I have started thinking about final project ideas and so far I keep coming back to the idea of teaching a lesson on information seeking strategies. It seems that a lot of people in my library world are talking about how students' information seeking skills are lacking. There are many reasons that students are struggling with the development of these skills. Some students just do not want to take the time to search for information, other students really don't know where to look (besides Google and Wikipedia of course). I would like to develop a lesson that shows them HOW and WHERE to look for information. I also think this needs to be done in a more creative way than just giving them a topic to find information on and having them regurgitate that information back to you. I want to stress the PROCESS and not so much the actual information. I have been going back and forth (with myself) on what I want this lesson to look like but I think talking to colleagues about it might give me some clarity.
I haven't figured out which age group I would like to gear this towards. Right now I am working with K-12 students so I can really apply this skill to any and all of my students. I am curious to see if anyone has thoughts on this lesson or would like to collaborate with me for the final project.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Journey vs. Destination
Notes on Convergence Culture reading:
-Media Convergence
-Collective intelligence
-I had no idea Survivor had such an intense following. I am intrigued by this group of people.
-P. 54: Collective intelligence- it's not about possessing the information and knowledge, but more about HOW they got the information. PROCESS!
-Fantasy of empowerment
-powerful consumers
As I sit down to write I find myself keep going back to this one particular part of Jenkins' book. He states that what keeps a collective intelligence together is not just owning the knowledge and information but the process of obtaining it. This idea of process resonates with me because this is part of the challenge when teaching information literacy. I had a student come to the library this week looking for information on World War II. Obviously this is a very broad topic. I asked him some more specific questions about this topic hoping to find out where he was headed. I explained to him that we have various resources on World War II and we should use the catalog to find where they are located. Side note: Most of the students I work with have not ever used an OPAC before. As soon as I mentioned that I was going to show him how to find the WWII resources he was not interested in having me help him. "No, no, that's OK. I'll just go look on the shelves". I tried to explain to him how much time it would save him to learn where to find the information instead of blindly searching the shelves. I realized that he didn't really want my help, he just wanted me to show him where the books were that he could use. He wasn't interested in seeing what our collection had to offer on WWII, he just wanted me to hand him a book and say "here, this is about WWII, use this". I wanted to teach him HOW to find information and he just wanted to acquire the information. At times, the students I work with are not interested in the process of obtaining information. They would rather use Wikipedia as their primary resource because it's fast and easy to find information they are looking for.
I am working on developing a unit on the process of information acquisition. Ideally I would start this unit as early as possible in their educational careers. However, my main concern right now are the high school students who are moving on to college in the next few years. I feel that I can further develop their information seeking strategies so that their information literacy skills will be strong when entering the world of higher education.
-Media Convergence
-Collective intelligence
-I had no idea Survivor had such an intense following. I am intrigued by this group of people.
-P. 54: Collective intelligence- it's not about possessing the information and knowledge, but more about HOW they got the information. PROCESS!
-Fantasy of empowerment
-powerful consumers
As I sit down to write I find myself keep going back to this one particular part of Jenkins' book. He states that what keeps a collective intelligence together is not just owning the knowledge and information but the process of obtaining it. This idea of process resonates with me because this is part of the challenge when teaching information literacy. I had a student come to the library this week looking for information on World War II. Obviously this is a very broad topic. I asked him some more specific questions about this topic hoping to find out where he was headed. I explained to him that we have various resources on World War II and we should use the catalog to find where they are located. Side note: Most of the students I work with have not ever used an OPAC before. As soon as I mentioned that I was going to show him how to find the WWII resources he was not interested in having me help him. "No, no, that's OK. I'll just go look on the shelves". I tried to explain to him how much time it would save him to learn where to find the information instead of blindly searching the shelves. I realized that he didn't really want my help, he just wanted me to show him where the books were that he could use. He wasn't interested in seeing what our collection had to offer on WWII, he just wanted me to hand him a book and say "here, this is about WWII, use this". I wanted to teach him HOW to find information and he just wanted to acquire the information. At times, the students I work with are not interested in the process of obtaining information. They would rather use Wikipedia as their primary resource because it's fast and easy to find information they are looking for.
I am working on developing a unit on the process of information acquisition. Ideally I would start this unit as early as possible in their educational careers. However, my main concern right now are the high school students who are moving on to college in the next few years. I feel that I can further develop their information seeking strategies so that their information literacy skills will be strong when entering the world of higher education.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Skipping this week's blog...
I am using up one of my opportunities to skip a blog post. See you next week!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
What is critical librarianship?
Critical librarianship is not a topic I have thought much about until this class. I found myself thinking about it all week while at work. What does this mean for my practice as a Library Media Specialist? How do I define critical librarianship when working in a school library? Since beginning to think about what this means for this field, I think I realized that there might not be a single definition. This idea of critical librarianship is probably going to be an ever changing idea. With technology and educational practices changing so often, I have to imagine that our thoughts about critical librarianship will change along with them. So far these are the thoughts and questions I have about my practice as a critical LMS:
I am a teacher librarian above all else. Everyday I try to find new ways to teach information literacy skills. These teaching moments might be as simple as helping a first grader look for a book in the catalog or it might be helping an upper school student work through pages of research notes for a paper.
The library space should be a place that encompasses every type of literacy. Games, music, books, magazines, videos and internet access should be accessible to students. Perhaps some librarians think that a school library should be restricted to curriculum content. Why shouldn't the school library be a place where students can work and play? Obviously there are issues surrounding this idea. If the library offers music and games, will the students use the library for school work? Why does the school library have to be limited to curriculum content only? What about down time for students? Shouldn't the library be a place where they can explore? If public libraries offer these services, why can't school libraries?
It is well known that it is not easy to get teenage boys to read books. If the boys don't want to read books, does that mean the library has nothing to offer them? What about their other interests? Perhaps the definition of literacy needs to be redefined for these students.
Library as a community space: In a school, the library sometimes becomes a dumping ground for students who misbehave or have no place else to go. How can change that practice and make the space more open to all students, faculty and families? Hosting meetings and clubs in the library might help people see that it is more than a place that holds books.
I asked myself a lot of these questions this week. These are questions that I will think about as I continue to teach and think about the library as a place for students growing up in a digital age. I will most likely revisit this topic the more I think about it.
*A note about me: I am a librarian in an all boys school which is why I sometimes use "boys" instead of the general term "students".
I am a teacher librarian above all else. Everyday I try to find new ways to teach information literacy skills. These teaching moments might be as simple as helping a first grader look for a book in the catalog or it might be helping an upper school student work through pages of research notes for a paper.
The library space should be a place that encompasses every type of literacy. Games, music, books, magazines, videos and internet access should be accessible to students. Perhaps some librarians think that a school library should be restricted to curriculum content. Why shouldn't the school library be a place where students can work and play? Obviously there are issues surrounding this idea. If the library offers music and games, will the students use the library for school work? Why does the school library have to be limited to curriculum content only? What about down time for students? Shouldn't the library be a place where they can explore? If public libraries offer these services, why can't school libraries?
It is well known that it is not easy to get teenage boys to read books. If the boys don't want to read books, does that mean the library has nothing to offer them? What about their other interests? Perhaps the definition of literacy needs to be redefined for these students.
Library as a community space: In a school, the library sometimes becomes a dumping ground for students who misbehave or have no place else to go. How can change that practice and make the space more open to all students, faculty and families? Hosting meetings and clubs in the library might help people see that it is more than a place that holds books.
I asked myself a lot of these questions this week. These are questions that I will think about as I continue to teach and think about the library as a place for students growing up in a digital age. I will most likely revisit this topic the more I think about it.
*A note about me: I am a librarian in an all boys school which is why I sometimes use "boys" instead of the general term "students".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
