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ZSR Library was well-represented at this year’s TechXploration! This annual university event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and showcases the use of technologies in teaching, learning, research, engagement, and creative endeavors at Wake Forest University. What follows is a collection of brief reports from ZSR Librarians about their contributions at this year’s TechXploration.

RootsMOOC: A Massive Open Online Course for Genealogy Research,
Kyle Denlinger, eLearning Librarian
I talked with quite a few people about the massive online genealogy course I’m running in collaboration with the State Library of North Carolina. People were most interested in why ZSR is doing what it’s doing with open online courses, since it isn’t readily apparent how these courses directly impact teaching and learning on campus or how ZSR benefits from offering them for free. Light bulbs went off with most of these people when I explained that ZSR is offering courses like RootsMOOC so we can experiment with new methods and tools for teaching and learning and bring what we learn back to a traditional teaching context. These courses are also excellent ways to promote the value and expertise of librarians in a way that aligns directly with the mission of libraries to inspire lifelong learning.

The Google Glassroom: Implementing Google Glass into the Library Classroom,
Amanda Foster, Instruction Librarian
This poster covered my experience teaching with a Google Glass in the library’s credit-bearing library course, LIB 100. Students gained hands on experience with Glass through daily activities like creating photo diaries, documenting scavenger hunts, producing video tutorials, and creating skits to share their personal beliefs about acceptable and unacceptable uses of Glass. Students also explored several information-related themes by having Google Glass be the focus of a semester-long research project.

LIB 100 Goes Online: Developing a Summer Online Course,
Amanda Foster, Instruction Librarian and
Kyle Denlinger, eLearning Librarian
This poster covered our ongoing experience of creating an online version of LIB 100, which will be taught in summer 2015. As a part of the development process, we re-visited and revised our learning outcomes in light of the new opportunities presented by creating an online course. The poster also discussed new tools we plan to use to assess student learning, including blogs and discussion forums. We also discussed what technologies would be needed to help facilitate online learning, including Sakai, Voicethread, and Google Drive.

Using Omeka to Foster Digital Literacy in the First Year Seminar,
Chelcie Rowell, Digital Initiatives Librarian
Monique O’Connell and I showcased two collaborative digital projects to which students contributed as part of their work for the first year seminars Nature, Environments, & Place in American Thought and The Floating City: Public Life in Venice through the Ages. The design and implementation of both of these digital projects was a collaboration between ZSR and History Department faculty. One outcome of these course digital projects was a rise in the quality of student writing when it was publicly engaged. Another outcome was students’ greater awareness of the affordances of different technologies — that a particular tool, software, or platform can either facilitate or constrain a particular scholarly or rhetorical purpose.

Flipping LIB210: An Instructional Designer, Sakai, and VoiceThread and
Chromebooks For WAB: Boots on the Ground, Software in the Cloud,
Hu Womack, Instruction & Outreach Librarian
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present the result of two STEP Grants at TechXploration 2015. I teamed up with Thomas Dowling, our Director of Technologies at ZSR on first STEP grant that purchased eleven Lenovo Chromebooks for the students participating in the Wake Alternative Spring Break 2015 to Washington DC exploring food security. The students used the Chromebooks throughout the week-long trip to post reflections via Tumblr and to stay connected via Google Tools. For the second STEP grant, I teamed up with Instructional Designed and ITG, Sarah McCorkle to flip my LIB210 class. The process of “flipping” allowed me to lecture less and create authentic exercises in class where students could demonstrate mastery of the material! Both grants were successful and allowed me the resources required for projects I could not have accomplished on my own. I enjoyed the opportunity to tell the story of these two grants at TechXploration 2015!