Students, Researchers and Metrics Metrics Metrics

Day 1 - JISC/CNI conference

So, OK, I'm an interloper, a maverick software representative in the heart of the e-Ed community, spying on them in their annual get together and annoying them over their coffee. But with good reason.

JISC and CNI represent some of the best efforts on both sides of the Atlantic at improving digital services for supporting learning. If you are aiming to get at students, researchers, graduates or the people that support them, then look no further. And today's sessions exposed the exact user-awareness that publishing companies need to mine if they are going to address the information seeking needs of future generations.

After an opening presentation beautifully delivered by Diana Oblinger (man, she has a beautiful voice - like a cup of warm tea) that roused the room into charging enthusiatically into the web 2.0 future, Ian Rowlins and Betsy Wilson illuminated us with their detailed research into information seeking behaviours among the 'Post Google Generation' and university users in the US.

More of that later, but what I discovered today is a desire among librarians and information managers for metrics. eLearning that broadens the experience of students and teaches sustainable information seeking behaviours is going to need infrastructure change, yes; but without good, individualised metrics and activity reports educators are going to get left behind.

Our next challenge could well be this: can we design systems that support future models of experiential learning and capture learning activities beyond formal teaching environments without bank-breaking technology investments and without infringing the privacy of students.

If we design and expect learning that takes place within user's private social network spaces and virtual environments (Facebook, Twitter, SecondLife, blah), and the goal is to bring these activities within the teaching framework, how do we assess them in a fair and non-intrusive manner.

Hmmm.

I'm off to the bar. More later.