Final Reflection - Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

“What are we doing to prepare our students for their future and not our past?” (Laureate Education, 2009) was a question asked by Hartman in our first video. Hartman (Laureate Education, 2009) states that “Literacy is evolving” and will be rooted in digital media.

As a high school teacher, I feel I need to prepare my students to enter the ‘real-world’ whether they are going to enter the work force or attend college. Wherever my students go, they will be thrown into a world where digital media is the norm and not the exception. The days of teacher lectures and student worksheets are fading quickly.

Information is so readily available online. The new literacies involving digital evaluating and synthesizing will be areas that I address often with my students. Although I knew there were hoaxes online, I guess I never realized how real these sites could look….saving the rennets, getting a computer tan and saving the tree octopus. These sites could look very real to a person who does not analyze the information carefully. Phillips (Laureate Education, 2009) gave some good examples of things and steps to follow when examining websites.

Although I have given my students projects over the years, through this course I have taken a look at how the projects have changed. Everything used to be done with pencil, paper, markers, poster board, and the list could go on. Now we find ourselves creating and accepting projects that are done almost exclusively online. Looking back at the projects I have assigned, I realized that I was the one providing all the questions. Completing the inquiry based unit for this class, I have experienced a revelation! I plan to use the skills from this class to guide my students through creating, researching and answering the questions they develop.

Mid-January I will be moving into a renovated building that has been upgraded to support technology in the classroom. My goal is to use the technology I will now have in my classroom to the fullest potential. I feel sure I will find myself spending many hours searching and evaluating sites that will assist me in creating a digital friendly and enriched environment for my students. My plan is to move away from the traditional style classroom where I am doing all the work (lecturing, working examples, etc.) and turn the learning over to the students. Through hard work, help from others, and cooperation of students I hope to become a facilitator of learning and not a mouthpiece of learning!

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author