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

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobots 2

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


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)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sammcox/7356312458/


Colorado State University Libraries


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

http://istec.colostate.edu/


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

companies and ISTeC; free for students


Dr. Michael de MirandaHigh School Day Mastermind

Dr. H.J. SiegelDirector of ISTeC


• 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



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



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


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?!


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


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


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


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


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

Unique Teaching Experience


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!


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.)



LibGuide



Google Doc Forms

Input &Embedding


Google Doc Forms

Recording & Scoring


Infographics


Online Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As6y5eI01XE&feature=player_embedded

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17740041/

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/what_we_learned_from_5_million_books.html


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


#1 Meet Your Teammate

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


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


#2 Communication Through the Ages

• Examine this infographic:

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

http://visual.ly/communication-through-ages


Example Question

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


#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



• What was the headline on July 21, 1969?


(side note) : Humans vs. Robots

http://www.google.com/recaptcha


#4 ESP Game

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

http://www.gwap.com/gwap/


#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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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?


Concept of Metadata

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


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


#5 Information in the Modern Era

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


#5 Information in the Modern Era

• Recording article metadata


#5 Connects to #6

• Article vs. Video



#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



#6 Five Million Books

http://books.google.com/ngrams


#7 WolframAlpha®


#8 Trust but Verify


#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.”



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



• 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



Transferable Takeaways

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



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!”



Contact

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

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobots• Paper

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobotspaper

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobots

http://bit.ly/competingwithrobotspaper



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/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26231770@N03/4677211838/








http://archive.org/details/Libraria1947

http://archive.org/details/Libraria1947

http://www.wordle.net/


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


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

Education

istec high school day

colorado students

high school day event

istec high school day

library contest lessons

high park

books google

betterotherthan google