MAPping Information
My results from the Information Literacy Quiz labeled me as ‘somewhat savvy’. However, I feel that is a stretch in the areas of MAPping. I have struggled in the classroom to find good resources of information to guide my students with their research topics. The tutorial and activity that I selected on the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus helped me visualize a lesson to show my students the structure of websites; in hopes of giving direction to the questions of how they are created, what makes the information valid, and even, what is the best search engine for the research? Some curriculum only provides minimal support and examples for learning the topic at hand. Often times, I find that it is necessary to do my own research to provide extra, yet credible information to the students so they are able to grasp the ‘whole picture’. Thinking back on all my past searches, I fear some information I have presented to be false and not credible. After rummaging through the course notes and becoming more familiar with learning where and how to find credible sources, my confidence has grown as a researcher. I believe with these learned tools I will be able to provide assistance with helpful links and concrete facts to my students in the future.
I think it is a disservice to society not to teach our students the skills necessary to recognize a credible Internet source. My current students peck at the computer and have trouble maneuvering through results of a search. Even the term ‘search engine’ is foreign to them. As educators, we are already falling behind in technology and I think we are losing ground in the areas of reading, writing and arithmetic. Comprehension is the key to success with MAPping. The student or individual needs the skill to interpret what is real and what is not from the results provided. I would compare Meta-Web Information with phonemic awareness. Beginning readers need to learn how to decode by associating letters to sounds. Simply stated, beginning global learners need to learn how to decode information by associating the structure to fact or fiction.
My Delicious Account: http://delicious.com/klperry
I see many advantages to organizing my information with Delicious, as well as the other suggested social bookmarking applications. I watched the startup video for Stumble Upon and it seemed very easy to use. I have also tested out the Google Reader since recently joining google plus and linking all the technology created from this course. The main advantages to each is having all my regularly visited sites in one central location and having access to those sites just by an Internet account. Also, I have had a bit of time to search through stacks of other individuals and start following their bookmarks. It was interesting to see how many like-minded users shared the same links I had already bookmarked for myself. I see great opportunity for new ideas, research topics, discussion boards and general searching of all types of needed information. In the reading it stated that social bookmarking was just another place to mainstream information; however it is exactly what I was looking for to complete my organizational needs. I hope to be able to mainstream the curriculum research I find for each unit in science so I can incorporate the information into my lessons from anywhere at any time. This Web 2.0 site is great for organizers!
No comments:
Post a Comment