Group items tagged

TRAILS-9, which stands for Tools for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literary Skills, uses multiple questions to assess the information literacy skills of students based on sixth- and ninth-grade standards. The free site, which is a project of the Institute of Library and Information Literacy Education, was developed to give library media specialists a tool to identify strengths and weaknesses of their students' information-seeking abilities.

In collaboration with several content area organizations, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills developed a series of ICT Literacy Maps illustrating the intersection between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy and core academic subjects including English, mathematics, science and social studies (civics/government, geography, economics, history). The maps enable educators to gain concrete examples of how ICT Literacy can be integrated into core subjects, while making the teaching and learning of core subjects more relevant to the demands of the 21st century.

In a world of information overload, it is vital for students to not only find information but also determine its validity and appropriateness. Our information literacy material demystifies the process of finding and validating online information. These vital skills are needed as students prepare for our global economy.

AB 307 charges districts to "educate pupils and teachers on the appropriate and ethical use of information technology in the classroom, Internet safety, avoiding plagiarism, the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright so that pupils can distinguish between lawful and unlawful online downloading, and the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing."

This bill shows up as additional items in the planning criteria found in the EETT grant applicationCalifornia Education Code Section 51871.5, -- legislation, monitoring student internet use, ethical use of educational technology in the classroom, information literacy, aspects of information literacy/Internet safety, cyber-bullying, research studies and reports.

Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically. DIF involves knowing how digital information is different from print information; having the skills to use specialized tools for finding digital information; and developing the dispositions needed in the digital information environment. As teachers and librarians develop these skills and teach them to students, students will become better equipped to achieve their information needs.

This is a wiki being built for a digital literacy program for teachers within a school division. This approach is a great one for districts and is a way to reach everyone with current information. I also wish they had a blog to compliment it, but sharing these sorts of websites are great.\n\nIt would be nice if we had a template of information that people could copy to get started.

Website that a district is using for professional development and digital literacy for their teachers. Does your district have a wiki?

School Library Journal [Jan 07] Practical advice from attorney and cybersafety expert, Nancy Willard, on a common sense approach to online safety. Nancy proposes that library media specialists add "stranger literacy" to their curriculum for information literacy to help teens and children learn to assess the safety and trustworthiness of online encounters. She also offers helpful guidelines.

With Photoshop's ease in alteration of photos, students need to be taught to authenticate visual and textual information as part of any good digital literacy program. A recent photograph of Iranian missles was displayed by many prominent news organizations (including the BBC, the L.A. Times, and the New York Times) before it was noted that portions of the dust clouds beneath the missiles were identical. Online news sites have been abuzz all morning, engaged in a debate over what, exactly, this means. As the New York Times notes, this is not the first time Iran's state media has altered photographs for political ends.

How media smart are you? How about your children or students? Sometimes called media literacy or information literacy, it's a key 21st Century skill because it provides a framework and method to think critically about the media you consume and create. Being media smart also means you know how to use television, the Internet and other technologies safely, productively and ethically.

This excellent video from Temple University's Digital Media Education Lab illustrates the reasons why media literacy educators are at the forefront of the user rights movement because of their reliance on the use of copyrighted materials in their teaching. We see how teachers' confusion about copyright affects the quality of teaching and learning, the ability to share innovative teaching practices, and students' understanding of the law. Download the report, "The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy" for more information.

Comprehensive literacy lesson plans and student materials from any content in minutes from ClassTools.net

Use this BBC video [4/1/07] as an icebreaker when teaching information literacy and digital citizenship. It will prompt a great conversations about the importance of critical thinking when examining information on the Web. [With thanks to Jane Krauss for the clever idea...]

The test, iCritical Thinking Certification, created by the Educational Testing Service and Certiport, reveals whether or not a person is able to combine technical skills with experiences and knowledge. Today's students need to be able to think critically and effectively solve problems while using technology going beyond simply searching for information. They also must evaluate the legitimacy of the information, put it in context, and then apply problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Project Information Literacy (PIL) is ongoing research project, based in the University of Washington's Information School. We are currently collecting data from early adults enrolled in community colleges and public and private colleges and universities in the U.S. The goal is to understand how early adults conceptualize and operationalize research activities for course work and "everyday life" use and especially how they resolve issues of credibility, authority, relevance, and currency in the digital age.

Anyone can make a website. How do you know whether or not to trust what you read online?This Information Literacy project from CTAP Region 3 was funded by a grant from the American Library Association.

CyberSmart! provides five free videos, produced by high school students to stimulate discussion on topics relating to information literacy, cyber safety and ethics. Each of these 30 second engaging and humorous videos may be used both for professional development and in the classroom:

An academic research team -- joining people from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland -- is hosting and working on the core of this wiki, which illustrates the beginning stages of a larger research project on Digital Natives. The site offers a wealth of information in 10 topic areas:
Digital Identity, digital safety, digital privacy, digital creativity, digital opportunities, digital information overload, digital information quality, digital piracy and digital education.

Do Internet search engines point us to the information that we need or confuse us with irrelevant or questionable information? How can Internet users improve their searches to find reliable information? are some ways to perform effective searches? In this lesson, students conduct Web searches on open-ended questions, and draw on their experiences to develop guides to searching effectively and finding reliable information online.

This was a grant obtained by University of Pittsburgh [2001] to promote service-learning as a model for dissemination of Information Technology Literacy. Note that the grant has concluded and site information has not been updated since January 2007.

Full Middle school Curriculum in three strands: Safety and Security, Digital Citizenship, and Research and Information Literacy