Tech-literacy of students - recent study

Study shows students are tech-savvy – to a degree
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 21 13 - 27 November 2006 ]

Blogging is just part of life for many first-year students at the University of Melbourne. A 2006 study of first-year students at Melbourne reveals that around one-third of commencing students maintain a blog and more than one-half read and comment on other people’s blogs.

Almost 2000 first-year students were surveyed in the study, released this week, which looked at their experience with a wide array of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and tools during the previous 12 months.

The First Year Students’ Experiences with Technology: Are They really Digital Natives? study was carried out by Dr Gregor Kennedy, Dr Terry Judd, Ms Anna Churchward and Dr Kathleen Gray of the Biomedical Multimedia Unit, and Dr Kerri-Lee Krause of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Dr Kennedy says the study showed that many first-year students’ are highly tech-savvy and regularly use a wide range of traditional and emerging technologies in their daily lives.

“But we found little support for the stereotypical image of the ‘Digital Native’ – wired and wireless 24/7.

Full report is online at: www.bmu.unimelb.edu.au/research/munatives/index.html

What do we do? ~ What should we do?

Given that Institutes and Universities are engaging in information literacy programmes; given that TAFE's are now offering degrees and expecting their staff to become more like academic staff (get higher degrees, do research etc...); given that we are getting more and more complicated technologies for information management; given that students are expected to do credible research; given that the teachers and lecturers are supposed to know at least as much as their students in doing research; given that library staff are supposed to know more than anybody else about doing secondary research, managing information technology such as databases and citation tools; given all the above:

Are we going to continue to do the same old same old? Zip-ah-di-doo-dah tours of the library (don't blink or you'll miss it), quick introductions to the online material, pandering to what the teaching staff are comfortable with (and their students)?

Or are we going to get into our superhero (or superheroine - must remember to add that final 'e') jump suits and try to offer more?

What would this 'more' be like?
Do we know?
Shouldn't we know?

Webb's Web

I have drawn items from Kerry Webb's page in ALIA before but in this issue from August, there are so many interesting items, here it is in its entirety.
http://alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2006/08/print.html?ID=93

What is an Internet Librarian?

Again from Free Pint...
Jill Fenton attended Internet Librarian International 2006 in London and wondered just what an internet librarian was. She found out, plus received a glimpse into how libraries are evolving to adapt to the digital age, both today and where they're headed tomorrow. http://www.freepint.com/issues/091106.htm#tips

More on Wikis and World opinion

More on Wikis courtesy of FreePint newsletter, the creation of a UK based community of Information management professionals can be found...

http://web.freepint.com/forum/bar/read.php?i=73583

Also these sites on world opinions on diverse subjects might be useful
* The Pew Global Attitudes Project http://pewglobal.org from the Pew Research Center 'aims to gauge attitudes in every region toward globalisation, trade and an increasingly connected world'.

* World Public Opinion http://www.worldopinion.org is produced by the Program on International Policy Attitudes. Users can explore worldwide public opinion by region or by topic.