Monday, May 17, 2010

Resouces and their use

What did you hear in the library this morning?
We learned about the typical library resources, both physical and electronic, but more importantly we also learned about how students carry out research for the papers. The bottom line is that students do not know how to use resources to do research, or how to manage their time.

Regarding their resources, I am already familiar with what the library has to offer. Other than learning that we can request a librarian to come to our class and show students how to do research using electronic resources, I did not find the session that useful. Teaching students how to use the electronic resources is something that I could do too, and I have done it in the past. Seeing that students are not familiar with this resources makes me think that I should reinstate teaching it again.

There is a recurring theme emerging from all these sessions is that students are not trained to do the types of activities that faculty requires them to do in order to meet course objectives. This is surprising, students are supposed to know how to do this. But they don’t. As important as it is to teach content, we also need to teach the method.

How can you apply what you heard to the work of the course you are re-imagining?

Realizing that students may not know how to use electronic resources for their research, I will rededicate some time of the class to teach how to use different electronic resources to pull out material relevant to their research project. I could even invite a librarian to do this and have as a specific exercise to look for material relevant to their project of investigation.

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