IBM software boosts info on demand - CNET News
So many of the e-learning teachers in training that I work with complain about information glut. Clearly the only way to cope is to learn how to sift and filter the flow of information that we pay attention to. Diigo is one great tool, rss, Google news filters, subscribed tags; there are many ways to cope with the flow. Still IBM's statement that digital info will be doubling every 11 hours by next year seems like science fiction.
Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM Software, said the company is investing in information management technology in response to an "explosion" of content in the form of digital documents, forms and multimedia.
According to an IBM study, by 2010, the amount of digital information in the world will double every 11 hours.
College Lesson Study: A Lesson in Information Literacy
Each year librarians at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse teach a "one-shot" lesson in information literacy to 2000 students enrolled in an introductory communication studies course. Students attend the lesson in groups of about 25 in the library. Concerned about the quality of the experience, the librarians decided to make the lesson the subject of a lesson study. They wanted to better understand what students get out of the lesson and how to improve the experience so that students achieve proficiency in research skills and learn how to use libarary resources and services.
Interactive Website Evaluation Tutorials
10 online Flash games to teach 'investigative searching'. Learn how to dig deep into a website to determine credibility of the resource.
Use these interactive tutorials to strengthen your skills locating and evaluating information.
100+ Alternative Search Engines You Should Know | Tools
As advertised, this site has one of those endless list of links to many search engines you've probably never heard of. It's fun to cruise the list and try some of these specialized se's!
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| Carl Heine, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy with Dennis O'Connor Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 3:30pm–4:30pm WWCC 146 B Motivate students to evaluate websites with information forensics. Track down elusive authors, dates, check the accuracy of claims, and more using investigative search techniques. Recommended by ISTE's SIGMS
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Gateway to hundreds of free online resources focused on 21st Century Information Fluency.
Internet Search Challenges - Evaluation Games
6 online learning games that teach evaluation skills. Multiple levels. NETS alignment!
Information Fluency Evaluation Kit. Online resources for evaluating author, publisher, bias, links, date, evidence, and accuracy.
Part Five of the series Five Things Today's Digital Generation Cannot do (and what you can do to help) discusses how searchers have to invent their own evaluation standards because schools are not teaching them.
How to use Rollyo, Swiki and Google Co-op to create personalized search engines for safe Web page evaluation practice at all grade levels.
Recommended uses for the Bad Apple and Use It! or Lose It! online evaluation games in this Kit, including tips and answers.
How to use our Evaluation Wizard to assess how students evaluate what they find online. (The Evaluation wizard is a 10 step online guide to investigating websites.)
Evaluating Digital Information: Introduction, Research, Resources
In depth article on evaluation of digital resources by Dr. Carl Heine.
Workshop Resources: Assessing Information Fluency
Guided tours of 21CIF resources perfect for workshop presentations. This is a series of webslide style sets of pages that detail 'Speculative Searching" and "Investigative Searching".
MicroModule: Checking the accuracy of information found on a webpage.
A one page overview of how to check the accuracy of information. Includes a link to an online learning game to help learn essential concepts.
Try this interactive micromodule companion for a hands on experience in determining the accuracy of web-based information. Test your skills at:
Information Fluency Newsletter
Low volume, high content free newsletter to keep you posted about new resources and developments from 21cif.
The Fischbowl: Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?
I read this post several years ago and it got my blood moving. The author, Karl Fisch lays it on the line. This post was voted the most influential ed-blog post of 2007. It's 2009 already and still a very relevant piece of work. A must read!
ASCD Inservice: The Curse of the Digitally Illiterate
A solid and timely article about the professional responsibility all educators have to become digitally literate. The comments on this blog are particularly good. You get a real feel for what's happening in the trenches
Don't rely on first impressions. Ask Questions! 
Triangulation of Data: This is a standard for serious research. Find at least three sources that agree on the same data point. If you can't find three credible resources that confirm the data, be suspicious!
Test your skills at:
Knowing your Audience? Or I should say, knowing the audience of your audience?
In the first issue of our newsletter we begin a series about what the current crop of kids (i.e. digital natives) know and don’t know. Our research tells us they don’t know much about the formal strategies of searching. (See Five Things Digital Natives Cannot Do (and what you can do to help, coming soon!)
We as educators, do know a bit about this generation of students. I found this link on Gary Price’s Research Shelf to Lee Rainie’s March 23rd speech: Life Online: Teens and technology and the world to come. This speech was given to the annual conference of the Public Library Association of Boston. (Teens and Technology.pdf) Rainie describes our students as the Millennials (born 1982 – 2000). He then shares eight recent findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project that he directs.
I will provide a few direct quotes from Rainie’s speech as a teaser! ~ Dennis O'Connor, 21CIF.
How Millennials Approach Research:“For your purposes, it’s important to note that Millennials’ devotion to the internet has greatly shaped the way they approach research process. In many cases, they start projects by going online and browsing around. When they have questions, they will often ping their social network for advice and guidance.
They approach research as a self-directed process. Those who want to serve them would probably do well to think of themselves as “info support” in the same way all our offices have “tech support”: on call and ready to deal with problems, but not in my face showing me every possible function and setting on my computer.”
Brave New World?The 21 st Century Information Fluency Project plans to adapt and grow to meet the needs and demands of ‘new workers and consumers’ in the coming age. It is a great feeling to be out here on the bleeding edge helping to define this reality.
"I can’t tell you precisely how different this work and research environment will be – and I would be very wary of anyone who claims to know for sure just how much change will occur.
I think it is safe to say, though, for the new workers and consumers coming of age in the 21 st Century, learning and research will be:
And
As a researcher, I see this new world as a fantastically target-rich environment for things to study.
Your role is much more complicated, scary, and exciting. You have the privilege of reacting to and shaping the new environment for these emerging workers.
As the parent of four of these neo-workforce participants, I would only ask you to be brilliant at what you do."
~ Lee Rainie
So What Do You Think?
Does Rainie's description of the new generation jibe with your personal experience? Are the kids in your classes the fluid digital natives that the Pew Internet & American Life Project so richly describes?
I've been researching and writing about Information Fluency since the turn of the century. My work is published on the 21st Century Information Fluency Portal: http://21cif.imsa.edu You'll find modular online learning content including games, micromodules and assessments on the portal. (Free for all educators.)
I include information fluency training in all of my online classes. I introduce power searching and website investigation to the graduate students studying in the E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate Program at UW-Stout ( http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html ) because I believe that Information Fluency is a foundation skill for all online teachers and learners.
What continually surprises me is that most educators (including those with advanced degrees) lack formal training in this field. Unless I'm working with a Library Media Specialist, most have little experience in searching, evaluating, and ethical use of digital materials.
Curiously, most educators think they are competent searchers and evaluators, when they are really just beginners. Their disposition is to ask for help rather than search for answers. With simple instruction many radically improve their ability to search, and evaluate. This is empowering and greatly increases learner satisfaction. Instruction in copyright and fair use is also part of the program.
At the same time I push the idea that it is everyone's duty to teach website evaluation and ethical use as part of any online curriculum. Too often educators assume someone else should have done the job by the time their students walk through the door. The application of information fluency to all curriculum areas is profound. Students given even rudimentary instruction in Information Fluency immediately benefit.
As online teachers and learners we work in a computer where information is just a few keystrokes away. I hope we can promote the disposition in all online teachers and learners that skilled use of Internet resources is the essential learning skill of our times.
Dennis O'Connor
Program Advisor
E-Learning & Online Teaching
School of Education
Online Professional Development
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Wisconsin's Polytechnic University
oconnord@uwstout.edu
530-318-1145 (Cell)
Skype: wiredinstructor2
The Information Forensics Podcast was recorded at NECC 2008 in San Antonio, Texas and produced by the Apple Learning Exchange. PowerPoint is also available from the NECC
For many students, online research just doesn’t come naturally. Most students have trouble locating relevant information. Even if they find good information, they lack the investigative skills needed to evaluate their sources.
The purpose of this session is to provide participants with an understanding of efficient methods for evaluating online information and to demonstrate effective ways to teach these information fluency skills in classrooms.
The new generation of NETS standards for students (ISTE, 2007), is based on the premise that efficacy and productivity depends on students’ abilities to conduct research and manage digital information fluently. An essential skill is the ability to evaluate information from a variety of sources and media
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