Power Learning

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Power Learning
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Power Learning

• Students as researchers, inventors and thinkers
• Analysis
• Inference
• Interpretation
• Synthesis

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A New Information Landscape
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A New Information Landscape

• Faster access - distributed
• More information (California in Google?)
• But organization? quality? Truth?
• Dramatic need for information skills

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Noise

• We suffer from Noise.
• Noise brings us chaos . . . static . . . bedlam .
  . . cacophony.
• Noise offers distraction, distortion and
  distress.
• We would be much
• better off with music!

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The Age of Glib

• Mentalsoftness
• Cut and Paste Thinking
• The New Plagiarism

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From Information Consumers to Information
Producers

• Learning to make up your own mind about the
  important questions and issues of life.

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Teach Students

• to approach reading strategically.
• Questioning
• Picturing
• Awakening Prior Knowledge
• Inferring
• Synthesizing
• Mosaic of Thought Teaching Comprehension in a
  Readers Workshop (Keene Zimmerman, 1997)

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Engaged Learners

• Responsible for their own learning
• Energized by learning
• Strategic
• Collaborative

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Students as Infotectives

• Skilled thinkers, researchers and inventors
• Solving information puzzles and riddles
• Employing analysis, synthesis and evaluation
• Making sense from non-sense

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The Information Literate School

• Students take voyages of discovery and
  exploration.
• They are not satisfied with cut and paste
  thinking.
• Prospecting
• Interpreting
• Creating Good New Ideas

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The Need for Information Literacy

• From data to information to insight
• Visual Literacy
• Numerical Literacy
• Text Literacy
• Others?

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REAL TIME RESEARCH

• Authentic issues
• The search for sound solutions
• The search for wise decisions

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Examples of Research

• Essential Question
• Decisions
• Which of these three cities would you select for
  a new home?
• Which of these three bills does the best job of
  reducing crime?
• Problems
• How do we restore the salmon harvest?
• What can we do to reduce the dangers of acid rain?

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The Research Cycle
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Inferential Reasoning is Paramount

• Finding meaning
• Creating meaning
• Extending meaning
• Reading between the lines

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The Results

• Students who can
• make up their own minds
• work well in teams
• solve problems with independence and ingenuity
• speak, present and write persuasively

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