Digital Blog Post #D - Chapter 5

Photo credit goes to Ross Mayfield found on Flickr

Teaching Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship

This chapter is covering the different ways that individuals can find useful information using the internet's search engines. Also, the chapter shows ways to avoid sources that are not valid which is a problem that is inevitable due to the freedom that the internet allows people, a reliable resource can be hard to come by at times. Although, If properly taught by teachers, finding a good reliable source can be easy because students can be given a guideline or list of certain things to avoid. Distractions are everywhere online and can be a real problem for some so schools have implemented Acceptable Use Policies or AUP's. These policies are rules that if broken students can suffer with warnings, detentions, and even suspensions. As good idea as this may seem, an opinion about placing such harsh penalties on students was brought up by two educators Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey. "Rules do not teach students what is appropriate and why, and instead simply define the uses that are restricted in the school setting."  Students should be taught how to use tools but also how to use them responsibly with digital ethics.

Topics of Interest:

1. Strategies for Preventing Plagiarism and Cheating
2. Wikipedia : An Online Encyclopedia
3. Information Literacy as Learning Goal

1).  The most tedious part of writing a paper is providing citation and references but it is the most important part because its what proves everything that was just discussed. Yet, many students still copy and paste information but it may not be their fault entirely it may be the way the project or assignment is being presented. James McKenzie and educator made a set of guidelines that he recommends should be used before giving any assignment that requires accessing information via the internet and even paper books. 

• Distinguish levels or types of research
• Discourage "trivial pursuit"
• Emphasize essential questions
• Require and enable students to construct answers
• Focus on information storage systems    
• Stress citation ethics
• Assess student progress throughout the entire research process

2). Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that contains more than 17 million articles of just about anything and allows the general public access to edit the articles. The site when brought up in a classroom setting may set off red flags with teachers because wiki does allow anyone to edit their pages rather than having experts review the information. To some teachers wiki is a pain but for others it can also be used as a tool to teach students how to properly search for information. A very interesting way to approach students using wiki could be to have students compare wikipedia with other encyclopedias by doing this "fact - check" on wiki entries students can find just good or bad information from wikipedia can be. A link has been provided to get an idea of what can be done to incorporate wiki into lesson plans.

Story Bird 

3). With the development of technology there are terms that describe students and their ability to explore the internet. The book states that reading and writing are very important and therefore literacy is important but it is also important for the students in the iGeneration. To be a digital and information literate person in the 21st century means that an individual should be able to do a number of things using the internet. Collecting information, having the ability to understand and organize it as well these are all in the definition of Digital Literacy. Equally as important is "Media Literacy" which is having the ability to use several different forms of technology to communicate and share information. 

"By 2010, the internet had"Surpassed newspapers and radio in popularity as a news platform on a typical day and now ranks just behind TV" (Purcell,Rainie, Mitchell, Rosenstiel, and Olmstead, 2010, p. 2) 

References

Maloy, R. (2011). Teaching Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship. In Transforming learning with new technologies (2nd ed., pp. 98 - 126). Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.