Sunday, August 8, 2010

Reflections on a Web 2.0 Tool: Bubbl.us (www.Bubbl.us)

Bubbl.us is a simple, but effective graphic organizing tool whose effectiveness stems from its ease of use for quickly organizing information and ideas of any kind. It is extremely useful to both educators and students since its very nature is as an organization aid. Think of bits of information or ideas as puzzle pieces that fit together in many different ways. The goal of educators and students is to piece together and present many different factoids and ideas in both an organized and unique fashion—the most important aspect being the connections made between those factoids and ideas. Bubbl.us allows both students and educators to quickly create unique and well thought-out representations of various ideas and information.

Furthermore, those representations can be saved, presented, and shared with others in various formats and ways—giving both educators and students many ways to communicate their creations. They can be saved on the site itself for both individuals and groups to continue working on. They can be turned into images or posted on other web pages. They can be printed and projected easily to share with as many people as needed. Bubbl.us creates valuable opportunities to organize, create, share, and explore ideas, making it a valuable tool for both educators and students.

My experience exploring Bubbl.us has given me a few valuable insights on it and other web 2.0 tools in general. First, the simplicity of Bubbl.us never took away from its practicality; rather, that fact the tool was so easy to use made it more relevant and practical to use for its intended purpose. Thus, simplicity and directness are not detrimental qualities in a web 2.0 tool, but rather positive traits that make one more useful. Second, Bubbl.us is not flashy but still contains the ever-important quality of being a tool that allows for and encourages sharing and communication. Therefore, not all web 2.0 tools have to contain 'all the bells and whistles' and extra special features to be useful technologies for sharing.

Lastly, I explored and examined Bubble.us extensively so that I could use it, write about it, and create directions for it. I am not an expert on all things web 2.0, and neither did I have to be in order to make myself an expert on using a single web 2.0 tool. I will use the above lessons from my experience with Bubbl.us when evaluating, using, and explaining other web 2.0 tools in the future.

Bibliography

Concept Mapping as a Planning Tool. (2009). Online Teaching and Learning Resource Guide. Retrieved from http://www.vcu.edu/cte/resources/OTLRG/02_04_ConceptMapping.html

This article addressed how concept mapping was developed, in addition to explaining aspects of concept mapping and Bubbl.us that create distinct advantages for educators and students alike.

Johnston, Lisa. (2009). From Sticky Notes to Mind Maps: Visual Collaboration Environments. Sci-Tech News, 63(1), 20-22. Retrieved from http://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=scitechnews

This article asserts the general practicality of using online organization tools to take notes, record information, and draw connections to information and ideas, including specific advantages and disadvantages of Bubble.us and other similar tools.

Sawchuk, Peter. (2009, August 3). Bubbl.us: A Tool for Mind-Maps. Retrieved from http://assett.colorado.edu/post/570

This short article reflects on the general educational uses and benefits of Bubbl.us, as well as the types of learners that may benefit from the tool.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Reference Service a la Mode: Observations from a Library Reference Desk

In these modern times, library reference services are taking advantage of new technologies to go to patrons rather than vice versa, as before. The term "roving reference" has been applied not only to reference librarians "roving" the aisles looking for patrons in need of their service but also to new modes of service that bring a librarian to you in while you are in your home. The trend is indicative of how much of a service industry library reference really is and how it is keeping up with the faster paced world of information at one's fingertips.

The face of reference is expanding to a digital one with email, chat, and text message services. What is truly interesting, however, is how much the personal of touch of interacting with a human being has not faded or disappeared and may be even more valued because of the new modes available. You may be getting your reference advice from a librarian across the globe in an online chat, but you still want to read "hello" and "is there anything I else I can do for you?" From the librarian's perspective it is still a human exchange, as well.

In reference work, all questions are valid and that includes online ones. It is refreshing to see that this principle continues to be the case no matter what mode the question is posed in and it speaks to the caliber of people who do reference work.

Librarians Play Well with Others

As a librarian, one reason I know am in the right profession is that librarians are social for a purpose.  We communicate well and often about improving our services and ourselves so that we can extend effective and practical guidance about finding and using information to society at large.

All the librarians I've met don't professionally socialize and collaborate as a chore that is merely part of their job. They are truly passionate about their work and want to share it with whoever will listen and benefit from it; moreover, their enthusiasm for sharing in no way diminishes their capacity for listening to what others—librarians, patrons, or anyone else—have to say.  This post is a recognition of all the passionate librarians who we interact with everyday and their efforts.

Becoming an Expert on the Spot: Observations from a Library Reference Desk

Reference librarians must always be prepared to find any resource at their finger tips and match it to a request specific to an individual—with his or her own information needs. The personal aspect of an information need in a reference transaction makes reference work a category unto itself with its own best practices.

One of those best practices begins with how reference librarians educate themselves along their various career paths.   They are well served by a background in which they learned about as many subjects and topics as they possible could. You can never anticipate what kind of questions patrons will ask with 100% certainty, so it is more than merely valuable to know strange and obscure facts and jargon that would be irrelevant in other career fields. In reference work no knowledge is discounted because all knowledge can be potentially useful.

Librarians take advantage of this practice once they are in reference positions, as well. There is always something to learn from patrons' questions and librarians find out just the kind of obscure information that is valuable to store away for future reference transactions.  Librarians can provide consistent, quality service to patrons by combing the information they've learned through the years, the information they've learned from patron transactions, and training in their own collections.

Why Context Matters: Observations from a Library Reference Desk

When someone asks a question or seeks information about something, they are expressing a need that is unique to them and their situation. Thus, they best perceive the context for that need. However, there occurs a disconnect at this point in a reference transaction because communicating an information need is not as straightforward or easy to articulate as it sounds at first. There may be language, dialect, cultural, or other factors that create a situation where the message is not received as was intended by its deliverer.

It is for this very reason that the reference interview is so crucial. An interview gives a librarian a chance to capture as much of the context of a patron's information request as possible. This can be done by asking a mixture of targeted questions, open questions, and often times just letting the patron keep talking till they've found the right words that succinctly express their information need. The better a librarian understands the context of a question, the quicker and more comprehensively he or she can answer it.  When libraries take the time to understand their patrons in reference interviews, both the patrons and larger library community benefit from the highly effective level of communication that is the ultimate result.