Information Literacy
Internet Serenity Prayer
Technologist,grant me...
the Serenity to accept that not everything can be found on the Internet...
the Courage to go to the Library...
and the Wisdom to evaluate the information I do find.
--Doug Johnson of http://www.doug-johnson.com/
Information literacy goals for your students should consist of only one concept. Students should be able to walk in to any situation and recognize and evaluate the resources available to them for problem solving and decision making.
By the time students have left their K-12 education they should have a vast amount and a variety of experiences that help them assess resources for getting information. The statistics say that information and access to it is changing so quickly that we are preparing our students for jobs that don't even exist yet. We need to be giving them skills for critical thinking with all these tools...not just skills using the tools. In fact, simply expecting them to use the information on the internet without teaching them to think is a disservice and a grave waste of their time.
The information and research process haven’t changed much in the past twenty years. You can compare it to the scientific procedure or methods for solving a problem. The tools we use to work through this process and to track our progress have changed significantly. Where we once used notecards to organize our information and thoughts we now may use a resource like Evernote. We can now socially network for further thoughts and information from people with life experience on a particular subject. Students can vet their ideas using experts within a particular field because of the constant connection to the real world and all it has to offer.
Yes, these connections can put students at risk. This is why information literacy and digital citizenship are more important today than they ever have been before. The educational gains more than outweigh online hazards. If we are blocking students from accessing the world, we are ill equipping them for life after their secondary educations. With proper instruction and common sense, students can create their own learning and stay safe at the same time.
If you do nothing else in the next year, learn all you can about how the internet works. Hone your searching skills and learn the anatomy of a search. If you think you understand how advertising functions on the internet, think again. Advertisers pay to have their sites come up first when specific terms are used. Good information never comes from someone trying to sell something. The world wide web is built on advertising and pornography – awareness at any age is important!
Here is a great place to begin: Comprehensive list of internet search strategies from UC Berkeley
A small bit of guidance about using the internet with students:
Young students (K-2 and some 3s)should only be on the internet using sites that teachers, parents or older students have posted for them. They should NEVER be expected to do their own searching. Mostly, they are “concrete thinkers” who have a difficult time deciding if the information that they find is true or not. More advanced thinkers at these ages can begin to search with terms if you set up a Google Custom Search.
They think that if they read it, it’s true.
Third and fourth gradersmight be ready to do some guided searching on their own if they are literate. They will need a lot of help finding information and even more help deciding if it is useful and valid for their purposes. A better tool for this age level is a directory or online resources such as an encyclopedia or periodical database that your district has access to. At this age, students need to think about what makes sense as they search for their information.
Introduce them to some activities that give them strategies for searching and evaluating the data they find.
Literate fifth through eighth gradersshould be honing in on their searching skills if they are literate. Did I mention the researcher should be literate? It’s asinine to ask someone to research on the internet if they don’t have advanced reading skills.
These students can move beyond directories (though they are very useful!) and begin searching with their own terms during guided searches. They can read about the sites in a summary given when they use a search engine and decide whether or not it will be useful for their purposes. Once in the site, they can decide if the author is biased, if the page is current and if the information in the site can be confirmed.
They should NEVER type URLs in the address bar to find what they’re looking for. Porn-nappers are just waiting for someone to mistype something. Search engines and websites should always be available to students through the school or classroom web page. A fourth, fifth or even a sixth grader generally can’t type well. They just don’t know what’s going to come up when they type in the incorrect URL. Filters can’t think and they can’t block everything. Typing URLs is not a wise technique for anyone to get to websites they think they need.
Students at this age can usually read and should be taught to think about the reliability and validity of the sites they see.
High school studentsshould know about term bidding. They should be able to identify which terms are going to be “hot topics” for advertisers. Students at the high school level need to be backing information that they find on the internet with print resources and additional websites from establishments that have as little bias as possible. These sites should not be checked against sites that cite each other. They should also not all links back to one source.
These students can search faster and more wisely than younger students so they should be able to back any given fact with information from at least three websites that list varying sources and at least one print resource.
High school students should always be required to properly cite all resources used for any type of research or publishing. They should learn about copyright and plagiarism - they need to be taught to understand why one should be respected and the other is wrong.
While the internet can be a great resource for teaching and learning, there are responsibilities that come with internet use:
- Students have a responsibility to themselves to search properly so as not to put themselves or others at risk – even when there is no filter present. As adults, we are responsible for teaching them these skills…even when there is no filter present. If it sounds like I’m repeating myself about working sans filter…I am, I am, I am.
- Proper citations show that they understand that information and intellectual property are owned by the person who created it. This property should be respected.
- Students owe it to themselves and their audience to THINK about the information they find. They need to have strategies for confirming or disproving their information.
