Technology, effects & issues

Presentations (Click on the marked titles for more details)

(See also presentations and workshops listed under Critical Thinking)

[expand title=”No more serenity, no more serendipity? with Christina Nord”]

This is the age of surveillance. If we did not know before, Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA and other security organisations’ activities have made us all very aware of privacy issues, of how much and how many of our own everyday activities may not be as private as we once thought they were.

Perhaps less well-known or understood is how our personal information, our digital footprint, is used, and not just by security services.

All those wonderful free services on the internet, for instance: they aren’t “free.” We pay for them with the information we give away, and we give away more than we realise. And those “free” services use it. They use us! Under the guise of helping us and making our lives easier, our digital footprints are used to manipulate us, to narrow our choices, to reduce our access to information. Nineteen-eighty-four is nearer than we think!

In this session, we investigate how we can strike a balance between personal privacy protection to the point of paranoia, and giving ourselves away completely. We look at what we need to know, and what our students need to know, to survive. (Presentation given at the 7th triennial ECIS librarians’ conference, Waterloo, Belgium, 2014.) [/expand]

[expand title=”Technology and ıts Effects – Inside the Screenage Brain (after an idea by Coralie Clark).”]

Technology is increasingly used inside and outside the classroom. Many welcome the trend. Many feel disquiet. One thing seems clear: technology is not going to go away. In this session, current research and anecdotal evidence on the effects of technology use will be shared, with special focus on reading and learning. Participants are encouraged to share their concerns, approaches and solutions.

This presentation was first made at the 2011 Autumn Teachers’ Conference in Istanbul. A revised version was presented at the ECIS November Conference in Lisbon, 2011.[/expand]

[expand title=”eBooks and eJournals – is ePublishing Coming Out of the Cold?”]
ebooks have been around for years, but take-up has been slow. Amazon and the Kindle appear to have changed that: technology appears at last to give consumers what they want at a price they are willing to pay and epublishing is suddenly big business. What are the implications for schools and for libraries? How are students and teachers already using the technology, how might they in the future? In this session we look at a number of the questions and the issues and attempt to answer the ultimate question: ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

First presented at the ECIS November Conference, Nice, 2010. A revised version was presented at the 2010 Autumn Teachers’ Conference in Istanbul.[/expand]

[expand title=”Wikipedia or perish : the pros and the cons of ‘the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit’.”]

Wikipedia is extremely popular with students, but it is dismissed by many teachers. Is it a case of getting what you pay for? Can Wikipedia and its spin-offs be relied upon? We look at how Wikipedia has evolved over the years, see why Wikipedia is controversial, and discuss how Wikipedia can be used to inform knowledge and research activities.

This was first presented at the ECIS November Conference, 2007.[/expand]

[expand title=”Adding POINT to PowerPoint : and other presentation tips : 10 DOs, 10 DON’Ts, and 20 HOW-IT’S-DONEs.”]

Think of all the good presentations you’ve seen, and think about what made them good. Then think of all the bad presentations you’ve seen, and think about what made them awful. Here are some tips on effective effects – and what to avoid.

First presented at the 2007 Autumn Teachers’ Conference in Istanbul.[/expand]

[expand title=”Information Technology, Information Literacy, and the International Baccalaureate.”]

The role of libraries and librarians in the information age.

Presented at the Headmasters and Coordinators Conference : IB Diploma – A Preparation for Life, Liverpool, October 30 – November 1, 1998.[/expand]

[expand title=”More than surviving – thriving in the information age : reading as a basis for using information technology efficiently.”]

Reading and basic literacy are vital survival skills. They are essential for dealing with information overload, without them, nothing!

Presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship, Ramat-Gan, Israel, July 5 – 9, 1998.[/expand]

My other presentations and workshops:

Academic honesty
Critical thinking
Extended research essay
Technology, effects and issues
Search and research
Reading, literacy and information literacy
The portfolio