Document Type

Working with New Technologies and Environments

Publication Date

4-2008

Abstract

Two southern Indiana instruction librarians will share their collaborative efforts to incorporate some of the latest technologies in the creation of online tutorials for their users. The tools and technologies to be discussed will range from free to expensive, low tech to high tech, and easy-to-use to relatively complex. The first part of the presentation will include a brief discussion of Camtasia and Flash, but focus primarily on Macromedia's Breeze Presenter software, which works in conjunction with Microsoft PowerPoint. The content and design of Pennsylvania State University's tutorial, The Information Cycle, will be used to measure the success of employing the more user-friendly Breeze software in place of Macromedia's more sophisticated and expensive suite, including Flash, Fireworks and Dreamweaver. The second part of the presentation will trace the succeeding generations of online library instruction tutorials (TILT to Searchpath to inflite) and focus on how each tutorial has responded to evolving web standards, research on learning styles, and HTML editing shortcuts. The presenters will discuss issues of design, content, length, and interactivity, while highlighting accessibility, customization, assessment and usability issues. Librarians face a challenge in determining which technologies to learn and which technologies to disregard, because technology is a moving target that is constantly changing. After attending this session, you will be inspired by the tools and tutorials available to help non-techies (or tech-lites) reach students, wherever they are.

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