Selfie/Shelfie and Library Instruction

I saw several interesting articles on the use of social media in library / information literacy instruction. Despite a really fascinating one on using Pinterest to teach research skills to interior design students, I chose to analyze “Two Parts Reflection, One Part Selfie: A Visual Alternative to the Minute Paper” by Kellie Meehlhause.

Image Source: Screen Capture of This Article

The article reports on how the author, in collaboration with subject faculty, modified the use of a minute paper to include a selfie. Minute papers have been used in education for years, and information literacy instruction is no exception. For those unfamiliar with minute papers, they’re usually structured around a few instructor-provided writing prompts that get students to reflect but can also identify gaps in learning for the instructor. The name is somewhat misleading, as the minute paper process definitely takes more than one minute to complete.

As the article notes, while the minute paper can be a useful tool, it doesn’t necessarily assess or demonstrate retention of learning on the part of students. It’s also focused on a text-based approach to learning. The author set out to explore ways to modify the minute paper experience to more actively assess learning while also expanding beyond the traditional text-based approach. Through a literature review, she discovered compelling examples of the use of selfies in information literacy instruction. She found evidence that selfies, or photo self-portraits often shared via social media, were successfully used in icebreaker activities, library orientations, and library scavenger hunts. In library land, the selfie has evolved to the shelfie, which involves taking a self-portrait with library materials in the background (sometimes on a shelf, sometimes not, despite the name).

The author chose to continue using a minute paper structure but modified it to incorporate selfies. After one lesson, students were tasked with using the library to find and check out a book related to their major, take a selfie with the book somewhere outside of the library, and then email the selfie to the librarian (author). Along with the selfie, students were asked to respond to writing prompts about why they chose the book and how it relates to their topic, what challenges they encountered, a takeaway or lesson learned, and any remaining questions they had about conducting library research.

At the time of the article’s publication, the author was just beginning to think about how to formally assess the new minute paper – selfie approach. Even so, I can see a lot of value to this combination. The incorporation of a selfie allows for a medium beyond just text. It also adds an active learning aspect to the minute paper since students are required to not only respond to the writing prompts, but also provide evidence via a selfie. As Meehlhause (2016) noted, “It is one thing to write that one knows ‘how to search for books,’ but a whole other ball game for one to actually conduct a search successfully…” (pp. 18-19) and the selfie allows students to apply what they learned and demonstrate that they’ve done so. After reading about the author’s experiences, I’m definitely interested in considering opportunities for a minute paper – selfie activity in my own instruction. Or possibly a variation as suggested by the author’s students, such as having students post the selfies to Instagram, with a specified hashtag, or allowing them to submit videos of the library search process.

Reference

Meehlhause, K. (2016). Two parts reflection, one part selfie: A visual alternative to the minute paper. Communications in Information Literacy, 10(1), 14-22. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2016.10.1.19