MAKING INFORMATION WORK-APPLYING COMPETENCY STANDARDS TO IMPROVE TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

Sean Cordes

Associate ProfessorInstruction Services Coordinator

Western Illinois University

Net Gen Students-Background

Special Sheltered Confident Team-Oriented Achieving Pressured Conventional

Millennials Go To College (2003) by Neil Howe and William Strauss.

The Commentary• Net Gen students are….• Fluent in a wide range of

communication and productivity tools

• Have sophisticated methods for gathering and evaluating information

• Apply these abilities effectively in the learning process

• (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005; Prensky, 2005; Conole, et al., 2006;Tapscott 2009; Palfrey & Gasser 2008).

The new view• “A new line of distinction must be drawn between

computer users who can handle only basic programs such as word processors and search engines, and those who understand the structures and concepts that underlie modern technology, and how to think critically within them. (Kvacek, 2010).”

Are they ready to work?

• Studies for workforce preparation identify a number of critical skills for success in the modern workplace

• Many of these skills relate to information technology use and information gathering and sharing, including:• Critical thinking/problem solving • Computer/technical literacy• Understanding systems• Information gathering • Analytical/research skills

What kind of work will they do?• 70 percent of employees in the U.S. perform work that required the

intensive use of information (USBL, 2003).

• Jobs Innovation for Europe study report findings suggest that within five years ICT skills will be requirement for 90% of jobs, making these skills vital for employment and job success (Kolding, M., Robinson, C., & Ahorlu, M. , 2009).

• Information Work Productivity Council defines information work as “creating, using or sharing information as part of a business process (2003).

• Jobs of today require the intensive use of information by workers in a much wider range of roles—from call-center representatives, to truck drivers, to factory workers (Brynjolfsson E., 2003)

6 questions that identify info work• Does the person receive information about jobs and

customers? • Assimilate the information? • Know how to do the job? • Know why tasks must be done? • Decide what actions to take? • Execute decisions?

Some Questions• Is there a universal Net Gen predisposition to

technology driven information work?• Are they all really savvy with technology and

information use?

If not…

• What are the types and frequency of negative incidents relating to information work?

• Everybody makes mistakes, so where are these likely to occur during information work processes?

Critical Incident Technique• Flanagan’s Critical Incident Technique helps explain work behavior by

capturing the most memorable aspects of an experience from participants in context (Flanagan, 1954).

• A critical incident is positive (effective) if it helps to solve a problem and negative (ineffective) if it fails to solve a problem, creates new problems or facilitates need for further actions (Fivers and Fitzpatrick, 2010).

• This can help clarify questions regarding the quality and meaning of an experience in terms of success and failure (Patton, 1987).

• Some errors are expected in work related tasks. Repeated errors in any task are potentially serious (1954). Error trends can help determine what behaviors lead to success or lead to failure.

Standards and Performance Outcomes

• Provide a generally recognized set of abilities and behaviors needed to succeed in academic study, in the workplace, and in personal life.

• Provide a blueprint to assess students’ decision-making skills and critical thinking, including understanding how to do research and present it effectively.

CIT and SPO

•Highlight performance in terms effective/ineffective behavior of specific skill sets.

•Provides way for educators to identify and address pain points in teaching and technology systems.

•Skill sets required for work often overlap or are integrated.

The Case Population• 22 Subjects• 18-25 Y/O• 11M/11F• 14 Disciplines• 64% Soft Science• 46% Hard Science• 82% cms• 22% Blog/Wiki• 9% Web Page / Video

Areas of Inquiry• Unit of Analysis

Negative critical incidents that occurred in individual subject cases during project development

• 2 Areas of Inquiry Performance indicators explored for Technology Use (ISTE) and Information Seeking and Gathering (ACRL)

Critical Incidents

Technology Use

Task Environment

Information Seeking & Gathering

The Project Task

Web Site

Develop a research question and develop a presentation web site of 6 task oriented pages using multiple content types and tools.

http://sites.google.com/site/lib201site/

Data Collection

•Activity Logs•Email

Data Coding• Constant Comparative Method used to ….

• Compare incidents• Identify concepts• Identify properties• Integrate categories

Glaser and Strauss, 1967

Data Analysis• 260 Log Entries• 152 Critical Incidents• Log posting analyzed for negative critical incidents• Initial agreement between coders was Kappa 79.6%• Three added reviews provided clarification between

coders about nuances between incidents and indicators. • The incidents were assigned to a set of 8 standards, (4

technology use and 4 information seeking and gathering)

The journal article was the hardest thing that I had with my project.  For instance, everything I wrote inside the boxes kept getting erased. Effecive use of applications

Between the 2 dimensions

The distribution of negative critical incidents was similar between technology use and information seeking and gathering.

Participant’s encountered critical challenges in both areas.

Technology Use Incidents

Technology Use Incidents Incident Description Frequency % of Category

% All Incidents

Selects and uses applications effectively and productively.

I ran into problems putting links on my main page. I made it seem harder than it was because all I had to do was go to edit and highlight them and drag them where I wanted.

37 45% 24%

Understand and uses technology systems effectively

I tried to insert the books I found on to my site book page but my books were not showing; the reason was I did not put my id name.

26 32% 17%

Troubleshoots systems and applications

Every time I try to upload the pictures, it comes up as Invalid Data. I tried several times and that's all that keeps coming up. I looked back and tried to follow the directions again, but it still did not work.

13 16% 9%

Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies or processes

I finally found that an account is required in order to upload your book marks. This only makes sense…it’s just like the other tools. I should have figured these things out before, but unfortunately did not think about them.

6 7 % 4%

Total   82 100% 54%

77% critical incidents

Info Search and Gathering Incidents

Information Search and Gathering Incidents

  Frequency% of Category

% All Incidents

Constructs and implements effectively-designed search strategies.

The database worked fine, but my results were not so good. I changed the keywords that I used several times. This helped, but I found that this was the hardest part of the project so far.

44 62% 29%

Selects appropriate investigative methods or retrieval systems for accessing information

I thought finding journal articles would easy because there are countless web sites about understanding the opposite sex. I thought this would transfer over to the database as well.

16 23% 10%

Identifies a variety of types and formats of potential sources for information.

Finding a good database was hard. LexisNexis did not work one bit. It's possible they didn't have any journals about alternative medicines, but I think it's because search areas are not well set up.

7 10% 5%

Follows laws, regulations, institutional policies, and etiquette related to the access and use of information resources

I don't know what the regulations are or how you go about citing images uploaded to Google, so I didn't really cite the images I used.

3 5% 2%

Total   70 100% 46%

Conceptual Themes• 5 distinct themes emerged regarding critical incidents

across the information work process…• Overall Experience• Developing Presentation Structures• Developing Information Seeking Strategies• Working Between Applications

Overall Experience

Experience and Impact• Some students noted lack of experience using

technology which created tension regarding the project work. After working through the project, some reflections displayed a sense of increased empowerment and efficacy.• I am technologically challenged. This is a great learning

experience, but I am getting so tired that I am going to call someone who knows what they are doing.

• This project was all about trial and error, and a little more error! I was really proud of myself though. When it comes to computers I see if someone can do it for me or give up.

• The Net irritates me!

Developing Presentation Structures

Developing Presentation Structures

• Frequent problems were encountered with process related actions for creating pages and navigation links, inserting and formatting text and images, and displaying objects.

• Everything I wrote inside the boxes kept getting erased. Then I found the save button.

• I sat there for like a minute with my curser over the menu name waiting for it to pop down... NOPE! You have to go over to the little down arrow icon.

Information Seeking Strategies

Information Seeking Strategies

• Student descriptions frequently noted the need to revise strategies to accommodate the different search tools • All the various sites and applications want a different

phrase in the search bar, so I basically have to find out what is the best phrasing and combination of words.

• I had to revise my search a couple of times like with most other applications and search for a while to find exactly what I wanted.

• The main problems I had was the videos wasn't putting them on my page, it was being able to find them in the first place. I had to use a variety of different search terms to find what I did.

Working Between Web Sites

Working Between Web Sites

• Many incidents were related to actions working between web sites, such as …• Finding the control to upload or tag content.• Breakdowns when connecting separate websites to the

Google site to present information. • When I posted them into the bookmark on delicious, sometimes the

title would come out weird too, and I'd have to change it slightly to better reflect the site that it came from.

• I tried to insert the books but they were not showing up. I had to email the teacher about that, the reason was I did not put my user name.

Summary and Thoughts• Students have varied levels of skills, experience, and

attitudes towards performing information work

• Growing up with access to digital experience is more important to skill development than growing up in a digital world

• Students in discipline that provide digital and information work contexts more likely to become digitally fluent

• instructors and designers may need to develop ways to improve student ability to access and manage information as tools, tasks, as environments become diverse and complex.

Student Sentiments

• It seems so simple, but for some reason it is not working…

• I thought finding the information would be a simpler task…

• This is really frustrating…• .• The "net" irritates me ...

More Student Sentiments• I've learned a ton of new skills and can use them as

well. This is something I never expected to do... ever.

• I'll probably come across another use for these skills again at some point... but by that point I will probably have to relearn them all technology is changing. It's nuts!!!!

• I am so proud of myself at this moment. I know it sounds silly, but I am handicapped when it comes to anything modern or technology related. Honestly, I am shocked.

Measured Steps

• Survey students for experiences• Work through each technology exercise yourself• Develop basic application and web skills• Develop critical thinking skills between information, and information systems

• Provide point of need support• Stay current!

Questions? Contact….

Sean CordesAssociate Professor

Instruction Services CoordinatorWestern Illinois University Libraries

Macomb Il 61455CS-Cordes@wiu.edu

309.298.2785

Thanks for coming, & keep on tekking!