visitors and residents: what motivates engagement with the digital information environment?

DEPARTMENT FOR CONTINUING EDUCATIONTECHNOLOGY-ASSISTED LIFELONG LEARNING

1 June 2011

Visitors and Residents: What motivates engagement with the

digital information environment?

Dr. Lynn Silipigni ConnawayOCLC Research

David WhiteUniversity of Oxford

Donna LancllosUniversity of North Carolina, Charlotte

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Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

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Old people just don’t get this stuff

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Research Addressing Digital Learners

• Need for a longitudinal study “to identify how individuals engage in both the virtual and physical worlds to get information for different situations” (Connaway & Dickey 2010, p.56).

• The information literacy of young people, has not improved with the widening access to technology: in fact, their apparent facility with computers disguises some worrying problems (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research 2008).

• DAVE- Add Quote (Beetham, McGill, and Littlejohn 2009).

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Mark Bullen: http://digitallearners.wordpress.com/

a. Institutional e-mail account No associationb. Personal e-mail account No associationc. Instant messaging No associationd. Text message (via phone) No associatione. Facebook/MySpace No associationf. Talking via phone No associationg. Talking in person No associationh. WebCT Association

Mode:Significant Association between age and use?

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http://is.gd/VqXHkT

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Visitors and Residents Study

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“…our generation isn’t technology orientated. I think it’s always a stereotype.”

(Participant UKS4)

“I think that lots of like companies and people away from my generation think that we rely and we’re obsessed with gadgets and gizmos and everybody has to buy the newest iPhone and iPad and newest everything. At the end of the day, as a student, are you really know is that is what the internet is for. How you get to it – it doesn’t matter if you don’t own a computer and you have to come to the library to use it. Um…like it’s available to you and you don’t care like how you get it.”

(WorldCat.org Focus Group Interview UKU4th year Participant)

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Facebook is for administration & social communication

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Don’t mention Wikipedia!

EnglishThe Free Encyclopedia3 642 000+ articles 

日本語フリー百科事典750 000+ 記事

DeutschDie freie Enzyklopädie1 233 000+ Artikel 

EspañolLa enciclopedia libre761 000+ artículos 

FrançaisL’encyclopédie libre1 106 000+ articles 

РусскийСвободная энциклопедия

714 000+ статей 

ItalianoL’enciclopedia libera

803 000+ voci 

PortuguêsA enciclopédia livre685 000+ artigos 

PolskiWolna encyklopedia

802 000+ haseł 

NederlandsDe vrije encyclopedie688 000+ artikelen 

Common Research Findings

Information literacy skills lacking

Information literacy not kept pace with digital literacy

Researchers self-taught & confident

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Why Visitors and Residents Project?

“If we build it, they will come.” NOT

Shifting changes in engagement with information environment Effect of larger cultural changes influenced by Web? New attitudes towards education?

Gap in user behaviour studies – need for longitudinal studies

Understanding of motivations for using and expectations of technologies and spaces in information environment

Inform projects & service design to improve engagement & uptake

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http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr/

Selected Readings

Beetham, Helen, Lou McGill, and Allison Littlejohn. Thriving in the 21st Century: Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA Project). Glasgow: The Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University, 2009. http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/llida/LLiDAReportJune2009.pdf.

DAVE: NEED CITATION FOR GOOGLE GENERATION REPORT/PAPER. DAVE: NEED CITATION FOR LAIRAH REPORT/PAPER. Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Timothy J. Dickey. The Digital Information Seeker:

Report of the Findings from Selected OCLC, RIN, and JISC User Behaviour Projects. 2010. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/reports/2010/digitalinformationseekerreport.pdf.

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The researchers would like to thank Alison LeCornu for her assistance in keeping the team organized, scheduling and conducting interviews, analyzing the data, and disseminating the results.

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connawal@oclc.org

david.white@conted.ox.ac.uk@daveowhite

Thanks

Questions & Comments