Think aloud from hrichards421
The ThinkAloud project was very eye-opening. It gave me some good resources to use when validating the reliability of a webpage. I bookmarked the pages, such as archive.org and easywhois.com, so that I could share these sites with my students when they are doing research. I feel like my ThinkAloud isn't very creative; however, it gets the point across. The website that I had originally found in researching about arming teachers with guns was a webpage that was geared to promote a "safe schools" business. This ThinkAloud helped me see that, when I probably would have accepted it as a reliable source of information.
It is important to provide students with information literacy skills in the digital age because things are not always what they appear. My article looked innocent in nature; however, when I looked into the background of the site and author, it revealed a commercial aspect to its information. It is important for students to be able to find the validity and reliability of a webpage/website. This project is a great learning experience for information literacy. Students would learn more about the reliability and validity of information through this project better than they would trying to learn information literacy skills through a textbook. This project gave me access to websites that helped prove or disprove the validity of websites, as well as see the history and background of the website. This delves deeper into using information literacy rather than reading a textbook and trying to research its validity or reliability of information. This is an authentic learning project that teaches information literacy skills instead of students just reading about how to gain information literacy skills.
The ThinkAloud project was very eye-opening. It gave me some good resources to use when validating the reliability of a webpage. I bookmarked the pages, such as archive.org and easywhois.com, so that I could share these sites with my students when they are doing research. I feel like my ThinkAloud isn't very creative; however, it gets the point across. The website that I had originally found in researching about arming teachers with guns was a webpage that was geared to promote a "safe schools" business. This ThinkAloud helped me see that, when I probably would have accepted it as a reliable source of information.
It is important to provide students with information literacy skills in the digital age because things are not always what they appear. My article looked innocent in nature; however, when I looked into the background of the site and author, it revealed a commercial aspect to its information. It is important for students to be able to find the validity and reliability of a webpage/website. This project is a great learning experience for information literacy. Students would learn more about the reliability and validity of information through this project better than they would trying to learn information literacy skills through a textbook. This project gave me access to websites that helped prove or disprove the validity of websites, as well as see the history and background of the website. This delves deeper into using information literacy rather than reading a textbook and trying to research its validity or reliability of information. This is an authentic learning project that teaches information literacy skills instead of students just reading about how to gain information literacy skills.
- How do you feel about using web-based resources instead of textbooks
in school?
I believe
that Web-based resources are just as reliable or valid as textbooks. With
either resource, there can be flaws or errors. The only issue I foresee is the
accessibility for web-based resources for students. Some students do not have
access to the internet, except through school. However, if it is just using
web-based materials like I do (grabbing lessons and projects online and turning
them into paper-based activities for the students), then I agree that web-based
resources is so much nicer to teach with than the traditional textbook.
- What opportunities for the development of information
literacy skills for students if they began to learn without textbooks?
There is so much information available on the
Internet that students would have to learn information literacy skills in order
to appropriately decipher and sift through all the information. Students have
to be critical consumers of information in order to validate the reliability of
the source. Students don’t do that with textbooks, but they would have to learn
with web-based materials. They assume that what is in their textbooks are
correct and factual. However, what they don’t know is that teachers often find
at least one error in their textbooks that they use.
- How do these articles change or support your stance on using
Wikipedia as learning resources in the classroom?
After
reading the articles, it just emphasizes my opinion on using web-based
resources instead of textbooks within the classroom. “Lessons become clearer
when I link the topic to an issue that affects them personally” (Ruth, 2005) . This is a lot
easier to do with web-based materials. Teachers are freer to innovate and
create relevant, real-world problems for their students. Within my own
classroom, textbooks collect dust as I grab resources from the Internet to use
with the class. The only thing that students use my textbooks for is when they
need something to study right before an exam and want extra examples that they
can’t get at home, because they don’t have Internet access.
Tamim
Ansary proves my point when stating that “the possibilities are endless. And
shouldn’t endless possibility be the point” (Ansary, 2004) . Tamim was a school
book editor for a number of years. The process she had to go through is exhausting
work. Doing web-based resources, not only would be less work, but would also
teach students how to be informational consumers. Web-based resources have a
dual purpose in instruction that the traditional textbook could never reach. I’m
not saying that we should “throw the baby out with the bath water”. Textbooks
can still be a good source of information, but it doesn’t have to be the main
avenue of learning.
4.
Find an image that relates
to information literacy and schooling. Embed the image in your blog
and provide proper attribution.
By Victoriacrews at en.wikibooks [CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Ansary, T. (2004, November 10). A Textbook Example
of What's Wrong with Education. Retrieved June 8, 2013, from Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/muddle-machine
Ruth, G. (2005, February 8). No Books, No Problem:
Teaching Without a Text. Retrieved June 8, 2013, from Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-without-text
How interesting that you learned really quickly to get rid of the textbook (for the most part). I agree that using resources from the internet can be tailored to students real world needs and then makes it more relevant. I'm curious how much extra time it took to find other resources? Is there a couple go-to websites you use?
ReplyDeleteI create my lessons through the use of Internet resources as well, but it can be an issue when a student is absent and does not have
ReplyDeleteInternet access at home. Internet is something that I think highschool students need these days for homework purposes to implement this process fully. We have 90 minute classes and it makes it difficult to get a student caught up with their class work when they miss in-class time and cannot work on it at home. This does put some students to a disadvantage, but this is providing them with the needed real-world experience.
I agree with your post, you make some great points. I especially liked how using web- based materials allows teachers to be "freer to innovate and create relevant, real-world problems for their students." This is a very good point, so often we are bound by CSOs and book outlines that freedom can be hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all your comments. Specifically, "Students have to be critical consumers of information in order to validate the reliability of the source. Students don’t do that with textbooks, but they would have to learn with web-based materials. They assume that what is in their textbooks are correct and factual." Students are exposed to a vast variety of information through web-based resources. It is important they can determine what information is useful and what is just "fluff".
ReplyDeleteThe issues of home Internet access for students is really about social inequities.
ReplyDeleteThere are places in the U.S in which everyone is provided free Internet access through the city. This is paid for of course by taxes but it a good use of taxes I think.