TIM MILLER

My Philosophy

I am currently the Digital Media & Learning Librarian at Humboldt State University where I support students and faculty in creating digital media projects using emerging technologies such as 360-degree cameras, 3D scanning and interactive video. My focus is on teaching digital and information literacy using interest-driven methods in which students have the freedom and confidence to design their learning experience, explore new ideas, learn new skills and engage with peers to innovate, create and learn.

I also focus on working with faculty and students to engage with innovative new technologies to improve their digital literacy skills. My pedagogical focus is in providing connected learning (peer-supported, interest-driven academic work) opportunities for exploring and sharing digital media, including remixing and open licensing. This focus often brings me out of the classroom, and sometimes out of the library, to work with students on their passions and interests that frequently lie outside of the syllabus or beyond the library walls.

Physical spaces of learning are changing as the campus incorporates more online programs and continues to develop programs such as the Centers for Academic Excellence. I aim to meet students and faculty in these new spaces to create bridges to the library and engage students in critical information literacy. I take an active role in pursuing what is referred to as "Transformative Social Engagement" in the Salzburg Curriculum.

Areas of Interest

  • Information Literacy
  • Design
    • user interaction design
    • universal design
    • web design
  • Learner Engagement
    • the role of motivation in learning
    • how spaces (particularly white spaces) affect learners' experiences
    • the role of peer to peer support in learning
    • the role of the student-teacher relationship in learning

Education

MLIS, Library & Information Science
San Jose State University, 2013
MS, Kinesiology (Teaching & Coaching)
Humboldt State University, 2005
BS, Biology (Environmental Biology)
Humboldt State University, 2000

Employment History

Digital Media & Learning Librarian (2016 to present)

  • Oversee the HSU Library's Digital Media Lab (DML) and supervise DML Interns.
  • Investigate evolving trends in digital media and technology to inform the equipment collection at the DML.
  • Support the creation of digital projects by students, staff and faculty through the development of online resources, drop-in workshops, classroom instruction, and peer-to-peer learning.
  • Offer and promote a wide range of digital media workshops and programming through SkillShops, the HSU unConference, L4HSU and similar events that draw different campus groups together to learn and share.
  • Engage with the campus community to identify ways for the library to align with diversity and inclusion efforts in order to meet the needs of our diverse student body and to create a library that is welcoming, removes barriers to learning, open dialogues and provides campus partners, students, staff and faculty with a sense of ownership of the library. Developing and promoting programming that help people learn about and explore topics integral to creating opportunities for learning, such as the white privilege and white fragility discussions during LHSU and as ongoing SkillShops.

College of Professional Studies Librarian (2015-2016)

  • I collaborated with faculty to create online research assignments that address their concerns about students' information literacy, such as Evaluating Sources on the Web.
  • At the request of faculty, I developed extra-credit workshops to address student information literacy needs.
  • I worked as a part of the HSU Sustainable Learning program to support faculty in creating and adopting Open Educational Resources (OER)
  • I also worked on weeding monographs and periodicals to improve the library collection, ensuring that faculty are informed & involved in the process.

Instruction

Fall 2016

  • As Digital Media & Learning Librarian during Fall 2016, I offered 49 instruction sessions to 634 students, staff and faculty, as well as 33 one-on-one consultations.
  • I also created and/or updated six new Research Guides: Digital Media Guide, Creating for the Web, Discussing White Privilege, Evaluating Information, Scholarly Communications & Digital Scholarship, and Open Educational Resources.
  • I have continued teaching web literacy by facilitating the Hour of Code, by creating the HSU Web Design Group and by teach SkillShops such as 'Site Building with WordPress'.

2015-2016

  • During 2015-2016, I offered 76 instruction sessions to 1641 students, staff and faculty.
  • For the 2015-2016 year, I created 7 new program LibGuides for Business Administration, Child Development, Economics, Education, Leadership Studies, Psychology, & Social Work.
  • I created a series of videos on search strategies in databases.
  • I developed a series of 3 information literacy online tutorials at the request of Sarita Ray Choudhury for the business program: Research Guide Overview, Searching Smart With Google, & Evaluating Sources on the Web.

Reference

Research Help Desk
As part of my regular duties, I work at the research help desk 5 hours per week.
One-on-one Research Help Appointments
I meet regularly with students individually to assist with their digital media projects.
I coordinate three Digital Medial Interns, who also support students, staff and faculty with their digital media projects.
African American Center for Academic Excellence (AACAE)
I also hold weekly digital media & research office hours at the AACAE (Fridays 12:00p-1:00p).
Lesson Development
I work to improve my lessons and online tutorials based on my experiences working with students at the RHD, DML, AACAE and in one-on-one appointments.

Transformative Social Engagement

Office Hours at AACAE
I have held office hours outside the library at the African American Center for Academic Excellence since its opening in Spring 2015. Engaging with students, staff and faculty outside of the library has provided me with a better understanding of the campus and what the campus community needs from the library.
Equity Alliance of the North Coast
I am part of a campus-wide cohort participating in the Equity Alliance of the North Coast, working to improve racial and social equity through education, dialogue and coaching opportunities for organizations and individuals.
L4HSU and SkillShops
As an organizer and facilitator for these workshop series, I have focused not only on library and academic topics, but also on topics that speak to community concerns (Discussing White Privilege) and raising cultural awareness.

Artifacts

Conferences

Literacy and Corrections: Best Practices & Current Challenges (Panelist - November 16, 2008)
California Library Association Annual Conference, 2008 (Video)
Web Literacy: Using and Sharing Dynamic Tools to Learn and Teach the Web (Workshop Facilitator - February 13th, 2015)
Online Northwest, 2015 (Program)

-Forthcoming-

Creating a Lifelong Learning Culture: Motivating Learners and Engaging Educators (Presentation with Sarah Fay Philips - February 23, 2017)
Lilly Conference on Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning-Anaheim, 2017 (Schedule - PDF)
Designing Digital Literacy Programming for Transformative Social Engagement (Lightning Talk Presenter - March 31st, 2017)
Online Northwest, 2017 (Program)
Keeping the wind in the sails of a workshop program- motivating learners and facilitators (Poster with Sarah Fay Philips - March 22-25, 2016)
ACRL 2017 (Program)
Motivating Student Learning and Educator Engagement with ARCS (Workshop Facilitator with Sarah Fay Philips & Victoria Bruner - April 20, 2017)
2017 WASC Senior College and University Commission Academic Resource Conference (Proposal Details)

Writings

Citations & Hip-Hop: using Genius to Illustrate Scholarship as Conversation
ACRL Instruction Section Newsletter (Spring 2016)
Web literacy in the classroom
Medium (February 9, 2015)

-Forthcoming-

Inspiring Motivation, ACRL (Chapter)
Co-authored with Sarah Fay Philips - To be published late 2017

Handouts

View my SelectedWorks page to find examples of some of my course handouts.

Online Assignments

Videos

Websites & Research Guides

I work as a LibGuides and LibCal Administrator and have worked to update both of those systems to new versions (Summer 2015 and January 2107, respectively). I also have created several research guides, including the DML resource guide, Creating for the Web, Evaluating Information, Open Educational Resources, Scholarly Communications & Digital Scholarship, and Discussing Whiteness.

To assist patrons with the use of DML equipment, I have also created basic how-to guides that accompany each piece of equipment at checkout. You can view a collection of these guides via Issuu: http://issuu.com/hsudigitalmedialab/docs/hsu-dml-manual-1016

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Lesson Plans & Materials

Presentations

Web Development

Student Creations

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