Teaching information literacy to a generation of gamers

Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. 
Portland Community College, Cascade Campus
TEB (Technology Education Building), Room 215
705 N. Killingsworth Street
Portland, OR 97217
For directions and parking information, see http://www.pcc.edu/about/locations/cascade/

Workshop description:

Video games are as important a part of the popular media for contemporary teens and young adults as television and the radio were for their predecessors. In three parts, this training will address how video games affect the ways our students access and interact with information.

• Video games as medium:  First, we will examine how games communicate with and teach their players.
• Gamers and info literacy: Second, we will discuss some key learning principles encountered by gamers and link these with practical classroom techniques for information literacy instructors. This part of the presentation will include guided discussions and sharing of the classroom experiences of the attendees.
• Hands-on learning:  Third, attendees will have the opportunity to experience teaching and learning with video games first hand, using the popular game Portal.

 This training is presented by information literacy instructors who work in academic libraries and most of our examples and scenarios are drawn from our personal experience in the classroom (and in the games.) However, we predict that most librarians who are curious about teaching, learning, and the current generation of gamers will find applications and connections to their professional practice. Please come and bring your curiosity and experiences with you to share!

Presenters:

Nicholas Schiller and Carole Svensson are frequent collaborators and co-authors of work on the connections between video games and library instruction. They presented together at the 2008 Lita Forum and co-authored a chapter in the forthcoming Neal Schuman title : Teaching Gen M : A Handbook for Librarians and Educators . In March, together with Serin Anderson, they will be presenting their research on games and learning at the 2009 ACRL conference.

Nicholas is the library instruction coordinator at WSU Vancouver. Carole is the A ssistant Library Director at UW Tacoma, and Serin is the Budget & Collection Resources Librarian at UW Tacoma.

Cost:
Student/retiree rate: $30.00
Regular rate: $40.00

Registration:
After you have registered, please make out your payment check to PCC and mail to

Roberta Richards
PCC Sylvania Library, Room 202
PO Box 19000
Portland, OR 97280-0990