Bridging Worlds 2008 Conference, Part 7: Peter Godwin - Information literacy and Web 2.0: Is it just hype?

[From Part 6]

Peter Godwin. Academic Liaison Librarian, University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK.

He was like a Shakespearean actor, full of stage presence (I'm sure his Information Literacy classes must be interesting!)



I managed to ask him if he had acting background.

He laughed.

"No, but I had wanted to be an actor as a child."

In gist, Peter made the point that Web 2.0 wasn't hype. It was up to librarians to choose the appropriate Web 2.0 tools to make information literacy lessons more interesting. To create a more engaged audience.

“Information Literacy and Web 2.0 : is it just hype?”

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Thinking aloud
A simple point, but an important one, I thought.

Merely using Web 2.0 tools won't make your information lessons interesting for your participants.

Not if your fundamental problems are not solved.

Example #1: If our speaking style in front of a class puts people to sleep, recording yourself on video and posting it to YouTube won't win you fans. But if you look for interesting videos to supplement or replace parts of your talk, it would make for an interesting session. And you don't even have to be the star of any YouTube video.

Example #2: Let's say you start a blog allowing users to submit comments. But you don't respond to comments because it's not your department's policy to respond. You're better not starting the blog in the first place. But if you change your mindset and process, then the new media platform is likely to add value to your current process.

It's really how we choose to modify our content, the way we respond, our process.

After all, it was Albert Einstein who defined Insanity as "doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results".


[Next: Part 8]