Reflection on Supporting Information Literacy & Online Inquiry in the Classroom

I can't believe another class is over! It always amazes me how fast eight weeks goes. In this class, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, I learned a lot about teaching my students how to properly use the internet and I also realized how much I still have to learn. Technology is changing so fast, every time I think I am becoming literate in the new technologies, something new comes out. It is a never-ending learning process.

I think one of the most striking revelations I have had is about teaching students to properly evaluate sources they find on the internet. So many students seem to think that if it is on the internet, it must be true. They do not realize that anyone can put anything on the internet. It is my job, as their teacher, to instruct them on how to properly evaluate sources for reliability. I especially like the REAL Strategy (November, 2008), where students are taught to read the URL, examine the content, ask about the author and owner of the sight, and look at the links. These are four easy steps students can take to help authenticate a site they find.

This course has helped me to realize that even though our students may appear to be technology savvy, they often do not know the finer points of using the internet for research and other educational based projects. Knowing how to evaluate sources is a very important skill (Laureate, 2009). Realizing this has helped influence the way I will introduce my students to online research. I will begin instructing them on researching and evaluating websites, as well as online safety at the beginning of the year and we will continue this throughout the year. Students need to be exposed to these new literacies repeatedly and on a regular basis in order for them to become fluent in them. Their literacy skills must be able to continue growing as technology grows (Jukes, 2007).

One professional goal I would like to pursue is to become more technology and internet literate myself. In that way, I can better teach these skills to my students. I would like to take workshops on these topics, but because I am a substitute teacher, they are not really available to me. I think this is a goal I will have to pursue on my own, at least for now. I think my future classes at Walden will continue to help me in reaching this goal. I also plan to discuss these things with my colleagues. I know several that could give me some good tips and I am also friendly with the computer lab supervisor. She has already answered a lot of questions for me and I know she is a good source of information for all things pertaining to the internet. I also hope that when I get a full-time teaching position, my district will offer workshops on these skills.

This class me to realize how much I still have to learn about using technology in the classroom. I think many of us assume students know what they are doing when it comes to working online. We need to realize that although they are usually quite literate when it comes to MySpace and downloading music to their iPods, they are often quite illiterate when asked to do something research based. It is our responsibility to help them gain these critical, new literacy skills.



References:

Jukes, I. (2007). 21st century fluency skills: Attributes of a 21st century learner. Retrieved from http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/twca/pdf

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Information literacy: Evaluating information. Baltimore: Author.

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks:CA