|
Home > Getting Started > Featured Article
Teaching digital information fluency: Make it usableby Carl Heine and Dennis O'Connor A couple years ago we received some sage advice about our resources: make them easy to use. At that time a busy array of choices crowded our home page: Wizard Tools, MicroModules, Lesson Plans, Workshop Materials, Annotated Links, News--the list filled three columns. It overwhelmed many who came to our site. Although attaining information fluency involves a tangled nexus of knowledge and skills and requires numerous resources, we felt we were limiting their use by the way we presented them. Consequently, we redesigned our web site in 2005, adopting the format you see today. We believed that fewer, more descriptive keywords on the page and a directory would make it easier to navigate. All the content was still there, now arranged hierarchically, to be used as needed. Maybe this helps to explain why our web traffic increased significantly. The problem that remained may be summed up this way: "how should I use these resources?" Our major thrust during 2006-2007 is to provide examples of their effective application by bundling resources in cohesive chunks known as Full Circle Resource Kits. Each Kit has a theme around which we target new and existing resources. Our audience has been growing steadily ever since we made the Kits public. In six months, spending no funds on advertising, over 1,250 educators, librarians, college students and other interested individuals have enrolled. While this number represents a fraction of our potential, it demonstrates widespread interest from 47 US states and territories and 43 foreign countries. Nonetheless, we remain concerned about how user-friendly the Kits are. Now that six Kits have been published, and before we go much farther, this edition is devoted to how we envision their use, addressing the question: "How can these resources be used effectively?" If you've ever asked this question, we hope you'll find the answers in this Kit
Where do I start?• Find out what your students can and cannot do -- choose an appropriate Live Search Challenge. These are rated by novice (requires some search experience), intermediate (requires solid keyword skills) or expert (involves multiple search strategies) • If students have trouble finding relevant information, start by turning questions into queries with any Keyword Challenge. • If students can find information satisfactorily, but they aren't evaluating it, start with contents of the Evaluation Kit (Kit 1.4). How do I find resources?• In addition to Resource Kits being grouped thematically, we've created three Indices to help you find just the resources you need:
What if I only have five minutes?• Use an appropriate QuickPick activity with students. These are intended to be completed in a few minutes. • Each tip concentrates on a specialized skill. Treated in isolation, these bite-sized units probably won't have a long-term impact. For better results, sequence QuickPick activities following the monthly Kit sequence for a logical order to skill training. • Each QuickPick consists of two parts:
• If time for digital information fluency is chronically and severely limited, consider getting involved in a curriculum committee, lobbying for more time for information skills. What if I only need the basics?• For a list of resources we have created that satisfy basic information fluency requirements, refer to the Basic course components in Create a Unit. What if I want to do something more extensive?• If you need a more comprehensive approach to teaching information fluency, consider creating a course or a unit. The advantage to a unit is continuity--building on previous knowledge and skills. • For sequence of activities appropriate for a unit or a course, either Basic or Intermediate, refer to Create a Unit. • Digital Investigator, a larger package for teaching information fluency as part of a ninth grade Language Arts course, is another option to consider. What if I teach a different subject matter?• Curricular examples in Resource Kits occur in Language Arts, Science or Social Studies, since these are the subjects where information fluency research skills are most often called upon in school. • If you teach Language Arts and we've provided a curricular adaptation for a skill in Social Studies, use the model lesson as a guide to structure a lesson in your subject area. All information fluency skills are flexible and should not be difficult to re-apply in another subject.
What's the best way to assess my students' skills?• Start with a live Search Challenge. Your students are likely to overestimate their abilities. When they can't find what they are looking for, it makes them aware of their need. • All Search Challenges can be solved in under 10 minutes. Taking longer than that will increase frustration levels. • Know what skill(s) the Search Challenge requires. Link to Search Challenge Index • Don't use live Search Challenges to 'grade' students. Link to Search Challenge Guidelines What if I want to plan professional development?• Information Fluency is a hands-on topic. Have your training in a computer lab. Team people up. It is an effective strategy. • Establish user passwords in advance. • Use the Public Index to gain an overview of our resources.
• Curriculum Directors will want to see the big picture.
• Librarian Media Specialists will be interested in Information Fluency skills. They will also want to know about our stand alone learning games that teach search and evaluation skills.
• Classroom teachers will resonate to essential issues like the basic search process or ethical use of digital information.
• We've also created suggested MicroModule Sequences that comprise the bare bones of a number of different workshops. (A sample lesson is also available that you can adapt for your target group.) • Our resources can be used for staff meetings, after school training, or all day events. • If you'd like the 21st Century Information Fluency Team to bring a workshop to your site, contact us at: 21cif.imsa.edu. What if I'm a public librarian?• To provide access to our Resource Kits, create a number of user passwords for your walk in clients. • Our materials will help you create tutorial kiosks around your library.
• If patrons need help on the basics of searching the Internet direct them to these MicroModules. • If you think a game based approach to searching and evaluating online materials will help your users direct them to our Action Zone Index. What if I only want to use the games?• All games are designed around core competencies as self-guided tutorials, so it probably effective to improve one's information fluency just with a steady diet of Search Challenges, Keyword Challenges, Snippet Sleuth, Snowsport, and so on. We haven't tested that hypothesis, but the content of the games is comparable to very sharply focused MicroModules. (We have results to show that working through MicroModules does improve one's performance.) • Each game series has a particular aim, which should be used to strengthen search and evaluation skills:
What do you have for teaching search skills?• The majority of the resources we have developed are intended to improve searching skills. The Resource Kit editions listed below provide tips and practice in critical aspects of searching:
• The order of the Kits follows the logical sequence of the search process and should be utilized in the order shown. • In addition to the monthly Kits, MicroModules provide rich content in each aspect of the search process and may be assigned as individual readings (audio is available to help slower readers) or incorporated as the basis of a classroom presentation. These MicroModules are specific to the search process:
• Located in our section of interactive tools, the Search Wizard is an enhanced search utility, based on Google's Advanced Search. In addition to the features of Advanced Search, the Wizard provides three levels of assistance:
What do you have for teaching evaluation?• Three Resource Kits take aim at improving students' abilities to recognize and evaluate the credibility of digital information. The Kit listed first intersects evaluation by helping searchers to recognize whether they have found relevant information or need to continue searching. • A series of 10 MicroModules is dedicated to specific criteria that are critical in determining the credibility of information and its source. These may be assigned as individual readings (audio is available to help slower readers) or incorporated as the basis of a classroom presentation and discussion. These MicroModules are specific to the evaluation process:
• Found in our section of interactive tools, the Evaluation Wizard provides ten criteria and related questions that guide students in thinking about the credibility of information or its source. Each criterion is associated with one of the MicroModules above. Students may use the Evaluation Wizard to type or paste their findings for each criterion, and print out a report that summarizes their findings. The report may be pasted into a Word document to be saved or handed in as part of an assignment. What if I want to contribute an article?• We encourage you to share your stories, ideas, research or concerns. Each month we feature a Personal Side of Searching article that serves as the voice of our community. To submit an idea or an article, write to the 21cif team. • Participation in our discussion forums is open to all subscribers. Any time you have a question or a comment about information fluency, we encourage you to post or reply to others. What if I want to adapt or customize materials?• Occasionally we hear from someone who wants to customize a Search Challenge or one of the Flash games. We don't share our source code for the games but are quite willing to turn your request into something other subscribers may use. If you have ideas for custom adaptations, write to us at 21cif team. • Resource Kit materials are copyrighted by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, so if you reprint them or save them in another form, be sure to cite the source! What if I have a different question?• Post your questions to our Ref Desk Forum. We will be listening!
|
