OCULA Spring Conference 2019
2019 OCULA Spring Conference in Collaboration with OSLA
Bridge Between: Information Literacy Challenges, Needs and Opportunities for Students’ Transition from High School to University/College
When: Friday April 26, 2019
Time: 9:00am-4:00pm EST
Location: OISE Library, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Continuing Education Certificate credits: 3
University and College librarians, high school library staff and public library staff all want students in Ontario to enter post-secondary institutions with the information literacy (IL) skills they need to transition and thrive in the sphere of higher learning. Conference participants will discuss frameworks, tools, pedagogical approaches and partnerships, and share our solutions and next steps for easing the transition and bridging the gap! Registration opens at 9:00 AM on Tuesday, March 12, 2019.
Conference Program
Outputs / Materials From the Day
| Time | Topic |
| 9:00 – 9:20 | Registration & Light Breakfast |
| 9:20 – 9:40 | Opening Remarks |
| 9:40 – 10:25 | Keynote: “Use, Understand, Create: Cultivating Digital Literacy in Young Canadians” – Kara Brisson-Boivin, Director of Research, MediaSmarts Dr. Kara Brisson-Boivin is the Director of Research at MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy. Kara oversees all of the planning, methodology, implementation, and dissemination of key findings from original MediaSmarts’ research studies. She researches the various impacts of digital technology and digital culture on Canadians broadly and youth in particular. Kara’s current research projects examine: digital well-being among Canadian families, the impacts of online hate on youth online activism, the intersections of (mis)information management and digital citizenship, as well as a longitudinal study on what life online looks like for young Canadians, their parents and their teachers. Kara also holds an appointment as an Adjunct Research Professor in the Sociology Department at Carleton University. Digital media literacy is a key component of the challenges, needs, and opportunities facing Canadian students today. In order to be literate in today’s media-rich environments students need to develop knowledge, values, and a whole range of critical thinking, communication, and information management skills for the digital age. In this presentation, Kara will: provide an overview of MediaSmarts’ digital literacy framework; discuss the emerging issues facing both educators and students in the areas of technology, information, and digital society; as well as share some of MediaSmarts’ recent and upcoming projects that work to bridge challenges in digital media literacy for young Canadians today. |
| 10:25 – 10:40 | Break |
| 10:40 – 11:10 | Comparing Frameworks for Information Literacy in Post-Secondary and High School Research Contexts This session will include a brief presentation and discussion on frameworks for teaching information literacy in the academic and high school context, with a particular focus on the framework for information literacy for higher education developed by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Participants will have an opportunity to explore a framework from ACRL in groups, discuss what they like about it, what they find confusing, questions they have about the concept, and what (if anything) do they think is missing from the concept. |
| 11:10 – 12:00 | Lightning Talks “What’s Up with OSLIP? (Ontario School Library Impact Project)” – Heather Buchansky, Student Engagement Librarian, University of Toronto Libraries & Kate Johnson-McGregor, Teacher-Librarian, Grand Erie District School Board “Orienting Grade 12 Students to College & University Libraries: What has Worked (and What has Not!)” – Shelagh Straughan, Librarian, Trinity College School “Public Libraries: The Missing Information Literacy Link?” – Cathy Duong & Laura Freeman, High School Outreach Librarians, Toronto Public Library “Cats, Dogs and Coffee: First Year Students’ Wants and Needs at McMaster University Library” – Anna Flak, Learning Support Librarian & Nicole Doro, Learning Support Co-op Librarian, McMaster University “Every Small Change Helps: How Discussions with Teacher Librarians Helped Improve Information Literacy Instruction in First-Year Engineering Courses” – Tracy Zahradnik, Engineering Librarian, University of Toronto |
| 12:00 – 1:00 | Lunch |
| 1:00 – 2:00 | Chalk Talk Brainstorm In this session, participants will further develop their understanding of the new ACRL framework. Participants will first map out what they think each of the six ACRL concepts mean and entail. They will then, in small groups, engage with each others’ contributions and draw connections. Groups will then delve deeper by rotating and contributing connections to other groups’ concept maps. Next, after a plenary discussion, groups will look at examples of existing research assignments and approaches in secondary and post-secondary contexts, and discuss how they might modify them to better promote students’ agency over, and conceptual framework of, research. Examples of research assignments will be provided, but participants are welcome to bring their own, in order to ground the session in their working contexts. |
| 2:00 – 2:15 | Break |
| 2:15 – 3:00 | Teaching Re-Design Workshop During this interactive workshop, participants will work in groups to construct an information literacy teaching scenario, implementing at least one threshold concept from the ACRL information literacy framework, keeping in mind learning outcome(s) and active learning strategies. |
| 3:00 – 3:45 | Teaching Re-Design Presentations Each group will present the teaching scenario they constructed during the workshop. |
| 3:45 – 4:00 | Closing remarks |
| 4:30 | Pub Social (Optional) |
