Stuart Boon

A World I Don't Inhabit: Disquiet and Identity in Second Life and Facebook.

The authors use their own experiences with social software to argue for the need for caution in its uses in education. They particularly draw attention to difficulties in engagement, the effects on identity, an emphasis on superficial issues, lack of coherence, and problems with authenticity and trust. While Facebook and Second Life appear to have potential for educational applications, the disquiet associated with them may need to be taken into account: and this can affect both students and their teachers. One of the authors is a student on an online course and extracts from her blogs and journal capture the emotional and psychological effects of engaging in these new worlds at the time it happened. Both authors have noticed changes in their responses over time and point to the need for integration and coherence for “virtual identities” to play an appropriate part in higher education. The paper raises more questions than it answers and suggests that there is an urgent need to theorise online identity, the roles of academics and students, and the codes of practice in such environments. If social software has a serious place in academic life, these issues will need to be widely debated. Eine Welt, die ich nicht bewohne: Unruhe und Identität in Second Life und Facebook Die Autoren lenken die Aufmerksamkeit auf Schwierigkeiten beim Engagement, der Wirkung auf Identität, die Betonung auf oberflächlichen Angelegenheiten, dem Mangel an Kohärenz und Probleme mit Authentizität und Vertrauen beim Verwenden von Facebook und Zweiten Leben. Während Facebook und Zweites Leben Potenzen für Bildungsnutzung zu haben scheinen, sollte die mit ihrer Nutzung entstehende Unruhe sowohl von Studenten als auch ihren Lehrern als Beeinflussung in Betracht gezogen werden muss. Beide Autoren weisen auf die Notwendigkeit nach Integration und Kohärenz hin, damit “virtuelle Identitäten” einen angemessenen Anteil in der höherer Bildung spielen können. Das Papier wirft mehr Fragen auf, als es beantwortet und weist auf die dringende Notwendigkeit hin, Online‐Identität theoretisch zu klären und die Rolle von Akademikern und Studenten sowie die verwendeten Codes in einer solchen Umgebungen zu analysieren. Un Monde dans lequel je n’habite pas: inquiétude et identité dans Second Life et Facebook Les auteurs attirent l’attention sur les difficultés à s’engager, les effets sur l’identité, l’accent mis sur les problèmes superficiels, le manque de cohérence et les problèmes d’authenticité et de confiance qui surgissent lorsqu’on utilise Facebook et Second Life. Bien que Facebook et Second Life semblent offrir des possibilités pour des applications éducatives il est peut‐être nécessaire de tenir compte de l’inquiétude qu’ils suscitent: cela peut en effet affecter aussi bien les étudiants que les professeurs. Les deux auteurs insistent sur le besoin de cohérence et d’intégration pour que les « identités virtuelles » jouent un rôle approprié dans l’enseignement supérieur. Cet article soulève plus de questions qu’il n’apporte de réponses et avance l’idée qu’il y a un besoin urgent de théorisation de l’identité en ligne, du rôle des professeurs et des étudiants et des codes de pratique dans des environnements de ce type. Un Mundo en el cual no vivo: inquietud y identidad en Second Life y Facebook Los autores llaman la atención sobre la dificultades de comprometerse, los efectos sobre la identidad, el énfasis en las cuestiones superficiales, la falta de coherencia y los problemas de autenticidad y de confianza que surgen cuando se utiliza Facebook y Second Life. Aunque aparentemente Facebook y Second Life tienen cierto potencial para ofrecer aplicaciones educativas, puede ser necesario tomar en cuenta la inquietud que conllevan; esto puede afectar tanto a los estudiantes como a los profesores. Ambos autores indican que hay una necesidad de integración y coherencia para que las « identidades virtuales » puedan desempeñar un papel adecuado en la enseñanza superior. Est artículo plantea muchas preguntas y no responde a todas y apunta la idea de una necesidad urgente de teorizar la identidad en línea, los respectivos papeles de los profesores y estudiantes así como los códigos de actuación en esos entornos.

From the front line: information literacy instruction in Canadian academic libraries

Reports on data collected from an on‐going Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)‐funded study of information literacy and bibliographic instruction in Canadian academic libraries. The goal of this three‐year study is to identify instructional outcomes and characterize successful instruction from the perspectives of the institutions providing that instruction (particularly the librarian‐ instructors), and the students receiving the instruction. Focuses on the current practices of librarian‐instructors on the front lines of bibliographic instruction in Canada, looking at their experiences, goals, instructional methods and challenges in providing information literacy services. Seeks to fill a gap in our understanding of the circumstances and challenges that face librarians at the beginning of the twenty‐first century, and the attitudes of those librarians towards bibliographic instruction and the changing role of information literacy in Canadian post‐secondary institutions.

Life Behind the Screen: Taking the Academic Online

This chapter focuses on transformative experiences encountered by academics and students in adjusting to, and participating in, networked learning environments. It contains the well-used metaphor of the screen as a framework for evaluating and developing questions raised in an earlier paper. It uses personal reflections from lecturer, student, and educational developer perspectives to illustrate a sense of becoming disconnected from traditional practices while at the same time drawing on the familiar. This approach to effective transition to networked learning invokes a projection toward a screen, adjusting focus to negotiate barriers and optimize enablers. Before academics and students are fully immersed in a virtual world, they still have a stake in the real one, with implications for those operating in both kinds of environment simultaneously. Identity, language, time, and engagement are viewed as both barriers and enablers in the movement toward full participation in networked learning. This exploration of sites of transformation and the process of transition involved in taking the academic online raises potential challenges and opportunities for those stepping out from behind the screen and projecting themselves into networked learning environments.