Library Collaboration: International Perspectives. An Interview with Dr. Shimelis Assefa, Associate Professor, Library and Information Science, University of Denver

In conversation with Janet Lee, Dean of Libraries, Regis University, Dr. Shimelis Assefa, University of Denver, discusses aspects of library collaboration from an international perspective that cover both challenges and opportunities. Insights on collaboration in library science education are also offered

MEASUREMENTS OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

The domain of technology in education (or educational technology) is quite broad and it is difficult to pin it down to one area of application, software, device, or tool. The purpose of this study is not on technology as an object of study taught on its own right, but as a tool closely intertwined with pedagogy in an effort to enhance, innovate, and/or transform the teaching learning experience. Moreover, the focus is on technology used in classroom settings across the P-20 domain as opposed to technology used in online or distance education. It is true in today’s interconnected environment, learning often occurs outside of the four walls of the school and to that end we recognize the influence of technology used in classroom setting can extend beyond the school system as students, teachers and other stakeholders interact and manipulate educational resources while at home or in the library, for example. Although the focus of this study is on the use of technology in traditional face-to-face teaching and learning it needs to be underscored that boundaries are increasingly blurred between internal and external environments

Data and Information Literacy: Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Africa

Libraries, especially academic and research libraries, are increasingly taking on the task of supporting their community of users in data collection, analysis, management, and preservation - an area of charge that came to be known as research data management (Tenopir, Sandusky, Allard, & Birch, 2014). As Africa enters the post-2015 development agenda, i.e. Sustainable Development Goals, that has 17 goals and 169 targets (United Nations, 2015), the successful accomplishment and outcome of such goals and targets can only be known if appropriate data is collected, analyzed and evidence is presented. In view of these ambitious and daunting challenges, it is imperative to prepare librarians with skills and knowledge needed to manage and preserve research data. This paper aims to shed light on the requisite skills and knowledge needed by librarians to play active role in the SDG agenda. Important concepts, skills, tools, methods, and applications on the topics of data and information literacy will be investigated

Effect of Multiple Representations on Students’ Performance on Interpretations and Techniques of Representation in Calculus

This study investigated the effect of the multiple representations approaches on students’ representation interpretation in learning calculus. Pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design of non-equivalent groups was used. Three intact groups of size 53, 57, and 54 students from Jigjiga and Kebri-Dehar Universities in Ethiopia participated in this study. The groups included a GeoGebra-supported multiple representations approach (MRT) from Jigjiga University, a multiple representation approach (MR), and a conventional approach (CG), both from Kebri Dehar University. Representation interpretation problem pretest and posttest were administered compiled from pre and calculus contents, respectively. Students’ performance on representation interpretation problems was assessed using rubric scores, and their interpretation techniques were labeled as local versus global and syntactic versus semantic. Results revealed no statistically significant mean difference among the three groups on representation interpretation from the posttest that was determined by one-way ANOVA ((F(2.161) = 2.232, P = .111 , Partial eta = .03). More students in each group demonstrated local and semantic interpretation than global and syntactic interpretation. After the treatment, many students from each group shifted towards the local and semantic interpretation. It is recommended that the study need to replicate other calculus contents with different participants to generalize the results of the study

GeoGebra Assisted Multiple Representations for Enhancing Students’ Representation Translation Abilities in Calculus

Multiple representations cultivate students’ mathematical mindset. However, research results have reported that students do not benefit from these tools due to lack of representational fluency. This study was designed to determine the impact of GeoGebra assisted multiple representations approach on students’ representation translation performance in calculus. Pretest - posttest quasi experimental design was implemented. Three intact groups of first year first semester of social science students in the 2019/2020 academic year of size 53, 57 and 54 at Jigjiga and Kebri-Dehar Universities in Ethiopia were considered. The groups were taught with GeoGebra supported multiple representations (MRT), multiple representations (MR) and comparison group (CG). Representation translation test was given before and after the treatment. Furthermore, students’ translation errors were categorized as implementation, interpretation and preservation errors and analyzed using frequency and percentage. The ANCOVA result revealed that significant difference was obtained on the adjusted mean of RTF posttest (F (2,160) = 5.29, P = 0.006, Partial η2 =0.062) in favor of the MRT. The interpretation error was the most frequently committed among the groups. Recommendations were forwarded that included the use of GeoGebra and the need to conduct further study with different participants to generalize to the entire population

Human concept cognition and semantic relations in the unified medical language system: A coherence analysis.

There is almost a universal agreement among scholars in information retrieval (IR) research that knowledge representation needs improvement. As core component of an IR system, improvement of the knowledge representation system has so far involved manipulation of this component based on principles such as vector space, probabilistic approach, inference network, and language modeling, yet the required improvement is still far from fruition. One promising approach that is highly touted to offer a potential solution exists in the cognitive paradigm, where knowledge representation practice should involve, or start from, modeling the human conceptual system. This study based on two related cognitive theories: the theory-based approach to concept representation and the psychological theory of semantic relations, ventured to explore the connection between the human conceptual model and the knowledge representation model (represented by samples of concepts and relations from the unified medical language system, UMLS). Guided by these cognitive theories and based on related and appropriate data-analytic tools, such as nonmetric multidimensional scaling, hierarchical clustering, and content analysis, this study aimed to conduct an exploratory investigation to answer four related questions. Divided into two groups, a total of 89 research participants took part in two sets of cognitive tasks. The first group (49 participants) sorted 60 food names into categories followed by simultaneous description of the derived categories to explain the rationale for category judgment. The second group (40 participants) performed sorting 47 semantic relations (the nonhierarchical associative types) into 5 categories known a priori. Three datasets resulted as a result of the cognitive tasks: food-sorting data, relation-sorting data, and free and unstructured text of category descriptions. Using the data analytic tools mentioned, data analysis was carried out and important results and findings were obtained that offer plausible explanations to the 4 research questions. Major results include the following: (a) through discriminant analysis category members were predicted consistently in 70% of the time; (b) the categorization bases are largely simplified rules, naïve explanations, and feature-based; (c) individuals theoretical explanation remains valid and stays stable across category members; (d) the human conceptual model can be fairly reconstructed in a low-dimensional space where 93% of the variance in the dimensional space is accounted for by the subjects performance; (e) participants consistently classify 29 of the 47 semantic relations; and, (f) individuals perform better in the functional and spatial dimensions of the semantic relations classification task and perform poorly in the conceptual dimension

Harnessing social media for promoting tourism in Africa: an exploratory analysis of tweets

Tourism has the potential to be the engine of a country’s economic development. Some developing countries, especially those in Africa, rely on tourism for their citizens’ employment. Consequently, the rise and fall of their unemployment rates are closely associated with that of tourist numbers. Hence, they need to constantly find ways to promote their cultural heritage in order to attract more tourists. Some of the key promotion tools are social media such as Twitter and an investigation to understand the nature of tweets about cultural heritage institutions is an important undertaking. However, investigations into the nature of tweets about African cultural heritage are non-existent. Our research aims to shed some light on the broad characteristics of tweets about African cultural heritage. We also identify possible implications and suggest potential strategies for tourism organizations, operators, and other stakeholders in their use of Social Media in general and Twitter in particular

“Put your mask on first before helping others”: Faculty members as a neglected population during Covid

In congruence with the conference theme, “Crafting a Resilient Future: Leadership, Education, & Inspiration”, our panel seeks to address the ways in which faculty members in LIS/IS programs have contended with the various changes and challenges stemming from the global pandemic of COVID-19 as well as broader –and related- trends reshaping the academic landscape. While most of the attention in the literature has been geared toward student engagement and learning online as a means of addressing students’ academic success and wellbeing (Rapanta et al., 2020; Katz et al., 2021), there has been disproportionally much less attention geared at teaching and research faculty members. Despite being the backbone of our educational programs and schools, and often the main reasons why students select to enter our field (Dali & Caidi, 2016), faculty members’ needs and the challenges they are facing have been largely ignored (El Masri & Sabzalieva, 2020; Gabster et al., 2020). In this panel, we seek to critically center our discussion on this key constituency, and question (disrupt, even) the notion of faculty resilience. Indeed, making use of the resilience trope sheds light partially on faculty members’ well-being, but it also contributes to masking the many inadequacies and failures at the organizational and systemic level, particularly around policies and practices dealing with the curriculum, workload, representation, accommodations, academic freedom, resource allocation, justice and dignity to name just a few. There is a much-needed engagement that needs to take place around these issues in LIS education if we are truly honest about resilience and sustainability. Our international panelists present a cross-section of faculty members who bring their varied experiences in teaching and research in the LIS field to the discussion. Together, they represent tenure and tenure-track faculty, and administrators across three countries (USA, Canada, New Zealand). The panelists, all LIS educators and professionals, will base their engagement on the following themes/questions: • What efforts are LIS programs making to address the challenges faced by faculty members to ensure not only the sustainability of the educational program but also a dignified and fair treatment of faculty members? • What are possible scenarios for a post-COVID future of LIS education, and how can faculty members be best supported and inspired to achieve resilience for a sustainable future? The speakers will tackle different angles to address these questions. After a short lightning talk (7-8 minutes), a discussion among panelists will ensue as well as engagement with the attendees through a Q/A. Some of the topics discussed include academic freedom, disability and neurodiversity, BIPOC faculty, emergency preparedness, and information cultures in Higher Education. Our format will be an interactive panel discussion that focuses on lessons learned and novel approaches to re-imagining the place of faculty members at the table, and the ways in which they can be supported to ensure they continue to strive toward innovative teaching methods and strategies for a shifting landscape in LIS education. The panelists will keep their lightening talks short to enable opportunities for audience interaction (through small-group conversations or breakout rooms (for virtual attendees))