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Heeru Bhojwani
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Research Skills

Sep 06 2023

How can Librarians tackle AI?

By AI, Research Skills No Comments

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What are librarians thinking about AI?

  • Students are cheating and getting away.
  • How are educators going to measure learning?
  • How do we use AI and adapt to it?
  • When should we use AI?
  • How can we use AI ethically?
  • Will Librarians and Teachers cease to exist?
  • What are parents stand on using AI?
  • How is AI going to change the education landscape?

So many questions and yet many Librarians are using and exploring AI tools in a number of ways. The most important answer I am looking for and awaiting is: When will the assessments change for High School Students? How are colleges going to enroll new students? How are teachers and librarians going to change and adopt new practices? Who is going to lead us, and How?

Librarians are worried about Academic integrity and that students will cheat and their grades will not justify their learning. There is a huge setback in assessments, and what would we need to assess, and what will it look like? Many unanswered questions are still buzzing around.

So, what can librarians do for now?

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  • Encourage the use of AI Tools
  • Ask and have conversations with your students about how AI is helping them grow and learn.

How do we engage in meaningful conversations to ensure students are learning and not cheating?

So, when a student has used  AI tools to assist in their work, it’s important to assess not only the final product but also their understanding of the content and the impact of AI on their learning process. This conversation can help ensure human academic integrity.  

Engaging Conversations

Here are some questions you might ask students to allow you to gauge their understanding and the effectiveness of the AI tools:

  1. Understanding of the Topic –

   – Can you explain the main concepts and ideas in your paper in your own words?

   – How did your research with AI tools contribute to your understanding of the topic?

  1. AI Tool Selection

   – Why did you choose the specific AI tools you used for this assignment?

   – Did you consider any limitations or potential biases in the AI tools you used?

  1. Research Process 

   – How did you use AI tools in your research process? Can you describe the steps you followed?

   – Did you encounter any challenges or difficulties when using AI tools?

  1. Critical Thinking

   – How did you critically evaluate the information generated by AI tools? Did you fact-check or verify the results?

   – Did using AI tools influence your ability to think critically about the topic?

  1. Collaboration with AI

   – Did you collaborate with AI as a tool, or did it replace certain tasks you would have done manually?

   – How did you balance the contributions of AI with your own insights and analysis?

  1. Learning and Growth

   – In what ways has using AI tools impacted your learning experience for this assignment?

   – Have you developed any new skills or improved existing ones through the use of AI?

  1. Ethical Considerations

   – Did you consider the ethical implications of using AI tools, such as plagiarism or bias in AI-generated content?

   – How did you address or mitigate any ethical concerns?

  1. AI as a Learning Aid

   – Did using AI tools enhance your learning in this particular assignment?

   – How do you see the role of AI in education in general?

  1. Feedback and Revision

   – Did you receive feedback on your paper, and if so, how did you incorporate it into your work?

   – Did you use AI for revision or editing purposes, and if yes, how did it help?

  1. Future Use of AI

    – Do you see yourself using AI tools in future academic work or professional projects?

    – What lessons have you learned from this experience that you might apply in the future?

These questions can help you assess the student’s comprehension of the topic. We, as educators, will learn how students have integrated AI tools into their learning. 

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(Used ChatGPT as a thought partner)

So, it is not about NOT using AI tools but HOW AI can benefit and build students’ critical and analytical skills to problem-solve.

Librarians Teaching Points

Librarians can continue to teach evaluating resources like the CRAAP test. How Wikipedia assimilates and curates its information,  the authority of the sources, and the usage of Wikipedia. Citing AI tools are some teaching points for Librarians.

AI tools have brought more attention to the biases of information and hallucinations. Knowing the author has become very important, and the need to verify sources is essential for any critical, analytical, or descriptive research paper.

AI research tools like Elicit, Consensus, and Research Rabbit is far more effective than ChatGPT 3.5, although there is information that it is being updated, and Bard and Llama may be better. (Opinions)

There is much discussion around Artificial Intelligence being artificial in nature yet seeming to mirror sentiency. Check out this article from Singularity Hub, which provokes us to think of the possibilities of AI being sentient and how we can differentiate the sentience of AI from a human.

There may be a time when AI chips will be embedded in humans.! Sci-Fi or REAL?

Redefining Librarianship through Collaborative Teacher Partnerships (Workshop in Thailand) Check this out https://www.ksipd.com/librarianship 

Dec 29 2018

Plagiarism: Take it seriously!

By Copyright, General, Information Literacy, Research Skills No Comments

Recently, a few poets accused Ailey O’Toole of selecting parts of their poetry and using it in her poetry to express herself. Incidentally, she was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize for her poem Gun Metal (which was plagiarized). The Guardian has all the details about the case. This incident made several publishers pull down O’Toole’s Works from their sites.  Although she has been very apologetic about the accidental plagiarism, I noticed that her credibility has been affected and her future works will be always be looked at with doubt and skepticism.

Reflecting on the past I have noticed, how quickly I have merely ‘copied and pasted’. I have rationalized saying, “this is exactly what I want to say” so why to reword it, simply ‘copy and paste’ and this will save my time and effort. Well, if that is the intent of saving time and effort, then what I have also learned is to take an extra minute or two to put it in “Quotes” and cite the author’s name. What about you? Are you guilty of plagiarizing too?

Examples of plagiarism are many, here are a few International examples, NDTV has compiled a few Indian cases and a story about 3 Academic Thefts by professors in Rajasthan.

iPleaders Blog Post on Plagiarism law gives us a glimpse of India’s views on plagiarism. This makes me wonder and reflect on our Indian Education System. In the local schools, I  have observed that students photocopy school notes and college notes, memorize them and then finally regurgitate the content in their exams, to get scores or marks that will make him/her eligible to one of the best colleges in India. Are we preparing our students for a ‘copy and paste’ world or do we want them to think, reflect and create?

I wonder how will this individual function in the real world? How will he/she respond ethically in the information world, where he/she has not learned to paraphrase and use his/her thinking faculties to express ideas or create something unique?

Here are simple six steps by Write Check to avoid plagiarism. BibMe recommends other ways. Some important ones I have learned are to:

  1. Use multiple sources of information to get a perspective and in-depth knowledge on the topic.
  2. Acknowledge one’s ideas, beliefs and thoughts that are gathered after much reading.
  3. Paraphrasing correctly and not merely replacing parts of a sentence with synonyms but also the syntax of the sentences.
  4. When quoting other peoples work, it’s important to give credit.
  5. Using a proper citing format according to the discipline.

Using a plagiarism checker can be very helpful when writing, it helps prevent accidental plagiarism.  Invest in one; it’s worth it!

Sep 07 2018

Evaluating Information – Caarp or Cars

By General, Information Literacy, Librarian's Role, Research Skills No Comments

There is a plethora of information online – so how do we navigate the flood of information and recognize information that is authentic, real and something we can trust. All IB librarians are pretty familiar with the acronym – CAARP or CRAAP.

To recognize information as worthwhile and with credibility – it is important to teach our students how to question their sources. My favorite criteria is the CAARP  from the California State University And, you can apply it to almost anything, a book, a website, a blog post or even a media product. To test the authenticity of the information you can also use the CARS checklist from McGraw Hill. As librarians, we must teach these to our students starting from Grade 4 all the way up to the high school students. No one is too young or too old to learn these acronyms to guide us when evaluating any source of information.

When you come across a video on Whatsapp or through social media channel, using any one of these acronyms of evaluating will help identify the authenticity and value of the information and will help you from getting carried away with fake news and other morphed videos and images. If you don’t see the creator of the video – IGNORE IT… It’s not worth passing it on.

I often tell my high school students, that if they come across some information on a website and it is only found on that particular website, and that particular information sounds unique, unbelievable or even rare, then, more often than not I would ignore it. To get an all-round perspective on a particular topic it is important that you find other credible sources that would compare, comment or even discuss it from different angles. Always when in doubt, look for other sources to compare, get perspective and viewpoints on the topic, never trust only one website, or one source for a particular topic.

Compare, contrast, think, analyze and use your own understanding to arrive at your opinion and views. This will help students and researchers to develop a grasp on a topic and get a 360 degree perspective on the topic.

Jun 22 2018

Teaching Research Skills

By General, Media Literacy & Information Literacy, Professional Development, Research Skills No Comments

Research Image by Gifer under Fair Use Guidelines

Recently, a fellow librarian from a local Indian school asked me – How can librarians teach and support students research skills? How can librarians engage and collaborate with teachers?

I believe the local curriculum in Indian schools have always encouraged project work, and I believe that librarians can seize this opportunity to teach students how to research explicitly. They can collaborate with the subject teachers to teach research skills to the students in a systematic manner, encouraging higher order thinking. The open-ended questions will help students to think and write rather than copy and pasting information from Wikimedia or other websites. The question often asked of me is – what research model can I as a librarian use and recommend? There are several research models, and they can be found on the internet. One of them is the Super 3 for lower elementary students and the Big 6 for older students.

I would recommend one to look at various models and select the one the one that best suits your students. You can always tweak/adapt a research model to meet your needs. Each of the research steps needs to be explicitly taught and practiced through mini-lessons.

Here are the research steps that you may want to consider:

  1. Framing open-ended questions
  2. Locating information and selecting appropriate print and digital resources
  3. Evaluate the sources using CRAAP or CARS
  4. Using information by reading, taking notes and paraphrasing
  5. Synthesizing the information
  6. Citing the sources used in the research
  7. Presenting and sharing
  8. Finally, reflecting on knowledge and presentation

It is during inquiry or project time when librarians can help students develop the 21st-century skills of collaboration and teamwork, critical thinking, research skills and communication while learning through the transdisciplinary approach.  Should you be looking for handholding sessions to help you demystify this process, please email me, and we can work together.