Grockit and learning in gaming

Here at the library we have been involved with two separate groups who are designing games for us. These games are meant to teach information literacy. We are not quite sure how we are ultimately going to use them, but that may be easier once we see the finished projects. From the meetings I have been to, the games are looking pretty solid and I can't wait to play them.

In addition, a number of students recently got a grant from the UN to design a game that combats violence against women. They traveled to South Africa and from their blog posts clearly had an amazing and moving experience. Learning in gaming is clearly a trend around here, and an awesome one from my perspective. I love fooling people into learning.

This trend is not limited to Champlain College though. The startup company Grockit took home a Jury Selection award at this year's TechCrunch50. From what I have read it is “Massively Multi Player Online Learning Game” in which you are a student in a classroom and you get questions that you can discuss and debate and ultimately decide on. You award "Grockit points" to other students that increase or decrease their ranking. It sounds like an online study session but funner. The article talks about using it to study for things like the SATs, but I could see this product used in a lot of interesting ways, especially in the classroom. They have been very secretive about it for the past year and only now are they opening it up to the light of day. I am excited to learn more about it and see where this game goes.

Who knows, maybe some of our graduates will go on to work on this game or something even better.

New librarian joining the team

Hi! I have been here three whole weeks now, so I figure that I should formally introduce myself. My name is Andy Burkhardt, and I am the new Emerging Technologies Librarian at Champlain College. I am very excited to be working here. Burlington seems like a very lively, effervescent city. I am originally from Minnesota so I am no stranger to cold and snow. I also recently got my Masters in Library and Information Science from UW-Madison in Wisconsin, so I am no stranger to local cheeses either.

As an Emerging Technologies Librarian I plan on finding creative ways to use new and existing technologies to make using the library easier and hopefully more fun. An example of something I am going to be working on is making the instant messaging reference service we provide more visible and available longer hours. Another technology I plan on employing is screen-casting software. This is software that is used to capture movements, mouse-clicks and pretty much anything else that goes happens on a computer screen. I plan on making easy to understand tutorials that explain things like how to do research and how to find books and articles. These are just a couple examples of the ideas that I have swimming around in my brain. There are all sorts of interweb technologies that I would like to try out here at Champlain. But there is probably a lot of stuff that I haven’t even thought of that may work great at the library. If you have any great ideas for technologies that you’d like to see used in the library or know more about, I would love to hear about them. You can get a hold of me here, or my screen name on AIM is andyatmic.

I won’t be hidden away in my office behind the warm glow of the computer screen all the time. I’ll be out at the reference desk answering questions. I also look forward to a heavy instruction schedule, assisting in the new information literacy initiative for which we are busily preparing. I look forward to meeting a lot of new people, making new friends and becoming a part of the community here at Champlain College.

P.S. These “Read” posters are kinda cool. You can make your own here at the ALA website.