Innovative Teaching Strategies and Conventional Approaches for Enhanced Learning in a Global Information Environment

This SIG session features five panels that will share innovative ideas on teaching and learning in LIS. Each panel will showcase a novel approaches to pedagogy that attendees will find useful. Agosto and Poole discuss Community-Based Librarianship, a postbaccalaureate certificate program being developed at Drexel University. In Determining Community Needs with CARES, Bossaller, Adkins, and Kleinsorge demonstrate how the CARES Engagement Network, a free online resource, can be used in the LIS curriculum. Hands and Tucker discuss The 7-Slide Update: A Pedagogical Tool for Enriching Scholarly Communication, a guided approach that focuses on key dimensions of doctoral work. Alman and Faires provide an overview of the social media apps in use by iSchool faculty at San Jose State University in Extend Learning Beyond the Classroom with Social Media & Cloud-based Apps: Connecting, Communicating and Transforming LIS Education. In Social Justice Design and Implementation: Transforming LIS Education. Mehra discusses his critical pedagogies and reflective practices as an instructor of three graduate courses taught in LIS at the University of Alabama. Presentations will be followed by an interactive question and answer session

Transforming LIS Education through Disability Inclusion

Combining perspectives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US, this international panel will develop an honest dialog on disability inclusion in LIS education, drawing on empirical research, discursive analysis, and practical experience. All introductory talks will be followed by nuanced and carefully developed experiential activities prepared by each group of presenters and delivered at the two thematically arranged round tables. Jointly, seven interconnected presentations will address LIS pedagogy, educational policy, and educational content from the standpoint of disability inclusion and its potential to transform LIS education

International Perspectives in LIS Education: Global Education, Research, and Collaboration at the SJSU School of Information

The IFLA Trend Report identified five trends that will impact the information environment (IFLA, 2015), such as access to information with new technologies, online education for global learning, hyper-connected communities, and the global information environment. The faculty at San José State University (SJSU) School of Information (iSchool) is engaged in a wide range of activities that focus on these trends—benefiting students, enhancing faculty professional development, and extending the school’s impact on the global information environment. The importance of incorporating global perspectives in the curriculum to reflect changes in the way that communities around the world access and share information is the focus of numerous studies. The SJSU iSchool has been an early adopter of various practices to increase the range of international education, outreach, and research initiatives. This article provides examples of curricular, research, and collaborative projects that our faculty has developed, both for our students and for the global community of information professionals. Key initiatives presented include virtually abroad global projects, globalization of LIS curriculum, international LIS internships, international project-based learning, faculty professional development, and international collaborations. Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate the diverse ways the iSchool is addressing the need in higher education to reach across national borders, especially in the information field

A New Cre Driver Mouse Line, Tcf21/Pod1-Cre, Targets Metanephric Mesenchyme

<div><p>Conditional gene targeting in mice has provided great insight into the role of gene function in kidney development and disease. Although a number of Cre-driver mouse strains already exist for the kidney, development of additional strains with unique expression patterns is needed. Here we report the generation and validation of a <em>Tcf21/Pod1-Cre</em> driver strain that expresses Cre recombinase throughout the condensing and stromal mesenchyme of developing kidneys and in their derivatives including epithelial components of the nephron and interstitial cells. To test the efficiency of this line, we crossed it to mice transgenic for either loss or gain of function <em>β-catenin</em> conditional alleles. Mice with deletion of <em>β-catenin</em> from Tcf21-expressing cells are born with hypoplastic kidneys, hydroureters and hydronephrosis. By contrast, <em>Tcf21-Cre</em> driven gain of function for <em>β-catenin</em> in mice results in fused midline kidneys and hypoplastic kidneys. Finally, we report the first renal mesenchymal deletion of <em>Patched1 (Ptch1)</em>, the receptor for sonic hedgehog (Shh), which results in renal cysts demonstrating a functional role of Shh signaling pathway in renal cystogensis. In summary, we report the generation and validation of a new Cre driver strain that provides robust excision in metanephric mesenchyme.</p> </div

<i>Tcf21-Cre</i> mouse delete genes in metanephric mesenchyme and its derivatives.

<p>(A) Scheme of <i>Tcf21-Cre</i> targeted allele: Exon1 of the <i>Tcf21</i> gene was replaced by a Cre transgene and neomycin cassette. (B) Genomic DNA from ES cell clones was isolated and digested with HindIII. The 500 bps probe outside the region of 3′ homology arm recognized a 5.3 kb and a 9.1 kb fragment for the mutant and wild-type alleles, respectively. <i>Tcf21-Cre</i> (C–F and H, I) and <i>Six2-Cre</i> (G) mice were bred to the <i>Z/EG</i> reporter mousline and Cre dependent gene deletion was examined by immunostaining for GFP. (C) At E10.5, thin and mosaic expression of GFP is present in metanephric mesenchyme (black arrowhead). (D) E11.5 embryo shows distinct expression of GFP in metanephric mesenchyme. Ureteric bud is undergoing primary branching. (E) GFP expression is observed in condensing mesenchyme (black arrowhead), pretubular aggregates (white arrowhead), interstitial stromal cells (black arrow), mesenchyme surrounding the ureteric bud (white arrow) at E13.5 embryo. (F) At E16.5, GFP is expressed in developing nephrons and stromal cells. Staining in S shaped body (white arrowhead) and presumptive podocytes (black arrowhead) can be seen in this picture. (G) <i>Six2-Cre</i> gene deletion is restricted to condensing mesenchyme (black arrowhead), developing nephrons (large black arrowhead) and podocytes (black arrow) at E16.5. (H) At postnatal day 0, gene deletion in podocytes (black arrowhead) and Bowman's capsule (white arrowhead) is evident, but tubular staining was mosaic (white arrows). (I) P0 kidney was stained with GFP (green) and pancytokeratin (red). There was no overlap between the two stainings. Magnification: C–H 200×, I 40×.</p