I am a Professor of Radiology at The University of Iowa, a physician who is a pediatric radiologist, and a researcher in the field of educational informatics.
Since 1989 I have pioneered the development in medicine of digital textbooks, digital libraries, institutional repositories and communities of practice. My work spans the pre-Web, browseable Web, searchable Web, and social Web. I am internationally recognized as an expert in the design, creation, curation, operation and evaluation of digital libraries and communities of practice. My current research is focused on empowering physicians through learning tools that enhance learning at the point-of-care and documenting and preserving this learning to create a personalized learning environment / knowledge management / e-memory system for every physician. This research is deeply interwoven within the fabric of the new discipline of Web Science.
The goals of this course are: 1. Learn a 10 step approach to digital library design, creation, curation, operation and evaluation. 2. Through the lens of this 10 step approach, review case studies of over 20 digital libraries of various sizes, encompassing a variety of disciplines, addressing diverse missions, utilizing a variety of technologies and learn how they succeeded and failed. 3. Use this 10 step approach to create your own small digital library to help apprentice learners in your area of professional expertise or personal passion.
We also wish to provide an introduction to digital libraries and to explore the questions 1) What is the history of digital libraries and learning? 2) What is the future of digital libraries and learning? 3) How can we create digital libraries that help apprentice learners? and 4) What role do professional + amateur librarians have to play in the future of digital libraries and learning?
In its current form, Apprenticechip is presented as a lecture curriculum for a university course that is an introduction to digital libraries that will challenge you to think about these questions. I currently teach such a course, in a seminar format. Apprenticechip can easily be adapted to other classroom formats, and even more importantly it can easily be used by individuals for self-study.
Apprenticechip was begun in 1999 and is a work in progress.
I read on a daily basis a number of articles broadly related to the field of digital libraries. Additionally I read on a regular basis a number of journals and books broadly related to digital libraries. The most interesting information I learn from all this reading gets distilled into Apprenticechip. The first version of Apprenticechip was completed in 2016. Since then it has been under continuous refinement and expansion.
I intend to hold myself to releasing updates on a yearly basis, near the start of the year.
If you would like to be put on a mailing list to be told when Apprenticechip is updated, please contact me through the Comment Form.
This is a fortuitous time to study digital libraries as digital libraries influence nearly every aspect of our lives today. By the end of the course you will be equipped with an intellectual toolkit for the lifelong multi-disciplinary study of digital libraries enabling you to undertake meaningful discussion and debate as digital libraries play an ever more crucial role in our society and our lives.
If people find it useful and learn from it, I consider Apprenticechip a success and my way of making the world a slightly more informed and better place.
I am what Charles Leadbeater, in his book "We Think: Why Mass Creativity is the Next Big Thing" would call a Pro-Am: a dedicated, educated and well equipped amateur who engages in an activity for the love of it, but performs to very high standards. Note that I bring an amateur's - rather than a professional's - view to this work, which means I do it for love, rather than for money.
Additionally, in regards to theories of learning, I am by nature a constructionist, and Apprenticechip is the learning artifact I have constructed in the course of my daily readings on digital libraries. It is an example of situated learning, of a currriculum unfolding in practice.
Apprenticechip is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
I reserve the right to the "Apprenticechip™" trademark and I reserve the right to publish it in book form someday.
If you adapt Apprenticechip for other educational purposes under the Creative Commons license, please provide me with a copy so I may make it available here for others to use.
Use the Comment Form to contact me.
If you use Apprenticechip to teach a course, I would love to learn of your experiences through the Comment Form.
If you use Apprenticechip for self study, I would love to learn of your experiences through the Comment Form.
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Apprenticechip is owned by Michael P. D'Alessandro, M.D. and made available made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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"Apprenticechip," "Apprenticechip.org," and the Apprenticechip.org logo are Trademarks of Michael P. D'Alessandro, M.D.
Apprenticechip and Apprenticechip.org are funded in whole by Michael P. D'Alessandro, M.D. Advertising is not accepted.
January 1, 2024
Apprenticechip provides you with a course on case studies in and techniques for creating digital libraries for apprentice learners.