In an effort to identify key/essential understandings of teaching about information, I decided to experiment by using the prompts in Figure 6.3, “Identifying Essential Questions and Understandings” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 137). In the interest of space, I focused on five of the nine questions.
Topics and Big Ideas:
Everyone has to access and use information. There are more effective and less effective ways of doing so. Likewise, there is more valuable and less valuable information when applied to fulfilling a specific need.
Why study about information use? So what?
Anytime we are presented with a problem in life, we will seek out information to solve that
problem. We might as well consider how we will go about getting the information we need, so as to not waste our time, money, energy, etc. repeatedly by ignoring the skills related to accessing and using information well.
problem. We might as well consider how we will go about getting the information we need, so as to not waste our time, money, energy, etc. repeatedly by ignoring the skills related to accessing and using information well.What makes the study of using information universal?
By nature, information use is universal because it will play a role in every aspect of our lives. In education, we learn information from teachers and textbooks, and are expected to find and evaluate information on our own to fulfill our assignments. In our careers, we have specific tasks to accomplish, which will require us to access information. In our personal lives, we will have daily decisions, some requiring substantial thought, research, and evaluation.
What’s the Big Idea implied in the skill or process of information use?
The implied Big Idea is that we are not all inherently good at accessing, evaluating and using information. We have to make a conscience decision to improve in this area and work toward developing pertinent skills.
What larger concept, issue, or problem underlies information use?
One of the main problems of information use is the overwhelming nature of accessing information. There is so much irrelevant information through which one must sift in order
to find what is needed. There are also many different avenues for accessing information (different types of books, different websites on the internet, friends/family, personal experiences, etc.). It can be difficult to decide which avenue to choose for a specific information need.
to find what is needed. There are also many different avenues for accessing information (different types of books, different websites on the internet, friends/family, personal experiences, etc.). It can be difficult to decide which avenue to choose for a specific information need.What couldn’t we do if we didn’t understand how to use information?
If we didn’t understand how to use information, we might make uninformed choices and miss out on opportunities. We might have misunderstandings or misinformation if we get our information from inappropriate sources. We may not be able to solve a problem if we cannot find the information we need on which to base our decision.
Essential Questions:
- How do you know if the information you found is accurate and appropriate to answer your question?
- Are there more efficient and less efficient ways of searching for information?
- How do you determine where you should search for information in order to answer a specific problem?
Understandings:
- The decisions we make daily require us to use information, and our ability to make decisions is improved when we are skilled at finding, evaluating, and putting information to use.
- Some sources of information are unreliable, so we should consider the validity of the information we encounter and the sources providing it.
Reflection: I think I need more practice with this. It was somewhat difficult because the topic was so general. It may have been better to have chosen a particular setting or context for a lesson on information use and then to answer the questions related to that. Nonetheless, I think it was a valuable exercise to try.
As for information literacy, I sometimes get hung up on the idea of how pervasive information use is in society, and yet how foreign the concept of developing information literacy skills is to the general population. On the other hand, is the concept of information literacy foreign, or is it actually so deeply ingrained in daily activities that people don’t consider it to be a topic worth exploring (i.e. because they feel like they find the information they need on a daily basis and get by fine without giving it much thought)? I wonder…
[LIBR250 Prompt: What are the key understandings in teaching about information? Include thoughts on the nature of information and the nature of literacy.]
References
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
9 comments:
Very thought-provoking last paragraph. I think there are multiple facets to the lack of awareness for information literacy as a discipline:
1. Many people look at the scope of the web and its relative ease of use and conclude that you really can find everything online and that it doesn't require any special instruction.
2. Sometimes people conclude that if information can't be found easily, it doesn't exist or isn't important, so they give up on the process rather than reconsider their methods. (I'm often amazed at how often someone will ask a question, but when I propose looking it up, will say, "Nah, it's not that important.")
3. I think there's a major disconnect between how people are taught to locate information in academic contexts and how they look for information in their daily lives. They don't perceive any overlap between the two, so they keep each in its own separate sphere, and never the twain shall meet.
These are just some of my preliminary thoughts, but I'm totally open to more ideas.
#3 is what really baffles me. Should there be more of a connection between the way people search for information for academic purposes and the way people search in their daily lives?
If we're teaching information literacy in an academic environment, don't we want the skills to be transferable to the daily lives of every student? From our reading in UbD, this ability to transfer skills from one setting to another constitutes real understanding--so it seems important.
I can't answer any of this, but I do certainly wonder about it.
I think a lot of it is that people perceive a disconnect between "school" information and "real life" information. They keep the contexts very separate. And schools sort of foster that feeling of separation. In some cases, doing well in school really does only help you in school....
Longer response later, but for now a brief response to the exchange above. I've been thinking lots recently about how many steps there can be to accessing databases i.e. "school" information--it really can be prohibitive. I remember the librarian at my old school showing kids how to get to the school's library homepage, find the databases button on the screen, giving them her password (!!) to get into the local public library's databases in case they didn't have their cards with them. THEN she was ready to give a lesson on how to use the databases. There were so many steps involved that I'm sure a less motivated student would just give up. I just created an iGoogle site for one of my other classes where I created a link to various databases, including those from my local public libraries as well as my current school site. I let Firefox remember the library password (I know that's probably awful--someone can let me know just how bad this is in a response), and I can't tell you HOW satisfying it is to have such easy access to high quality information. Maybe this is really basic, but to me it's really big. I mean, findability is something we're supposed to be concerned with, right?? Thanks for raising this question, Kimberly.
Kathleen: Good point about how much more difficult it can be to access databases and find "quality" information. Findability is a key thing, which is part of why a lot of people rely so heavily on Wikipedia: it's right there.
I totally concur with your last paragraph. Although I can see the value of information literacy, there is something slightly contrived about the whole enterprise. Not to mention that the IL competency standards are so exhaustive as to challenge the viability of the process. I do not mean to be negative, but librarians are too low on the food chain to wield the kind of power necessary to bring IL to the masses. OK, I am being a bit facetious, but…
@ Kathleen – I often wonder if we work too hard to get patrons to understand OUR process, rather than adjusting the process to better fit our patrons. You bring up a perfect example of this.
@ evole – The information literacy standards are exhaustive, aren’t they?! On the one hand, we complain when librarians/teachers are too narrow in their approach and focus on only one aspect of information literacy, and yet on the other hand, it seems practically impossible to tackle the whole topic. Perhaps with one’s own children, there is more time to develop information literacy skills over time, but I agree with you that our power is fairly limited in other environments. And yet we can't simply give up the fight, can we?
@shelfninja. Your comment reminded me of a cartoon I once saw (of course, I cannot find it again to save my life!). It's a drawing of a library with the title: Public Library, It's like Wikipedia, except it takes 3 hours. I often find myself agreeing with this! (Of course, Wikipedia sometimes has great sources at the bottom, so it isn't all unusable.)
I still have not found in my life that I can completely avoid actually, physically going to the library. Even if Google Books someday succeeds in putting all books from all time on their site, there's something magical that happens while browsing through a physical academic library and having something catch your eye that would never have crossed your mind to browse online.
Have you guys ever read Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson? He actually presents the opposite idea, that librarians are the (evil) overlords of all information and have kept ordinary people in the dark about "facts" for ages. One example: Dinosaurs are still around. So, I know this is kind of silly, but it's a really cool way to imagine the world. Maybe librarians have more power than we recognize.
While reading these standards, my head starts spinning, but I really believe that when we know the basic principles, a lot of it comes naturally. And I know that teachers as well as librarians are all trying to pass this stuff along. It's not just librarians against the information vacuum! It's a collaboration, ideally.
@ Casandria - Yes, I have read Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. Although entertaining, I hope people don't really think librarians are evil gatekeepers of information who are committed to keeping real information from the public! Even though the book is all in fun, I think that some people actually do believe this, unfortunately. :(
Post a Comment