Microsoft Excel

Today was the final day of a three-part series in Microsoft Excel and the students were very different than the ones I’ve been seeing in our Computer Basics, Internet Basics, Email, and Word workshops. A couple of the regulars were there and had a hard time keeping up, but we fortunately had two floaters and one instructor and that made things go smoothly. There were three different instructors each day, but I floated through all of them and got to see some different approaches to teaching Excel. One instructor uses a pre-made budget that he sends to himself so that people can see what lots of formatted data can look like, including split panes and freeze panes, several different formulas and some inserted comments, images and graphs.

One gentleman had an idea for an interesting project that he wanted to do, which is a great way to approach Excel – having a goal can make the process stick, I think. And we used a personal budget as an example of what a simple formula can do, which was something everyone could relate to. I saw a lot of light bulbs go on, and people really got into the concept of Excel.

My father is a wizard in Excel and can safely be called a power user, so I admit to some serious fall-back when Excel shows up in my life. Hard to rely on his expertise, though, in a class 3,000 miles away. But he’ll be happy to hear that I’ve been paying attention and was able to answer some questions.

Next week is Powerpoint, which is the last workshop for the year. Everything starts up again in February, and I’ve signed on to volunteer for another round. I’ve gotten to know some of the other instructors and have been really impressed with how well they teach these classes.

Some disconnected thoughts…

This will be a somewhat choppy, scattered blog, but I want to get some thoughts down.

I had my first experience today with a PDF that wouldn’t let me copy. Even when I selected the pointer cursor, nada. It wouldn’t let me select text. I was able to do a screen shot and then copy the image, then paste it into a word document. But of course I can’t format it since it’s technically an image. Foiled! Made me think about Lessig and copyright laws. Given that my use of the passage was for an academic paper and considered fair use, shouldn’t I be able to copy and paste a few lines? But no, the author’s East Coast code was being protected by West Coast code, protecting the document beyond what East Coast code even intended. I thought it was really small-minded of the publisher (I assume it was the publisher’s decision) to make it so difficult. I ended up using the passage, but had to do it the old-fashioned way and typed it out. Take that, PDF! In the end, I think it ends up hurting the author and lowly graduate students like me.

As for sharing something from my final paper, I have to admit that there’s nothing to show. I’m doing triage with my final assignments, so won’t be working on the paper until this weekend.

However, given Professor Shulman’s prompts, I do have a few thoughts:

++ what is the central question you paper speaks to?
I’m going to stick with the metaphor of a footbridge that I used in my project outline, at least as a guide. The digital divide, particularly when it’s applied to global problems, is so big and overwhelming, so I tried to think about my little piece of service-learning, or any kind of similar program and what kind of impact it could have. If the digital divide is something we want to ideally eliminate, then I see my service-learning as a small footbridge across something that would, in a perfect world, not exist.

++ what are the most relevant theories?
I find social capital theories to be really compelling, and as I do a literature review, I’m finding the digital divide and social capital often appear together. I didn’t include that in my project outline, so there may be some finessing before the final paper is done. But in brief, the idea that our society has less social capital than earlier times, and the idea that ICT could potentially be used to increase social capital – that’s interesting to me. And when I’m participating with students in the Community Workshop Series, I like to think that we’re building some social capital, and helping them to acquire skills to build some more. It’s encouraging that some of these 80-year-olds can use e-mail to keep in touch with their loved ones, and as their hearing goes, they’ll have a way to communicate. One of my grandmother students told me that she is now using Gmail chat to keep up with her grandchildren. Love that!

++ who are your straw people?
Hmm. My straw people are probably people who either think the digital divide is not a priority, given all the other big issues we face. Or those who think free computer classes at a public library isn’t helping anyone, at least in comparison to bigger digital divide issues such as access.

++ what are your tentative findings?
Tentative findings: I’m getting a lot out of the service learning because someone else did a ton of legwork. I’m told that the UNC staff person who got this program off the ground is a big proponent of service learning, particularly for MLS students ,and really gets the issues with the digital divide. Other graduate students get it, the director gets it, the public library gets it, and lots of people show up for the classes who really learn something valuable. So, I think that made my experience really sing, and now I get it.

Not sure yet how this will work into the paper, but I’m really drawn to this concept of social capital. Even if I’m only helping someone to complement his social network through email, I think it matters. Even if that person never votes, never gets involved in politics and doesn’t use the Internet to get informed – just stay in touch with people, or find support groups or chat rooms, or feel a little bit better with this new tool to communicate across space and distance. That would be enough to make it all worthwhile.

Social Capital and the Digital Divide

I thought this article in the Bloston Globe was fascinating –

A Friend in Need

In the article, author Thomas Sander writes,

“Americans worship wealth and bemoan the material possessions they lack. In 2005 (the Year of Rediscovered Class Consciousness?), we seem to be waking up to the material class gaps that have grown for almost 40 years, since 1967.

But attention to this real and important economic class gap could blind us to an equally troubling, less visible gap between the classes — a social capital gap. ”Social capital” describes the benefits of social networks. Having friends and being involved in groups not only secures jobs — more Americans get jobs through who they know than what they know — but improves one’s health, education, and happiness.

My service learning at the local library makes this issue real for me. A lot of the people are trying to acquire computer skills so that they’re employable, and to learn how to write and edit a resume. One woman asked if she could list me as a reference on her resume, and it struck me that I might be the closest thing to a business associate in her social network. Having access to someone with computer skills is a no-brainer for most of us, so it’s so hard to imagine what kind of network a person has, or doesn’t have, that she would need to take a formal computer class and ask a near stranger to stand-in as a reference.

Sanders continues:

“How can we close the social capital gap between rich youth and poor youth? … While people have to make friends voluntarily, one can certainly publicize the benefits of such friendships and dramatically increase the opportunity. For example, having youth at age 18 perform a year of mandatory national or community service in diverse groups would likely increase cross-race and cross-class social ties.

Moreover, we ought to ensure that in our rush to teach the 3 R’s in inner city schools we don’t forget to teach the 2 C’s (connections and community). Youth, especially poor youth, ought to learn about social capital and understand the social cost they’ll pay for not building these ties. Skills are also important: Institutions like churches and unions were cornerstones in teaching poor Americans how to run meetings, petition others, mobilize comrades, and build lasting friendships. Given the declines in union membership and church-going among poor youth, we must find other settings to cultivate such skills.”

Maybe it’s too much to expect that a series of computer workshops can close the digital divide and solve the world’s problems, but imagine the hand-up these people get as they learn to navigate what is essentially a new language, with new norms, new connections and new opportunities. Perhaps most of the people in the workshops will go out into the world and shop, but maybe a few will discover ways to build bridges to networks, get some social capital out of their efforts and move up the socio-economic ladder. And what if we taught ICT skills to community leaders who could mobilize their members, helping them access some of the powerful networking opportunities available on the Internet? Not just for jobs, but for well-being, health, information gathering, all the things that privilege the digitally literate classes?

Consider this shocking story of poverty in Virginia, where some of the rural poverty equals that of non-industrialized nations.

“Outside the gates, people lay in their trucks or in tents pitched along the grassy parking lot, waiting for their chance to have their medical needs treated at no charge — part of an annual three-day “expedition” led by a volunteer medical relief corps called Remote Area Medical.

The group, most often referred to as RAM, has sent health expeditions to countries like Guyana, India, Tanzania and Haiti, but increasingly its work is in the United States, where 47 million people — more than 15 percent of the population — live without health insurance. Residents of remote rural areas are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to have health insurance and more likely to be in fair or poor health.

Even after Katrina, it’s shocking to learn that this kind of poverty exists in America. Medical volunteers follow-up with these patients by phone after they have their fleeting visits, but imagine if the patients had universal access to the Internet, and could belong to an online social network tailored to their specific circumstances, say by health condition or through a RAM medical network that helped monitor remote patients.

Quite a long post with quite a bit of rambling, but it struck me that there’s a real role for ICT to help build social capital by helping people across the digital divide, either by teaching them skills or providing, at the very least, some kind of access.

One last link and then I’m done! This one covers an online social network built to help India’s seriously poor working class find employment:

Internet Revolution Reaches India’s Poor

I’m doing my service-learning in a fairly affluent town in America, so it’s easy to think that we’re not making a dent in serious social problems. I read articles like the ones I’ve mentioned here, and it makes me realize there’s unlimited potential for this kind of work.

“Undo typing” is your new best friend

Last week’s classes in Word sent me on a rollercoaster ride. I had such success during the email class before Thanksgiving, but Word is such a twitchy program, which makes it difficult to teach. I’ve floated during Word classes, and thought it would be a cakewalk to teach one, but the class had so many questions, and each one took me down a tangent. We didn’t cover anywhere near the things outlined for the class.

We probably spent close to two hours on the Save and Save As functions, plus practicing how to find documents, how the hierarchy works, and other things most digitally literate people take for granted. I got really flustered when one of the students said we weren’t going to have enough time to cover the topics he came to learn, such as edit, copy, paste. I actually broke out into a sweat and felt like my throat was parched.

Fortunately, I had two floaters to help, but they ended up talking so loudly with individual students, and it was hard to teach with the general noise level so high. I generally encourage students to ask lots of questions, but they ended up asking so many that I couldn’t create any kind of momentum. An hour flies by quickly when you’re flustered!

The next day, someone else taught the class, and I felt better realizing that we had sort of a rowdy class (for a new instructor, anyway!), and that you sometimes just have to ride the horse you have, not the one you want. I ended helping an older gentlemen (possibly late 70s, early 80s) who is one of the most adorable people I’ve ever met. Earlier, I told him that he couldn’t break the computer. But he had pressed so many icons, turned his page orange and his ink white and couldn’t figure out what he had done. I couldn’t either! He said to me, “You said I couldn’t break it, but I think I did!” and we both laughed. I told him that the “undo typing” icon will be his new best friend. He clicked it about 30 times to get it back out of his heavy formatting, and said, “Oh, I like this little button.” He always gives us all handshakes after the class and tells us how much he appreciates what we do.

I can see why people keep returning to each class – often they’ll take Word for three and four sessions before they disappear off on their own. Each instructor teaches the class in a different way, and each class has different questions, energy and agendas.

I worked with another woman to help her understand how to “break” the numbering format in Word. And we spent about ten minutes going over the difference between the enter key, backspace and delete. I realized that those three keys are really the trinity of the keyboard.

Word basics was exhausting – next week will be Excel, followed by Powerpoint. Glad I’m not teaching those. For now I think I’ll stick to the safe haven of floating.

Reflections on Service Learning: An Outline & Literature Review

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“My experience with service learning programs at all levels has been that when democratic citizenship is at the foundation of a community-based learning experience, students come away feeling more a part of their communities, and with a better and more critical understanding of these communities and their own roles in them.”

Richard Battistoni, Service Learning and Democratic Citizenship

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Reflection Paper Outline:

I. Thesis: Teaching ICT skills to digital immigrants provides a footbridge across the digital divide

a. the digital divide is sooooo real



i. definition of digital divide
ii. access and literacy: they’re different

b. digital divide impacts everyone

i. digital literacy is becoming an essential tool to deliberative democracy
ii. better citizens = better society

c. why should librarians care?

i. if not librarians, then who?
ii. librarians will never be superfluous in the face of the digital divide

d. why service-learning?

i. keeping an eye on the big picture while teaching basic, basic skills
ii. relating good quotes from Service Learning and Democratic Citizenship

II. Thoughts on theory

a. taking Adam Smith and the Founding Fathers to the Community Workshop Series
i. what if these people aren’t aware of digital citizenship?
ii. do it anyway

b. what some giants of philosophy might think about double-clicking the mouse

i. Plato, Aristotle
ii. introducing the digitally illiterate to the conversation

c. O’Hara and Stevens – consumers vs. citizens

i. functioning normally, and what that means
ii. yes, ICT is special

II Community Workshop Series

a. what it is, when/how it started, who started it
b. patrons served, demographics, statistics
c. classes taught, variety, frequency, format, who teaches it
d. awards won
e. role in the community, sustainability

III. Experiencing the Community Workshop Series

a. service-learning my way into the issues
i. why I’m different than the volunteers

b. being lucky/feeling grateful that others before me set the program up

i. jumping into classes that were ready to go
ii. people get it

c. floating vs. teaching and why they’re different

i. floating made me aware, teaching made me think
ii. demonstrating how to be a life-long learner by hitting snags during teaching

d. my agenda

i. everyone here could be my mother
ii. being better citizens

IV. Analysis: A footbridge is not a highway, but it’s better than nothing

a. the gap between teaching basic skills and making better digital citizens
b. graduate students can easily overlook the digital divide
c. students of library science are underrepresented in the service-learning research
d. how can these kinds of programs remain sustainable?
e. people caught in the digital divide should be our most important constituents
f. teaching ICT skills through service-learning is great for the students, the teachers, the university, the public libraries, and the community

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Literature Review

Battistoni, Richard. (1997). Service Learning and Democratic Citizenship. Theory into Practice, 36(3), 150-156.

Elmborg, J. K. (2001). Service learning in the library and information science curriculum: The perspectives and experiences of one multimedia/user education class. Research Strategies, 18(4), 265-281.

Jones-Kavalier, Barbara R., Suzanne L. Flannigan. (2006). Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century . Educause Quarterly: The IT Practitioner’s Journal, 29(2).

Keeter, Michael X Delli, Scott Keeter. (2000). What should be learned through service learning? PS: Political Science & Politics, 33(3), 635-637.

Rhodes, N. J. (2001). Using Service Learning to Get Positive Reactions in the Library. Computers in Libraries, 32-35.

Riddle, J. (2003). Where’s the Library in Service learning? Models for Engaged Library Instruction. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 29(2), 71-81.

Sitter, C. L. (2006). Learning by Serving. Knowledge Quest, 34(5), 23-26.

Westney, L. C. (2006). Conspicuous by Their Absence: Academic Librarians in the Engaged University. Reference User Services Quarterly, 45(3), 200-203.

Witbooi, S. (2004). Service Learning in the Library and Information Studies Curriculum at the University of the Western Cape: An Exploratory Study. Mousaion, 22(1), 89-102.

Gmail, in my own words

Last week, I floated during the first day of a three-day session teaching the class about email. On the second day, the instructor wasn’t able to make it, so five minutes before the class I realized that I was going to have to teach the class. Yikes!

We were using Gmail to teach the class, and since I have an account, it wasn’t too difficult. But I worried that I would talk too fast and whip through the interface with lots of time left and nothing to teach.

Hah!

It was such a great experience, and the class was so terrific. I haven’t been teaching for a long time, over ten years at least, so it felt great to be back working with students. My group was so engaged, willing to learn, attentive, full of questions, and everything seemed to click. I didn’t need to worry about going too quickly, since people had many, many questions. We spent about 10 minutes just talking about the draft function, and how to find unfinished emails, how they were saved, what they look like, etc. I used my own Gmail account as an example – so much for privacy! It’s much easier to teach the class about Gmail when they can see how emails look when they haven’t been viewed yet, how they look when they’re starred, what the star function means, etc. I hadn’t read my email that morning, and didn’t know that the instructor had emailed me to apologize for not being able to make it. The whole class was able to see the email, that it hadn’t been read, and we laughed about the fact that they were witnessing email in action.

Also, I seem to be testing the limits of Gmail storage, with over 6,000 emails, so we played around searching for things so they could see how Gmail and Google have redefined organization with their search engine. We talked about how Google can search the content of the emails, how emails aren’t really private (even though they all had passwords for their accounts) and some other interesting email etiquette issues (sarcasm can be confusing in emails, be careful to not reply to all unless you really intend to reply to all, and other bits of advice that they were really fascinated by.)

I really encouraged people to ask questions, and they took me up on the offer. The original instructor had more of a lecture style, and the class was quite quiet, so it was interesting to find out what was underneath all that silence! Lots of questions, and many that I would never have anticipated. We went over the differences between ISP email accounts like Earthlink and Roadrunner, and I realized a few days after the class that I didn’t really make it clear how they were different. Yes, you can view Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail from any Web browser, but I sort of implied that you couldn’t do that with Roadrunner, etc. Obviously you can, but I didn’t really explain how it worked. I’ll have to do some research and find out why people prefer different kinds of email accounts so that I don’t bias the conversation so much.

I also told them that lots of people have two accounts – one for family and friends, and another for business transactions, so that their accounts don’t fill up with junk. We spent the remainder of the class looking through my email account, talking about rich text, plain text, settings, spam, and how much storage is available. Unfortunately, we still had a few students who couldn’t open Gmail accounts. Argh! That destroyed our theory that Gmail thought we were spamming with so many new accounts. (Eventually, we concluded that the library had a dynamic IP address that was probably re-set, because we were able to create those accounts on the third day.)

By the last session of the workshop series, a different instructor ran the class, and he had everyone send emails to the instructor’s faux account. At one point, he sat down to e-mail a message to everyone so that they could experience receiving something, and I jumped back in to lead the class while they waited for their e-mails. I decided to talk to them about the chat function, and they LOVED learning about it. We weren’t going to cover it because it opens a whole new tool to teach, but it was definitely something they wanted to know more about. We did a little bit on attachments and how to open them, but our time ran out before we could really cover it in detail. A group of students came up to me at the end of class and asked if I could teach the next workshop, which felt really, really good. When you volunteer your time, this kind of feedback is definitely a gift. I’ve been fretting so much about actually teaching a class, but I feel more confidence after having so much fun.

I’m really lucky that previous students set up this workshop series at the local libraries because it’s made it so easy to jump in and learn the ropes. This is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done at graduate school, and I’ll definitely continue with it after this semester.

People Like Email

This week we’re teaching email basics and the group seemed really eager to figure out this whole email business. Nineteen people signed up for the class, and 15 people showed – a good percentage for this workshop. A lot of them have been taking classes each week, so they have some skills to build on and most of them feel somewhat comfortable with the terminology and hand-eye skills.

An interesting thing happened – we were showing the workshop participants how to set up an account through Gmail. Thirteen people were able to create an account and get into their new inbox. But the last two kept getting a message that said, “Account already exists.” This made no sense, and so we tried to create a brand new account on different computers, and kept getting the same message. We figured that the spam filters had somehow identified (through the library IP address) that too many people were trying to create accounts from a single location and Google therefore shut us out. Previously, instructors had taught how to create accounts in Yahoo, but decided during the last session that Gmail was much easier for newbies to use. Gmail has pretty good spam filters, so perhaps we inadvertently experienced their filter from the other side. So two people will come back tomorrow and open their accounts – hopefully that works.

I had a funny experience with one of the participants while he was trying to create an account. English isn’t his native language, and his accent is very thick so it’s hard to understand him. Learning how to use computers for the first time in a second language is quite a feat, and he should be applauded for diving into the classes so fearlessly. While he was creating his account, he needed to come up with a password.

Him: “I don’t know the password.”
Me: “Ok, well you need to create one.”
Him: “Actually I don’t know it.”
Me: “Well, they want you to create one, say, for example, the name of your first pet.”
Him: “I don’t have a pet.”
Me: “Ok, how about your mother’s maiden name?”
Him: “What is a maiden?”
Me: “Your mother’s last name before she got married and took your father’s last name.”
Him: (stares at me blankly)
Me: “Or you can create anything that you would be able to remember, something that no one else would guess.”
Him: “I don’t get a password.”
Me: “Well, with Gmail, you need to make that password up. They don’t make it up for you. This box is asking you to enter something that you want to use as your personal password. Something easy to remember and something that will give you some security. So no one tries to get into your mail and read it.”
Him: “Ah. I see. Ok.”
Me: “It needs to be eight characters, and if they like your password, this section will change from ‘weak’ to ’strong.’ They will tell you if you have come up with a good password.”
Him: “Eight.” (he points to the keyboard number pad)
Me: “Well, yes, numbers are okay. But it can be eight characters, a combination of letters or numbers. So it doesn’t just have to be numbers. Ideally, what you pick will be easy to remember.”
Him: “My telephone number?” (He counts the numbers in his phone number) “Not eight.”
Me: “It can be someone’s name, or a person’s name plus a series of numbers that you can easily remember. Like your age.”
Him: “What is character? Number?”
Me: “Character means either letters of the alphabet, or numbers.”
Him: “Can you do it.”
Me: “Well, a password is usually something secret that you make up and remember for yourself.”
Him: “I see.”
Me: “You could enter your name backwards, or you could enter your father’s middle name. Just so that there are eight letters or numbers.”
Him: (Big smile) “I enter my girlfriend’s name.”
Me: “Good. Try that.” (Hoping things work out with his girlfriend so that the password keeps its positive connotation.)

These classes are just one surprise after another. I never thought I would have to teach someone about how to think of a password. Another woman had been writing down words that she didn’t understand, and that was another good reminder that we throw foreign words (to them) around without thinking about their “newness.”

Her list included:

interface
navigation
toolbar
default page
encrypted page
drop-down

A lot of those terms are covered in the computer and Internet basics classes, but for those who are new to the program, it can be difficult to keep up if a word whizzes by that’s new, or that sounds like English but appears to be used in a new way. I thought it was great that she was writing them down and figuring out how to get answers. She was also hard of hearing and was probably in her late 70s, early 80s. Someone had already created an account for her, but she couldn’t figure out how to “make it work.” We spent a few minutes talking about terminology and I tried to simplify the process, writing down the steps it takes to click on Firefox, type in www.gmail.com, and then enter her username and password. Because there were two of us teaching the class, everything flowed really well. Brian led the class while I helped individuals who got stuck. This woman was such a sweetheart, and she was so determined to learn email and use it with her friends and family.

Another student wanted to understand if she had to cancel her Earthlink.net email account now that she had opened her Gmail account. I find myself using metaphors in these classes a lot, and when I explained that it was like having several phone numbers, or several post office boxes, she seemed relieved to understand things in a simple framework that made sense to her. We also talked about the ways that free email accounts (accessible through browsers) work, and how the accounts created through phone companies and service providers work.

I’ve been thinking about pedagogy during the past few classes, noticing what works and what doesn’t. People seem to really appreciate putting computer concepts into context, particularly with metaphors. They also like the rhetorical style, inviting them to participate and answer questions. And I can almost sense their anxiety diminish whenever we describe how lots of people find certain things frustrating, so that they don’t feel alone in their learning curve.

All in all, a really satisfying class.

Computer Basics

Again, I floated during a class at the library, trying to pick up ideas for how I could teach the same class. This week is the first week of a seven-part series, so people are here for computer basics. There’s a hand-out, but nothing beats experience and the students probably learn much more from sitting in front of the computers and doing it themselves.

I hadn’t expected the class to get into viruses, changing desktop appearances and storage, but that’s where we went. I think this particular group was most interested in the topic of viruses and whether or not they should worry about them. At one point, a student in the class asked what the difference was between hardware and software, although English is his second language, so it’s hard to know if he was trying to clarify new words, or simply didn’t know the difference. In this class, nothing is considered too basic. An instructor told me that in one class, one of the students didn’t know what a computer was.

I’ve been able to observe a few different instructors and their styles of teaching varies. These adult learners are so keen to be here and get so much out of the classes, so asking them questions seems to be a particularly rewarding way of instructing. And one of the instructors is really good at painting a big picture around the topic. Many of these people, even if they don’t know how to use a computer, have read a lot about them. Being able to address their media knowledge seems like a wise thing to do, particularly since it makes the computer less foreign. They feel like they have a frame of reference for something so foreign. I think the instructor I watched today has an excellent sense of what these students want, and knows how to teach them. He teaches to their intelligence.

Today, the overhead projector didn’t work and we didn’t have a visual aid to help guide the class. It’s probably better to assume that the equipment won’t work than the other way around. There were about eight people in the class, so it was easy to stand in the middle of the lab and instruct them by looking over shoulders. Not ideal, but it worked.

I think the strangest thing about this experience thus far is operating the doors. The library doesn’t open until 10am, but the classes take place from 8:30-9:30am and people are supposed to leave promptly. Librarians are at work trying to get ready for the day and don’t want to be “on” until 10am, so they don’t want these workshop participants hanging around to talk to them.

One woman in the class appears to be a habitual attendee, and is having a hard time being a novice. She has bits of information (has a computer at home and her family uses it), but there are huge gaps in what she understands and sometimes seems to ask questions just to demonstrate knowledge, even though her knowledge is flawed. I’m sure we’ve all been in classes with people like this. She’s been instructing other people around her, so I’m getting the feeling that she comes to these classes to feel useful. That’s fine with me! The hard part is getting her to leave on time.

All in all, another really satisfying experience. It’s amazing how appreciative and attentive these students are. It was a 50 percent no-show this week, but that seems to be the formula for attendance. A lot of these people will be back in the weeks to follow to learn about e-mail, the Internet, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Service Learning: Seeking health and medical information online

Today was a different kind of service learning experience. For the last week of the Community Workshop Series sessions, a health librarian from UNC-Chapel comes to teach the public about health information for individuals, caregivers and seniors. My job was to float, which really came down to opening and closing the library doors for workshop participants. For most of the session, I sat at a computer with the participants and followed along online. About nine people showed up, about half of them who have been attending other Community Workshop computer classes.

It was interesting, though, in that the librarian was teaching the class about the vagaries of different search engines. She explained that the search engines all worked differently, and mentioned that Google had a proprietary algorithm which selected sites based on popularity, not accuracy. That’s an important thing to know if you’re looking for health information, and she mentioned that some of the sites out there could in fact advertise dangerous information. Google has apparently gotten much better (they were cognizant of the problem that the algorithm had serious implications for health information), but she still recommended that people use Medlineplus, PubMed, NCHealthInfo or the UNC Health Sciences Library websites.

I thought it was really helpful to explain how search engines work, and how to assess a health site for legitimacy and accuracy. She recommended that people always check the About Us section on a website, and look at the advisory boards to see who was on them. She also explained how medical librarians regularly check the pages, updating where needed.

When it comes to health information, I would be willing to bet that most people are unaware of the federal, state and university health databases, and probably use popular search engines to seek information, maybe even starting with Wikipedia.

In that sense, a majority of us are probably on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide. People who attended today’s workshop are probably a lot more informed than the 88 percent of Internet (her statistic) users who seek medical information online.

Semantic Web: High-Speed Chase and the Digital Divide

I read articles like this one in Read/Write Web, and think about my class of students learning Microsoft Word. Do they read articles about the Semantic Web? If they do, does it give them heart palpitations?

In the article, writer Richard MacManus discusses a shiny new Web application called Twine, which founder Nova Spivack refers to as a knowledge networking application.

MacManus writes, “It has aspects of social networking, wikis, blogging, knowledge management systems – but its defining feature is that it’s built with Semantic Web technologies. Spivack told me that Twine aims to bring a usable and scalable interface to the long-promised dream of the Semantic Web.”

I think about the information tools I’ve either learned or improved over the past year: Second Life, wikis, blogs, Movie Maker, screencasting, Blackboard, Facebook, UNIX, Excel, Access, news readers, Powerpoint, not to mention my adventures into the university databases. I keep thinking about these tools in relation to the students in the Community Workshop Series, and I’m impressed that they took the step to sign up. It could be so easy to feel overwhelmed. So when I read about knowledge networking, I think about people learning Word for the first time, maybe even holding their first computer mouse.

Each time some venture capitalist gets together with a bright team of researchers, the digital divide gets deeper, wider and weirder.