An earlier book by two of the three authors on teaching information skills has become a valuable handbook for librarians (Webb and Powis, 2004), so I was keen review this new book, co-written with Helen Blanchett who has worked for a number of years as Netskills trainer. It is presented as a series of practical tips, but also “grounded in learning theory”. The book promises to be useful for new professionals but also those experienced in teaching information literacy. As I fell into the latter category, I was keen to read this book and see if there was anything new I could learn.
The book is divided into three main sections: planning, delivery and activities. Each entry is relatively short and concise but provides an overview of a topic, what its best for, further details and then issues, concerns to watch out for. The structure for each entry makes them easy to read and within each section the entries are arranged alphabetically. Some of the entries have further readings and some are a few pages in length. Most are short digestible chunks, ideal for reading in your coffee break, on the train or just when you feel like a short burst of enthusiasm.
The book states clearly that it is not intended to be read in a linear fashion, but as someone reading this for review purposes I didn't feel that randomly dipping into the book would be particularly helpful so I did try to work through it from start to finish, if only to get an overview of the layout and the breadth of topics covered. The authors have a point, the book doesn't really work if you read it from start to finish, so I quickly abandoned this approach and decided to look up a variety of topics in the index as a starting point. I dipped into reading some of the entries in the planning section about learning styles, Bloom's taxonomy and from there was easily sidetracked into looking at some more practical issues such as dealing with latecomers, teaching in computer classrooms and dealing with technical problems.
I have to confess that I was drawn to the middle section of the book in particular which dealt with “delivery” and is packed with practical advice which I felt someone new to teaching would find helpful. I also found some of the sections on dealing with problems that arise in teaching sessions really helpful, for example coping with dominant participants or non responsive participants. We all have to deal with these types of people, so the advice was sensible and helpful (and somewhat reassuring!) I particularly liked some of the entries on managing teaching sessions, both starting them off and also finishing them, using PowerPoint, managing questions and the importance of good time keeping.
The list of activities in the final section of the book was bang up to date and broad ranging, including topics such as “amplifying” your teaching using social media, using audio feedback, blogs, treasure hunts, web quests and a whole host of other innovative learning activities such as mind maps, digital storytelling and social bookmarking. For someone working in the IL field for almost ten years the tips in this book cover almost all of the good practice I have heard described at conferences such as LILAC. It's a remarkable achievement to distil so much into just over 250 pages. If you want to learn a little about a lot of things, then this is the book for you. My only observation is that some of the entries are quite basic and in some case I would have liked to see an example of how an idea worked in practice. And at times it does also read a little bit like a list of everything related to information literacy teaching crammed into one book, which is quite an achievement!
I would suggest that this book could be read by a wide range of teachers, and not just those teaching information literacy, as although there are some specifics related to IL teaching, such as them often being run in computer classrooms, the book has tons of good advice for new teachers everywhere. The only omission I could find were details of content of information literacy sessions, so for new professionals I would read this book either in conjunction with the earlier book by Webb and Powis or another book that covers the basics of information literacy teaching. The only section that really deals with this is one of the first sections on Information Literacy Frameworks and Standards (p.7-10) and this is quite brief.
Overall I would recommend this book for any busy professional teaching information literacy (or related fields) to inject some new ideas and enthusiasm into their teaching and pick up bags of practical and helpful advice with as aspects of planning and delivering teaching. If you have an upcoming teaching session and are not sure how to approach it, or are looking for a new way to run an activity with a group of students, this is the book for you, so don't delay in getting your hands on a copy.
