recall my school mates and I used in our teens (1981-1986), and that I see my unschooled children using today. My own teen years were before Eisenberg & Berkowitz began touting this “model and curriculum” (copyrighted variously 1987 (Eisenberg, 2004) and 1988 (Eisenberg & Berkowitz, 1997)).
Details of the Big 6 steps to problem solving / information literacy are spelled out when hovering over the numbers in the header of the website http://big6.com/. For the fun of it, see how my process could be hung on the hangers of “the Big 6”:
Task Definition
I wanted to cite blog posts appropriately for my assignments; (define task)
I needed to find instructions, suggestions or examples on how to do so. (identify information needed)
Information seeking strategies
I could look in the official APA guide; ask teachers or colleagues; search with Google (to start).(Determine all possible sources)
I would search those sources in that order. (Select the best)
Location and Access
I know the Dewey Decimal number for citation guides; talk to teachers in class and colleagues at work and Google is in my browser window. (Locate sources)
APA Guide had principles I could use but no specific example, teachers and colleagues refer to the guide, but Google produced results. (Find information within sources)
Use of information
I read and evaluated a variety of pages from the Google results. (Engage)
I kept pages with likely examples open in tabs. (Extract relevant information)
Synthesis
I tagged (with delicious) the pages that had examples even though they didn’t seem right enough to me, and quoted those examples … (Organise information from multiple sources)
In a contemplative blog post of my own in which I compared the examples against the APA referencing style principles.(Present the information)
Evaluation
Finding and extracting information was very fast, my comparison and making decision took a bit longer. Writing took the longest. My natural thinking processes worked. (Judge the process)
I am satisfied with my conclusion and no teachers have quibbled with the way I reference blogs. My writing was not the most fluent, but it was for me as a student, not an audience. Had I been an educator or librarian I would have written more briefly and obtained or hedged against an institutional decision. Even so, at first around 80-90 people a day, and more recently 30-40 people a day visit that blog post from Google or other searches on the topic (statistics obtained from MyBlogLog) so I appear to have created new knowledge. Unfortunately although I asked for comments, few people leave any so I could not tell whether people agreed with my conclusion or not. However I recently discovered that my conclusion matches a style later advised by Judi DeLisle (2007) of Valencia Community College who also cites my post "How does one cite a blog post comment in APA style?”. MyBlogLog also revealed that people arrived at my blog wanting to know how to cite YouTube and Flickr, so I went on to research those problems too. (Judge the product)
"
Sigh. How ever did anyone manage to solve problems before 1987?
Have you ever applied for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)... would you describe it as Fun Fun Fun? Hm, not sure I would either :D
Still, that's what I've been doing for the past few months...and much of the process has been Fun.
Since I began studying for an Advanced Diploma in Library and Information Services I have been avoiding one particular subject: "CULLB602C Use, evaluate and extend own information literacy skills". Why?
Because the major assessment task for the unit appeared to be even worse than the nature of assessment I detested in undergraduate degree courses: not just a trivial essay but a completely irrelevant (to the industry) trivial essay. To be produced just for the sake of demonstrating "conducting research", "communication skill" and "appropriate referencing" - as if none of these attributes have been demonstrated in any of our other unit assessments. Only this was the longest individual piece of writing required in the course. (Other units' assessment tasks often had no number-of-words constraints and depending on the student's extent of research may (in fact for me did) produce longer pieces of writing.)
All this time I have wondered in what way that kind of assessment related to the title & purpose of the unit. So in 2009, facing the prospect of having to do the unit in 2010, I asked a current student of the unit for the elements of competence. The elements and criteria of competence (pdf) of this unit are interesting - they are relevant to the industry and competence in them is I believe important for performance as librarians. (By librarian I mean the Cambridge and Oxford definition not the more recent and questionably-motivated redefinition). Unfortunately I did not and do not believe that the assessment tasks used in recent years appropriately challenged students or allowed them to develop and substantiate even half of the criteria of competence that the unit appeared designed to achieve and which would be valuable for their careers.
Also while I read it occurred to me that as a result of my work and play I could already demonstrate competence in all of those elements and their criteria: I would apply for RPL.
Along the way I would wrestle with a term I have long detested: "information literacy" - I refuse to append the third word often thrown on the end as it is in the name of the unit, because the effect makes me shudder. Naturally it is a fight I am in no position to win, but the attempt involved research, reflection and writing. All of which I felt would be constructive: personally, professionally, and for my application for RPL.
Do you think a series of posts could be good evidence? I wasn't brave enough. Not that I have an audience of whom to be shy, after all I write randomly, and for myself mainly. I did not know who would assess my application so I could not check whether they would be comfortable with that sort of evidence, although I did eventually refer to some of my posts (particularly those on citing online sources). Although it wasn't just the assessor's comfort... the thought of having what I hoped would demonstrate my competence available for anyone to view (and potentially question) was a little too scarey. Now I wish I had tried it because I have come to feel that blogging would be an excellent medium through which students could explore, develop and demonstrate the competencies of the unit.
I'd still like to post some of the thoughts I had during my application, and the assessor has since given approval, but I'm not sure how to or even whether it is worth doing so retrospectively.
Amongst other evidence, I referred to my explorations and subsequent use of web2.0 tools. I kept fantasising how a program somewhat like 23 Things could might help library students to "use, evaluate and extend" their "information literacy".
Excitingly, during my interview, the assessor indicated that my application for RPL and its reasons (ie the poor relevance of the assessment task) had contributed to a review of how the unit is presented at UB. Apparently it will now be restructured and among other changes will involve aspects of ... oh let's call it "Library 2.0 stuff" for want of a better phrase. I hope I get to see how it changes.
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