Beginning Rubric 3 - Time management and organization

This a continuation of the 2008 revision of the CODE77 rubrics - Basic level. An introduction is here.

This rubric was not a part of the 1994 version of the basic rubrics.

III Time management and organization (NETS V.C.) 2002
Level 1     I do not use electronic tools or devices to help me keep a calendar or organize my tasks and address book..
Level 2     I can access the school’s calendar for basic schedule information.
Level 3     I use an electronic calendar program, to-do list, and address book that includes email address to help organize and schedule my professional activities. I can synchronize the information on my computer with that in my PDA (personal digital assistant).
Level 4           I store my calendar, task manager, web bookmarks, and address book online so it can be accessed from any Internet-worked computer. I help my students with using technology for time management and organizational purposes.

III Time management and organization (NETS ?.) 2008
Level 1     I do not use electronic tools or devices to help me keep a calendar or organize my tasks and address book..
Level 2     I can access the school’s calendar for basic schedule information. I can use the directory on the school's website to locate staff e-mail addresses.
Level 3     I use an integrated electronic calendar program, to-do list, and address book that includes email address to help organize and schedule my professional activities. I can synchronize the information on my computer with that in my PDA (personal digital assistant) or cell phone and my shared online calendar. I can set alerts to help remind me of upcoming meetings or events.
Level 4           I store my calendar, task manager, web bookmarks, and address book online so it can be accessed from any Internet-worked computer. I can access the shared calendars of other staff members to help schedule meetings and events. I help my students with using technology for time management and organizational purposes.

Other time management tasks? Next up: IV. Word processing 

Even librarians reading less?

My professorial friend Mary Ann Bell sent an urgent notice out on both her blog and to LM_Net not long ago urging librarians to read Thomas Washington's editorial "Kids Reading Less and So Am I" that appeared in the February 9th Washington Post. In the piece, this school librarian reflects:

Who isn't having trouble concentrating [on reading] these days? Who doesn't find it nearly impossible to stick with a 450-page novel? I've come down with the same virus as the kids — the very group I criticize for ignoring the library's "new arrivals" book display.

I felt the same thing as blog reading became a habit and opined that I was reading differently in my column The Decline of Reading in October of 2006. As long ago as 1994, Birkerts in his book The Gutenberg Elegies complained that electronics was dooming reading and Professor Naomi Baron in a Los Angles Times opinion piece “Killing the written word by snippets” (Nov 28, 2005) bemoaned:

Will effortless random access [to snippets of books made available through Google Book Search] erode our collective respect for writing as a logical, linear process? Such respect matters because it undergirds modern education, which is premised on thought, evidence and analysis rather than memorization and dogma. Reading successive pages and chapters teaches us how to follow a sustained line of reasoning.

What looks like may be another nail in the coffin of sustained reading can be found in an observation in the British Library and JISC's study, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future. (All educators, not just librarians, should read this very interesting and well-done report.) Although the purpose of the study was to study the information habits of the "Google" generation, it also reported:

While we have highlighted differences amongst scholarly communities in this paper it would be a mistake to believe that it is only students’ information seeking that has been fundamentally shaped by massive digital choice, unbelievable (24/7) access to scholarly material, disintermediation, and hugely powerful and influential search engines.  The same has happened to professors, lecturers and practitioners.  Everyone exhibits a bouncing / flicking behaviour, which sees them searching horizontally rather than vertically.  Power browsing and viewing is the norm for all.

So young and old alike are changing their reading/research habits, perhaps as a technique to survive the information avalanche, the data tsunami, the ... well, supply your own natural disaster metaphor here.

To degree, my adult readers, do exhibit some of these behaviors outlined in the British Library's report?

The main characteristics of digital information seeking behaviour  in virtual libraries are:

• Horizontal information seeking A form of skimming activity, where people view just one
  or two pages from an academic site and then `bounce’ out, perhaps never to return. ...
• Navigation  People in virtual libraries spend a lot of time simply finding their way around: in fact they spend as much time finding their bearings as actually viewing what they find. 
• Viewers  The average times that users spend on e-book and e-journal sites are very short: typically four and eight
  minutes respectively.  It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense, ....  It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense. 
• Squirreling behaviour Academic users have strong consumer instincts and research shows that they will squirrel away content in the form of downloads, especially when there are free offers.  ... there is no evidence as to the extent to which these downloads are actually read. 
• Diverse information seekers Log analysis reveals that user behaviour is very diverse...:  One size does not fit all.
  Checking information seekers  Users assess authority and trust for themselves in a matter of seconds by dipping and cross-checking across different sites and by relying on favoured brands (e.g. Google).
  

Are you becoming more like the students you teach?  (Heaven help you, middle school teachers!) Without the ability or inclination to "to follow a sustained line of reasoning" is civilization going to hell in a hand basket? Or are we all just learning to snow plow through the knowledge blizzard?

Beginning Rubric 2 - File Management

This a continuation of the 2008 revision of the CODE77 rubrics - Basic level. An introduction is here.

II.     File management (1994)
Level 1    I do not save any documents I create using the computer.
Level 2    I save documents I’ve created but I cannot chose where they are saved. I do not back-up my files.
Level 3    I have a filing system for organizing my files, and can locate files quickly and reliably. I back-up my files to floppy disk or other storage device on a regular basis.
Level 4    I regularly run a disk-optimizer on my hard drive, and use a back-up program to make copies of my files on a weekly basis. I have a system for archiving files which I do not need on a regular basis to conserve my computer’s hard drive space.

II. File management (NETS I.A., I.B.) (2002)
Level 1    I do not save any documents I create using the computer.
Level 2    I save documents I’ve created but often have difficulty finding them. I do not store duplicates of my files on disks or servers for back-up purposes.
Level 3    I have a filing system for organizing my files, and can locate files quickly and reliably in folders and subfolders. I back-up my files to disk, file server, or Internet storage site on a regular basis. I use the district’s networked file storage server when provided so I can access my files from any computer, including my home computer. I save my files with the appropriate extension (.txt, ..jpg, doc, cwk, etc.) to facilitate cross-platform use.
Level 4    I regularly run a disk-optimizer on my hard drive, and use a back-up program to make copies of my files on a weekly basis. I have a system for archiving files which I do not need on a regular basis to conserve my computer’s hard drive space.

II. File management (NETS ?) (2008)
Level 1    I do not save any documents I create using the computer.
Level 2    I save documents I’ve created but often have difficulty finding them. I store duplicates of my files on disks, servers or flash memory for back-up purposes on an irregular basis.
Level 3    I have a filing system for organizing my files, and can locate files quickly and reliably in folders and subfolders. I can use the search command in my operating system (Indexer or Spotlight) to locate a file by name, type or content. I back-up my files to writable CD or DVD disks, separate hard drive, network file server, or Internet storage site on a regular basis. I use local network or Internet file storage server when provided so I can access my files from any computer, including my home computer. I save my files with the appropriate extension (.txt, ..jpg, doc, cwk, etc.) to facilitate cross-platform use. I can use a potable flash drive to transport my files.
Level 4    I regularly run a disk-optimizer on my hard drive, and use an automated back-up program to make copies of my files on a regular schedule. I have a system for archiving files which I do not need on a regular basis to conserve my computer’s hard drive space. I keep my back up files in physical locations that are at a distance.

Other file management tasks? Next up: III Time management and organization