2015 LibTech Conference

Are you tired of your students sitting like lumps? Do your students hide behind their computer monitors? Or do you teach in classrooms without computers for the students to use? In our profession we sometimes get so focused on the latest technologies that we forget that shiny new gadgets do not make analog technologies obsolete. In this interactive presentation, the presenter will demonstrate why whiteboards and colored markers rank highly among her favorite instructional technologies. She will show how she has uses these technologies as tools to support her pedagogical goals (instead of letting technology determine pedagogy) to get students engaged in learning activities that span different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy including listing keywords, writing citations, comparing authoritative and non-authoritative sources, and designing research plans for larger projects. The presenter will show how she combines whiteboards with other low- and no-technological tools to have students, the instructor, and the librarian herself comment in meaningful ways on the students’ work. She will also demonstrate options for teaching in classrooms that do not have sufficient whiteboards or when students are unable (due to accessibility issues or classroom design) to write on the walls. These methods allow for quick formative assessments that enable the librarian to make adjustments in the moment and incorporate a more nimble and flexible pedagogy that can lead to greater student learning. In this interactive workshop participants will engage in some of the exercises the presenter does with students and then have a discussion about how to modify these ideas to fit their individual circumstances and environments.