Building a Digital Library: What to Expect as a Technology Project Manager on a Library Construction Project

Column Editor's Note. This JLA column posits that academic libraries and their services are dominated by information technologies, and that the success of librarians and professional staff is contingent on their ability to thrive in this technology-rich environment. The column will appear in odd-numbered issues of the journal, and will delve into all aspects of library-related information technologies and knowledge management used to connect users to information resources, including data preparation, discovery, delivery and preservation. Prospective authors are invited to submit articles for this column to the editor at kenning.arlitsch@montana.edu.

The Taylor Family Digital Library is the central library opened in 2011 at the University of Calgary dedicated to supporting digital scholarship, creativity, analysis and a supportive learning environment for students. The new building is a technologically advanced converged cultural institution, with mandates to continually evolve in order to meet the needs of students and researchers. The infrastructure to support these mandates required research, collaboration and intense planning, resulting in new construction and technology standards for library renovation and construction projects. This pragmatic article is written for those who will follow in similar footsteps; it provides a roadmap for those embarking on the construction of a new technologically advanced library building.     

The Devil’s Advocate

Science & Education - While dissent is recognized as a necessary component of scientific knowledge production, in school settings, it is a double-edged sword that can disrupt and undermine...     

INTERROGATING THE TROPE OF THE DOOR IN MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: FRAMING DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS TO INDIGENOUS POLITICAL AND LEGAL DIFFERENCE

In this essay Troy Richardson works to develop a conceptual framework and set of terms by which a diplomatic reception of different forms of law can be developed in multicultural education. Taking up the trope of the door in multiculturalist discourse as a site in which a welcoming of the difference of others is organized, Richardson interrogates the complex nature of receptivity to Indigenous customary law, in particular. He argues that, within this trope, a metonymic structure operates in relation to the deployment of “policy” that maintains a perspective of customary law as premodern and primitive. This structure leads to an impoverished set of terms and a lack of diplomacy toward difference. Richardson proceeds by considering the notion of extraterritoriality and the metonyms that organize Emmanuel Levinas's discourse of “doors” in conceptualizing a welcoming receptivity. The term “extraterritoriality” anticipates the law of the other as it approaches the door and implies a diplomatic moment of reception of such difference. Richardson concludes by highlighting Jacques Derrida's evaluation of Levinas's discourse of receptivity and by considering the possibilities for a diplomatic engagement with the laws of others toward a mutation in the current geopolitical moment.     

At the Garden Gate: Community Building Through Food: Revisiting the Critique of “Food, Folk and Fun” in Multicultural Education

This essay takes up a re-evaluation of the ossified view of food events that have circulated in the canonical texts of multicultural education. While agreeing with the critique by progressive multiculturalists against a “touristic” approach to diversity, the author argues that such a conception of food-centered events in schools has obscured how such activities can foster multi-ethnic and multicultural community building. By looking at popular discourses such as newspapers which describe school gardens in particular, the author identifies how school-community partnerships centered on food are developing in multi-ethnic contexts to promote progressive ideals such as volunteerism, civic engagement and environmental awareness.     

Practicality in Virtuality: Finding Student Meaning in Video Game Education

This paper looks at the conceptual differences between video game learning and traditional classroom and laboratory learning. It explores the notion of virtual experience by comparing a commonly used high school laboratory protocol on DNA extraction with a similar experience provided by a biotechnology themed video game. When considered conceptually, the notion of virtual experience is not limited to those experiences generated by computer aided technology, as with a video game or computer simulation. The notion of virtuality can apply to many real world experiences as well. It is proposed that the medium of the learning experience, be it video game or classroom, is not an important distinction to consider; instead, we should seek to determine what kinds of meaningful experiences apply for both classrooms and video games.     

Developing and Using Multiple Models to Promote Scientific Literacy in the Context of Socio-Scientific Issues

Science & Education - Learning science in the context of socio-scientific issues (SSI) can promote scientific literacy that links science to everyday life and society. In this position paper,...     

What’s in a word? Practices associated with ‘feedforward’ in higher education

Abstract

The term ‘feedforward’ is increasingly employed in higher education, and this paper focuses on the way in which it fits into contemporary debates about feedback and its impact on practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the practices academics associate with feedforward and the ways in which their intentions and understandings varied. The term resulted in practices being framed as a process and prompted academics to consider the points in the future when students were expected to deploy information and improve. Three future horizons were identified: the ‘within-module’ future horizon dominated, while the challenges of ‘beyond-module’ and ‘beyond-programme’ horizons became apparent. Written comments, guidance, formative assessment and design practices were associated with feedforward, comprising both transmission and student-focused approaches. It is concluded that the modular system restricts longer-term future horizons and sustainable practices, and more must be done to address the divide between theoretical and practitioners’ perspectives.     

MicroObservatory Net: A Network of Automated Remote Telescopes Dedicated to Educational Use

Many students have a deep interest in astronomy, but a limited opportunity to use telescopes to explore the heavens. The MicroObservatory Network of automated telescopes is designed to provide access to classroom teachers who wish their students to conduct projects over the World Wide Web. The intuitive interface makes it easy for even 10-year-olds to take pictures. Telescopes can be remotely pointed and focused: filters, field of view, and exposure times can be changed easily. Images are archived at the website, along with sample challenges and a user bulletin board, all of which encourage collaboration among schools. Wide geographic separation of instruments provides access to distant night skies during local daytime. Since first light in 1995, we have learned much about remote troubleshooting, designing for unattended use, and for acquiring the kinds of images that students desire. This network can be scaled up from its present capability of 240,000 images each year to provide telescope access for all US students with an interest in astronomy. Our WWW address is http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/     

Factors influencing success in introductory college chemistry

Previous research has found a wide range of predictors of student performance in introductory college chemistry. These predictors are associated with both the students' backgrounds and their high school learning experiences. The purpose of this research study was to examine the link between high school chemistry pedagogical experiences and performance in introductory college chemistry while accounting for individual educational and demographic differences. The researchers surveyed 1531 students enrolled in first‐semester introductory college chemistry courses for science and engineering majors at 12 different U.S. colleges and universities. Using multiple regression analysis, the researchers uncovered several interesting high school pedagogical experiences that appeared to be linked with varying levels of performance in college chemistry. Most notably, the researchers found that repeating chemistry labs for understanding was associated with higher student grades, whereas overemphasis on lab procedure in high school chemistry was associated with lower grades in college. These results suggest that high school teachers' pedagogical choices may have a link to future student performance. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 987–1012, 2005     

Evaluation criteria as control variables in the design of instructional systems

Many of the concepts and principles used in cybernetics are helpful in examining and designing instructional systems. However, the operational utility of cybernetic models is dependent on the match between the phenomenon being modelled and the model itself. In this paper, the position is taken that except in those forms of learning where the criteria for success are independent, fixed, and few in number, the cybernetic paradigm cannot be applied to curriculum development without a modified interpretation of how evaluation criteria can act as system control variables.