Humanity meets in the library

[Frank]

Humanity meets in the library
November 21, 2008 by tsheko
This is how it goes.

"I read Jenny Luca’s post ‘The future of libraries’ which she wrote after reading John Connell’s post ‘Education and the cloud’. John wrote his post after reading Kevin Marks. Kevin had read something Tim O’Reilly had written. Tim was writing after having read a book by Kim Stanley Robinson. Before spiralling further, I should redivert to the purpose of my own post which is to contribute my own thoughts following from these threads, and specifically following from Jenny’s valuable insights.

As John Connell remarks, ’the world of knowledge is shifting inexorably onto the Web.’ Whether we like it or not, it’s true. Now, I’m not saying that, in agreeing with this statement, I’m ready to pull books off shelves, turn libraries into clubs and restaurants (as Russian communists did with churches), or make the whole population of teachers redundant. I’m here to say that the massive shift of knowledge onto the web is happening, and that people will be playing a new, even more important role in the location and management of knowledge and technology."

Continue reading...

[Leigh Thelmadatter]

Good article. Id like to use it for teacher and student discussion. There is a HUGE fear among teachers, esp. those in the humanities, that technology is going to replace us. Aint bloody likely (excuse my non-teacher talk there). It makes us even more necessary, but not in the way that we have always taught. We can no longer be the dispensor of knowledge as really computers and the networking they provide can do this and can do it better and better everyday. What students need us for is to help sort through all that. In the old days, when I did research for class, I almost never needed a librarian to find what I needed and get my assignment done. When I did my master's from 2001-2003, the librarian was my best friend... esp. when I was just browsing for information trying to narrow my topic. Computers cant yet categorize nor really assess what you need, esp. when you only have a vague idea yourself! The librarian was a guide, someone who knew the system (and its limitations) better than I did and someone to interact with to make the interaction with the information more effective.

Like my experience with online catalog research, the Web is a seemingly-unlimited resource... most of which is simply relevant to our needs at any particular moment. So how to use it effectively. There's nothing more frustrating than getting 15 pages of garbage in a search when youre not quite using the right keyword. And since there is a lot of basura.. period.. critical thinking skills are more essential than ever. This is what we do and will sorely need teachers for.

However, I realize that what I wrote above will not be comforting at all to those teachers that simply want to continue to be dispensors of information. Teaching thinking skills requires thinking ourselves and cannot be simply tested with multiple choice tests. Most teacher have and will complain that its "too much work."

Who said that "Computers wont replace teachers, but teachers who teach with computers will replace those who do not."?

After saying all that... then we get to your other post Frank about the 7 skills students need.