An Opportunity,Not a Crisis: How Google Is Changing the Individual and the Information Profession

ABSTRACT

This article explores some of the key impacts that Google and new technologies such as Web 2.0 have had on the way people see information and information professionals and presents the argument that much of what is typically seen as negative about Google is, in fact, positive.     

Optimal Results: What Libraries Need to Know About Google and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, or the practice of designing a web site so that it rises to the top of the results page when users search for particular keywords or phrases, has become so prevalent on the modern web that it has a significant influence on Google search results. This article examines the techniques used by search engine optimization practitioners, the difference between “white hat” and “black hat” optimization tactics, and why it is important for library staff to understand these techniques and their impact on search engine results pages. It also looks at ways that library staff can help their users develop awareness of the factors that influence search results and how to better assess the quality and relevance of results listings.     

Lives on file: a critical assessment of the career portfolio genre

This article examines the ideological dimensions of the career portfolio. This genre, an increasingly common part of high school and post-secondary school curricula, invites students to collect items from multiple domains and to reflect upon what these items say about who they are and where they are going. Through a critical analysis of the primary instructional form used in one school's career portfolio program, this article describes how the genre calls students to present themselves as certain kinds of people inhabiting certain kinds of worlds. More specifically, it is argued the genre prompts students to individualize themselves and endorse in their portfolios a middle-class ideology of self-cultivation and self-promotion.     

Student workshops and neighborhood revitalization

This paper describes an effort to integrate neighborhood technical assistance and student field training through a student workshop. In the spring of 1978, ten students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provided technical assistance to the South Austin Realty Association (SARA), a leading neighborhood organization in Chicago. Working in close collaboration with neighborhood leaders, the students produced a report which concluded that South Austin was an excellent location for neighborhood revitalization and that housing rehabilitation was the recommended approach for a demonstration block. The students received academic credit, a positive educational experience, and $72.87 for production costs of the finished report. Neighborhood leaders used the report to help develop plans for a project on the block, then used these plans in a proposal which resulted in a $120,062 contract from the Office of Neighborhood Development of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This paper examines the way in which students provided a neighborhood organization with a written plan, assistance in raising funds, and working relations with a university. It also examines the way in which students received substantive knowledge and skills, credentials for future education and careers, and valuable new experiences. It concludes with analysis of the major lessons learned and of the practical problems and questions for educators.This paper is based in part on work done under contract with the South Austin Realty Association to the Bureau of Urban and Regional Planning Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The views reported are solely those of the authors, not the South Austin Realty Asociation or the University of Illinois.     

Learning with and from: positioning school students as advisors in pre-service teacher education

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical approach within the Learning Partnerships program in which school students help to ‘teach the teachers’ within pre-service teacher education. Classes of school students join with classes of pre-service teachers to provide input on how teachers can enhance school students’ engagement and wellbeing. The article draws on data collected from 125 students (aged 13–16) and 120 pre-service teachers in these workshops. Findings generated from a mixed methods study combining pre-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 38, Teachers: 33) and post-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 69, Teachers: 15) and post-workshop surveys (n = Students: 96; Teachers: 101) demonstrated that the workshops were mutually beneficial for both students and pre-service teachers. Participants found that workshopping together enhanced their belief in the possibility of positive student–teacher relationships. The pre-service teachers reported greater confidence in communicating with young people about the issues that affect student engagement and wellbeing. The school students reported that they were more willing to use teachers as a source of help. Implications include the need for increased attention to a ‘third space’ for learning in teacher development which provides opportunity for learning with and from young people about how to foster their engagement and wellbeing.     

Cross‐Country Heterogeneity in Students’ Reporting Behavior: The Use of the Anchoring Vignette Method

Self‐reports are an indispensable source of information in education research but they are often affected by heterogeneity in reporting behavior. Failing to correct for this heterogeneity can lead to invalid comparisons across groups. The researchers use the parametric anchoring vignette method to correct for cross‐country incomparability of students’ reports on teacher's classroom management. Their analysis is based on the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012. The results show significant variation in implicit standards across countries. Correlations between countries’ average teacher classroom management levels and external variables like students test scores and public expenditure per pupil change substantially after vignette adjustment. The researchers conclude that the anchoring vignettes method shows potential to enhance the comparability of self‐reported measures in education.     

Sight versus Sound: The Differential Impact of Mediated Spectator Response in Sport Broadcasts

Despite the research examining various production aspects of broadcast sport, scholars have generally overlooked a ubiquitous sonic component of broadcasts—spectators’ aural response (i.e., crowd noise). Such cues can act as a heuristic to influence perceptions of competition, particularly in the absence of visuals. Using continuous response measurement, this experiment demonstrates how mediated spectator response in the form of crowd noise yields enhanced perceptions of the exciting nature of broadcast sport, although the effect is diminished in televised sports. Implications are suggested for contemporary sport consumption, where aural cues can draw attention to game events in multi-screen viewing scenarios.     

Discursive Power and Creativity in Inter-Professional Work

This paper discusses how discursive power and creativity are found to be inter-related in a context not traditionally associated with creative work; the operating theatre of a hospital. Here, it is proposed that creativity relies on socio-cultural factors emphasizing the practical nature of creativity, and highlighting the fact that a large part of our creativity connects with our everyday social life and practices. We assume that power is exercised in an embedded manner in everyday work and continuously reproduced and redefined between the social actors. The data utilized here derive from a collective ethnographic research project focusing on surgical workplace learning and professional identity. Observational data and field notes from work situations in operating theatres are utilized. The paper illustrates the manifestations of discursive power through three selected example episodes. Our findings show the intertwined nature of power and creativity in OT work practices. The power relations do not function only to restrict collaboration but can also promote collective creativity. Collective creativity in inter-professional work is exercise of agency in the workplace, especially with the actors with less power. Shared creative solutions in the work practices are achieved in a shared organizational culture in which power becomes discursively internalised and institutionalised. We argue that new insights will be brought up in the area of workplace learning and professional development by taking into account the institutionalized collective acts in working communities. The study supports the need for further development of inter-professional collaboration and learning in health care work organizations.