Finishing up the semester

• Final class on May 16
• No make-up class for the snow day we had
• Final exam on May 23 (1 pm - 3 pm)
  • Practice exam (not graded)

Work on final project or literature review assignment

Assessing this course

• Survey: when would you have wanted to have this class offered this semester?
• Course evaluations

Freewriting

• If you were able to live on campus here at Baruch in a dorm, how would your life be different as a student? How would your use of ICT change if you were no longer a commuter student?

Review of three key aspects of social informatics

• Example of the reference blog
• ACTIVITY

1. ​Each student will read: Smale, Maura, and Mariana Regalado. “Commuter Students Using Technology.” EDUCAUSE Review, September 15, 2014. http://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/9/commuter-students-using-technology.
2. Each student will highlight sections that relate to their research topic in some way
3. Each student will look for in-text citations that are relevant and will investigate the sources being cited to see if they might be of use for their own literature review
4. In a blog post, each student will describe the extent to which the article adequately detailed the three key SI aspects

Freewriting

• What have you learned so far in this class that might help you in other classes?

Literature reviews

• ACTIVITY
  • Using the same Google Doc, each member of the class works on defining what a literature review is

Technology Loan page mockup

Finding data for your projects

• CUNY/Baruch demographics
  • CUNY
    • CUNY Office of Institutional Research
    • Student Data Book
    • Student Experience Survey
  • Baruch
    • Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory
• college students and technology
  • EDUCAUSE: Students and Technology Research Study
  • Pew Research Center reports on technology and college
  • Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey 2015
• technology use/adoption generally
  • Pew Research Center
• ACTIVITY: find relevant statistics
  1. Each team looks for two kinds of statistics relevant to their research topic
     • demographics about Baruch or CUNY
     • stats on student use of technology (either at Baruch/CUNY level or at national level)
  2. Each team publishes a blog post with:
     • a citation for the reports/websites where the statistic was found
     • explanation of how they are related to their research topic

via GIPHY

Enjoy the break!

We'll reconvene in class on Tuesday, April 25. 

Blog Posts on Journal Articles

• Comments about grading

Group Presentations

• Each team gives a 10-minute presentation
• Each person in the audience will complete the oral presentation rubric to evaluate each team and will have at least one substantive question or comment for each team.

Next Class

• April 25 (spring break...wooooooo!)
• Video to watch before coming to class
  • North Carolina State University. "Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students." 
• Reading:
  • Go to the SAGE Research Methods database, search for "literature review" and read an article you find there. Be prepared to discuss it in class.
•  

Freewriting

• Assume that you have a laptop that was your own, it was slim, lightweight, powerful, and had a good keyboard and amazing battery life. Would you prefer to use it to take notes in any of your classes or would you rather use pen and paper? What would be the reasons for your preference?

Research methodology: usability testing

• Demo of a usability test

Reading for today

• McFarland, Matt. "The Unstoppable TI-84: How An Outdated Calculator Still Holds a Monopoly on Classrooms." The Washington Post, 2 September 2014. Web.
• ACTIVITY
  • In MindMeister, each team creates a mind map of the use of graphing calculators as described in this article.
  • Your mind map must include a node for "values" and for "norms" in the "social, institutional, organizational aspects" section

Values and norms

• ACTIVITY
  • Using this shared Google Doc, each student will add norms and values to the ICT uses described
  • Each team goes to its mind map to work on the values and norms nodes.

For next week

• Finish blog posts #5 and #6 about the journal articles you found
• Group presentations

Freewriting

• If you could wish for any new ICTs or improvements in the existing ICTs from the library (the hardware we provide for on-site use and what we loan out and also the less tangible things like our website, our search systems, our online collections), what would it be and why? In other words, what else should the library be doing in the way of ICTs?

Categories for Blog Posts

• ACTIVITY: Categorizing your blog posts
• If you have any "uncategorized" blog posts, add the following categories as needed and remove the "uncategorized" category from those posts. It is OK for a blog post to be assigned to more than one category.
  • Homework: use this category for any blog post that is a homework assignment (such as the posts about journal articles)
  • Research Project: use this category for any post you've written that relates directly to your final research project (this includes the homework posts about your journal articles and your in-class posts about your research question).
  • In Class Activities: use this category for any post written in class for some activity.

Research Questions

• ACTIVITY: Revising your question
  • With your teammate, revise your research question by making it more precise, detailed, and focused.
  • Post the revised version on the blog (one post per team)
  • Update the question on your team's mind map in MindMeister
  • Update the question on your teams project page in Google Docs

Research Methods

• focus groups
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auf9pkuCc8k
  • https://youtu.be/-27WjZVDlbk?t=8m57s
  • https://www.mindmeister.com/597434320?t=LTFymqvjYY
  • have your questions written out in advance
  • record the session
• interviews
  • structured vs. semi-structured
  • have your questions written out in advance
  • record the session
• after the interviews or focus group
  • review your notes and recording
  • look for trends and themes that keep cropping up
    • pay attention to which themes and trends show up the most

• As described in the lesson plan from the Baruch College Writing Center, "Using Sources Strategically" (.pdf)
  • What It Is
    • A background source generates context by providing factual, generally undebatable
      information like dates and definitions."
  • What It Does
    • Allows writers to narrate/describe context or background
    • Lends concrete, specific evidence
    • Two competing background sources might raise a question or paradox
• What kinds of basic info do you need to know before you begin doing your research?
• • when did this ICT first come into existence?
  • when did libraries start using this ICT?
• How to find background info
• • Search in databases
  • • Library and Information Science Source
    • Education Source
    • Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • Also look in
    • introductions to scholarly journal articles
    • Wikipedia entries
    • EDUCAUSE reports
    • ARL SPEC Kits
• ACTIVITY
  • Find background info that is directly relevant to your research question
  • Summarize that info in your team's project page (and cite your sources)

Class cancelled - SNOW DAY!

via GIPHY

Freewriting

• Imagine that you are traveling to a remote location in the Amazon rain forest to work with an aboriginal tribe that has never used mobile phones before. You are there to distribute the phones to them and teach them how to use a text messaging service to communicate with their elected representatives in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The service lets you get alerts about votes your representative has recently taken and lets you send messages directly to that representative. What do you think will be the challenges you'll face as you try to help get this service going with this tribe? Make sure you take into account the entire technological system that is assumed to be in place for cell phone use in most societies.

Mapping ICT Use

• Social, institutional, and organizational aspects
• Which people are using the ICT
• Sample map
• ACTIVITY: Work on your mind map in Mindmester
  • Add latest version of research question at center of map
  • Flesh out nodes for people and for social, institutional, organizational aspects of the use
  • Revise the ICT node as needed

Reading Quiz and Discussion

• Arora, Payal. "Digital Gods: The Making Of A Medical Fact For Rural Diagnostic Software." Information Society 26.1 (2010): 70-79. Library & Information Science Source. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
• ACTIVITY
  • Each team completes one copy of the worksheet in Google Docs and shares it with Prof. Francoeur
  • Discussion of worksheet responses from each team

For Next Week

• Homework due: two blog posts from each person about two different peer-reviewed journal articles that might be part of the literature review for their team's group project
• No assigned reading due

Freewriting

• What makes a research question a good one?

Reading Quiz and Discussion

• How does the the literature review shape the research question? Please refer to ideas expressed in both articles you read for today.

Research Questions

• ACTIVITY
  • Each team works together to draft a research question for their project. One team member posts it to the course blog: https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/lib4900spring2017/
  • Each person reads all of the other team research questions on the blog and leaves one comment on each question's blog post. That comment should be one or more of the following:
    • A question asking the team to clarify something that's unclear in the qustion.
    • A suggestion about how to word the question more clearly.
    • A suggestion about how to make the question better, more focused, more manageable, etc.

Mindmapping the Use of an ICT

• MindMeister
• Template for mindmaps
• ACTIVITY: Learning how to use MindMeister
  • Each person creates a MindMap with a central node of their name (see my example map)
  • Out of that central node, add two nodes:
    • Interests from my past and present
    • Food I like and dislike
  • Each of those two nodes should then have sub-nodes (see my example map)
• ACTIVITY: Mapping your the ICT use that your team will be studying
  • One person from each team creates an ICT use map (use my template to get ideas about relevant nodes to add)
  • The person who created the map then uses the "Share" feature (see the lower right corner of the MindMeister screen) to share the map with their teammate and with your professor (use the Gmail address)

Freewriting

• What are the ups and downs of doing group projects here at Baruch? What has worked well and what has gone wrong in past group projects you've done?

Reading Quiz and Discussion

• Quiz: make of copy of this Google Doc and share back to the instructor

Group Projects

• ICTs in the Library
  • Review this mind map of ICTs that are used in the library or as part of the library website
• Assignment of 2-person teams for group project
• Fill out the "collaboration team profile"
• Pick an ICT and what kind of use of that ICT your team will study
• Make a copy of the Group Project Notebook (Google Doc) and share it with your teammate and Prof. Francoeur. By next week (Feb. 28), your team should have identified which ICT your team will be studying (it must be directly related to the library).

Finding Journal Articles

• OneSearch vs. specialized databases
• Specialized databases
  • Library and Information Science Source (for library science, info studies, etc.)
  • Education Source (for education, pedagaogy, higher ed, K-12 ed)
  • PsycINFO (for psychology)
  • Applied Science and Technology Source (for computer science, info studies, information systems, etc.)
•  

Freewriting

• What are the most important things that the library offers to you? Think of services, resources, parts of the library, the things you can do from the library website, whatever. 

Library terminology assessment

• Review the answers in this Google Doc and compare to what you wrote

Reading for today

• Quiz (make of copy of this Google Doc and share back to the instructor)
• Sawyer, Steve. "Social Informatics: Overview, Principles and Opportunities." Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 31.5 (2005): 9-12. ABI/Inform Global. Web. 3 Sep. 2015.
• Mackenzie, Donald and Judy Wajcman. “Introductory Essay: The Social Shaping of Technology.” The Social Shaping of Technology, edited by Donald Mackenzie and Judy Wajcman, McGraw-Hill Education/Open University, 1999, pp. 3-27.

Library Website

• ACTIVITY: what do you expect from the library?
  1. In a blog post on the course blog, do the following without taking a look at the library website:
     1. Tell me what the most important services and resources that the library offers
     2. Make a list of what you assume the library website should let you do or tell you about
     3. Tell me what things you would assume are featured on the library home page. If there is something that you assume is somewhere else on the library website, don't bother to tell me about that. I only want to know what you expect would be on the library home page.
  2. After you have published your blog post, read the blog posts of your classmates. Then, write another blog post in which you answer the same three questions from the first blog post. I want to see if what your classmates said on their first blog post has changed what you initially said.
• ACTIVITY: X/O analysis of library home page
  1. On the printout of the library home page, draw an X through any element or item on the page that is not of use or interest to you. On items that are of interest to you, draw a circle.
  2. Use post-it notes to add explain a bit about what you crossed out and what you circled

Team Projects

• Overview of the group projects for this class
• Your team should try to answer a question that directly relates to the use of an ICT and the library
  • Sample research questions
    • What are the reasons that some students choose not to use the library website to do research when they are working on assignments that require the use of sources?
    • How do students make decisions about when to use a mobile device to use or interact with some part of the library website and its systems?
    • How do students use the laptops that we loan out?
    • Does a student's major affect the extent to which they use the library for research purposes?
    • How faculty perceptions of authority of sources shape the decisions they make when assigning guidelines about types of acceptable or recommended sources for assignments?
    • What is the experience like for students trying to find out what hours the library are open?
    • How do student use of Google shape their perceptions of using the library to find sources?
    • What is the ideal home page design for students? Are there notable differences between what undergraduate students would say and what graduate students would say? Between what students in different majors would say?
    • What kind of "news" or "announcements" do students expect (if any) from the library?
    • In students' minds, what is the connection between the physical space of the library and the library website?

For next week

• Reading
• Viewing
• Each team ready to discuss what topic area they'll do research in

Free writing activity

• In a Google Doc that you share with me, make a list of all the examples you can think of where your use of a technology (a device such as a phone, tablet, computer, an app, a service, a program) is affected by social factors (rules of etiquette, formal policies or rules). Explain the examples to describe how your use of the technology is affected by social factors.

Mind mapping

• What a mind map is for and why it can be useful
• ACTIVITY
  1. Using one of the examples from your freewriting activity, create a detailed mind map as follows:
     1. Central node: short sentence or phrase about the example
     2. Add the following second-level nodes:
        1. social/organizational context
        2. ICT
        3. people
     3. For each of the second-level nodes, add third-level nodes that provide details
• Photo of sample mind map drawn on the whiteboard about use of mobile phones at the dinner table of Prof. Francoeur

Reading for today

• Quiz
• Discussion
  • Kling, Rob. "What Is Social Informatics and Why Does It Matter?" Information Society23.4 (2007): 205-220. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
  • Rosenbaum, Howard. "Social Informatics." Berkshire Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Ed. William Sims Bainbridge. Vol. 2. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2004. 633-637. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 21 Aug. 2015.

About our next class

• More readings about social informatics

Who's who in the classroom

• Introductions
• Complete the student profile survey

Course overview

• What is social informatics
• What's on the course website
• Learning goals for the course
• Assignments
• Grading
• Guidelines and policies

10-minute break

Activity: defining common terms

1. Open this worksheet in Google Docs 
2. Save a copy of your own version
3. Add your name to the copy you saved
4. Without looking anything up, please offer definitions of the following terms in your words.
5. Share this document to stephen.francoeur@gmail.com

Activity: writing for the course blog

• Log in to the course blog
• Write a blog post in which you describe a favorite food
• Write a comment on someone else's blog post
• Write a comment on my blog post about whether we want to make this blog public or private

How to find the course readings for next week's class (Feb. 7)

• Go to Course Outline page and use citations to track down materials to be read (all online)
• Some items are found in library databases, others on the open web