Supporting Information Literacy Reflection

The course “Supporting Information Literacy” has course helped me realize that my role as a teacher is increasingly becoming an embodiment of the title. Amongst a slew of other descriptors, I am a Supporter of Information Literacy. This course has opened my eyes as to how to successfully guide students through a learning process that emphasizes questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I feel empowered in my own use of the internet particularly in how to find what I want online by searching with a topic and a focus, and how to judge whether what I found online is “useful and truthful” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 164). I did not realize how many bogus websites are out there, and how even bogus websites can be used as teaching tools! This course has transformed my view of collaborative websites such as Wikipedia. We know that anyone can publish and edit information on Wikipedia, why wouldn’t we want our students looking at it with a critical eye and why don’t we sign them up so that they can be the ones publishing and editing information. This course made me realize how little I knew about supporting students through an inquiry-based approach to learning, and now I feel more competent and empowered through the ideas that I have synthesized and transformed into a unit plan.

Because of this course, I am much more competent at modeling effective ways to question, evaluate, synthesize, and transform information. As technology becomes more available, I feel that I am more prepared to embrace, rather than resist, technology’s impact on education. I am able to balance the two literacies that Rooney speaks of, pre-digital and post-digital (2009). I am really eager to spend time this summer setting up a classroom webpage and figuring out an effective way to get students blogging, podcasting, screencasting, and producing meaningful products. I am eager to plan my next school year using an inquiry-based approach to learning. I feel like this approach to learning works great for my students, but also for myself when I am doing research on my own and preparing lessons for direct instruction. The QUEST model described in this course makes since to me cognitively but I also really value the metacognitive aspects of it, which I plan on implementing on a more consistent basis next year.

My professional development goal was summarized very well by Dr. David Warlick. I want my students to make better connections have better conversations in my classroom. In order to do this, I will need to make the following things happen:
1. Teach a student-centered way that encourages students to connect the content to themselves in a personal way on a daily basis.
2. Develop better “people” skills in my classroom. Model and practice on a regular basis how to relate and communicate with people appropriately in both online and offline environments.
3. Develop a class website complete with my philosophy, information about me, course outlines and syllabus, links to assignments, calendars, and links to my favorite web pages for a given topic that we are studying.
4. Figure out a safe and efficient way to get my students blogging with each other.
5. Make my class more about figuring how to apply the content to their lives, rather than just regurgitating it, and empowering them transferable 21st Century Skills.
Rooney states that “an educated person…is able to use, understand, and appreciate the written word” (2009). I feel more excited and engaged about my career as an educator after taking this class. I am now more competent as a supporter of information literacy and more skilled as an educated person who strives to successfully develop more educated people.

Resources:

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Rooney, J. (2009, March). Teaching two literacies. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 92–93.