Researchers summer school

Hello to all the researchers I met at the NE Universities researcher summer school at Beamish Hall yesterday.

Pippin helping with paperwork

 We talked about profile raising, esteem and impact. One resource I forgot to mention is MyRI, a useful open access online resource which helps you to learn more about bibliometrics - ways to track and measure your research output.

Now you know the name of my cat and you have boosted my blog stats too!

Flavorsme

I'm finding it difficult to keep up with all the different social media applications which are around these days. This week, thanks to Jenny, I've discovered flavorsme, a neat way to keep basic info and links about yourself all in one place.

Information for Learning workshop for academic staff

I'm looking forward to a workshop my colleague Julia and I are facilitating next week. It's called Information for Learning and is based in part on some work I did in Cardiff last year and with some visiting Nigerian lecturers here in Newcastle earlier this year. The idea behind it is to encourage academic staff to think about how and where IL fits into their teaching. Julia, another colleague, Jenny, and I are working on a small project to create an online resource for our staff and students based in Singapore, so the workshop will enable us to test what we've already created and draw on the experiences of teaching staff who are already working with international partners. The workshop is just for staff here at Newcastle, but I thought readers of the blog might be interested in what we're doing, so details are below. If there is anyone else who is doing something similar, we'd be delighted to swap experiences with you.

"Information for Learning – international perspectives

v  What information skills do our students need to help them to function in the modern world?

v  Are our perceptions of ‘good academic conduct’ in information literacy transferable to different countries and cultures? What adaptations might we need to make?

v  How can we work together to embed good academic practice in the use and handling of information into our teaching?

Nigerian visitors

This workshop helps you answer these questions, by introducing a collaborative, internationalised approach to embedding information literacy, which also supports parity of teaching and learning experiences in overseas partnerships. We will demonstrate an existing online module for developing the information literacy skills of students, explain the concepts behind the Information for Learning resources currently on offer for staff and introduce you to the new SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy model. All of these materials will be used to create a new online framework, initially for the staff and students in Newcastle University in Singapore (NUIS) in the School of Marine Science and Technology – though its future application could be much broader."

E-learning IL resources

Mark Hepworth asked recently on the IL mailing list for examples of IL e-resources. For folks who didn't see Ruth's reply, there are some e-learning resources on the Information literacy wesbite  and  here too. 

Ruth's keen to have more examples, so if your materials are not already linked to on the IL website, send  the details to r.e.stubbings@lboro.ac.uk and Kanwal.Virdee@uwl.ac.uk.