Literacy Information

Slightly off topic, but I liked this advice by Matt Holland on getting reluctant parent organisations to let you use social media. Although he's talking about libraries in the UK's National Health Service, I think the advice would hold true in many organisations that want to control organisational use of social media. https://lihnnclinicallibs.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/can-i-have-one-of-those-getting-your-own-social-media-by-matt-holland/
Photo by Sheila Webber: redcurrants, whitecurrants, farmers market, August 2015

Wasim Ahmed, a PhD student here in the University of Sheffield Information School, published a post on the LSE Impact Blog last week on Using Twitter as a data source: An overview of current social media research tools. He lists and links some key tools, and also notes that, whilst some of the tools can be used to analyse other social media, on the whole social media other than Twitter have not been well served.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/07/10/social-media-research-tools-overview/
Twitter logo from: https://about.twitter.com/company/brand-assets

Issue 45 (2015) of Comunicar focuses on Communicating in an Ageing World. It includes (in Spanish and English language)
- Use, Consumption and Knowledge of New Technologies by Elderly People in France, United Kingdom and Spain by Cristina González, Carlos Fanjul, Francisco Cabezuel
- Internet and the Elderly: Enhancing Active Ageing by Carmen Llorente, Mónica Viñarás, María Sánchez
- Active Ageing and Access to Technology: An Evolving Empirical Study by Raquel Casado Fernando Lezcano, María José Rodríguez
- From Digital Divide to Psycho-digital Divide: Elders and Online Social Networks by Begoña Peral, Jorge Arenas, Ángel Francisco Villarejo
- A Mobile Augmented Reality Assistive Technology for the Elderly by Rafael Saracchini, Carlos Catalina, Luca Bordoni
- Using Technology to Connect Generations: Some Considerations of Form and Function by Mariano Sánchez, Matthew Kaplan, Leah Bradley
and a number of others all at http://www.revistacomunicar.com/index.php?contenido=revista&numero=45
There are also some articles outside the main theme, notably:
Álvarez, J.F. and Cervera, M.G. (2015). Information Literacy Grade of Secondary School Teachers in Spain: Beliefs and Self-Perceptions. Comunicar, 23 (24), 187-194. http://dx.doi.org/10.3916/C45-2015-20 The abstract reads "Information Literacy is one of the dimensions of digital competence and, in today’s information and media-based society, it should be a skill that everyone develops, especially secondary school teachers due to their influence on this crucial stage of student development. In this investigation we aim to determine the current level of information literacy of secondary school teachers in Spain. For this purpose we have designed a questionnaire (n=2,656) which is divided into two parts: the first asks questions related to belief and self-perception of information literacy indicators, and the second presents practical cases in which the teachers have to demonstrate their skills in information literacy. The results confirm that secondary school teachers’ beliefs show rather high values but that, even if the level of information literacy that the teachers have is acceptable, there are certain aspects of the indicators related to assessment, management and transformation of information in which the teachers display serious shortcomings. This highlights the need to establish a training plan for information literacy for secondary school teachers in Spain."
Photo by Sheila Webber: pink dahlia, July 2015

Yesterday Pew Internet Research published a report on (US) Teens, Social Media & Technology. They administered an online survey, in English and Spanish, to a nationally (USA) representative sample of 1060 teens ages 13 to 17 and a parent or guardian, with the bulk of the data collected in autumn 2014. Some snippets:
"88% of American teens ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a mobile phone of some kind, and a majority of teens (73%) have smartphones."
"87% of American teens ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a desktop or laptop computer, and 58% of teens have or have access to a tablet computer."
"81% of teens 13 to 17 have or have access to a game console such as a Playstation, Xbox or Wii." "72% of teens play video games online or on their phone"
"92% of teens report going online daily — with 24% using the internet “almost constantly,”"
"The number of text messages sent or received by cell phone owning teens ages 13 to 17 (directly through phone or on apps on the phone) on a typical day is 30."
"When asked to rank social media sites by their frequency of use, Facebook is the platform that teens report that they use most often, with 41% of youth saying they use it most. Instagram is the next most often used social media platform, with 20% of teens saying they use it most often."
14% use tumblr, 24% use Vine, 33% use Google+, 11% use anonymous sharing apps, 47% use video connections such as Skype,
There are some differences according to gender, ethnicity and household income (e.g. more African-Americans have smartphones, wealthier homes have higher access to PCs, more boys than girls have access to a game console).
The report is free online at http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/
Photo by Sheila Webber: cherry blossom, April 2015

The latest issue of the open-access journal Library Innovation (volume 5 no. 2) includes the following:
- Learning Through Play, the Old School Way: Teaching Information Ethics to Millennials by Lucinda A Rush ("The author describes the process of creating an innovative game based on Candy Land to teach undergraduates about information ethics and makes recommendations for creating non-digital games for instructional purposes based on this experience."
- Using Blogs in the Library to Reach Diverse and Non-Traditional Student Groups by Amy Nelson Decker, Monya D. Tomlinson
- Channeling Passions: Developing a Successful Social Media Strategy by Elizabeth Ramsey, Amy Vecchione
Also one of the book reviews is of: Buchanan, H. and McDonough, B. (2014). The One-Shot Library Instruction Survival Guide. Chicago: ALA Editions. ISBN: 978-0-8389-1215-7.
http://www.libraryinnovation.org/issue/view/29
Photo by Sheila Webber: Gorgeous autumn beech leaves, November 2014

The new issue of E-Learning and Digital Media (subscription journal) (volume 11 no 6) includes articles:
- Owen Barden. Winking at Facebook: capturing digitally mediated classroom learning
- Catherine Beavis et al. Teachers’ Beliefs about the Possibilities and Limitations of Digital Games in Classrooms
- Anne Cloonan, Kirsten Hutchison & Louise Paatsch. Innovating from the Inside: teacher influence and the ‘promisingness’ of digital learning environments
- Ksenia A. Korobkova & Rebecca W. Black. Contrasting Visions: identity, literacy, and boundary work in a fan community
- Abel Usoro, Razep Echeng & Grzegorz Majewski. A Model of Acceptance of Web 2.0 in Learning in Higher Education: a case study of two cultures
- Steven J. Zuiker. Visual Communication in Transition: designing for new media literacies and visual culture art education
Abstracts at http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/pdfs/11/issue11_6.asp
Photo by Sheila Webber: Weston Park, early November 2014

I'm still liveblogging from the European Conference on Information Literacy, held in Dubrovnik. Next for me was a paper by John Gathegi Social Networking Literacy: Re-balancing Sharing, Privacy, and Legal Observance. His focus was social media sharing amongst young people. He started by defining Social Media Networking. A distinguishing feature is the "public display of connections" which the speaker said is in a quest to build social capital. Motivations include entertainment, information sharing (including private information about themselves), showing off etc. and people are able to manage the profile or persona that they present to the world: this may include mis-reprentation. There are also the issues about oversharing of private information about themselves and others, and respect for others. This information may, and is, being used by empoyers to screen candidates for employment.
Gathegi presented a definition of social media literacy. He identified thaty is being dealt with inconsistently in court and the the question of what is a "reasonable expectation of privacy" (he gave the example of a nurse who posted criticisms of her work with limited access, but her supervisor persuaded one of the nurse's friends to show her the posting and teh nurse was fired: the court found in favour of the nurse and her reasonable expectation of privacy. However, this might not be the decision of all courts. Other legal and privacy issues were also raised. Thus as the end the speaker was advocating for social media/networking literacy as an essential area of learning for young people.