I had a conversation with a student today that went something like this:
Him: Have you heard about Bloglines?
Me: Yeah, it’s awesome isn’t it?
Him: And Del.icio.us?
Me: So cool.
Him: It would have been great if we had covered some stuff like this in Lib 100.
Which got us to talking about a somewhat different class. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could offer a one hour course in information finding for the “real world?” Then seniors with good library skills wouldn’t feel the need to fill their one hour requirement with something they know; they could learn all kinds of cool new things. Anyone who took it might get interested in doing web research for fun. The impact might last far beyond college. They could be lifelong learners! I imagine the 15 week break-down as follows.
Week 1: Introduction/Web 2.0
Week 2: Blogs
Week 3: Podcasting
Week 4: Wikis
Week 5: Social Bookmarking
Week 6: Online Photo Sharing
Week 7: Social Networking Sites
Week 8: Tagging and Technorati
Week 9: RSS and aggregators
Week 10: Copyright Issues
Week 11: Remix & Mash-up Culture
Week 12: Show-and-Tell
Week 13: Show-and-Tell cont./What Could Be Next?/What Could the Library Do?
Week 14: Managing Information Flow (aka How Not To Drown In It All)
Week 15: Wrap-up
I also imagine a running blog discussing the student’s perception of the technology, its usefulness, and its potential for their lives.
Of course, I’m just playing around here. Without spending much time on this, I’m sure I left many cool things out. Does anyone know of a program or course like this for undergraduates?
Update: So, maybe it’s not a 15 class course, but I’ve worked it out to do a one-day summary of the above for my LIB 100 course this semester. Yay!
Hey! The class I teach at Dominican has many of thses elements. My dream class for SLIS students has all of them. Good work!
Your class sounds great! I agree, it’d be extremely useful for all SLIS students to have a background in these elements. Not only do they have an impact on our users’ information context, but they’re excellent ways for us to learn more about our own profession!
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Your class sounds great! I agree, it'd be extremely useful for all SLIS students to have a background in these elements. Not only do they have an impact on our users' information context, but they're excellent ways for us to learn more about our own profession!