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"Twitter Literacy (I refuse to make up a Twittery name for it) Post-Oprah and apres-Ashton, Twittermania is definitely sliding down the backlash slope of the hype cycle. It's not just the predictable wave of naysaying after the predictable waves of sliced-breadism and bandwagon-chasing. We're beginning to see some data. Nielsen, the same people who do TV ratings, recently noted that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month. To me, this represents a perfect example of a media literacy issue: Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it. "

Using twitter effectively is a critical thinking skill. Howard describes this in detail.

"Information Skills Community of Practice" Welcome! ISCOP is the Information Skills Community Of Practice and is supported through the National Digital Learning Repository (NDLR) Project. ISCOP brings together people who share a passion for the advancement of information literacy.\n\nMembers of ISCOP can share news, experiences, learning resources and discuss ideas. ISCOP is open to all NDLR partners. The learning resources in the NDLR can be used by ISCOP members and contributions of resources are strongly encouraged.\n\nThis website will be a place for ISCOP members to keep up to date with new learning resources and technologies relevant to information literacy. It will also offer a means for members to communicate."

"Mike Eisenberg Big 6 1. Task Definition 1.1 Define the information problem 1.2 Identify information needed 2. Information Seeking Strategies 2.1 Determine all possible sources 2.2 Select the best sources 3. Location and Access 3.1 Locate sources (intellectually and physically) 3.2 Find information within sources 4. Use of Information 4.1 Engage (e.g., read, hear, view, touch) 4.2 Extract relevant information 5. Synthesis 5.1 Organize from multiple sources 5.2 Present the information 6. Evaluation 6.1 Judge the product (effectiveness) 6.2 Judge the process (efficiency) Posted on November 14th, 2007 in About Big6 by The Big6 Staff Mike Eisenberg is a teacher and mentor whose personal motto is, "make it better!" He is the founding dean of the Information School at the University of Washington, serving from 1998 to 2006. During his tenure, Mike transformed the unit from a single graduate degree program into a broad-based information school with a wide range of research and academic programs, including an undergraduate degree in informatics, masters degrees in information management and library and information science (adding a distance learning program and doubling enrollment), and a doctorate degree in information science. Mike's current work focuses on information, communications, and technology (ICT) literacy, information credibility, and information science education K-20. Mike is co-author of the "Big6 approach to information problem-solving" - the most widely used information literacy program in the world. Mike is a prolific author (9 books and dozens of articles and papers) and has worked with thousands of students-pre-K through higher education-as well as people in business, government, and communities to improve their information and technology skills. For more information about Mike Eisenberg here. Mike Eisenberg Dean Emeritus and Professor The Information School of the University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-2840 Phone: (206) 616-115

"Uses of Critical Thinking Critical thinking underlies reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These are the C basic elements of communication. Critical thinking also plays an important part in social change. Consider that the institutions in any society - courts, governments, schools, businesses - are the products of a certain way of thinking. Any organization draws its life from certain assumptions about the way things should be done. Before the institution can change, those assumptions need to be loosened up or reinvented. Critical thinking also helps us uncover bias and prejudice. This is a first step toward communicating with people of other races and cultures. Critical thinking is a path to freedom from half-truths and deception. You have the right to question what you see, hear, and read. Acquiring this ability is one of the major goals of a liberal education. Skilled students are thorough thinkers. They distinguish between opinion and fact. They ask powerful questions. They make detailed observations. They uncover assumptions and define their terms. They make assertions carefully, basing them on sound logic and solid evidence. Almost everything that we call knowledge is a result of these activities. This means that critical thinking and learning are intimately linked. Practice your right to question!"

We hear this everywhere - students should be doing "real-world" math and they should be applying what they learn in math to "real-world situations."

"As I talk with leaders in the education and librarian communities, I am, particularly bothered by reports of students who just paste information from Wikipedia or Google into their term papers and call it a day. No matter what search brand you are using, these reports mean that a generation of youngsters are growing up accepting that just the first few examples of information they see on their screens are sufficient, and a generation of teachers are spending time struggling to convince them they need good Internet research skills. "

"We also engineer critical thinking into our preschool material to help engage students and teach them organized analysis. Discussion and critical thinking questioning strategy lead to deeper analysis of content. This makes the learning process more about absorbing and reflecting on all facets of the material in a natural and curious state. Here are a few examples of questions that invoke informal reasoning: "Why did you select that one?" "How are these different?" "What happened when you?" "What would happen if you?" "What can you do to make… happen?" "How do you think s/he feels about what happened?" These types of questions develop critical thinking skills and stimulate verbal development as the children try to communicate their reasoning."

"Professor Michael Eisenberg Talks Critical Thinking Today Betsynote: I first ran into Professor Michael Eisenberg last fall when he was introduced to me by multiple folks - the MacArthur Foundation, local Seattle educators, and the NCCE conference organizers. When I chatted with him in his office (yes, I got lost, even though it was Mary Gates Hall as a landmark) I realized he had a long history of working with Internet literacy and critical thinking, and his pro-library/reference stance provided another insight into the discussion. He has his hand in many projects - university academia, educational research, his own company that creates educational resources, and a startup. Here's what he has to say on various issues around search and critical thinking…. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do now. I am currently Professor at the Information School of the University of Washington. I am the founding dean of the School, having stepped aside in 2006. I keep pretty busy these days-teaching (grads and undergrads); being principal investigator on 2 funded research projects - Project Information Literacy (funded by ProQuest and MacArthur), a large-scale study of the information habits of college students and Virtual Information Behavior Environments (funded by the MacArthur Foundation), studying information problem-solving in virtual worlds; giving numerous workshops and keynote presentations on information literacy, technology, and the information field; advising a number of doctoral students; and hanging out with my family, especially my 2 grandkids - ages 5 and 7."

control turning around failing schools? Hardly. Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein continue to run the New York City schools. Boston and Chicago mayors will still have their appointees overseeing schools. Business and civic leaders' faith that mayoral control is the key to "real" reform may be tarnished somewhat by D.C., Detroit, and Baltimore but it continues to entrance venture fund entrepreneurs and policy wonks inside the Beltway. Other mayors will learn from Fenty's loss that voters can turn on you if you fail to heed your community and give your

"The Florida Curriculum Framework for Language Arts says, "Students must learn how to locate, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, manage, and apply information from a variety of sources and media. They must learn how to communicate effectively in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes through many different media.""

The Age of Connection now takes its place alongside these earlier epochs in humanity's story. We are being retribalized, in the midst of rising urbanization. The dynamic individuality of the city confronts the static conformity of the tribe. This basic tension forms the fuel of 21st century culture, and will continue to generate both heat and light for at least the next generation. Human behavior, human beliefs and human relations are all reorganizing themselves around connectivity. It is here, therefore, that we must begin our analysis of the toolkit.

How to Disagree The web is turning writing into a conversation. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. The web lets readers respond, and increasingly they do-in comment threads, on forums, and in their own blog posts. Many who respond to something disagree with it. That's to be expected. Agreeing tends to motivate people less than disagreeing. And when you agree there's less to say. You could expand on something the author said, but he has probably already explored the most interesting implications. When you disagree you're entering territory he may not have explored. The result is there's a lot more disagreeing going on, especially measured by the word. That doesn't mean people are getting angrier. The structural change in the way we communicate is enough to account for it. But though it's not anger that's driving the increase in disagreement, there's a danger that the increase in disagreement will make people angrier. Particularly online, where it's easy to say things you'd never say face to face.

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate, and amplify the global conversation online - shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard. Millions of people are blogging, podcasting, and uploading photos, videos, and information across the globe, but unless you know where to look, it can be difficult to find respected and credible voices. Our international team of volunteer authors and part-time editors are active participants in the blogospheres they write about on Global Voices."

"The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality. The foundation's mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last. That ideal is today under strain. Our education and health care systems are struggling with problems of quality, cost and access. The country requires creative means to address its fiscal challenges and pay for needed public, social and environmental investments. Abroad, the United States has yet to fashion sustainable foreign and defense policies that will protect its citizens and interests in a rapidly integrating world. "

""Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection" by Neil Postman (Delivered at the National Convention for the Teachers of English [NCTE], November 28, 1969, Washington, D.C.)"