competing with robots: making research skills relevant to 21st century students

Competing with Robots: Making Research Skills Relevant to

21st Century Students

Catherine L. CranstonEdMedia 2012Denver, Colorado

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What I’ll Talk About Today

• Briefly describe High School Day event • Describe and demonstrate Library contest• Lessons learned from teaching as the

contest evolved• Transferable lessons and takeaways

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Colorado State University

• Land grant university• ~27,000 undergrad and graduate students• Fort Collins, CO (pop. 144,000)• 65 miles north of Denver• We’ve recently been in the national news

Photo by Sam Cox (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammcox/7356312458/) Used with permission.

High Park Fire - Larimer County, Colorado (June 9, 2012)

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Colorado State University Libraries

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ISTeC High School Day

• Information Science & Technology Center • Educational Advisory Committee (EAC)– representatives from 8 colleges & the Libraries

• The EAC puts on High School Day each fall

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• Brainchild of Dr. Michael de Miranda• 200+ Colorado students bussed to CSU• Sponsored by Colorado technology

companies and ISTeC; free for students

ISTeC High School Day

Dr. Michael de MirandaHigh School Day Mastermind

Dr. H.J. SiegelDirector of ISTeC

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• Students – arrive early for breakfast & opening reception– participate in contests in the morning– meet with IS&T company reps at lunch– attend demonstrations in the afternoon– celebrate at awards ceremony

ISTeC High School Day

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• Contests have included:– building and programming robots– geocaching around campus– television production– facial recognition technology– seismic imaging– anatomy lab

ISTeC High School Day

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Imagine. . .

• You’re a teenager• Yes, you’re getting a day off from school…• But you’ve been forced to wake-up at the

crack of dawn

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Imagine. . .

• Would you want to find out that while your buddies are off to build robots, you’re headed to the library for 2 ½ hours?!

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Our Original Contest

• “Mastering Google and Beyond”• Consisted of:– a brief demo of library databases– a 2-hour online scavenger hunt – progressively more challenging questions– Information Science &Technology topics

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Where Did We Go Wrong?

A) Requiring H.S. students to sit still for 2.5 hours

B) Asking students to use library databases when they knew darn well that Google could get the job done

C) Giving H.S. students unfettered access to YouTube, Facebook, etc.

D) All of the above

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The Original Scenario

• The mind-set was: – Give them what they need to succeed

(as an undergraduate)– Show them there’s something better/other

than Google– Teach them something

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Typical Teaching Experience

• The Library “One-Shot”• Content created based on faculty requests

and assignment parameters• Often we. . . – demo some library databases– promote their superiority/differences to Google– cover the basics in 50 minutes

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• High School Day = Carte Blanche• Could be more creative• Time for active and experiential learning• Contest format = built-in assessments

Unique Teaching Experience

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New Mindset = New Contest

• Libraries are more than just books• Google is great, but it should not be your

only information-seeking tool• Research can be interesting and fun• Our contest should be just as interesting as

building a robot!

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The New and Improved Contest

• Built with:– LibGuide Web Page

http://libguides.colostate.edu/beyondgoogle2011

– Google Docs Forms (embedded into LibGuide)

– Infographics (visual.ly)

– Online videos (YouTube, TED, NBC news, etc.)

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LibGuide

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Google Doc Forms

Input &Embedding

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Google Doc Forms

Recording & Scoring

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Infographics

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Online Videos

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Contest Format

• Limited to 30 students• Met in a computer classroom• Projector / Screens / Instructor Station• Eight timed modules• Two librarians there to lead and assist

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#1 Meet Your Teammate

• Three purposes:– An icebreaker to introduce students– Check ability to navigate the LibGuide– Practice filling out and submitting forms

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My Favorite Icebreaker

• Which of the following would you hate to live without the most for a month?– Cell phone– Internet access– Car– Video games– Television– Library card

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#2 Communication Through the Ages

• Examine this infographic:

• Answer a series of questions about the information found on the infographic

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Example Question

• Which came first?– Semaphore– Carrier pigeons– Smoke signals– Twitter

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#3 On the Day You Were Born

• New York Times database (1851-2008)• Students found headline on their birth date• Required more advanced techniques than

keyword searching• Command line searching and using limiters• Apply these skills to other questions

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#3 On the Day You Were Born

• What was the headline on July 21, 1969?

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#3 On the Day You Were Born

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(side note) : Humans vs. Robots

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#4 ESP Game

• Idea taken from Dr. Luis von Ahn’s “Games with a Purpose” Web site

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#4 ESP Game

• Describe photo - one word per line

• Try to have ESP with your teammate

• Match words to score points

• Blocked words = 0 points

• BLOCKED WORDS – dog, pillow__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Concept of Metadata

• ESP Game lets students create metadata• Data about data • To retrieve information online, you have to

figure out how something is described– Are you sharing the same vocabulary? – Do the words you use have the same meaning to

everyone? 

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Concept of Metadata

• What is this? – cell phone– cellular telephone– mobile phone– smartphone– iPhone

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Concept of Metadata

• Once you develop a sense of how something is described, you can be more creative and successful when using a database to retrieve information

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#5 Information in the Modern Era

• Tracking down article with a DOI (digital object identifier)

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#5 Information in the Modern Era

• Recording article metadata

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#5 Connects to #6

• Article vs. Video

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#6 Five Million Books

• The article students found in the previous module is put into layman’s terms in this TED video by the authors

What We Learned from Five Million Books

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#6 Five Million Books

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#7 WolframAlpha®

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#8 Trust but Verify

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#8 Trust but Verify

“Now folks, I’m no fan of reality, and I’m no fan of

encyclopedias.

I’ve said it before, who is Britannica to tell me that

George Washington had slaves?

If I want to say he didn’t, that’s my right. And now,

thanks to Wikipedia, it’s also fact.”

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New Mindset = New Contest

✔Libraries are more than just books✔Google is great, but it should not be your

only information-seeking tool✔Research can be interesting and fun

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• Give yourself carte blanche • Be creative– explain the unexpected

• Active and experiential learning– less teaching, more doing

• Game/Contest format – assessments can be fun!

Transferable Takeaways

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Transferable Takeaways

• Work with your librarian on new and creative ways to explore the world of information

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We Competed with Robots!

• “I learned so much I can't even write it all down right here. Thank you so much :)”

• “It was so much more fun than I ever thought it would be.”

• “I think this program is great for students. Colorado State University is going to be awesome!”

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Contact

• cathy.cranston [at] colostate.edu• @cranston• Presentation and LibGuide

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobots• Paper

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Image Credits

• [slide 1] Yung Tsai – creative commons licensehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/26231770@N03/4677211838/ - slide background adapted from this photo, courtesy of Charles Cranston

• [slide 4] Sam Cox – creative commons license (used with permission)http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammcox/7356312458/

• [slide 5] Cathy Cranston• [slides 7 & 10] CSU ISTeC• [slide 12] Yung Tsai – creative commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26231770@N03/4677211998/• [slide 12] screen capture from “The Librarian” by Holmes (Burton) Films,

Inc., 1947 http://archive.org/details/Libraria1947• [slide 23] http://www.wordle.net • [slide 29] Cathy Cranston• [slide 31] Mateoone – creative commons license

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mateoone/351952973/