About INFOBITS
Infobits is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning's Center for Instructional Technology. Each month the CIT's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a number of information and instructional technology sources that come to her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to educators.
E-Learner Competencies
Do Libraries Really Need Books?
How College Students Use the Web for Course Assignments
Report on Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Recent Reports on the State of U.S. Education
Recommended Reading
In "E-Learner Competencies" (Learning Circuits, July 2002), P. Daniel Birch outlines three major factors that influence an e-learner's success:
"management of the learning environment (self-directive competencies)"
"interaction with the learning content (metacognitive competencies)"
"interaction with virtual learning facilitators and classmates
(collaboration competencies)."
The complete article is available online at http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/jul2002/birch.html
Learning Circuits (http://www.learningcircuits.org/) is an online publication of the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), 1640 King Street, Box 1443 Alexandria, VA, 22313-2043 USA; tel: 703-683-8100 or 800-628-2783; fax: 703-683-1523; Web: http://www.astd.org/
DO LIBRARIES REALLY NEED BOOKS?
Books are taking a back seat to media and computer labs in several U.S. college and university libraries. While most new or renovated libraries still make books and other print materials the centerpiece of their collections, some are moving books into the background. A recent article ("Do Libraries Really Need Books?" by Scott Carlson in The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 12, 2002, p. A31; http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i44/44a03101.htm) describes how several universities are saving on library construction costs by storing books offsite or installing storage-and-retrieval systems that change the meaning of "browsing the stacks." In addition to limiting easy access to the books, these libraries may change users' perceptions of books' value in scholarly endeavors. Some professors and librarians are concerned that "[i]f buildings both reflect and influence the ideals of a culture . . . these libraries could tacitly be teaching undergraduate students that if they can't find it online, it doesn't exist or isn't important." However, professors may be helping to foster this belief as well. Library circulation statistics and anecdotal reporting suggests that "students prefer getting their information and their reading materials online. Notes, reference reading, and other materials appear on course Web sites because professors see that as the best way to reach their students."
The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033; Web: http://chronicle.com/
HOW COLLEGE STUDENTS USE THE WEB FOR COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
The OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., recently commissioned a survey of U.S. college students to see how they use the Web for school-related assignments. The survey questioned 1,050 18-24 year old respondents representing all regions of the U.S.
Some of the survey's findings:
"Three-out-of-four agree completely that they are successful at finding the information they need for courses and assignments, and seven-in-ten say they are successful at finding what they seek most of the time. The first-choice web resources for most of their assignments are search engines (such as Google or Alta Vista), web portals (such as MSN, AOL or Yahoo!), and course-specific websites. They do not use online study aids or groups, or essay and paper websites."
"Nearly two-thirds strongly feel they know best what information to accept from the web. Only 4% think the quality of information they find is not good enough for their assignments."
The complete report "OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of College Students," June 2002, is available online (in PDF format) at http://www2.oclc.org/oclc/pdf/printondemand/informationhabits.pdf
OCLC is a nonprofit membership organization serving 41,000 libraries in 82 countries and territories around the world. Its mission is to "further access to the world's information and reduce library costs by offering services for libraries and their users." For more information, contact OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., 6565 Frantz Road, Dublin, OH 43017-3395, USA; tel: 1-800-848-5878; fax: 614-764-6096; email: oclc@oclc.org; Web: http://www.oclc.org/
For a more informal view of this issue, see "Point. Click. Think? As
Students Rely on the Internet for Research, Teachers Try to Warn of the
Web's Snares" (by Laura Sessions Stepp, The Washington Post, 16 July
2002, p. C01). The article can be read online at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9729-2002Jul15.html
REPORT ON CONSEQUENCES OF THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
The U.S. Congress enacted the "anti-circumvention" provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), codified in section 1201 of the U.S. Copyright Act, "to stop copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to copyrighted works, and to ban 'black box' devices intended for that purpose." The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) report, "EFF Whitepaper: Unintended Consequences Three Years under the DMCA," contends that these provisions have been used to "stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy." According to the report, some of the unintended (by Congress, at least) uses and consequences of the act affect:
"EFF Whitepaper: Unintended Consequences Three Years under the DMCA" is available on the Web at http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20020503_dmca_consequences.html
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a donor-supported membership organization devoted to civil liberties issues related to technology. EFF activities include introducing leading edge proposals and papers, hosting educational events, and publishing a comprehensive archive of digital civil liberties information. For more information, contact Electronic Frontier Foundation, 454 Shotwell Street, San Francisco CA 94110-1914 USA; tel: 415 436 9333; fax: 415 436 9993; email: info@eff.org; Web: http://www.eff.org/
RECENT REPORTS ON THE STATE OF U.S. EDUCATION
"The Condition of Education 2002"
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics,
2002.
NCES's annual "Condition of Education" reports are "intended for a general audience of readers who are interested in education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available."
Areas of interest in higher education include:
"The Condition of Education 2002" is available online (in PDF format), at no cost, at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002025
"Bringing a Nation Online: The Importance of Federal Leadership"
A Report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund
and the Benton Foundation, July 2002.
"Bringing a Nation Online" examines the data in "A Nation Online" and highlights the divide between the IT haves and have-nots in the U.S.
"Earlier this year, the US Department of Commerce released its latest report examining Americans' use of computers and the Internet. Entitled, 'A Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use of the Internet,' the report paints an overly optimistic picture of Americans' use of information technology. . . . While some of the data clearly show that there are increasing numbers of Americans connected to the Internet and computers, the same data also shows how specific segments of society-particularly underserved communities-continue to significantly lag behind and that the digital divide remains a persistent problem. Significant divides still exist between high and low income households, among different racial groups, between northern and southern states, and rural and urban households. For people in these communities, the enormous social, civic, educational and economic opportunities offered by rapid advances in information technology remain out of reach."
The report is available online at http://www.civilrights.org/publications/bringinganationonline/nation1.html
"A Nation Online" is available (in PDF format) at
http://www.stat-usa.gov/pub.nsf/vwNoteIDLookup/NT000050CE
"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits subscribers. Send your recommendations to kotlas@email.unc.edu for possible inclusion in this column.
In July 2000, David Wilson Taylor, retired librarian and information scientist, began developing the Booklist Center, a website devoted to the "best book lists and award winners." Currently, the Center has more than 250 lists arranged in sixty-two categories. Lists include reference works, electronic books, science, and technology. Some of the award-winner lists include Pulitzer Prizes, Nobel Prize Winners in Literature, the Newbery Medal for Children's Literature, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle.
The Booklist Center is available at http://home.attbi.com/~dwtaylor1/index.htm