Information You Can Use in Business and Life

50+ Adults, Seniors, Older Adults Technology Resources

Eldercare has a guide on the basics of Facebook, email, texting,privacy and safety, YouTube, Twitter, Skype, instant message and blogging. Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults

Google has a great comic book that teaches people about the web, fun to watch and informative. "Google Chrome's comic book was a great way to introduce to the world a new browser, but not everyone knew what's an URL or a web app." Google Chrome Comic Book Introduction the Web and What It Means!

There are some videos that are intended to come from a parents kids. Yet lets jsut cut to the chase. If you want to watch these videos to learn more about technology and using your computer you can select the videos you want to watch and send them to yourself  Teach Parents Technology

 

The Shadow Scholar, Must Read for Higher Education. Cheating Yourself as a Student!

From the artice in The Chronicle Review, November 16, 2010. "You've never heard of me, but there's a good chance that you've read some of my work. I'm a hired gun, a doctor of everything, an academic mercenary. My customers are your students. I promise you that. Somebody in your classroom uses a service that you can't detect, that you can't defend against, that you may not even know exists." The Shadow Scholar

Does education need to find a way to focus on education versus evaluation and how would that look as the article the Shadow Scholar suggests? How would online education adjust to this abuse? What technologies could control this paper mill approach to learning. How about the use of video conferencing and paper presentation verbally? After acceptance would a picture and digital "fingerprint" be used to match up the student and their academic submissions. And what about the student accepting responsibility for their academic work and ethics  and being held accountable.

I believe there is a way to reduce this abuse by students with technologies and innovation thinking on the part of educators. We need to understand the data on students outsourcing their academic work and how widespread the problem to get to some solutions. Thoughts?

Searcher In Charge: Facebook for Adults 50 Plus and Seniors

An educational video for the 50+ crowd and seniors on Facebook.

Searcher In Charge: Facebook for Adults 50 + and Seniors

Critical Thinking in Classroom; How to Draw or Show What you See

The slide presentation below has a graph around slide #17 that shows different ways to draw or present what an individual sees when they think. Useful presentation for thinking skills.

18 formats for handmade thinking in the classroom

from Laurence Musgrove.

Information Literacy : An Example of How Not to Say You Are an Expert from Infolitnow.com

Information literacy teaches the individual to understand the sources of information they are analyzing and how credible the authors are who are writing the content. The blog Infolitnow.com (http://infolitnow.com/about-2/)  indicates they want to "bring information literacy to the masses using information literacy principals" as noted below in the purpose statement. Okay then do it correctly.

1. Give us your credentials, list your last names and your authority and expertise for us to take your work seriously. 
2. Make sure your links work, as currently the link for Melange Information Services, Inc. does not work! 
3. IMHO, you have a lot of ads on your blog which reduces your credibility for this type of content.
4. Check your spelling, as editor is spelled wrong. ("Infolitnow was the brain child of Senior Editior Scott...")    
   
   "We Ask the Right Questions and Give you the Answers. We are a site that writes about everyday issues that will affect your everyday life.

Infolitnow was the brain child of Senior Editior Scott and Editor Dr. Lana W. Our goal is to bring information to the masses using the principals of information literacy. Infolitnow is a subdevition ot Melange Information Services: Mélange Information Services, Inc. offers 21st century college and career readiness training designed specifically to prepare learners and workers to function at the top of their game in a 21st century world economy. We take those mind set and skills and bring them to this new venture Infolitnow.com."

 

I would like to understand the thinking of the authors of Infolitnow.com on the questions listed below:

1. Why are you promoting information literacy but not giving your credentials so the user can evaluate the worth of the content relative to your expertise as authors? 
2. Why is there a broken link into a website (http://www.melangeinfo.com/index.html) that is equally vague?  
3. Why are you using the concepts of the Big6 (http://www.big6.com/) without crediting the original authors?
4. What do you mean by the word "subdevition" as I find no definitions for this word anywhere. "Infolitnow is a subdevition ot Melange Information Services:...".

It would be good for our readers to understand how following your examples of information literacy put them at the "top of their game in a 21st century world economy".

Thanks.

Searcher In Charge Health Information: Health Search for Consumers

TM

Over the past year I have been working on a series of videos titled Searcher In Charge: Health Information. They are findable by searching “searcher in charge” in YouTube. I have also provided the individual links to each video at the end of this message. These videos are produced by myself, Lark Birdsong, through the Information Literacy Initiative at the University of Washington, Information School.

 

The goal of the video series is to provide consumers who go online a way to find basic health information using an information literacy approach to finding, analyzing and evaluating quality health sources. The words “information literacy” are not used in the videos as they are produced for consumers, yet the concepts of information literacy are included. The target market is adults who go online for health information. Yes, that is a large market and some adults will be able to use the videos and others will not. The videos provide plenty of search examples for the health consumer and the videos can be replayed as needed by the consumer so they can gain the information.  Currently there are seven videos in the series with an average time of approximately 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Another video is provided as tips for viewing the videos and one more video on health sources will be added. A few key notes:
 

·         The video series highlights the importance of health care providers for finding quality health information

·         The use of libraries and librarians for finding quality information is highlighted

·         Tips for finding quality health sources are provided

·         Tips for analyzing websites and other sources of information are included

·         Tips for evaluating the quality of the results is provided

·         Search examples in Google and Bing are included that use MedlinePlus and the Mayo Clinic websites

·         The videos have some logic if played in order yet any video could be viewed as a standalone video

·         Production, images and other features improve as the video series progresses

·         The video series allows for embedding and credit is requested if embedded (Searcher In Charge Health Information, produced by Lark Birdsong, Director, Information Literacy Initiative of the University of Washington Information School, [lark@larkbirdsong.com or 303-884-8666])

·         Video #7 will include sources of quality health information; more details below

·         I also plan to use websites in video #7 that direct consumers to libraries that might have health information such http://www.publiclibraries.com/ (USA specific). I have other entry points into libraries beyond the USA such as http://www.123world.com/libraries/, http://www.worldcat.org/,  http://www.libdex.com/country.html, http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/  and will add other sources for this area if I receive recommendations.

 

I have not produced the last video on health sources for Searcher In Charge Health Information #7 yet. I have been gathering quality health sources that help a health consumer with more general questions find quality entry points. I am open to other health sources and  would like to gain feedback on quality health sources that might be good starting points with health questions. I am not sure how I will format this last video and what information will be included as it might depend on the number and type of recommendations I receive. If you have any suggestions I am appreciative of your thoughts. Also feel free to forward this information if you believe it would be useful to others.

 

 

Individual Links to each video:

Searcher In Charge Video Series Viewing Tips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t5NQyqh53g

Searcher In Charge Health Information #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40U8ymsp3Fw

Searcher In Charge Health Information #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MDTkF8WglE

Searcher In Charge Health Information #3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bTHVUIYHAo

Searcher In Charge Health Information #4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzinjiYb3-w

Searcher In Charge Health Information #5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNJcTNlAzEQ

Searcher In Charge Health Information #5 More Details http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhwL7hEIcg

Searcher In Charge Health Information #6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocz2Mo764es

 

 
Thanks for your time and suggestions.

Lifelong Learning, Information Literacy BC (or Beyond College)

I have been asked why I work with adults out of college on information literacy training. I am officially (okay I know am the only official at this point) coining this group "Information Literacy BC" or "IL BC". There are several solid factual reasons which I have listed below, plus I simply love working with this group of adults. Here are some facts on the classes I teach.

The ages range from mid 20's to mid 80's. These trainings have been topic specific,such as using IL BC to find jobs, or for small to medium sized business owners to grow their business. Classes also include general IL techniques with a focus on the specific information needs of the group. The needs of IL BC learners are different than a college student and different within stages of their life. For example, IL BC learners don't need to cite their work (such as APA, MLA) in a format that is required for scholarly work in college. What they do need to know is how to "cite" in their world. These include bookmarking on a home PC, saving information to a USB stick in a library, or social bookmarking to find again and share with others. They have a need to Conclude their information literacy quest (conclude is C in IN PFAC, a model used for adults needing IL BC) which includes different ways to "cite", save, share what they find. See previous post on IN PFAC for more details of this model for lifelong learners.

Why Offer Information Literacy Training for adults Out of College (BC or Beyond College)?

1. Adults  average approximately 73% of their life beyond college and in need of education in varying stages of their life  (2009 life expectancy estimate is 78.1 years for adults 16-65 years in the United States, ("Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine").
2. Most working people will make numerous career changes during their lifetime of employment that require further education.
3. Individuals who are not in the paid "work world" still have information needs or questions and need quality information.
   
4. A healthy democratic society requires literate citizenry to take “advantage of educational opportunities, manage their finances, participate in government, secure jobs, manage health care and make choices that otherwise affect their lives.” (The Aspen Initiative)

Information Literacy Training for All The Outliers

Here are three resources for lifelong learners.

1. The article shows one approach to information literacy for individuals who have not received information literacy training or individuals in need of a refresher course with the advance of technology.
An Article Describing a Curriculum for IL Training to Individuals not in School

2. An article showing a collaborative research effort with women who are or have been homeless and the author.
Article showing collaborative research using information literacy skills with lifelong learners

3. A model called IN PFAC that lifelong learners can use to find quality information.
Helpful for lifelong learners