Erica McWilliam presented at the ASLA Conference in Hobart on library pedagogy in the era of big data. She discussed how libraries need to connect, integrate, and lead for students like Anya, who was born in 1994 and has grown up with the internet and social media. Libraries need to design integrated curriculum experiences for digital natives and process the large amounts of student data available, while protecting student privacy. Technology alone does not improve education; it requires strong organizations dedicated to teaching and student engagement. The future of libraries is blended, utilizing both virtual and physical resources, and librarians will take on roles as architects, guides, and facilitators of learning.

1. Library Pedagogy
in the Era of Big Data
Erica McWilliam
ASLA Conference, Hobart, Sept-Oct, 2013

2. What does it mean to connect, integrate
and lead in the era of Big Data?

3. “Here’s looking at you, kid!”

4. “My sex appeal gets his undivided
attention!!”

5. “See, it’s called a prostate, not a prostrate”

6. A prostrate patient

7. The patient dies but the case can live on

8. Relationship is with Data

9. Anya, 19 years
• Born in 1994, same year as the internet
• 1996: Hotmail
• 1998: Google
• 1999: Napster
• 2000: DVD mass market in Aust
• 2001: iPod and xBox
• 2007: iPhone and Playstation3 and Tumblr
• 2008: Facebook, Twitter and iPad
• 2010: Youtube is primary source of info – Anya has never
watched the news on free to air TV - the world looks like
Youtube to Anya.
• + instagram, snapchat, google glasses etc etc

10. What does it mean to design an
integrated curriculum experience
with and for Anya?

11. “No Child Left Untableted”
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine
/no-child-left-
untableted.html?pagewanted=7&_r=3&hp&

12. Dubious Habits on the Rise?
• ‘an inch deep, a mile wide’ engagement
• the overvaluing of technology and the
undervaluing of people
• the displacement of face-to-face
interaction by virtual connection
• the tendency to turn to the market to
address social problems
• the recasting of citizenship and inner life
as a commodified data profile

13. Profiling the Tableted Child
• Games that know what a student has read (the tablet’s library will
contain 1,000 books) strategically sprinkle a particular word in her
path based on how many times the research says she needs to see a
new word in order to learn it.
• “Gaze tracking” and measurement of pupil dilation will revolutionize
the gauging of cognitive response by making it possible to determine
exactly what students are reacting to on the screen.
• A growing stream of information, which can be analyzed down to
individual keystrokes, will yields a picture that will eventually
progress in complexity from a list of words a student looks up to a
full-blown portrait of a developing mind.
• In theory, each student will generate the intellectual equivalent of a
fantastically detailed medical chart.

14. The Research Evidence
•Technology not shown as decisive in effective
school studies.
•For technology to make a difference, needs a
strong organization dedicated to improving
teaching and where kids closely engage with
teachers and one another.
•Devices that enhance such interactions are
useful but not if kids focus on the device as
isolated individuals – as ‘alone together’.
Greg Anrig: “Beyond the Education Wars,
April, 2013

15. Teacher’s Future
• Will work as architects/designers of the real/virtual
learning environment rather than as knowers and
tellers
• Will have too much data about students rather
than too little
• Will need better tools for processing/ interpreting
all the additional information they will have to
handle – ie, will need to find the Signal amid the
Noise

16. Drowning in Big Data
• Signal - A significant
fact or idea we want and
need
• Noise - All the rest –
extraneous, impeding
and misleading
information

17. Eager-and-sceptical trumps
conformist-and-consistent.

18. http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

19. Brian Mull: Strategic Scepticism
G: Go
E: Explore
T: this Topic
Raising yellow and red flags
R – Read the url (net? org? edu?)
E – Examine contents by skimming and scanning
A: Ask about the Author
L: Who are they linked to?

20. Leadership: Fox or Hedgehog?
“The fox knows many little things, but
the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Archilochus

21. Hedgehogs Foxes
• One big idea
• Specialised
• Stalwart
• Stubborn
• Order-seeking
• Confident
• Ideological
• Weak forecasters
• Get worse at predicting
over time
• Lots of little ideas
• Multidisciplinary
• Adaptable
• Self-critical
• Tolerant of complexity
• Cautious
• Empirical
• Better forecasters
• Get better at predicting
with experience

22. Foxy Library Leadership
• ‘the future is blended’
• getting a workable and sustainable ‘mix’ of the virtual and
the physical in the collection and the pedagogy
• making smart choices about how to engage a new
generation of ‘tableted’ learners – ‘foxy’ identities
• designing spaces as Learning Commons or Research
Centre or Monastery or Classroom or Café or….
• creating a hub of modern design that embraces people,
inclusion, culture and experimentation

23. Foxy Zoning
• For Learning (research; digital literacy;
skilling)
• For Sharing (video-conferencing; connecting;
collaborative projects)
• For Reading (borrowing; downloading;
reading support; recommended reading; clubs)
• For Musing (creative thought; solitary
reflection; concentration and planning)

24. sage on the stage
guide on the side
meddler in the middle
‘Foxy’ Teaching

25. ‘He’ll come round – he’s just seen next
year’s library budget cuts…’

26. Email: e.mcwilliam@qut.edu.au
Website: http://www.ericamcwilliam.com.au/