Latest PIL report released

Lessons Learned: How College Students Find Information in the Digital Age was released today, Dec. 1.

As many of you know, Harvard has been involved in phase 1 (focus group) and phase 2 (online survey). We're also on board for phase 3 (content analysis of research assignments); Alison Head, the PI, is currently collecting this data from faculty in the College.

More info about the project, including past reports, videos, and supplementary information, is available at the PIL site.

Beloit annual list released

You know the new academic year is upon us when Beloit College publishes its Mindset List. Kids in the class of 2013 never knew the 1980s. If you're interested, or just want to wax nostalgic, there's a 12-year archive of the list available on the site as well.

ECAR Survey 2008

The Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR) has released its 2008 Study of Undergraduate Students and Technology.

In distilled form, these results and implications of the study are presented here.

Harvard College Thesis Repository

The Harvard College Free Culture group has created an online repository of full-text undergraduate theses. It's small (but growing) and well-worth promoting among students (and faculty) when you can.

Interesting Reading

According to an April 17, 2008 Wired Campus story (in the Chronicle of Higher Education), "Harvard Survey Shows Undergraduates -- but Not Graduate Students -- Like Video Lectures"

The actual technology report is linked from the story. Comments on the Chronicle site are also worth a look for some of the issues surrounding these technologies.

The Harvard report, in turn, links back to a Berkman initiative on Digital Natives.

Worth a look

JISC (the UK Joint Information Systems Committee) and the British Library have just published a report on "The Information Behaviour of the Google Generation."  It looks very critically at some of "myths" of the Google generation -- at long last!

Gazette Announcement: Common Calendar

News on the new coordinated calendar, set to go into effect in 2009-2010

Two New Studies

From the Educause Center for Applied Research:

ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007

From the librarians at the University of Rochester:

Studying Students:The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester

New Educause Report

ECAR [Educause Center for Applied Research] has just released its Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007.

"This 2007 ECAR research study is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 ECAR studies of students and information technology. The study, which reports noticeable changes from previous years, is based on quantitative data from a spring 2007 survey and interviews with 27,846 freshman, senior, and community college students at 103 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies these students use, own, and experience; their technology behaviors, preferences, and skills; how IT impacts their experiences in their courses; and their perceptions of the role of IT in the academic experience."

If the entire 122 page report is too long to pore over (especially these days), there's a 15 page key findings that you can peruse. A 4 page "roadmap" for action is also provided.

CUE guides

[report from Steve:] Students are asking for the CUE Guide, an annual compilation of course evaluations which is published to help students in choosing their classes. We keep the CUE Guides in Ready Reference behind the Research Services desk, but our copies of the 2007-2008 Guide are still being processed. Until we receive them, here's information from the Registrar's web site about online access to the latest edition.

In the fall term, the Guides are distributed to upperclassmen in their suites and to freshmen and transfer students under the key tents. Students living off-campus should pick up their copies at Dudley. Mid-year transfers can obtain a copy from the Advising Office in University Hall.

All students may view the CUE Guide online.

Two worth reading?

Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research?. A summary of the findings (along with some interesting comments (including a U of Washington strategy) is also available via the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Recently published in the Journal of Library Administration, 46.2 (2007): 3-16 is an article by Fred Heath, Director and Vice Provost of the UT-Austin Library system. His topic: the rationale behind the closing of the undergraduate library there. Much for thought.

Mindset of the 2011 Freshman Class

What don't they know? What do they never remember not having? The Beloit College annual list is here.

Oh, and just in case you missed the anniversary earlier this month: CDs turned 25.

New Gen Ed curriculum -- distilled and complete versions

The News Office has posted a summary of the Gen Ed requirements that will replace the Core. The full report, in its final, February 2007 form, is available here.

Harvard Compact to Enhance Teaching and Learning

This report, discussed in a New York Times article today, is probably well worth reading.

"Student Mindset": Class of 2010

Beloit College has for some years been publishing an annual list of those "cultural touchstones" that incoming freshmen have (or have not) experienced.

In addition to the Mindset List for Class of 2010 (whom we'll meet in Lamont in just a couple of weeks), you'll find previous lists archived, as far back as 2002.