Objectives:

• Try an online learning module.
• Begin planning your Course Project (Talk with your partners!).
• Investigate National, State, and Local Standards.
• Review alignment of learning activities to National Standards.
• Try an online learning module.

Overview: Creating Tools That Fit.

The time for using technology tools in isolation has past.  There simply isn't the time or money available to support separate curriculums.   Besides, we learn tools best by using them to build real things. If you propose that 21st Century Information Fluency be added to your school's curriculum you're bound to hear objections. There's no time! If it isn't on the big test, why teach it? I can't cover my curriculum as it is! There are many answers to these objections.  The most pragmatic is that 21st Century Information Fluency Skills are foundation skills for all disciplines.  Knowing how to acquire information, evaluate the quality of resources, and put the results to work will improve test scores while preparing students for a world too complex to test by anything other than real experience. 

How can critical thinking and information fluency be taught in a time of increasing accountability pressure and test-driven decision-making?  Clearly we need to know what students know. We must find ways to differentiate instruction for students from diverse backgrounds. With this in mind, IMSA is developing Online Learning Modules to teach 21stCentury Information Fluency. We hope you will use these new tools to craft lessons and provide just in time training for both your staff and students.

Your course project should also refer National, State, and Local Standards. Standards help to make clear how 21stCIF skills support what's going on in every classroom.  Let's use this time to create meaningful lessons that emphasize Information Literacy skills while addressing multiple curriculum standards.  Let's create learning experiences that fit the needs of our students.  We seek to accomplish this despite the daily pressure and mounting demands to do more with less.  If you can't work any harder, it's time to work smarter.  We hope the course project will help you do just that. 

Ultimately, we all hope that every student will learn to do more than answer a predefined list of questions.  Our goal is to help learners ask essential questions and pursue meaningful complex answers. We hope that the lessons you create will help students learn how to think.

Let's get started with this week's Activities!

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