International Symposium on E-Learning and Innovative Applications in Libraries
National Chengchi University Taipei, Republic of China
April 27-28, 2012
Human versus Machine Learning in Library Applications
Tze-chung Li 李 志 鍾
Professor & Dean Emeritus Dominican University
The computer and the Internet are two great inventions in the 20th century.
In the 21st century, the e-learning is booming.
3-G information
• generation of books
• generation of microform
• generation of digital
Imposing array of technical achievements
• online databases in the 1970s
• CD-ROMs in the 1980s
• multimedia and the Internet in the 1990s.
In 1993, Microsoft offered its Encarta, the first digital
encyclopedia.
In March 2012, the Encyclopaedia Britannica founded in 1768 in
Scotland announced its end of 244 years of print version going
completely digital.
The Google Books can be searched and viewed anywhere and anytime in the world.
Digital information is readily and timely available.
Taking new words for example, 3G Internet, mentioned earlier, before its definition appears in a print
dictionary, can be found through the Internet.
So do the words ipad, ipod, VOIP, infomercial, phishing, and the
recent one, Linsanity, before they appear in print can be found
online.
E-learning refers to “all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching.”
On the bases of media it used, e-learning may be grouped
into
(1)computer-based e-learning (2)web-based e-learning
(3)device-based e-learning
(4)blended e-learning
Some e-learning systems in the market
eLearning Systems International Grovo
Present e-Learning Systems
Netiquette
One Internet etiquette – netiquette - is “not to be offensive online.”
A story of email user Oliver North.
He diligently deleted all
incriminating notes he sent or received. What he didn't realize was that, somewhere else in the White House, computer room staff were equally diligently backing up the mainframe where his messages were stored. When he went on
trial, all those handy backup tapes were readily available as evidence against him.
E-learning of language is common.
Rosetta Stone Pimsleur
The former using image and sound to teach language is a computer-based e-learning system and the later is device-based audio e-learning
“With modern technology, if all there is is lectures, we don’t need the faculty to do it. Get ‘em to do it once, put it on the Web, and fire the faculty.”
Udacity, founded by Sebastian Thrun, offers free online university classes for everyone.
.
Udacity, founded by Sebastian
Thrun, offers free online university classes for everyone.
Thrun, a Stanford professor, sent out email announcing his free online course. Some 160,000
students enrolled over the world.
Khan Academy
An online institution with a library of over 3,000 videos covering
everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 315 practice exercises, for people to learn online.
One of the shortages of e-learning is its lack of interactivity. E-
learning 2.0 stresses on social learning, that is learning takes place through conversations and interaction.
Another shortage is there is no way to tell who is completing the work. Doors are open for cheating
In learning Japanese
Difference between “arimase” and “imase.”
In learning English
Difference between “my god” and “my mom”
我 的 媽 呀
More effective e-learning is blended e-learning, e-learning combined with human
learning, such as classroom instruction, field trips,
laboratory work and so on.
In American law schools, the
dialog process has been used
in teaching. The instructor
dialogs with students and
leads them to conclusion. E-
Learning through dialog is
hard, though not impossible.
Not every subject can be taught and learned
electronically.
Surgery in medical science
Ping pong and basket ball In physical education
Piano in music
Chinese cuisine’s color, smell, and taste” (色香味) in cooking
Edition bibliography or imprint studies (版本目錄學) in library science
Librarians have more responsibility to provide and facilitate e-learning
First, traditional library’s arrangement and environment will be changed.
A library will be fully equipped with computer monitors with which readers can search, browse and retrieve information.
Readers will check out not books but tablets like kindle with which to retrieve and download books and journal articles for study.
Disks and CD-ROMs will be organized and arranged differently.
Unlike books or journals, disks and database can not be browsed.
Librarians must give them more detailed description. A library may not have the resources but has
access to them either free or by subscription. The library online catalog must show those sources.
University of Tennessee Library catalog lists databases and
electronic resources by subject, type, and name.
Librarians have more
responsibility to provide and facilitate e-learning
Second, a librarian must help to change the habit of readers of traditional learning and to teach readers to effectively use e-
learning.
The adequate use of search engine or device to locate information
from a vast sea of information is of extreme necessity.
In any search engine, the free text search is basic.
Any word or words and words in any order can be searched as
subject. It is more convenient than descriptor or subject search.
But the free text search results in large recall, less relevancy.
A skillful searcher must use
qualified search to make search result relevant and precise.
Google’s basic qualified search
consists of the following operators:
+ - *
“”
~
Dialog, now Pro Quest
In searching Dialog, available online, a user may use logical operator and/or positional operator to do search.
You can also qualify or
combine your search by title, author, corporate source,
document type, journal name, language, publication year, and others, depending upon the data format.
Librarians have more
responsibility to provide and facilitate e-learning
Third, e-learning to be effective can not entirely be depended on
machine. Librarians have a
responsibility to help readers in selecting and using e-learning.
A computer may replace librarian’s job to certain extent.
In 2011, IBM supercomputer
Watson defeated two of Jeopardy‘s greatest players.
Ray Kurzweil, one of the founders of the University of Singularity, predicts that in 2045, artificial intelligence will replace human intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is a product of science.
Science is value free.
Human intelligence consists of both value and value free . Import of beef with additives, ractopamine, in Taiwan disputes
Another example is the use of two digital encyclopedias.
Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica.
A computer may points out very well many differences between the two.
Wikipedia has more articles than Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
If a reader asks which one is better, which one is more scholarly, and which one fits reader’s needs, the computer will not be able to
answer, because it involves value judgment. A librarian can help make a right choice.
Librarians have more
responsibility to provide and facilitate e-learning
Fourth, a library is a school for the young and a college for the adults.
School and academic libraries are hearts of institutions.
Librarians are teachers.
Librarians have a responsibility to assist readers in selecting right e- learning on the subject and
supplement e-learning if needed.
A library’s most important function, reference service, is now online. QuestionPoint,
collaborative project of the Library of Congress and OCLC, provides virtual reference service. [ QuestionPoint is not interactive.
Reference sources are
indispensable tools for library services.
Not all reference sources provide accurate information.
The Statesman’s Yearbook has mistakes.
A librarian must point out its flaws, if the reader is using the reference.
A librarian is not just a keeper of books, but a subject specialist.
The subject competence is a sine quo none of effective library
services.
The essence of library science education does not lie in mere applications of modern
technologies.
Emphasis must be placed on the knowledge of the subject
discipline. It is necessary that
library science study not just deals with media, but messages, not
sources, but their content.
Excellence in e-learning comes not using the technology for delivery, but rather from instructional
contents and experience. For
effective learning, e-learning alone is not enough. Human learning is an indispensable supplement.
Librarians have more
responsibility to provide and facilitate e-learning
Finally, within a decade or so, virtual school and virtual library will be the norm. In the United States, elite schools limit their enrollments, such as Harvard and Yale. New online courses will break down their academic campus wall.
Ivory tower may topple.
More universities offer online courses.
Stanford, University of California at Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and University of Michigan will offer free online courses through a new interactive platform Coursera.
Coursera will offer three dozen college courses in the coming year free of charge to everyone in the world.
Daphane Koller and Andrew Ng, founders of the project, announced that they received US$16 million in financing from two Silicon Valley venture-capital firms.
The Library’s future too is digital.
Harvard University’s Berkman Center is working on a proposed Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) .
On April 27, the center and San Francisco Public Library will jointly host a free DPLA West forum. It is intended to bring together
librarians, technologists,
government leaders, and others interested in building a Digital Public Library of America to
facilitate innovation, collaboration, and connections across the DPLA effort
If the DPLA is formed, people
don’t need go to the place where the library is located. They can
browse, read, download, and check out e-books any place, any day and any time.
Confucius said
“people are taught
regardless of their status, class, and character”
有教無類
In e-learning, any person, in spite of race, age, sex, social status, family background, poor or
wealthy, and nearby or far away can learn.
Education for everyone.
The Confucian supreme teaching mission urged some 2,500 years ago will be eventually
accomplished in the 21st century.
