The Use of Hyperlinked Case Studies in the Training of LIS Professionals
Back to Practical Engagement NEXT presentation ALISE home	Geoffrey C. Bowker University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Bowker discussed how the LIS curriculum at the University of Illinois is adapting to the practical needs of students. More and more, students seeking LIS degrees are not willing or able to quit their jobs and relocate to school. Students also desire a more participatory mode of learning that gets them out of the textbook and into the workplace. Some courses are now incorporating distance and asynchronous learning by using a combination of online resources with a minimum of on-campus instruction; the LIS curriculum at the University of Illinois is also trying to mirror the forces at play in real information environments. For one course, a complex case study of the changes underway in a small library was analyzed, and the process and resulting data were stored on CD-ROM. Students could "listen in" to the reorganization process on the CD-ROM and take away what they found beneficial and relevant. Storytelling is another learning tool Bowker and his colleagues at the University of Illinois are exploring. This method captures informal discussions among Xerox PARC engineers, for example, which have proven to be as valuable as more formal sources of information. Bowker emphasized the need to design curriculum in a way that makes room for both textbook methods and reality, for both the technical and the social. Information technology and forms of instruction will co-evolve, and educators need to respond to this dynamic. Bowker presented these findings as a juried paper at the ALISE '97 conference. Co-authors of the paper are P. Bryan Heidorn, Merri-Beth Lavagnino, and Mindi Basi, all of the University of Illinois. ....................................................................... Geoffrey C. Bowker, Associate Professor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science 501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820 Phone: 217-333-2306 E-mail: bowker@uiuc.edu Top of page || Next presentation
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