We then collect the handouts to get a better sense of what
students understand about searching and fair use.
The experience of being there while students search is valuable and gives us some insight into their habits. For example,
many students don’t understand the difference between the
open web and subscription databases, and many students
weren’t using quotation marks around phrases, which greatly
reduces the number of irrelevant results in any search. Students were excited about the results they found in databases
and professed that they would now include them as a regular
source of information, which they may not have done if they
hadn’t been encouraged to use them during class time.
Work in Progress
During our second year,
we had a longer period
of 80 minutes, but we
tried to fit in too
much, focusing on
exposure to ideas
over depth of
learning. Clearly,
our flipped orientation is still a
work in progress,
but that hasn’t
stopped us from
thinking about
other ways to use the
flipped model. Finding,
evaluating, and using information has increased in complexity, and this requires the type
of critical thinking and informed
decision making that comes with
guided practice. The flipped model
holds promise because it opens up class time for analyzing scenarios, practicing in a low-stakes environment, and
thinking collaboratively about topics that were previously
considered content driven. For instance, our history department asked us to flip our instruction about paraphrasing, so we created a video ( lakesideschool.libguides.com/
tutorials) and are working on an accompanying quiz that
primes students’ thinking before they arrive at class so that
we can check for understanding. This has allowed us and
the classroom teachers to look at paraphrasing and plagiarism with more complexity during class time.
Through the experience of flipping our orientation,
we found that many of our students flipped their thinking about us. Using technology to help flip our orientation
resulted in more student interaction and a greater comfort
level for our freshmen.
We read the student
responses ahead of time
to prepare for our dis-
cussion of the article
in school. During the
discussion, we ask
students which points
resonated with them
and if they disagreed
with anything.
Student feedback has
shown that we chose our
focus wisely. One student said,
“After reading the article, I see that
asking librarians instead of Google is
a good idea.” Another wrote, “I don’t
ever remember asking librarians for help, and actually nev-
er truly considered them teachers until now.”
Searching Skills and Fair Use
Before we introduce an activity about searching skills and
fair use, we take a moment to acquaint students with Carol
Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process ( goo.gl/KJXc1).
Central to this process is the notion that uncertainty increases and decreases through the course of information
seeking. We refer to the process throughout our students’
four years here. For the discussion about searching and fair
use, we focus mainly on the feelings associated with the
research and the messy discomfort of learning.
We want to see what students know about searching
databases and the web while introducing them to the idea
of fair use. We have found that most students are unfamiliar with the concept of Creative Commons, and their
reactions seem to fall either on the side of innocence or of
being cautious to the point of stunting their creativity. A
brief exercise at school provides the opportunity to plant
the seeds of ethical information use while encouraging students to exercise their right to fair use.
We begin by having students find an article on the web
and another in a database that would help them with the
following scenario:
You and your friends have been given permission to
create a Lakeside Happenings podcast for the school
website. What issues should you consider before using
today’s most popular songs in your podcast?
Students collaborate and take notes on a handout called
Research Challenge ( lakesideschool.libguides.com/home),
and then we discuss strategies after each round of searching
to note similarities and differences between searching on the
open web and on databases. Last, we discuss what students
learned that would help them answer the scenario question.
“I don’t ever remember
asking librarians for help,
and actually never truly
considered them teachers
until now.”
