E-Learning for Special Populations

• Education Week: E-Learning for Special Populations
  Tags: E-Learning, special populations, ell, special education online, at risk online
  • This special report, another installment in Education Week's series on virtual education, examines the growing e-learning opportunities for students with disabilities, English-language learners, gifted and talented students, and those at risk of failing in school. It shows the barriers that exist for greater participation among special populations, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of this approach. It also looks at the funding tactics schools are using to build virtual education programs for special populations and the evolving professional-development needs for these efforts.
  • Download the interactive PDF version of the report, E-Learning for Special Populations.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of E-Learning for Educators group favorite links are here.

Curious about curation?

Howard Rheingold interviews Robin Good on curation




More resources:


Joyce Valenza: Web 3.0: We have so much stuff!

Buffy Hamilton: Summer Seed Ideas: Curation, Participation, and Student PLEs

Aggregating the Information Flow to Feed your Needs

Another term or filter for understanding the information flow is calling all this the Semantic Web.

Search, Research, and Referencing

• Yet another study shows that “digital natives” suck at searching | Lisa Gold: Research Maven
  Tags: 21cif, referencing, research, digital natives
• Taming Information Chaos |
  Tags: 21cif
• 12 Ways To Be More Search Savvy | MindShift
  Tags: 21cif, search, searching
• Study Vibe - Making referencing real
  Tags: 21cif, referencing, research

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

High Tech / Low Tech Strategies

• Education Week Teacher: High-Tech Teaching in a Low-Tech Classroom
  Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.
  Tags: education, Low-Tech 21st century skills, ed-tech, blended learning, 21cif
  • - By Dennis OConnor
  • How can we best use limited resources to support learning and familiarize students with technology?
  • get creative with lesson structure
  • Take advantage of any time that your students have access to a computer lab with multiple computers.
  • Relieve yourself from the pressure of knowing all the ins and outs of every tool. Instead, empower your students by challenging them to become experts who teach one another (and you!) how to use new programs.
  • Small groups of students engage in dialogue on a particular topic, then a member uses a digital tool to report on the group's consensus.
  • Students assist one another in creating digital products that represent or reflect their new learning. It’s a great way to spread technological skills in a one-computer classroom.
  • Group Consensus Method
  • "Pass it On" Buddy Method
  • Rotating Scribe Method
  • Each day, one student uses technology to record the lesson for other students.
  • Whole Class Method
  • Teachers in one-computer classrooms often invite large groups of students to gather around the computer. Here are a few suggestions for making the most of these activities
  • When we are faced with limited resources, it is tempting to throw up our hands and say, "I just don't have what I need to do this!" However, do not underestimate your ability to make it work.
• Is Google really filtering my news? - Librarian of Fortune
  Tags: 21cif, search, google
  • He leads off the book with a discussion of the effect of Google’s “personalization” feature on the ranking of search results. This feature uses 54 signals (what browser version you’re using, your prior searches, geographic location, and so on) to customize search results for each user.
  • “increasingly biased to share our own views. More and more, your computer monitor is a kind of one-way mirror, reflecting your own interests while algorithmic observers watch what you click.”
  • Bottom line: Holy moley, Google does filter the news. You really need to go beyond the first few search results if you want to get a relatively well-rounded view of the news.
  • While it is fairly common knowledge, at least among info pros, that Google search results vary widely from one searcher to another, I had assumed that I would see far less variation in Google News searching.

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

Mobile Learning

• Are We Wired For Mobile Learning? [INFOGRAPHIC] | Voxy Blog
  Tags: infographic, mobile, mlearning, infographics, web2.0
  • Because of the proliferation of new technologies, the younger generation today is outgrowing traditional forms of education – remember pencils, chalkboards, textbooks and graphing calculators? Whether we are in the car, on the train, at work, or in a classroom, mobile technology in particular is giving us the ability to learn on-the-go. See the infographic below to learn why we are wired for mobile learning, and how we can use mobile technologies to educate ourselves.
    
    
  
  Via: Voxy Blog

common core & 21st century skills

•  Common Core - Debating “21st Century Skills”
  As a promoter of information fluency, I'd argue that it is a 21st century foundation skill for all core academic subjects.
  
  To be information fluent  means a student can independently research and evaluate digital information relevant to any topic, the common core academic subjects, as well as media studies and consumer issues.
  
  
  There's no disconnect! What do you think?
  
  
  Tags: commoncore, 21cif
  • - By Dennis OConnor
  • Common Core has been critical of the idea that our children’s education should be organized around a set of so-called “21st century skills” instead of core academic subjects such as history, science, and the arts.

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

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.

The Flow of Information

Join our Information Fluency Group

• The Flow of Information
  
  
  Tags: 21cif, Information fluency, literacy
  • Information flows in different ways in different subject areas. Each of the
    links below takes you to a timeline which will show you how information flowed
    from a sample event, research study, or artistic creation. Pick the subject
    area that you are researching or that you find interesting.
• A Primer on Databases and Catalogs
  
  
  Tags: 21cif, search, research

  • The nitty gritty on finding things in an electronic format

    You've been told that the computer is a vast treasure trove of information
    at your fingertips. But when you try to get into that stash, you're often
    left with a great deal of information that is mostly useless.
    
    This unit cracks open the information vault to give you a look inside
    the database, which is the structure that contains the information you're
    looking for.
• Information Literacy - Home
  
  
  Tags: 21cif, Information fluency, literacy
  • Information Literacy is the ability to identify what information is needed, understand how
    the information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate
    the sources critically, and share that information. It is the knowledge of commonly used research techniques.
• Starting Your Search
  
  
  Tags: 21cif, Information fluency, search, google

  • Putting the research process to work

    Don’t know where to begin? This unit will help kickstart your research
    with a ten-step strategy that works for just about any discipline.
    
    In the first part of this unit you’ll find instructions on a ten
    step research method. On the last pages of the unit, you’ll see
    the strategy put to work in 3 examples.

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

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/

What is Web 2.0? Learn it in 5 minutes or less

• Learn It In 5 - Home
  Video site dedicated to short instructional tutorials for the technology classroom.  
  • At Learn it in 5, you'll learn what is Web 2.0, and strategies for using Web 2.0 technology in the digital classroom - all in 5 minutes or less.
    
    Learn it in 5 is a powerful library of how-to videos, produced by technology teachers, for the purpose of helping teachers and students create classroom strategies for today's 21st century's digital classroom. These step-by-step how-to videos walk teachers through Web 2.0 technology, demonstrating how to use Web 2.0 applications like blogs, social networks, podcasts, interactive videos, wikis, slide sharing and much more.
    
    
    

    
    

Common Core Standards for Librarians

• School Librarians and the Common Core Standards: Resources
  This is a livebiners presentaion from Carolyn Jo Starkey that presents detailed resources on how the Common Core Standards relate to school library media studies.
  Tags: CommonCore, standards, curriculum, librarians, Information fluency, 21cif
  • - By Dennis OConnor
• Posted from Diigo. The rest of Info Fluency group favorite links are here.