Welcome to the FICTION Section of the ePorfolio!

The fiction section of the Library is typically the most familiar or visited aspect. We all love our stories and have been sharing our stories amongst ourselves for many thousands of years. Stories are typically what unites us, allows us to share experiences, to gain empathy and to understand each other. Throughout this Masters I created a few "stories" or artifacts that were fiction which helped develop my information literacy skills and understanding. By sharing some of these stories with you, I hope you can also learn with me, and help educate those around you.

Digital Copyrights Story

This first story I want to share with you is one I made regarding the state of copyright in Canada. This video highlights the current "grey" area we live in, as educators, citizens and consumers in this country. There have been recent developments since I produced this story, but essentially, the major politicians and advocates have not changed. For more information on this topic, please check out the essential links below:

With the current state of copyright in Canada standing in limbo, there are important things to consider in our information saturated world. How do we ethically use information? How do we create new products, based on old ideas, without a current legal framework to work within? How do educators teach these important ethical behaviors when using copyrighted materials as part of their studies? I have been exposing myself as much as possible to the new developments, advocating for a "fair-use" clause for educators and students working within an educational environment. Classrooms should never be used for profit generation, they should be grounds for enculturing our next generations to be information literate, aware, informed, and making ethically sound decisions that respect creators, copyrights and consumer rights.

My Digital Story

My next story I want to share with you is about my own growth over the years in using technology. This presentation highlights the many different computers I've owned and used over the years, showing the rapid progression and evolution that technology and information literacy have made. When we look back, it is really unbelievable how far we have come!

I think its important to look backwards every once in a while to help gain some perspective on all this technology, information literacy, and advancements. Especially when we begin to feel overwhelmed by all of it, and we need to remember a time when communicating across this planet was done with long-distance operators instead of with Skype, when we used to put a new piece of paper into the typewriter when we made a mistake, instead of hitting the backspace key. I hope this story helps you reflect a little bit on where you've come from, and how far you've come. Just keep going!

So, to summarize this "Fiction" section, we need to look ahead at the future of Libraries and how their model, design and focus will shift. I anticipate that Digital Libraries will become stocked with E-Books, ready to be checked out to your preferred reading device (E-Book reader, Kindle, iPad, Smartphone) and at any time. We won't need to go down to the library to get our summer reading, we will just download it the night before we go. We won't have to worry about over-dues, or late fees, or waiting lists for the next copy. I hope that this will lead to a renewed interest in citizen publishing, where authors can share their works with their audiences easier, with more accessibility, design and availability than our current publishing house model where only the biggest names get published wide-spread.