Session 2, Oct. 28, 2008 discussion highlights by the PLC of 11 staff members
Discussion focused around book’s chapter 3– Get REAL: How to Validate Information on the Web.
Key questions raised – What’s your source REALLY? And So what – What matters?
Important and random ideas shared and discussed by 8 participants included:
Discussion about preparing ORMS Spotlight application
PLC will meet on November 12 8 -9 to fill out application; expect to meet in the conference room.
Discussion about an Alan November annual conference – Expanding the Boundaries of Learning – Boston, MA, July 29-31. We will consider it further during our next meeting to determine interest in attending.
Discussion about the presence of the literacy blog from the ORMS loading page and how to keep the discussion going by adding comments between our face to face discussion times; some members will need to create Blogger accounts to directly participate and can see Danielle, Cathy, or Ellen for further assistance in doing this.
Chapter 3 Discussion
Decoding the grammar of the web:
REAL: Read the URL, Examine the content, Ask about the author and owner, Learn!
Experience with teen at home revealed a difference in approach as a result of applying techniques and incite from chapter 1 &2: rather than making student defensive or feeling challenged resulting in teen/parent struggle, the teacher-parent posed questions including What’s your source? And what’s your source agenda? This goes beyond just citing a source and into the REAL matter of a source.
Students have an inherent sense of digital learning and this needs critical thinking awareness.
Web Literacy has raised our awareness - this book makes us realize that our responsibility as educators has been raised and this teaching cannot be ignored. Our teaching job includes providing web literacy skills and strategies, including teacher page links, and lessons on why critical thinking about the web is important.
ORCSD has a new backplan with standards to be met which is a good venue for wrapping this web literacy into and having building oversight in monitoring this.
Team/department discussions need to explore together how to make purposeful use of school provided online database use and web literacy awareness.
Part of meeting the need of web literacy is through common language – Web Literacy provides terms to develop for word wall/glossary of common understanding.
End of quarter exhibition of learning could include students demonstrating how they access information.
Can we enhance learning by integrating areas of learning? (Second session this has been raised).
Parents need to be informed; growing this awareness involves moving beyond an assumption that an adult would ‘know’ this information.
Currently, many students first criteria for picking a web site is readability level or being returned on the first page at the top (this equates to must be good information, without critical thinking).
Lots of information can be located through searches but “so what?” – information is not in and of itself useful – providing essential questions to provoke reflection and create new ideas as well as the process of learning is meaningful learning and sometimes missing in student assignments.
Reader expressed that it is exciting to know how to deconstruct and decode our URL use (through knowing about the web’s grammar, syntax, and cross-referencing).
Many expressed
wanting/needing time to play and learn and gain more comfortable experience by using sources provided by November in the book/through his site as links
How can we use our time to create more collaboration for learning? Wanting more conversations to light up learning for educators?
A fear expressed of not ‘getting the curriculum done by the end of the year’ was laid to rest as not a concern now or in the past by administration – we need to prioritize curriculum for today’s children. This involves considering what to master, simplifying lessons for learning and thinking less is more.
Consider good ideas, including differentiation of approach for our teaching.
A key focus of learning in school is helping students know ‘how to learn’.
wanting to better understand how to help kids and locate best places for them to learn from.
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4 comments:
Wow! 11 members...that is awesome. I can't wait to meet again everyone. --dbolduc
Here is a link to a blog discussion about digital literacy. The blog contributors are educators, and they raise some interesting issues.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/09/digital-literacy-comes-home.html
This link is to a blog written by one of the contributors to the above, but she takes it a bit further, and there is an interestin definition of "digital literacy" by David Warlick. Cathy
Woops! Here's the link mentioned above:
http://khokanson.blogspot.com/2007/09/define-digital-literacy.html
Ok, so I listened to a Will Richardson webinar for Edutopia, the title being: "Small World: How to Bring Your Students into the Global Classroom." It was outstanding... so much food for thought... can't condense it here other than a couple nuggets that spoke to me: In the world of 21st Century learning, students need to be creating, navigating, and growing their own learning networks in safe, effective, and ethical ways; -- It is not enough to post and publish to the web, it is what happens next that is the "networking"... it is creating through the "publishing" a reason for others to respond; -- And finally, he acknowledges that the whole web phenomenon and what we must do to shift our teaching is overwhelming, but to start the shift within yourself is where to begin. He says it all much more profoundly and I urge you to check out the notes from the webinar posted at: glefwebinar.wikispaces.com
Cathy
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