Net Gen Learners and Libraries

Net Gen Learners and Libraries

Joan K. Lippincott

Coalition for Networked Information

ACRL/NYDecember 2, 2005

Characteristics of Net Gen Students

Always connected, multitasking Oriented to working in groups Experiential learners Visual Producers as well as consumers


It’s About More than Style…

It’s about learning


What type of learning?

“Deeper Learning”• Social• Active• Contextual• Engaging• Student-owned


Lorcan Dempsey on Libraries

"So, unlike the major online presences, our systems have low gravitational pull, they do not put the user in control, they do not adapt reflexively based on user behavior, they do not participate fully in the network experience of their users."

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/cat_libraries_organization_and_services.html

http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/cat_libraries_organization_and_services.html


Net Gen and Libraries: Disconnects

Multi-media Figure it out Work in groups Multi-task

Text-based Learn from experts Individually based Logical, linear

Net Gen Students Libraries


Deeper Learning Is: Net Gen Students Are:

ACTIVE EXPERIENTIAL


British Museum website


Poll students on your website


MOMA Poll


Global Probability Lesson


U. Alberta Library’s PDA Zone


Digital Chemistry at UC Berkeley


To encourage active learning, libraries can:

Introduce interactivity on library websites• Exploration via clicking on objects• Taking polls• Partner on national or global initiatives

Provide resources for PDAs or other mobile devices

Connect with interactive curricula being used at your institution



CONTEXTUAL

LOCALLY OWNED

PRODUCERS & CONSUMERS


Dartmouth Library


Student project at Santa Clara U.


USC Student Project


U. Minnesota Library’s Blog Service


GMU History Tools


U. Washington Digital Collections


To encourage student creation of information products, libraries can:

Provide multimedia production areas and services

Include IP discussions in information literacy programs

Host a blog service Help users connect with tools for

digital production Help users find quality digital content

that they can use in their productions



ENGAGED VISUAL


A different approach to library web pages at LAPL


Visual finding aid at the Tate


Mechanical Engineering Game at MIT


Second Life: Virtual World


Visualization tool at U. Hong Kong


UC Merced Library

“The library will have a café and allow food and beverages in the stacks and reading areas…Large, flat-screen digital monitors may hang like picture frames on the walls, displaying information or images from the digitized special collections.”

“The Birth of a Research University,” CHE, v.51, Issue 30, p. A24


Virtual 3-D Models in the Library

It is 2012 and most research libraries are now outfitted with real-time, immersive theaters…”Users of the theater feel as if they are right in the middle of the subject of their study - be it ancient Rome, the three stable members of the C2H4O Group of isotomers, the interacting galaxy NBC 4038/9 in Corvus, or the geological stratigraphy of Mars. At will, users can fly over Earth and, moving a time bar, set themselves down at any one of several hundred sites of great importance to humanity’s cultural history.”

Bernard Frischer, The Ultimate Internet Café. CLIR, 2005


To encourage engagement and visual orientation, libraries can:

Use more visual cues on library websites

Display images and graphics of digital information resources

Explore creation of or links to multimedia learning games

Get involved in virtual worlds Provide data for visualization projects House virtual, 3-D theaters



SOCIAL ALWAYS CONNECTED

GROUP-ORIENTED


Dickinson College IC


Cox Center - Emory


Georgia Tech IC


U. Georgia Student Learning Center


To promote a social context for learning, libraries can:

Provide comfortable, informal spaces Provide group study rooms Install cafes


The Net Gen Are Our Future

Assist students with making the transition from the recreational use of technology to academic use of technology

Provide environments, physical and virtual, which engage students

Promote creativity in students’ discipline-related work


Comments and Discussion

Is the notion of Net Gen students a myth or hype?

Why shouldn’t students learn to use our sophisticated information systems?

What are some inexpensive ways to adapt to Net Gen preferences?

What examples can you add that illustrate new content, services, and environments tailored to Net Gen students?


Resources

http://www.educause.edu/LibraryDetailPage/666&ID=pub7101

Educating the Net GenEdited by Diana G. Oblinger and James L. Oblinger

Colleen Carmean & Jeremy Haefner.“Mind Over Matter.” EDUCAUSE Review, vol 37,No. 6, Nov./Dec., 2002 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0261.pdf

Net Gen Learners and Libraries

Documents