TodaysMeet: Experiment with the Backchannel

There has been a lot of talk about disruptive technologies: how to teach around and against them. There are also attempts to integrate them into live class discussions. The backchannel is that lively student discussion taking place with laptops and mobile devices while you are lecturing.  The discussion is invisible to the lecturer. One easy way to interact with the backchannel is TodaysMeet. It allows instructors to quickly set up a live web discussion room to gather questions and comments from the students.

Zotero Automatic Proxy Management

Patrons might find it helpful to set up the Firefox Add-On Zotero for proxy redirection; after a very quick setup including a first visit to your site,  they can access library database content from anywhere on the web.

This allows for more fluid discovery; they may stumble upon great content on the web and this allows the browser to identify sites for which the library can allow them full access.  Patrons are still directed to their proxy server login page so they get a clear sense of how they are getting to the content.  After setup, they can also go back to turn settings off.

I have found this very helpful for accessing The Chronicle of Higher Ed's premium content from home. After I linked to it through my library's site, I just typed in the URL directly (no proxying) ...
Check out more information at http://www.zotero.org/support/proxies .

Note: This add-on works for Firefox. There is a standalone beta version of Zotero for those of you who don't use Firefox but a Chronicle of Higher Ed review from August 2011 states that the redirection isn't a feature of the standalone just yet.

QR Codes in Libraries

You see them in stores and on marketing materials, but QR codes are also making their way into libraries. QR codes are an interesting way to engage patrons. The codes allow patrons to use their smart phones to get more information from anywhere in the library by scanning a square shaped code as above. They make the library more interactive and a space for discovery.  For basic information and library examples, check out this wiki.

The cool thing is that you can use an online tool to create one yourself. One code creator is QR Stuff. Just paste the URL in, copy the code, and you are set.

Patrons can look for a free smart phone app for their device using keywords like 'qr code reader' or 'qr code scanner.'

Where to start? We are going to start with a 'how to renew items' QR code somewhere around the circulation desk. We will be using it as a test to see if we want to roll out more. From there, the possibilities are endless.

Hastac.org - technology/learning collaboratory

Hastac.org is a place for creative educators using technology to meet, discuss and share what they are working on. Really interesting stuff and well worth a visit.

Email Alerts for Google Scholar

Just wanted to point out the search alerts from Google Scholar. I am interested in encouraging more faculty to use search alerts in library and open Web resources. Are there any other search alerts you use for your own work or to suggest to patrons?