“The Same Information Is Given to Everyone”: Algorithmic Awareness of Online Platforms

After years of discourse surrounding the concept of “filter bubbles,” information seekers still find themselves in echo chambers of their own thoughts and ideas. This study is an exploratory, mixed methods analysis of platform privacy/data policies and user awareness of the personal and usage data collected and user awareness of how platforms use this data to moderate and serve online content. Utilizing Bucher’s (2018) framework to research algorithms through the black box heuristic, this project learns how users inform themselves about data collection and use policies, and their awareness of algorithmic curation. The algorithmic systems that return search results or populate newsfeeds are opaque, black boxed systems. In an attempt to open the black box, this dissertation analyzes the privacy and data policies of the top three platforms by traffic in the United States – Google, YouTube, and Facebook – to first learn how they describe their data collection practices and how they explain data usage. Then a cross-sectional survey provides user perception data about what personal data is collected about them and how that data is used, based on the privacy policy analysis. The findings of this dissertation identify a need for algorithmic literacy and develop a new frame for the ACRL’s Information Literacy Framework to address algorithmic systems in information retrieval. Additionally, the findings draw attention to two subgroups of internet users – those who believe they do not use search engines and those who use only privacy-focused search engines. Both groups require additional research and demonstrate how online information retrieval is complicated through multiple points of access and unclear methods of information curation

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work* (Instructional Technologists and Librarians Support Teaching and Learning, Together) *thank you John C. Maxwell

At Beloit College, instructional technologists and librarians share an open concept office. We have titled the space the Library and Instructional Technology Engagement or LITE Room. Being in this space affords us a unique opportunity to collaborate in support of teaching and learning on the Beloit campus. We have been working in this environment together for two years. Throughout the presentation we will share how our collaborative team came to be, in what ways we learned and grown over the two years, and our plans for the future. As with most collaborations in technology we have experienced our fair amount of challenges with campus buy-in. However, the frequency of projects and proximity to each other we have found many opportunities to better utilize the skills available to us. To increase and foster relationships with faculty, we strive to present as a united force while problem-solving. Together, we work on course and assignment consultation with faculty to highlight campus technology and the collection. This has been particularly helpful with the instructional technologists participating in the Library\u27s Instruction and Consultation Work Group. Two of our most successful partnerships have been integrating LibGuides into Moodle by demonstrating best practices for simple integration of widgets into blocks, marketing spaces, and course templates; and supporting a project to crowdsource transcription of some of the college\u27s archived artifacts. With several projects on the horizon, we can provide a roadmap of foreseen challenges, opportunities, and successes. These projects include: creation of library-centric tutorials, support of a campus-wide printing initiative, programming around a recording booth, and use of other creative digital technologies

Teaching the teachers: What's missing in LIS doctoral teacher education?

This panel presentation will discuss the results of a study that examines the status of teacher education in United States-based Library and Information Studies (LIS) doctoral degree programs. The study integrates analysis of program information, student perspectives, and institutional expectations to assess whether current approaches in developing discipline-specific educators are adequate for the immediate professional needs of doctoral students and the long-term academic viability of LIS programs. The analysis focuses on a subset of ALA-accredited LIS programs that hold membership in ALISE and/or the iSchool Organization. It assumes that the majority of the LIS degreed faculty personnel are drawn from these programs and thus are part of an overall network of doctoral teacher education and training that is ostensibly informed by shared policy frameworks. Yet, the notion of teaching doctoral students to be teachers is largely absent from professional discourse in LIS, where most discussions of education focus solely on training librarians, archivists, and other information professionals in information literacy instruction. In other words, there is not now, nor does there appear to have ever been, a clear consensus approach to training the people who ultimately become responsible for teaching LIS. Recent research and reporting demonstrate that across academe, PhD programs generally do not provide sufficient teacher training for doctoral students, mostly because academic faculty and department agendas are focused on research that attracts outside funding, facilitates industry partnerships, and adds notoriety and prestige for institutions in an increasingly competitive education marketplace. A 2018 study by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that the scant training offered by the ‘professional apprenticeship’ system, defined mostly by teaching assistantships, may actually stunt doctoral students’ progress toward degree completion. The report indicates that “while teaching a few courses can be a valuable learning experience, many teaching assistants instead operate as a source of cheap labor for the academy,” producing a harmful “casualization” of academic labor that undermines traditional faculty roles and the tenure system. Further analysis by the AAUP shows that the proportion of teaching-intensive positions to research-intensive positions has risen sharply in recent years, representing a “seismic shift” with consequences for faculty and students due to the “lower levels of campus engagement across the board and a rising service burden for the shrinking core of tenurable faculty.” Discipline-specific studies of doctoral student teacher training in a variety of academic fields reveal an ambivalence among students toward their teaching responsibilities and opportunities, which often reflects a lack of confidence in and anxiety around their ability to teach effectively and leads to feelings of unpreparedness in assuming faculty positions. This is especially problematic for doctoral students in programs that promote the ideal of success as obtaining tenure-track positions in highly-ranked and research intensive academic institutions, while not adequately preparing doctoral students for alternative career paths. The trend of shrinking university budgets and diminishing opportunities for new PhDs to take on research-focused work has been accompanied by new expectations for education delivery by students, administrators, accreditors, employers, and other stakeholders, both of which contribute to the high attrition rate of doctoral students. Research shows that when combined with the firsthand experience gained through the apprentice systems, formal teacher training makes a positive difference in how new and aspiring faculty carry out their roles, manage their workloads, and build sustainable careers. Adequate teacher training also creates a ripple effect that benefits student learning outcomes and skills acquisition, which is especially important to LIS and other discipline areas built around a distinct but evolving set of practical professional pursuits. Very little scholarly research along these lines has been conducted in the LIS field and even a surface level scan of the status of doctoral student teacher training within LIS programs demonstrates that efforts are inconsistent, nonstandardized, and seemingly inadequate. This study attempts to dig deeper and address how teacher education and training is integrated into curricular offerings and requirements in American LIS doctoral programs. It incorporates perceptions from doctoral students about the teacher education and training they have received and it evaluates the education or training requirements included on faculty job position descriptions in these programs to see how they align with students’ experience and their own program expectations. The authors suggest that instruction needs to include and go beyond learning courseware, instructional design, educational theory, and ad hoc modelling of doctoral seminars to enable doctoral students to develop diverse but discipline-specific instructional approaches to LIS. In accord with the conference theme, this panel presentation is not limited to assessment and critique for its own sake, but rather seeks to propose possible solutions and recommendations for how teacher education and training might become more effective and more of a priority for LIS doctoral programs as they seek a more resilient future. The panel is composed of current doctoral students who will present on the various aspects of the research and discuss the findings in relation to their own experience with doctoral teacher training and education. Furthermore, the panelists intend to structure their delivery in a way that promotes interaction with faculty, students, administrators, and others in the audience and provides the basis for continuing conversations and research beyond the conference

A perspective on Wikipedia : approaches to educational use

In our previous column, we reviewed Wikipedia's role as a global encyclopedia and demonstrated how it can be paired with the ACRL Framework (Dowell & Bridges, 2019). This column will expand on its use, highlighting several approaches for employing Wikipedia as an educational tool through programs, assignments, and methods by providing real-world examples from libraries and other educational institutions

Strategies for Success - Building LibApps in Moodle That Students Will Use

It was already a common practice at one library that after the instruction session with a class using Moodle, a subject or course guide is embedded into the class’ Moodle instance. After implementation of LibGuides at point of need for students in Moodle, we found a 275% increase in usage of the embedded guide versus a guide which has not been embedded. The students have grown to expect their needs be met quickly, and providing an access point in an environment where they work has proven successful