Information Investigator: 3.1 Self-Paced Online Training

Boost Information Fluency Scores 50% in 3 hours.

This is our newest approach to information fluency assessment and training.

This package starts with a 10-level interactive tutorial that diagnoses and strengthens eight key search and evaluation competencies.

Live search challenges are coupled with "first aid kits" that address the knowledge and skills needed to succeed.

A Certification Exam is provided after the tutorials to assess information fluencies in finding and evaluating information.

The entire experience can be completed in about 3 hours.

If you are interested in previewing the entire package for your students, please contact Carl at carl@21cif.com.  

The course is completely free.  You are under no obligation to purchase anything.

This course and assessment package was developed with feedback from teachers and library media specialists last spring. Over 900 students in middle school and high school used the materials this summer and improved their information fluency scores by over 50%.

We will give you full access to the course so you can evaluate the effectiveness of the training.  If you wish to make the course available to your institution, group discounts based on volume are available.

A Creative Commons search engine for Flickr Images

• Behold | Search High Quality Flickr Images
  Tags: CreativeCommons, photos, search, 21cif

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Info Fluency group favorite links are here.

Flickr photo by Michael Porter. The libraryman

http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman/

21st Century Libraries: an index of article you'll want to read

• 
  
  21st Century Libraries
  
  Here's a collection of on point articles for anyone interested in libraries and the future.
  
  Tags: libraries, 21cif
  
  • - By Dennis OConnor
  • 
    
    Virtual library collections, or databases, give students access to trusted content and research tools with links to authoritative information that has been vetted by subject-matter experts. Today's 21st-century school libraries make use of virtual collections while also giving students ample opportunities for enhancing their digital literacy, research, and collaboration skills which are essential in a globally connected world.
    
    With the generous support of Questia School, the editors of eSchool News have compiled this collection of stories from our archives, along with other relevant information from around the web, to help you transform your school libraries for the 21st century.
    
    
    
  
  

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Info Fluency group favorite links are here.

Google Image Search - Creative Commons Filtered Search

• Official Google Blog: Find Creative Commons images with Image Search

  Tags: Google, Images, fairuse

  • Find Creative Commons images with Image Search
    

    
    7/09/2009 09:47:00 AM
    

    
    Let's say you're a blogger. You've just returned from a trip to New York City, and you're writing a post on New York landmarks. You want to illustrate your travel guide with an image — as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. It's easy to find images of New York online. But you want to make sure that you don't use images without the permission of their owners, and you can't afford licensing fees for professional photographers.
  • To enable this feature, go to our advanced image search page. Under the "Usage rights" section, you can select the type of license you'd like to search for, such as those marked for reuse or even for commercial reuse with modification. Your results will be restricted to images marked with CC or other licenses. Once you confirm the license of the image and make sure that your use will comply with the terms of the license (such as proper attribution to the image's owner), you can reuse the image. Some of you may already see these options, and we'll be rolling this feature out to everyone throughout the day.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

Podcast: “Primary Source Learning Online” with Stephanie Norby of the Smithsonian

Smithsonian exploration of the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln

Hosts Susan Manning and Dan Balzer (well known for their great Learning Times Green Room podcast series), talk with Stephanie Norby, executive director of the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies.

http://www.internationalonlineconference.org/podcasts

Stephanie’s group hosted a very exciting online conference, bringing together curators and educators across the Smithsonian to explore the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. Over three thousand participants logged in for the conference, from over 700 cities and 26 countries.

I hope you will will enjoy Stephanie's unique insights on the process - as well as get a glimpse of life within the world's largest museum complex and research organization, composed of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo.

http://www.internationalonlineconference.org/podcasts

Stephanie will also be sharing her expertise as a keynote speaker at the 7th Annual International Online Conference for Teaching and Learning, and will offer a tour of the many free teaching resources available online from the Smithsonian museums.

IOC 2009 takes place completely online March 30-31, 2009. For more information visit:

http://www.internationalonlineconference.org/

Hope to see you there!

IOC 2009 is sponsored by LearningTimes, the Illinois Online Network (ION), and Lake Land College with the support of The Cutting Ed and the LT Green Room. Additional support is provided by Illinois Community Colleges Online (ILCCO), Jossey-Bass, WebStudy and the Master of Science in Adult Education program at Indiana University.

Copyright Crash Course for Students

• CRASH COURSE IN COPYRIGHT

  This looks like a good way for students to learn about copyright in the digital age.

  Tags: copyright, fair, use

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

Fresh Start! 21cif.imsa.edu becomes 21CIF.Com

Equals = http://21cif.com

What's New?

The 21st Century Information Fluency Project has a new home!

Careful searchers know that the URL contains important evaluation information. So what does our switch from 21cif.imsa.edu to 21cif.com mean?

21cif is no longer published by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy where it was conceived and developed. With the generous help of IMSA, the authors of the project have acquired all of the project's intellectual property rights. We are now independent publishers operating as a private company. We remain dedicated to keeping our Information Fluency research alive and thriving!

The old rule of thumb that says ".com is bad" has been irrelevant for a long time. In our case, the change from .edu to .com means our materials remain fresh and under continual revision.

All of the 21cif resources remain free. The funds needed to support our research will come from tuition or licenses for customized training, facilitated courses, and similar products.

Automatic Re-Direction of links. Our materials can still be found via 21cif.imsa.edu URLs. However, traffic is automatically re-directed to our new URL at 21cif.com. This means older links will lead directly to our new URL at 21cif.com. This will make it easier for you to update your links to our project. We are following Google's recommended procedure for maintaining our search index reputation. Our goal is to avoid broken links and create a smooth transition for all of our visitors.

What's Ahead?

• New Energy
• New Ideas
• New Games
• New Presentations
• New Workshops

Learn more about new 21cif initiatives by subscribing to our newsletter.

We look forward to working with you for many years!

Carl Heine & Dennis O'Connor
Information Fluency Partners

Information Fluency & Writing

• 10 Digital Writing Opportunities You Probably Know and 10 You Probably Don’t | ICT in my Classroom

  I've seen the connection between information fluency and writing since my early work researching in the field. Here's a strong blog post chock full of interesting tool recommendations.

  Tags: web2.0, writing, tools, digital_storytelling

  • On Thursday I finally had some time to sit with our Key Stage 2 (junior) literacy coordinator and talk about how technology can support writing outcomes for the Primary Framework for Literacy.
  • 10 - Myths and Legends Story Creator 2 - a free online version of Kar2ouche that focuses on a specific story type. Classes can have unique logins and they can record audio and build scenes from a set of graphics, their own images can be imported. A great alternative to Kar2ouche and perfect for the Myths and Legends unit.
  • Wordle - I thought this little tool would be great to analyse written stories in the same way Steve Kirkpatrick has done with his class. A Wordle could be a great way to introduce a text - exploring what is emphasised to help understand the type of writing it is taken from. Is it instruction, explanation - how can you tell? Another idea is that the children create a poem as a Wordle, it would certainly be challenging the form of conventional poetry.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Information Fluency group favorite links are here.

Fair Use: Protection for Transformative Thinking?

We all know that copyright & fair use are 'gray area' issues in this web 2.0 world of ours. It's difficult to teach these concepts without also considering the exceptions and 'what if' scenarios that we bump into daily on the open web. It's also fair to say that we now operate in a climate of fear that we'll some how transgress in the use of copyrighted materials and find ourselves dragged into some awful publicly accountable show down.

We now have a thought provoking article from Joyce Valenza that shifts the argument to the concept of 'transformativeness' while promoting the idea that fair use should ''preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation."

I urge you all to read:

Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world

"As I watched the information and communication landscapes shift over the past few years, I secretly viewed fair use as a doctrine that guided what we couldn't do. Fear and guilt seemed regularly in the way of innovative teaching and creative expression. I was reluctant to use, or bless the use, of copyrighted materials--movies, television, advertising, popular music, etc.--in teaching and student projects, especially those that were broadcast or published online. To avoid danger, I guided teachers and learners to the use of copyright-friendly materials. As wonderful as these growing collections are, sometimes what you really need to use is commercial or more conservatively licensed materials.

Recently my Temple University colleague, Renee Hobbs shared, what was for me, a relatively foreign (but perhaps obvious) idea: copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation."

(Go to original article.)

(School Library Journal; the Never Ending Search. April 1, 2008)