Survey of Higher Education Faculty: Use of Educational Technology

Faculty views of the usefulness of college library technology centres and other forms of educational technology such as course management systems, clickers, document cameras, electronic and interactive whiteboards, in-class use of video and internet access, PowerPoint and other technologies.  The 135 pages, surveying 550 higher education faculty in the United States and Canada.  

More than a third of faculty in the sample said that in using their college’s course management system they were either “pretty much lost” or that they “know a little, a few basics.”

34.83% of the faculty in the sample have ever used electronic whiteboards.

In-class internet access had strong support among faculty. Less than 8% thought it harmful or worthless. See www.PrimaryResearch.com costs $89.50, print copy avaialable Feb 19th.

Skills IT will need in the future - 20/01/2010 - Computer Weekly

A story on the Gartner report on evolving roles in IT. Describes four new roles which sound uncannily like the roles librarians perform. The four roles are

• Litigation Support Manager - to "execute discovery exercises for regulators, and mediate between legal and IT departments" this sounds like the skills of a librarian would be useful, copyright expertise, legal issues around data protection etc, mediation are part and parcel of the librarian role.
• Digital Archivist - 'specialist expertise to access, appraise and preserve' - sounds familiar again
• Business Information Manager - this speaks for itself
• Enterprise Information Architect - 'create taxonomies, document templates and data models'

This thinking is interesting - IT in an age where increasingly we can outsource to the 'cloud' and in an age where libraries might be whatever device you hold in your hand (iPad if you're lucky) there is a new facet of the librarian emerging which provides both service and systems support to IT, to the business and to end users.

Or has it always been thus?..

Disrupting Libraries: Potential For New Services

ebook readers, ubiquitous wireless, open access, smartbooks, netbooks, touch technology challenges for all libraries - Ken Chad provide plenty of food for thought in Firenze - Ok it was last april but I've only just come across it

Ifla Satelliet Florence09 Disrupting Libraries Potential For New Services

View more documents from Ken Chad.

ecommodity fetishism

Reports coming in from all over on the Skiff reader launch today - among a plethora of devices launched to coincide with the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the huge ecommodity fetishist conference and exhibition show in Las Vegas.  The Skiff is an A4, flexible, hi resolution device - designed for newspaper and magazine reading with 3G connectivity and indeed looks like a very desireable object - however as with lots of these new mobile connected devices there is no UK release date. 
Smartbooks will also be released from a number of vendors at CES - smartbooks are cross between mobile phones and netbooks and a phenomenon waiting to explode. Google launch their Nexus One phone too today which will provide users with a full google experience from the phone. One observation - we are exhausting the ability of the language to gracefully describe these devices -  Netbooks, ebooks, ereaders, smartbooks, smartphones all sound so awful. No news yet of the Apple islate or tablet though which promises to be the ultimate gadget fetish at least for now.