Pause for reflection, Thing 18

Before undertaking the Critical Thinker section, I was initially surprised at the content – what did some of the tools and resources have to do with critical thinking? Having completed all the tasks and reports I can see how critical thinking is at the heart of all the tools and activities. In each I am making choices about what information I am storing or sharing knowing this may be viewable to others. This has made me stop and think more critically about the information choices I make on a daily basis. I have enjoyed learning and thinking about these new tools and programmes. 

  

Thing 14 introduced the term Personal Information Management to me. While I had never thought of this as a specific study area, the tools I was introduced to were particularly interesting. While I could see uses for all of the tools especially in this digital age, for me, most were irrelevant to my needs with the exception of two. Evernote with its nifty notebooks and even more useful web clipper functions particularly appealed due to my habit of leaving wet tabs open to read later. I could see how Evernote could change this, though I didn’t find the clip interface as useful as Pocket. And on reflection I preferred Pocket with its easy to use web clipper and esy to see tile display of clips I found really appealing. Though it wasn’t without an issue or two regarding what it sometimes clips from the web, I have continued to use Pocket since discovering it as it supports and handles information how I want it to.

The evaluating information section provided food for thought in relation to Wikipedia and challenged me to try something I was initially uncomfortable with – adding information to Wikipedia. As I mentioned in Thing 14 I’ve had a changing relationship with Wikipedia, moving from very negative to it to a more grudging acceptance of it and its uses. While it is and will remain an open access user contribution website, encouraging people to look to correct mistakes or back up existing information with citations can give it more credence, while remembering that using it should be the start of the research process. I found the process of seeking out a reference to support the claim made in my citation needed link fun, frustrating yet satisfying, and the process reminded me of what it is like to actually find specific information on such a narrow remit and on a topic I knew nothing about, quite pressured! I have a refreshed understanding of the trials and tribulations searching for information as well as the task of evaluating information to see if it truly is relevant. I utilized the C.R.A.A.P evaluation sheet for this as an alternative to C.A.R. that I promote at work to try a different format and having experienced it I will be using it in my library as I felt it worked well for evaluating websites. Watch out for C.R.A.A.P appearing at Buckie High library soon! The citation was a positive experience to complete and I will certainly use it again as a way of keeping my search and evaluation skills in good shape. And I did in the end, rather cautiously, add my reference to the record (number 13). This could be the start of new and improved relationship between me and Wikipedia.

No matter what your shoe size or style, using the internet will undoubtedly leave a digital footprint of your activity. While I don’t particularly like this, it is a fact of usage, though there are steps that can be taken to reduce this and keep safer online. The check list provided in Thing 16 was useful to compare what I do at present to keep my privacy online. Reflecting on this I felt I came away not too badly. There were a few areas to revisit and improve on like using my IPad on train Wi-Fi and making sure passwords are updated more regularly. While much of keeping safe online is common sense especially if you have a knowledge of how the web works, sometimes in the instant world of the internet people can get carried away and don’t think or take the time to think about their actions online found the information about Facebook quite sobering especially in relation to what they legally can use of ours fee. But the choice is to accept it or don’t use Facebook, as is the situation for most free programmes and websites. The cost may not be monetary, it could be your data. I’m very careful about what I put on Facebook and say and about keeping my privacy on it. This is though something I struggle to get people here at school to understand, the importance of being in control of their image and data, but also to respect other peoples right to privacy. This section has reminded me it is a cause I must continue to champion in the school no matter the challenges.

Since starting at Buckie as a School Librarian I have created many presentations and quizzes to use, often in a presentation format. Yet I’ve not thought of sharing them beyond my immediate colleagues which I’m always delighted to do. A useful resource should be shared. Perhaps the wider world would find them useful too. Thing 17 highlighted SlideShare, which looked to me at first the ideal format to share my resources. I selected some to try including one entitled Mapping Moray and uploaded them very easily, to find that the presentation on SlideShare wasn’t exactly how I thought it would be. Animations didn’t work, and slide notes didn’t appear, so I thought. This though turned out to be because of use error – I didn’t notice the notes tab on the presentation page! Finding this made me much more positive about using Slide Share as it did what I needed it to do, though the lack of interactive elements is frustrating. I will have to thing carefully about how I create my presentations in future for SlideShare or look towards using a different sharing format all together which I will need to start researching. Critical thinking will definitely be needed for this especially as presentation sharing sites are a way to open up task and quizzes to pupils online, without the problems of software compatibility or bringing limited to using in school only.

David Almond is one of a number of authors who are great advocates for daydreaming as part of the curriculum at schools. I’m inclined to agree and feel that as librarians sometimes we need to take time to daydream, to think, to take 5 minutes to contemplate how useful a source is or ask does this answer my question, to think critically and indeed to reflect on the situation at hand. I encourage my pupils to do this with their research by taking time to plan. I need to remember to do so myself to be a better critical thinker.