Practical strategies for teaching AI-assisted lit reviews while keeping human analysis and critical thinking central.
This is part of an introductory first-year class to the university where students are introduced to the library and asked to think critically about how information is organized using the framework of critical cataloging. After watching a short video on the idea of classification and its problems with fixing identity categories, students analyze and categorize selected book from the collection, and then reflect on how knowledge is organized and their choices as authors.
The sixth in a series of 6 courses, students focus on the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Plan involving prescription medications, patient history, and more complex patient cases. The librarian has already met with these students in other courses so this is and scaffolded approach with this being their last session with the librarian. The purpose of the librarian session is to make sure they feel comfortable doing advanced research on drug information pertaining to specific topics that will be communicated to patients.
This lesson was given to a health career academy that consists of high school and undergraduate students. The students have a strong interest in careers in the health sciences but have yet to start their education through health sciences programs. The point of the session was to understand how disparities and health literacy intersect and will be important factors in the work they do as learners and providers and to empower the students to use their cultural wealth and voices to make change. I am attaching the slides with notes (which acted as my lesson plan for this session).
We use Google every day, but we do really understand why we get certain results? This event will explain what an algorithm is, how search engines use them, and how bias exists in our search results. Attendees will have a chance to reflect on the ways biased results can echo larger biases for representation in society. Access this site at your convenience at: https://jmu.libwizard.com/f/algorithms-bias
Co-creators: Malia Willey and Alyssa Young.
When writing a research paper, it can be easy to overlook the human side of scholarship – how being cited in a study (or not) can have real, material consequences, and how social structures can systematically exclude certain people from scholarship. This activity and lesson explores these ideas and gives students strategies for making their literature reviews more inclusive.
All told, this lesson takes about 50 minutes to an hour -- 20-30 minutes for the readings and pre-workshop activity, and 30 minutes of discussion.
Last week, I presented a poster about CORA at the ACRL 2017 conference in Baltimore. Thanks to all the librarians who stopped by to say hello!
There is a large body of research on corporate ownership and control of traditional media, such as print, television, and radio. Comparatively, research about corporate control of what we see online is underdeveloped, yet search engines are often the first place students uncritically look for research as opposed to the library website, catalogs, and discovery services. Dr. Safiya Noble shows that Google image searches for black women often perpetuate and reinforce dominant narratives involving racism and misogyny.
This activity asks students to work in groups to evaluate Internet sources to meet a research need. Students will use their available wireless devices, smartphones, tablets, computers, or laptops to retrieve the URLs provided to them. Working together, students will ask evaluation questions, guided by a CRAAP handout (attached) or instructor. Then, groups will share their findings with the class. o Students are grouped (3-4 students per group, number of groups in total is irrelevant what it important is the size of the group remains very small).
This is a short, engaging activity suitable for learners of all levels. In it, students evaluate web sources that are provided by an instructor using the acronym CRAAP (currency, relevance, accuracy, authority, and purpose). Students work together in groups and explore evaluation processes aloud, with guidance from the CRAAP cards and the instructor. This is an adaptation of various evaluating sources activities available in LIS literature and professional resources. This activity is ideally implemented as a kind of collaborative game moderated by the instructor. It is highly adaptable.
