Logic and InfoLit

Notes written on the fly during the session on the Logic and Information Literacy Project at Marquette:

"Using web directories to demonstrate hierarchical relationships among concepts."

Students have a difficult time "generalizing" -- abstracting from one context to another. Goal of the project is to enhance the teaching of logic -- not about information literacy -- helping students learn how to construct and evaluate arguments. Arguments are patterns of statements: premises that lead to conclusions.

So you need to know about concepts and their hierarchies. A concept is like a file folder: it classifies a set of things.

Examples of genus and species hierarchy:

Genus: Reference books
Species: Encyclopedias
Referent: Encyclopedia of Psychology

Genus: Animals
Genus or species: Vertebrates
Species: Dogs
Referent: Sophie the dog

Genus: Furniture
Genus or species: Furniture used for sitting
Species: Chairs
Referent: This chair

Why teach this? Helps students distinguish one concept from another and the referent from the concept. Strategy for making definitions and making distinctions among them.

But the genus/species approach has mixed results...

So, they developed something that looks like this:

Step One: Perform a keyword search in Google and Yahoo to find info about the Spanish-American War.

Step Two: Try ro find websites pertaining to the Spanish-American War using three Web directories: e.g., Zeal, Google Directory, KidInfo...

Where do you start in a browsable directory?
Using the Google directory:
Society --> History --> By time period --> Nineteenth century --> Wars and conflicts --> Spanish-American War --> individual websites (referents)

Identify the Genus --> Species relationships.

Directory results tend to be grouped more logically but you have to know whose logic.

Zeal directory:
Library --> Humanities --> History --> U.S. History --> Wars and conflicts --> Spanish-American War --> websites

KidInfo directory:
Homework Help --> American History --> U.S. Historical Wars --> Spanish-American War --> websites

KidInfo has less hierarchy, flatter approach, more lists -- easier for that audience?

Discussion question for students after doing these searches:
Give examples of genus, species and referent in each directory.
Which directory organizes info more effectively?
How does choice and arrangement of categories reflect the purposes of the creators of the hierarchy?
Which are better: keyword searches or directory searches?
Will there be a time when directories are unnecessary?

Parallels to the psychology of supermarkets: how are things arranged and why are they arranged that way -- classified to maximize purchases. The directory categories are created by Google for Google's own purposes.

Parallels with how disciplines fit into divisions: where does Philosophy fit in to a Humanities/Social Science/Science schema? This is hard for new students or those not familiar with traditional academic subdivisions and is a crucial concept when setting up things like MetaLib/E-Resource Gateway: what are the categories that will make the most sense to our users?