Here at the d'Alzon Library, we try to keep up with the latest news related to student learning, information or digital literacy, and resource evaluation.

On the first of each month, we'd like to share with you some of our favorite recent reads. Enjoy!

What is Critical Thinking Anyway? By Rob Jenkins. Vitae. February 2, 2017.

This professor of English at Georgia State University believes that the best thing teachers can do for their students is help them learn to think for themselves, and that involves explaining what critical thinking actually means.  The author finds that "the term 'critical thinking' has been overused to the point where it has almost ceased to mean anything in particular.  It has become more of a popular educational catchphrase, so that even the people who use it don't know exactly what they mean by it."

Sparking Curiosity - Librarians' Role in Encouraging Exploration. By Hannah Gascho Rempel and Anne-Marie Deitering. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. February 22, 2017.

These librarians from Oregon State University "discuss how a deeper understanding of curiosity can inspire instructional strategies and classroom-based activities that provide learners with a new view of the research process." They discuss their work with teaching faculty and instructors to advocate for different approaches to helping students solve information problems.

Librarian in a Strange Land. By Dani B. Cook. Rule Number One: A Library Blog. February 12, 2017.

In this blog post, librarian Dani Cook discusses fake news, insulating ourselves from opinions that differ from our own, and the implications for teaching students information literacy concepts.

What's That Smell? Rare Books and Artifacts From a 1906 Library. By Randy Kennedy. The New York Times. March 3, 2017.

For many people, the smell of books is one of memory's most powerful messengers, especially as the printed page gives way to the digital.  This article discusses a project underway at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City that is taking scientific samples of smells from rare books, objects, and Pierpont Morgan's own study to try to pin down the powerful connection between smell and our collective memory.

The Shackles of Scientific Journals And How to Cast Them Off. The Economist. March 25, 2017. 

This article outlines the ways in which scientific research is being hidden by the traditional publication process.  It suggests that researchers should deposit papers and data into open repositories for public view, and advocates for alternative publishing and peer review models that are more transparent.

Find Open Access Articles Faster with UnPayWall. By Maha Bali. The Chronicle of Higher Education. March 27, 2017.

Scholars searching for research articles often come to a publisher website that asks for download fees in exchange for online access.  Unpaywall is a newly released free Chrome/Firefox extension that will automatically link from these websites to a legal, free copy of an article if one is available in an outside repository or other site.  

Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. By Mike Caulfield. Online book. 2017.

This book contains strategies for us all to use when evaluating information online as well as exercises you can use in class.  It is a work in progress, so some of the later chapters are not quite complete. 

Did Media Literacy Backfire? By Danah Boyd. Apophenia. January 9, 2017.

This post suggests that maybe we have done too good a job in teaching students to be critical of all media.  One of the challenges students have in evaluating "fake news" is that by questioning all information, students have difficulty in accepting expertise when it contradicts their experience.

Unpacking Relationships: Instruction and Student Outcomes. By Natasha A. Jankowski. American Council on Education. 2017.

This review article examines the evidence-based instruction practices that lead to positive student learning outcomes. 

Magazines Find There's Little Time to Fact-Check Online. By Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin and Susan Currie Sivek. Columbia Journalism Review. March 23, 2017.

To keep up with the fast pace of online publishing, even magazines that rigorously fact-check their print publications may merely spot-check their digital content. 

What the Public Knows About Cybersecurity. By Kenneth Olmstead and Aaron Smith. Pew Research Center Report. March 22, 2017.

Americans' knowledge of cybersecurity topics varies widely. This report includes a link to an interactive quiz to test your cybersecurity knowledge before reading how others scored.