1/22/07
Abilock Article
In Debbie Abilock’s article, "Using Technology to Enhance Student Inquiry", three key points stand out. First, there is a clear need for collaboration on the part of teachers, administrators, librarians and technology resource specialists. Second, we as teachers need to make sure that our students are information literate through the use of technology. Finally, through technology we should teach our students the research and design process of finding, sorting and synthesizing information (Abilock, 2001).
Collaboration is important in all aspects of education. However, in terms of technology integration, it is essential. All teachers need to embrace change in instructional methods and the main way to keep up with the times is to keep on learning how to use new hardware and software to help students. Librarians, administrators and specialists need to work with teachers as well as model uses of technology for learning (Abilock, 2001). Also, it is important to have support available should a problem or question arise.
Information literacy is critical for our students in this day and age due to the ever changing world of communication technology. Students need to learn how to learn through the use of various technological tools as well as become lifelong learners in the process (Abilock, 2001). The only way to do this is if they are exposed to relevant and valid forms and uses of technology that are appropriate to their curriculum. “The challenge for students is to understand complex issues, develop an informed and defensible position, locate data supporting their point of view, recognize information that is relevant, and evaluate the authority of sources” (Abilock, 2001, p. 4).
Finally, students need to learn to use information and technology in an appropriate manner. As teachers we need to model acceptable behavior. Research and synthesizing information are skills that need to be practiced. Thankfully, we have a world wide web that offers access to billions of pieces of information. We must make our students aware of how to discriminate credible from false information.
We need to work as one in education in order to benefit our students. If we continue to ignore the ever changing technologies that surround us, then our students will not be competitive in a global market and workplace. Knowledge of how and when to use technology is critical. If we do not change our educational system to accommodate technological advances, then we will simply be left in the dust.
References
Abilock, D. (2001).Using technology to enhance student inquiry. In LeBaron,
J.F. & Collier C. (eds.). Technology in its place: Successful technology
infusion in schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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4 comments:
Do you have any strategies that you can share with us that will help us as teachers teach our students how to critically review content online? Do you use primary sources? Do you seek out quality Web sites to help students understand what is good and what is not? Do you work with your librarian to seek out information and to help teach your students about search strategies? How do you have students apply critical thinking skills to research?
This question is open to anyone! I would love to know.
21st century Literacy Skills AT&T Network
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/21stcent/index.html
Teaching Students to do Online Research http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=10810514
Learning and Teaching Information Technology--Computer Skills in Context. ERIC
Digest. http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=82
Hey Kevin! I think you hit on some very good key points. Support and collaboration seem to be a theme of the past two weeks.
I have had difficultly in getting my students to evaluate how reliable a souce is. I thought that modeling how to do a website evaluation and having them do their own would help. However, I must have missed something important along the way. They struggled with it. Have any suggestions?
I have found that a great resource for primary sources is the Library of Congress. www.loc.gov. I have also contacted them and they have sent me primary source kits that are relevant to topics in social studies such as the founding of Jamestown. The kits came with a class set. It was pretty cool.
Hi Kevin. I agree that collaboration is the key. Teachers, library staff, and tech specialists need to work together as one cohesive unit. It's a winning formula - the kids get a lesson enriched by extra hands and the school community stays connected.
We're very fortunate to have our library staff at Chancellor. They are very hands-on and a day doesn't go by that they aren't asking me what we're covering in class and how can they assist. A great example: currently we're studying the Harlem Renaissance. Each of my kids is creating a PowerPoint presentation on a different influential person of that era and they are required to cite sources and use parentheticals. The staff not only made sure the computers were available and pulled and held every reference source on the Harlem Renaissance that we had, they also headed presentations to my classes on how to use the library database and how to cite sources and citations using MLA. That is some awesome support! And of course the research machine won't function unless the tech specialists are working behind-the-scenes to make sure everything is up and running. Support like this gives us, as teachers, the room to be really creative with our lessons and really give the kids memorable, enriching activites.
I try to use primary and secondary sources when discussing topics about civics. I try to put my students into the viewpoint of each source and ask themselves questions about it. We often talk about the first amendment and how the internet is often cluttered with false information. With some help from my support staff in the library, my students are really learning to be more critical of what they read.
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