Beyond GoogleChallenges and Opportunities for Teaching &

Learning Literacies in a Web 2.0 World

Nazlin BhimaniResearch Support & Special Collections Librarian

April 2013

Newsam Library & Archives

Plan

The ‘Problem(s)’:• The ‘Information Revolution’ and Google• Working in a ‘Culture of Distraction’ in a Web 2.0 world

Response(s):

• Understanding online user behaviour• Understanding the ‘literacies’ issue; and• The Google issue and the promotion of scholarly resources• Advocacy and the need to work collaboratively with librarians

The problem(s)

The ‘Information Revolution’Every 60 seconds:

•70+ new domains are registered•600+ new videos are uploaded to YouTube•1500+ blog posts are published•60+ new blog sites go up•168 million emails are sent•690,000+ search queries are placed•695,000 status updates are posted to FB•125+ plugins and 50+ downloads via WdPs•1 new article is published (50M+ in total)•100+ new LinkedIn accounts are created•320+ new Twitter accounts•81 iPads are sold•710 computers are sold•11 million conversations on IM

Source: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10102-how-much-data-is-generated-every-minute-infographic

Drowning in Information

Born to be Web 2.0?

Source: http://images.search.yahoo.com/ “Web 2.0”

Web 2.0 Progress?

Left-Right Hemispheres?

Jane Healy’s Endangered Minds: Why OurChildren Don’t Think (1990)

50 Million Minds Diverted, Distracted, DevouredBy Bryan Appleyard, “Stoooopid .... why the Google

generation isn’t as smart as it thinks. The digital age is destroying us by ruining our ability to concentrate” The Sunday Times, July 20, 2008:

“Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, has just written The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardises Our Future. He portrays a bibliophobic generation of teens, incapable of sustaining concentration long enough to read a book”.

This generation

Response(s)

Library User Perceptions

• 61 of Internet users perceive the Internet as a library. Many users think that resources on offer via Google Scholar are not available from the university library.

• 89% of students use search engines to being their information search (while only 2% start from a library).

• 93% are satisfied with their overall experience of using a search engine.

• Search engines fit students’ lifestyles better than physical or online libraries and that fit is ‘almost perfect’

• Students still use the library, but they are using it less (and reading less) since they first began using Internet research tools; and

• ‘Books’ are still the primary library brand association for this group, despite massive investment in digital resources, of which students are largely unfamiliar.

Is Google God?

“If I can operate Google, I can find anything . . . Google, combined with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless. God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. . . . Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too”.

Alan Cohen , Vice President AirespaceNew York Times 29th June 2003

Google Scholar

Some responses

Learning literacies for a digital age? Our understanding of learning literacies encompasses

the range of practices that underpin effective learning in a digital age. The phrase learning literacies for a digital age expresses the tension between literacy as a generic capacity for thinking, communicating ideas and intellectual work – that universities have traditionally supported – and the digital technologies and networks which are transforming what it means to work, think, communicate and learn.

The ‘Literacies’ issueWhat is the problem?• What literacy skills do our students have and what

are they lacking?• What are the other skills they need to work in an

academic environment?• How do we encourage students to be more

discerning of what they find on the Internet?• How do we get students to use the quality resources

that are provided by libraries?• How do we best utilise the support provided by

librarians and archivists?

Advocacy

Tara Brabazon The University of Google (2007)

Collaboration

•Academic Staff

•Librarians

•Writing Centre staff