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About this Kit | Using the Resources in this Kit | Creating Units

How to integrate Resource Kit activities into exisiting lessons

About this Kit

The abiliity to post information online and interact with others who are doing the same opens new dimensions in searching, evaluation and ethical use. The challenges of searching with keywords and browsing is compounded by the addition of tags. The 1 in 5 rule still applies, however, since anyone can label anything they want with a tag, it makes it even more difficult to locate information this way.

Authorship becomes even a greater issue since self-publication is the norm. Closer scrutiny than ever is required to assess the credibility of unheard-of bloggers and others who post. Then there is the matter of ethical use. With Creative Commons licensing and a movement toward "take it--it's free," knowing what is all right to use and what is questionable is even more blurred.

Web 2.0 is a rich and evolving domain that requires care when interacting with others and using information for research. Some of its best uses include creating connections outside the library and classroom to others who teach information fluency.

This Kit contains resources to make your Web 2.0 seardch experience more beneficial. Topics include:

The changing landscape of Web 2.0

Making connections to strengthen teaching and learning

Using Wikipedia in instruction

Searching with tags (see the Browsing Kit)

Evaluating blogs

Using the Resources in this Kit

Resources suited for stand-alone applications

Most of the contents of this Kit are intended for educators, not students. The topics are primarily about instruction and collaboration.

For students, we recommend using any of the following:

Timed Search Challenges

• Action Zone: Blog Search Challenge (Self-guided) -- Tests ability to find information in Technorati

Tutorials

• Using Wikipedia in the Classroom (Teacher-facilitated) -- Includes ideas for using Wikipedia as an instructional resource.

• QuickPick: Web 2.0 and Bias (Teacher-facilitated) -- Tips for discovering who is creating all this Web 2.0 information and whether there is any real substance to back up their ideas and opinions.

Assessment

• Evaluating Blogs (Teacher-facilitated) -- This assessment and performance rubric are based on Joyce Valenza's questions about blogs and bloggers.

• Finding Relevant Results (Teacher-facilitated) -- This assessment is aimed at students' abilities to recognize relevant information in snippets obtained from Google Blog Search, Technorati and Blogpulse.

Resources suited for sequences

At this time, no sequences are suggested for the existing resources.

Creating Units

For information on creating larger units in which materials from this Kit are embedded, see Creating Units.