Information Literacy for the Digital Age

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Information Literacy for the Digital Age
Prepared by Marnie McMillan Regina Public Schools
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21st Century Learners
What new skills do todays learners need to be
information literate?

• ability to evaluate information across a wide
  range of media
• ability to locate, synthesize and use
  information effectively
• ability to understand the new grammar of the
  Internet

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Canadian Kids
Canadian Teachers Federation, 2003

• 5,756 students in Gr. 3-10 in every province
  territory
• 75 (b/g) - TV daily pastime
• 60 (b) - Gr. 3-6 play video or computer games
  daily
• 38 (b) - Gr. 10
• 33 (g) - Gr. 3-6 play interactive games daily
• 6 (g) - Gr. 10
• 49 (b/g) - Gr. 7-10 IM daily
• 24 (b/g) - Gr. 3-6 videos and DVDs daily
• 17 (b/g) - Gr. 7-10

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Media Use in the Home for Canadian Kids
Canadian Teachers Federation, 2003

• Media tv, videos, computer games Internet
  access

• 30 Gr. 3-6 - never have any parental input on
  what they watch, what they can play, or for how
  long
• 50 Gr. 6
• 60 Gr. 8

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Where 18 year olds get their information
10 Print 13 Audio 25 Peers 50 Multimedia
Text Complex visual images Audio Simulations Virtu
al Reality Interactivity Varied forms of
communication
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Kindergarten Teacher - Take your name home and
practise printing it.
Child - Teacher I cant. Our printer is broken!
Grade 1 In my purple plastic purse I am going to
put my ..
Debit card Cell phone
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4 Es of Literacy

• Expose information
• Employ information
• Express ideas compellingly
• Ethics information

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4 Es of Literacy
1. Expose information

• Reading in a global, digital library where
  anyone can be an author
• What skills are needed when most of recorded
  information is only a mouse-click away?
• How do we distinguish between goodand bad
  information?

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MAPping the Internet
- Meta-Web Information

• M
• A
• P

- Author
- Purpose
Empowering Students With Technology Alan
November
Resources for MAPping the Internet found on
LearningPlus sitemap.
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http//home.ican.net/alexng/can.html
First site returned in this Google search.
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(No Transcript)
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The election MAPping activity on the LearningPlus
resource.
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M - Meta-web Information
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M - Meta-web Information
Other indicators of public hosting sites
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M - Meta-web Information
Who is linked to this site? Who should be linked
to this site?
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A - Author
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P - Purpose - inform, sell, or persuade?
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Where can I find Information Literacy resources?
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Begin by assessing your own level of
literacy. Many of the activities are designed
for both your own learning and use with middle
years and higher students.
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4 Es of Literacy

• Expose information
• Employ information
• Express ideas compellingly
• Ethics information

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4 Es of Literacy
2. Employing Information

• Authentic learning goals
• No more bird reports Bernie Dodge
• As long as we keep doing what we are doing, we
  are going to keep getting more of the same.

• How can we use real world data to make meaning?

• How can students use higher order thinking
  skills to analyze, synthesize and transform
  information for real world applications?

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From David Warlicks Redefining Literacy for the
21st Century
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(No Transcript)
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4 Es of Literacy
3. Express Ideas Compellingly

• How can students communicate effectively using
  image, animation, sound, video?
• Why is this important?

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4 Es of Literacy
4. Ethics Information

• Respect property of others
• Protect the truth
• Understand be responsible for their global
  voice

The more powerful the tools, the more life
experiences and inner strength students must
have to handle the power wisely.
Lowell Monke 21st Century Literacy Summit, 2005
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Critical and Creative Thinking
No More Bird Reports!Bernie Dodge creator of
the WebQuest
What is a bird report or a bird unit?

• students copy information from information
  sources onto their papers
• basically, it is moving information (sometimes
  through copy/paste) from one spot to another

The problem?

• little thinking and learning takes place
• encourages plagiarism

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Critical and Creative Thinking

• What can we do?
• pose a question that elicits higher order
  thinking
• students focus on transforming information
  rather than searching for and copying information

Present learners with critical challenges that
require them to assess and justify
information. Roland Case, SSLA Conference
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Critical and Creative Thinking

• Questions requiring students to do something
  with their information
• What were the 5 most distinguishing
  characteristics about this famous person and how
  did they contribute to his/her success/failure?
• Compare and contrast.
• What are the different view points around this
  issue?
• What would have happened if..?
• How was our history affected by ?

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Our Changing World
With the advent of new electronic technologies,
our young people are threatened by a weakness
of thought..
We hear complaints of a new plagiarism, but
few comment upon the influence of superficial
thought.
Jamie McKenzie, 2005
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Our Changing World
In this "information age we must teach students
how to deal with ideas (not just data or
opinions) and how to ask the right
questions. David Warlick