Showing posts with label 21cif. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 21cif. Show all posts

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Full Preview: Information Investigator 5.0



To preview the course, you may create a free account here:


Use this enrollment key (case-sensitive):

preview-IR-13

The preview is the FULL mini-course as students experience it. There are three parts:

Optional Pretest - we recommend you DO NOT start here. The Pretest is quite challenging and was created as a means for students who have completed previous editions of Information Researcher an opportunity to "test out" of the course. Of course, you are welcome to try it. Just realize it requires fluency in several demanding search and evaluation competencies which are covered in the tutorials.  The Pretest can be turned off if this feature is not needed.

Tutorials - Start Here. This is where anyone new to Information Researcher should start. There are eight step-by-step tutorials with sequential descriptions and interactive challenges. The idea here is to introduce students to key online research skills and then provide practice using them. Answers are provided after incorrect answers or solutions, to speed up learning. Any interactive challenge may be repeated to try other responses. Tutorials must be completed in the order shown, however, they may be reviewed in any order once completed.

Posttest - this ten-item Certification Exam provides challenges in all the essential information fluency competencies. The goal to reach is 70%, the point at which we consider individuals to be fluent. No one is expected to score 100%, since search perfection is not realistic on the Internet. 

What you will not see in the Preview are reporting tools to see how your students are performing. Reports may be sorted by high scores, levels completed, names of students, etc. Reports may also be copied and pasted into Excel spreadsheets for further analysis, if desired.

We recommend NOT using this assessment/tutorial tool as the basis for assigning grades. Mastery finding, evaluating and ethically using information online is not exactly quantifiable. What matters more is that students continually improve. Most students start the course with scores in the 50% range and finish around 70% or higher.

As for licensing, we use a sliding scale that depends on the numbers of students who create accounts. For 1 person, a license is $10, for 2 to 10 persons, the costs drops to $5/person. Above that, a typical class is $4/person, a school is $1-2/person and a district is $1/person or less.  If you know how many students are likely to enroll, we can give you a more precise cost estimate. 



Enjoy the preview, but be prepared to be challenged!

Carl Heine
Dennis O'Connor
Bob Houston

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Common Core State Standards mapped to the Information Fluency Model


The Common Core State Standards provide a framework for teaching information fluency in Grades 3 through 12. To help educators in this task, relevant information fluency competencies are mapped to the appropriate standards.



Sunday, July 24, 2011

Mobile Tech in Libraries

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

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Teaching Information Literacy with Primary Sources (UW-Stout Graduate Online Course)

EDUC 744 951 Teaching Information Literacy with Primary Sources 
Completely Online: 3 Graduate Units from the University of Wisconsin Stout!

Learn how to locate authentic digital primary sources in multiple formats to enhance your curriculum. Develop age appropriate learning activities that promote higher level questioning and critical thinking skills while adding excitement to student learning through engaging activities.

The course is especially helpful for teachers of AP classes, teachers addressing state and national standards requiring the use of primary sources, and teachers working with National History Day activities. Materials from TPS Direct, the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources professional development program, will be incorporated in the class.
  
Last Call! EDUC 744 951 3 graduate credits June 13 - August 12, 2011

Course Info     Registration

This course is taught by noted Library Media Specialist:

Mary Alice Anderson

School of Education
University of Wisconsin-Stout
140E Voc Rehab Bldg
Menomonie, WI 54751
Phone: (507) 452 1180 after 4:00 p.m. CST
E-Mail: andersonmary@uwstout.edu

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Check the Facts! Cross Check the Facts! Lessons & Media

Fact checking is essential in a (mis) information rich environment. 





FactCheck.org
Brilliant resource from the Annenberg Public Policy Center. There is also a six year archive of contents. As you would expect, the current materials focus on the health care debate.  For a truly balanced view of things, when the facts have been checked, and all varieties of political spin revealed this is my new FIRST STOP for FACTS.  This is a treasure trove!

Tags: media, research, factcheck, 21cif, evaluation








FactChecked.org
Luckily, FactCheck.org also has a highly developed classroom section that provides in-depth lesson plans and media links. These are highly polished materials for educators seeking a way to teach critical thinking and evaluation skills to their students. The Lesson Plan Archive ( http://www.factchecked.org/LessonPlans.aspx ) will intrigue any educator looking for a way to engage students. These plans are edgy and up to date. If you've been looking for a way to teach thinking and evaluation of media.

I've been vitally interested in Investigative Searching for sometime. Fact checking, triangulation of data, skeptical and inquisitive attitude has been part of that package all along. However, I hadn't focused on Fact Checking until I reviewed the results of our summer work with 1000 teenagers who took our new Investigative Searching 20/10 online course. The data clearly shows that Fact Checking is an area of great weakness. Teenagers HATE to fact check.

This resource could change all that because once you break through the barriers, this works is stimulating, engaging, and fun. In fact, I may try one of the plans with my current group of undergraduate teacher candidates. Monty Python and the Quest for the Perfect Fallacy really appeals to me!

If you decide to use this resource, let me know what you think! (Emphasis on the think. 8-)

~ Dennis In San Diego,  remembering Joe Friday's essence "Just the facts..."


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

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Can you cope? Digital Information to double every 11 hours?

  • 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.

    Tags: 21cif, information fluency

    • 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. - By Dennis OConnor
    • 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.

    • To access that information, IBM on Tuesday released what it called a "Web 2.0 interface" designed to be the preferred front end of IBM's content management servers, Mills said. The software is based on Eclipse open-source technology--already used in IBM's Lotus software--and can run on different desktop operating systems.

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

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Investigative Searching Tutorials: Website Evaluation


Website Evaluation: Part of the WSI (Web Site Investigator) Series

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

Monday, June 22, 2009

Big LIst of Small Search Engines (some not so small)


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

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Son of Citation Machine 5.0 / Warlick Video

  • Here's the latest edition of the very popular Son of Citation Machine from David Warlick. It handles MLA, APA, Turabian and Chicago. I've included a video from David so you can learn about from the source!

  • Video tutorial by David Warlick on Citation Machine 5.0



This is a promising and well designed online citation system from the Hekman Library at Calvin University in Michigan. It does an excellent job with MLA, APA, and Chicago citation styles. Includes customized forms for Multimedia, Anthology, Periodical, Communications, and Online Only. First Rate!

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

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Information Forensics Goes to School: See you at NECC 2009!




Website Investigator: Information Forensics Goes to School

Add to PlannerAdd to Planner
[Formal Session : Lecture]
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



Theme/Strand: 21st-century Teaching & Learning—Literacies for the Information/Creativity Age
Audience: Technology Integration Specialists, Technology Facilitators, Technology Coordinators, Teacher Educators, Teachers, School Board Members, Staff Developers, Principals, Library Media Specialists, Curriculum Specialists
Level: All
Video on Demand: Yes


NETS•S: 3
NETS•T: 3- 5
NETS•A: II, VI
Keywords: Information Fluency Evaluation Credibility Searching


URL: http://21cif.com/


Purpose & Objectives

For most students, online research just doesn’t come naturally. Locating relevant information is not easy. Determining if the information is credible is even harder and requires investigative skills to evaluate 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.

This session directly addresses this information fluency standard by helping participants…

1. Understand the role of investigation (information forensics) in evaluating information:
• Two types of searching: how investigation differs from speculation;
• Determining when investigative searching is necessary and when it is not;
• Effective means of finding critical information with limited clues;
• Using specialized search engines and browsing techniques to track down information;
• Analyzing results to determine credibility of the source and content.

2. Observe effective methods for helping students exercise speculative search skills:
• Off-line 'readiness' activities;
• Group and individual Search Challenges;
• Interactive tutorial games;
• Think-aloud searches;
• Evaluation reporting;
• Group discussion about credibility.

Outline

Introduction to Information Fluency and NETS for Students (5 minutes)

The big picture: Obstacles to Information Fluency--research discoveries: (5 minutes)
• Problems with speculation: using the right words with the right databases
• Homing in on increasingly relevant information
• Problems with investigation: evaluating credibility

Determining when to use investigative searching: (5 minutes)

Effective investigative strategies and techniques—teaching demonstrations involving audience participation (35 minutes)
• 'Readiness' off-line teaching and learning activities
• Selected Information Forensics tutorials (finding the author, publisher, date)
• Selected Search Challenges (think-aloud)
• Determining a basis for credibility (group discussion)

Questions (5 minutes)

Supporting Research

Burton, V. T., & Chadwick, S. A. (2000). Investigating the practices of student researchers: Patterns of use and criteria for use of Internet and library sources. Computers and Composition, 17 (3), 309-328.

Heine, C. (2006). Evaluating digital information. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Retrieved Sept. 23, 2008, from http://21cif.imsa.edu/rkitp/ features/v1n4/leadarticle_v1_n4.html

ISTE. (2007). National Educational Technology Standards for Students: The Next Generation. ISTE. Retrieved Sept. 23, 2008, from http://www.iste.org/Content/ NavigationMenu/NETS/NETS_Refresh_Forum/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdf

Press release. (2006, March 24) School library media programs critical to high school reform. American Library Association. Retrieved April 11, 2006, from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=News&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=121131

Presenter Background

Main presenter: Carl Heine, Ph.D. is Director of the 21st Century Information Fluency Project at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora Illinois. He oversees research and the development of interactive learning games and interactive media used in the Project. He conducts numerous Information Fluency workshops each year in Illinois and other states, including the Illinois Principals Association, the Illinois Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Illinois State Library Media Association, the Illinois Educational Technology Conference, the Missouri Association of School Librarians, the Wisconsin Educational Media Association and the Alabama Educational Technology Association.

Carl earned his doctorate in curriculum and instruction at the University of Chicago for research in flow and mathematical achievement. Previous leadership assignments include managing the Center for Youth Education at the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL) and directing educational programs at churches in Washington and California.

Co-Presenter: Dennis O'Connor was an elementary and middle school teacher for 25 years. At the turn of the century he left the face to face classroom to become an online teacher, course designer and educational technology consultant.

He earned an MS. in Online Teaching and Learning from California State University, East Bay (formerly CSU Hayward) where he also taught graduate students how to teach online. Mr. O'Connor recently earned an M.Ed in Instructional Design and Technology Integration at Western Governors University. He earned his undergraduate degree in English at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 1995, groundbreaking work in technology infused interdisciplinary teaching led to a Milken National Educator Award. After working online with the ISTE, National Educational Technology Standards Project in 1998, Mr. O'Connor became a project writer developing units of practice for ISTE-NETS, Connecting Curriculum and Technology. Dennis remains active as a subject matter expert, standards review consultant and project writer for ISTE.

Dennis previously worked as a Senior eLearning Architect for the 21st Century Information Fluency Program, which is sponsored by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. He also teaches online professional development classes for the 21st Century Information Project and for the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he is the program advisor for the E-learning and Online Teaching Graduate Certificate Program.

Last year, Carl and Dennis presented a similar lecture at NECC in San Antonio and the year before were recognized as a Best of the Best for their Power Searching workshop at NECC in Atlanta.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Information fluency resources for the week.

These are annotated links I shared on Diigo this week. Join our group and share your research as well! (See link at the bottom of this post.) ~ Dennis
  • A collection of resources that support a multi-literacies approach to teaching and learning, 21st Century Literacies focus on information, media, multicultural and visual literacies. Includes lesson plans by grade level, bibliographies, and pathfinders. Published for the AT&T/UCLA Initiative for the 21st Century Literacies.

    Tags: resources for librarians, lesson planning, information literacy, multi-literacies, media literacy, multi cultural

  • Tags: 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.
    • They presented their work, Lesson Study: An Experience in Collaborative Inquiry, at the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians in April 2007. They also published their lesson study, Teaching Library Information Literacy Skills to Students Enrolled in an Introductory Communication Course: A Collaborative Study in the UW System Teaching Forum.
  • A professionally produced overview of Diigo. Good for the user looking to better understand the many features of Diigo. This video works to sell the service by showing you the technology and explaining the concepts underlying social bookmarking. As a long time delicious user, I understand the power of social bookmarking. As an online teacher and learner, I now use Diigo exclusively. (Although I have my Diigo account set up to automatically add all of my bookmarks to my Delicious account as well!) It's the best of both worlds!

    Tags: diigo, youtube, social bookmarking

    • Diigo ~ more than a research tool - a knowledge sharing community. Easy-to-use and so powerful... Check it out!
  • The author of this video JD Travers ends his video presentation by saying "There's a lot more to Diigo than this little Trick". He's so right!

    But as tricks go, this is very clever. Travers shows us how you can use Diigo and Google Groups to create an interactive discussion board. As a power-searcher and e-learning teacher I see great possibilities with this approach.

    Tags: youtube, diigo, google groups

    • Diigo social bookmarking and annotation is very effective for teachers to provide student feedback to online work, and supports student responses and comments to each other.
  • This video works best as a conceptual overview of how the Diigo slides feature can be used to create a variety of different web-based presentations. I'd recommend this video as an 'eye opener' to the potential uses for this remarkable social bookmarking site.

    On the other hand, it is is not a 'How to' video. Well worth watching for anyone involved in e-learning, collaborative research, blended teaching environments, library media studies, web 2.0 communications.

    Tags: webslides, diigo, knowledge sharing, web 2.0, social bookmarking, e-learning

    • Converting bookmarks & RSS feeds to slideshow in minutes!
      More powerful and easy to use functions! Check it out!
  • This is a terrific list of sites. What makes it even better (from my point of view) is that at LEAST one of the sites on the list isn't a hoax, but a legitimate site. Ah... what a sweet evaluation challenge!

    Tags: hoax, evaluation, information fluency, information literacy

    • Geoffrey James has liste a number of "hoax sites" that are new to me. I love it! I'm particularly happy to see that he's been mislead in at least one instance. There's at least one legitimate site on his list of hoaxes. Sweet! - By Dennis OConnor
    • It’s no secret that bad information abounds on the web. The most dangerous information, of course, is the kind that’s posted with a hidden agenda, such as paid content masquerading as real content.
    • What I find fascinating about these sites is that most of them are more interesting, more detailed and better presented than the “serious” sites they’re imitating.
  • Being online means being 'In Public'. We might know this intellectually, but seeing this list of what Google Knows, may shock some.

    The real issue here is not that information about our online habits is stored by Google, it's how that information may be used.

    Tags: Google, ejustice, privacy

    • By Courtney Phillips

      Google is the go-to provider of many things online-search, email, maps, and more. But have you ever stopped to consider all of the information you’re sharing with Google? Read on, and find out all of the dirt that Google has on you.

    • What you’re searching for: Google is used by millions of people worldwide-and they know what every user is searching for, even if it’s not personally identifiable.
  • A library students overview of Diigo. He provides good information that may help us better understand the underlying concepts of social bookmarking.

    Watch this video and you're likely to discover some features of Diigo that you've missed, and that you will find useful.

    Tags: diigo, youtube, video, tagging

  • Tags: information fluency, information-architechture

    • Title: Teaching Library Information Literacy Skills to Students Enrolled in an Introductory Communication Course: A Collaborative Study
    • Executive Summary

      Our interdisciplinary lesson study group developed a collaborative learning experience designed to introduce CST110 students to library resources and research skills. The lesson was both interactive and hands-on. It was intended to serve as the model or template for all librarians to use when providing information literacy instruction for CST 110 classes. It included general library information, instruction about, and hands-on experience with, several library databases, exercises in evaluating resource credibility, and exercises in generating American Psychological Association (APA) style citations from several library databases. We utilized the new lesson for the first time on February 8, 2006.


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

Thursday, March 26, 2009

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.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Information Fluency: It's Elementary! Beta Testers needed!

Carl Heine is developing a series of online learning games to teach elementary students the essentials of search. We're looking for feedback and suggestions as we begin the development cycle.

We have an Information Fluency group on Joyce Valenza's Teacher Librarian Ning where we are asking for feedback on our new elementary age games.

Please join the Ning and our group so you can participate in our beta test?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I came across a blog by Wes Freyer today in which he tells his story about searching for an elusive Apple iTunes commercial.


When he tried the query january 2007 itunes commercial he was able to locate it (#2 in the ranking). I commented in his blog that this is a good example of the power of proper nouns (january itunes), numbers (2007) and minimal operators in searches. Until he recalled the month and year when he'd first seen the video,

Wes couldn't retrieve the information.

Or could he?

If you've spent time around our resources, you might suspect there's a shorter query that could work. Here it is: itunes commercial. The two-word query retrieves the same page (#3 in the ranking) without having to remember the specific date information.

This illustrates nicely how reducing queries to the bare minimum is an efficient, effective means of finding information. One keyword is rarely enough, but two is often the most elegant solution, even if it comes in ranked #3 instead of #2.

~ Dennis 21cif

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Essential Role of Information Fluency in E-Learning and Online Teaching

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.

dif model

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

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Information Fluency Online Classes






Search Help, Evaluation and Digital Ethics for School, Business and Home

Courses Starting Soon...

Need to create a back to school training?

Use our modular content to snap together your own unique training course.

Power Searching in a Web 2.0 World

Next session starts September 22, 2008 (4 Weeks $99) View as Guest | Enroll | Course Description

Website Investigator: An Introduction to Information Forensics

Next session starts October 6, 2008 (2 Weeks $68) View as Guest | Enroll | Course Description

Receive 21cif newsletter for announcements about these and other courses. To subscribe to our newsletter, click here.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Web 2.0 Tools for Educators






Hard Hat worker holds sign saying Web2.0 Tools for Educators
These sites are web-tools that you can build with. If we can tame the 800 pound gorilla of time and apply our vision and creativity, there are hundreds of opportunities to connect curriculum with the dynamic world on the highly interactive Read/Write web.

Picking up the tools offered by Web 2.0 (and all of the editions after that) can help educators avoid being ‘dis-intermediated’. When a new technology cuts out the middle man, dis-intermediation occurs. Ian Jukes warns that the revolutionary-evolutionary progression of information technology is cutting out teachers by providing a direct supply of information to consumers.

The stark truth is our students don’t need us to learn how to collaborate online, create and broadcast videos, or become published authors. What they need to learn from us is how to evaluate and judge the information they swim in daily.

Becoming aware and versed in Web 2.0 technology will help us bring relevance and motivation to our swimming lessons!

Blogging

Blogging is a writer's dream tool. There's an audience just a few keystrokes away. A blog is a simple website designed for sharing ideas. The blogger writes. The reader comments. Be it a a dialog or a one way manifesto, popular and free blogging tools have fueled use of the Internet as a Read & Write environment. In addition there are many commercial blogging systems that provide value added features.

  • Deeper: The Writer's Center Applied Blogging (Video Tutorials on how to set up a blog.)






Blogger.com http://blogger.com This free site is one of the original and most popular blogging services. Blogger is a relatively 'low-tech' system that's a good choice for those just starting out with the technology. A simple sign-up procedure, easy to use design templates, and compatibility with third party add-on software are positive attributes. Google now owns Blogger and will serve context sensitive ads on your free blog pages. You can pay a modest amount to upgrade to an ad free version.






wordpress
Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/ Wordpress provides free blogging software and space for anyone who cares to sign up. This is an ad free service, with very rich and powerful tools. Design templates help you create an attractive looking site. Since Wordpress is very popular, you'll find many useful ad-ons as you elaborate the basic technology that comes free with your site. The popular Edublogs.net is based on Wordpress technology and provides free blogs and wiki's to educators.







ClassBlogmeister: http://classblogmeister.com/index.php is a free classroom blogging system created by David Warlick and the Landmark Project. Classroom teachers can get a classroom blog and work in a sheltered environment designed to introduce kids K-12 to writing for an authentic audience. There are currently 3500 classrooms and nearly 36000 bloggers using Blogmeister.
Photo Sharing

Millions of digital cameras in the hands of the curious and creative mean billions of images which can be easily shared published via photo sharing services. Tagging photos, creating albums, and inviting friends to view the latest snapshots are a natural glue for a community of interest. Photo sharing sites like Flickr were among the first to demonstrate the possibilities of the read / write web.







Flickr http://www.flickr.com (owned by Yahoo) has a huge community of users. This means there are also a great many free browser plug-ins and software packages to enhance Flickr shared photos. They offer both free and paid accounts. There is a 100mb per month bandwidth limit on free accounts.







Picasa http://picasa.google.com/ This photo sharing and editing software if offered free of charge by Google. Picasa is powerful basic editor. The new WebAlbum photo sharing element makes Picasa a one stop solution for photo editing and sharing. For more about the possibilities see Google's Picasa for Educators information.







Tabblo http://www.tabblo.com/ provides free photo sharing via Online Tabblos. These are attractive, template driven photo pages. Other features like posters and books are available for a fee. This is an ad free service with with unlimited storage space.
Social Bookmarking

These tools let you store and share your bookmarks online. Once you’ve configured your account and customized your browser it becomes easy to bookmark, describe and tag your Internet discoveries. Just click the toolbar icon and you will be prompted to save your bookmarks (including comments and tags) to the online service you have chosen. Using social bookmarks means you can access your favorites from any internet linked computer. Additionally, you can network within the community finding others with similar interests. You can then link to their bookmarks, or add the sites directly to your own account. One crucial feature is the ability to create ‘public’ and ‘private’ bookmarks; there will always be sites you don’t want to share with the group. Social Bookmarking is a useful tool for collaborative research as well as online community building.







Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/ Delicious was acquired recently by Yahoo! This means ongoing support and development for one of the first and most popular social bookmarking services. Delicious is designed to make sharing second nature. You can subscribe to Tags, and have the system auto-search and update bookmarks related to any tag of interest. You can also create a network of fellow users; just copy the screen name of another community member and they go into your network, making it easy to monitor those with similar interests.







Ma.gnolia: http://ma.gnolia.com This site has a rich toolset with everything you’d expect in a social bookmarking site. They provide powerful import tools for importing bookmarks from Del.icio.us. Tags are separated by commas, allowing you to use multiple descriptive tags. Support tools include a wiki based Frequently Asked Questions option.







Blinklist: http://blinklist.com Blinklist provides you with quick click access to personal lists, watch lists, tag browsing and tag creation. It is easy to search all public bookmarks. Blinklist automatically provides keyword-tag suggestions. If you find a tag combination you like, and RSS subscription is available. You can import bookmarks from your browser as well as Delicious and Furl. Other attractive features are the thumbnail pictures provided for the more popular sites and a convenient auto-fill feature that lets you copy and paste snippets into the description field of your bookmarks.
Video Sharing

Video sharing sites are intriguing places to search for instructional video. Try the same keywords you use when looking for curriculum materials on the web. Additionally, if your students produce video, there is a world wide audience just an upload away. You can provide links back to your school or program site when you upload your video. This can bring the much desired Web 2.0 benefit of connecting you with an audience for your ideas.

Deeper: Edutopia: How to Use Digital Story Telling in Your Classroom






Google Video
Google Video: For Educators http://video.google.com Try keyword searching Google video for academic subjects. The results will vary, but we guarantee you'll find some interesting and educational videos appropriate for your classroom or library. Using the little known Google Video operator genre: you can find video tagged for educators. Try searching for genre:: educational to find some useful results.







YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ This is the video sharing site that's been called the mineshaft canary for Web 2.0. Recently acquired by google for billions of dollars, YouTube features a huge array of videos about many different topics. YouTube definitely has a free range wildness about it that gives the user a sense of never knowing what they are going to see.







VideoJug: Life Explained on Film http://www.videojug.com This is a clever site with a how-to angle. You'll find a variety of user produced instructional video. The Kid's section features a fun series of balloon animal tutorials.
Wikis

Think of Wikis as specialized websites that promote collaborative writing. Wiki team-mates can edit documents at any time of the day or night. The wiki will automatically back up the original and present the newest edition of the document to the next team-mate to log in. You always have a revision history to consult, as you create a dynamic document that grows and changes under the attention of an audience of editors. Wikipedia is the best known Wiki at the moment. (See Doug Johnson's article Wikipedia: Ban It or Boost It in this edition of the Resource Kit.)

Deeper: Educause: Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not







WikiMatrix: http://www.wikimatrix.org/index.php This is a comparison site that helps a user compare many different features of a wide variety of commercial and free wiki services. If you want to make an informed choice this site is a great starting place. (Both pbwiki and Wikispaces are reviewed side by side and feature by feature.)







PBWiki http://pbwiki.com With a slogan like: "Make a Wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich" you can expect a clean streamlined design. Will pbwiki set you up in just 30 seconds? Try it and see. Learning the ins and outs of Wiki editing and navigation will take a bit more time. Other features include a discussion area where team-members (or any user) can comment on the wiki. If you outgrow the free version you can upgrade for a modest monthly fee.







Wikispaces http://www.wikispaces.com Wikispaces is another educator oriented free service. You will find the easy to navigate discussion, history, and notification tabs useful. You can also set up email or RSS feeds to keep you posted on wiki activity.
Click-O-Rama: More resources than you can shake a mouse at!

We've presented a select number of sites to provide an overview of Web 2.0 Internet services. There are hundreds of innovative sites showing up on the web everyday. Many of these sites provide a golden opportunity to harness the energy of authorship and curriculum. The following sites give you click through access and thumbnail descriptions of far more sites than we can cover in this article.







Web2Logo http://web2logo.com Here you will find 10 pages of Web 2.0 logos. Click on a logo and you are taken to a community rating and review page. You will see the site's traffic statistics, and comments from users. Additionally, you are presented with a hot list of similar Web 2.0 sites, You have the option of subscribing to any of Web2Logo's description pages... and easy way to monitor the community comments about a site.






GO@WEB20
GO2WEB20 http://www.go2web20.net This is a less detailed , but more direct presentation than Web2Logo. Click any of the long scroll of Web 2.0 logos and see a thumbnail description of the site pop up in the right hand column of the page. You'll also find a hotlink that will open the site in a new window. This beta site still has rough edges but the developers are promising more revisions in the near future. For now it's fun for just clicking around!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Myth of the Google Generation


Do you believe in the Myth that kids know more about the Internet than you do? Many educators seem to assume that the current generation of ‘net-savy’ kids know what they are doing when it comes to internet based research. Now, scientific research has established what many of us have known all along: today’s kids don’t have a clue about how to find information online.

It was this insight that lead Dr. Carl Heine of the 21st Century Information Fluency project to call the net-generation, the Untaught Generation. In his series of articles: Five Things Today’s Digital Generation Cannot Do (and what you can do to help) Dr. Heine explains the skills today’s students need.

The following information was originally published by The Resource Shelf under the title The Google Generation is a Myth.

“A new report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web.”

Here is a link to a 35 page pdf of the full report: ‘Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future’ 35 pages; PDF) Key findings are summarized by this telling statement: “…traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors.” (Italics ours.)

We all know that vital 21st century skills like information literacy and information fluency have been elbowed out of the way by the drill and fill demands of a test pressured curriculum. Let’s hope the nation collectively wakes up to the realities that today’s kids (and educators) are in desperate need of training in the critical thinking skills needed to search, evaluate, and ethically use digital information.

Life Online: Teens and Technology

Life Online: Teens and Technology

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:

  • More self directed and less dependent on top-down instructions
  • Better arrayed to capture new information inputs
  • More reliant on feedback and response
  • More tied to group outreach and group knowledge
  • More open to cross-discipline insights, creating its own “tagged” taxonomies

And

  • More oriented towards people being their own individual nodes of production.

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?

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Joyce Valenza –21st Century Research Skills!

Navigating the Shifting Information Landscape


Interview with Joyce Valenza This interview is with Joyce Valenza, Springfield Township (PA) High School Teacher-Librarian and technology writer, who is a featured blogger and presenter at numerous conferences.

What are the greatest challenges for teachers and teacher-librarians when teaching the effective use of research skills/strategies? At this moment it is understanding the shifting landscape. The last two years saw dramatic change in the information landscape. The change forces us to examine new questions: How do we respect intellectual property in a mash-up universe? What do creative, effective information products look like? How do we balance issues of privacy and safety in an information landscape that busts through borders and invites us to share our ideas and our work? How do we use these new tools to participate creatively in global discussion? How do we best exploit exciting new opportunities for authorship and audience? What "old world" tools and skills need to be carried over into our new projects?


You have spoken of students as being either "sponges," absorbing information passively; or "miners," actively searching for information gems. How can educators structure research assignments to help students become “miners” instead of “sponges”? If they haven't already done so, every district should ban the "report." If you asked me to write a report on Pennsylvania, I'd likely print you an encyclopedia article. That work has already been done far better than I could do it myself. Students need to use information to imagine, to solve, to analyze, to propose, to invent, to create. Give me a challenge or allow me to create my own information challenge based on my own questions and passions. Ask me (or allow me) instead to create a commercial promoting travel to my state and post it on YouTube. Ask me to make a decision (based on criteria I myself develop) about whether to move to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Ask me to collaborate on solving a local problem in a wiki and to present my solution using a media slideshow I could share on the Web.

How can Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, del.icio.us, and GoogleDocs enhance and transform the teaching of K-12 information literacy/fluency skills? Among the most powerful applications we've used so far: Blogs to record, manage and reflect on major research projects. These make the chaotic process more transparent and more interactive. They allow teacher, librarian, mentor, and peer intervention. They can also prevent research disasters. Wiki pathfinders allow teachers, librarians and learners to collaborate as they construct guides for projects and lead students to sources they might not discover independently. We've moved most of our lit circle activity to blogs. Each circle manages its discussion, setting up timelines, establishing categories. Our teachers love that they can easily assess the level of participation and quickly gather what any group or student had to say regarding characterization. We love using tools like Animoto and Voicethread for preparing powerful media presentations.We use GoogleDocs for group writing and to allow teachers and librarians to suggest edits. We are exploring ZohoPolls for original research as well. Students work hard to craft solid questions and make sense of the data they collect.We've recognized what our misuse of PowerPoint has done to our school. We are considering new presentation options and tools, as well as the concept of "presentation zen." How can we best connect with an audience? What does effective storytelling look like in the 21st century?

How can we help our students create their own meaningful information spaces to support their work as learners? I think we may need to guide them to widgetizing their personal desktops. This year we asked our seniors to use iGoogle as a tool to organize their senior projects. I see more tools like that emerging. Now students can open an interface and be presented with their favorite online dictionary, foreign language tools, mapping tool, thesaurus, calendar, to-do list, while they push research-relevant RSS feeds to them through a reader. They choose their theme. Their little game applets are there too. This was perhaps the "stickiest" activity they've done yet this school year. The spaces continue to grow more personally meaningful.

I look forward to the day when we can offer more widgetized library tools. So the student who needs the American History database this semester can drag that widget onto her desktop and replace it (or schooch it further down) to substitute a science database widget next semester. We also ask students to consider their research blogs as their own information spaces. Blogs help students organize, categorize, reflect. They can be customized learning spaces.

Tech Tip: Personalize Your Desktop With Gadgets and Widgets A host of free “mini-apps” are available to personalize your computer workspace for fun and productivity, and to gather your frequently-used information resources in one spot. In Macintosh OS X, these are called “dashboard widgets”, in Yahoo they are “widgets”, in Windows Vista they are “sidebar gadgets” and in iGoogle they are simply “gadgets”. Since there is no universal format for widgets/gadgets, a widget designed for Mac’s OS X Dashboard won’t work in iGoogle or Vista, or vice versa. However, there are options for converting Google gadgets to Dashboard or Vista Sidebar formats.

Here are links to directions and galleries for adding widgets/gadgets to Mac OS X, iGoogle, Vista, and Yahoo.



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(Republished with Permission from UW-Stout Infobytes: Karen Franker Editor.