Information Literacy and Online Inquiry - A Reflection

Over the course of my masters degree in integrating technology into the classroom, I continue to be amazed with the skills that are needed for students in the 21st century classroom.

• Describe the most striking revelation you had about the teaching of new literacy skills to your students as a result of this course.

The new literacy skill of group projects surprises me the most. As a music teacher, the majority of the work done in class is on the group level, so this should be no surprise. Collaboration and self-motivation are two key elements needed to rehearse and perform an ensemble piece of music, but are overlooked or ignored when it comes to creating a group project. (Jukes, 2007) Group projects are an effective tool for helping students learn personal skills that will benefit them in many ways in a 21st century workforce. (Jukes, 2007)

• Describe how the knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence your teaching practices going forward.

Learning about the QUEST model for online inquiry will have a major impact on my teaching practices in the future. (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007) For myself, internet research has been more on a novice level even though I consider myself a proficient user of technology. Watching my students struggle with research like I did confirmed for me the importance of these skills. By taking the time to teach students how to effectively question, understand, evaluate, synthesize and transform online research, students will ultimately be able to communicate their findings in a more precise and creative manner. In a 21st century environment, these skills will be critical.

• Identify at least one professional development goal you would like to pursue that builds upon your learning in this course and develops your own information literacy or technology skills. Describe the steps you will take to accomplish this goal.

One professional development goal I have will be to take the skills learned in this course and move them to the fluency level. In doing so, I will be able to model these skills for my students on a continuous basis. One way I plan to accomplish this goal is by introducing more projects within my teaching that will give my students the opportunity to learn and use many of the new literacy skills on a regular basis.

By nature, I am an inquisitive person. I thoroughly enjoy learning the history of a song or finding out how something works. The internet opened many avenues for me to learn unique and interesting facts as well as be able to share them with my students. By learning how to focus a search and synthesize the results, the internet becomes an invaluable tool not only for inquisitive minds like mine, but for my students as well. Gone are the days of one or two books on a library shelf with limited information. Giving my students online inquiry skills gives them the keys to a future that is bigger than they could ever imagine.


Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Jukes, I. (2007). 21st century fluency skills: Attributes of a 21st century learner. Retrieved from http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/twca.pdf

Podcast idea...hmmm.....

I know this really has nothing to do with our next assignment...at least I don't think it does. But it was an idea and I wanted to share.

I had a thought this weekend about a way I can get technology into the hands of my students beyond the blog. Later on in this course, we will have to create a podcast. The recording part is the least of my concerns. It is the converting to MP3 and uploading I'm not so sure about. I'm sure I will learn more as I move through the class. But all our recent discussion about technology in the classroom and its importance got me thinking. How do I actually put it in the hands of my students? A podcast is what I came up with, for now.

I am going to have all my students create a podcast. Their assignment will be to research their favorite music artist. We just finished a similar assignment in choir, but my students were assigned a specific person to research. This time, they'll get to choose.

1. Research their artist.
2. Create a written report/speech that presents all the details
3. Record
4. Upload

Now all I have to figure out is how to get it uploaded to the internet and post it on my school blog.

I'm very excited about this. In reality, it has nothing to do with what we are studying next in music, but it gives my students a chance to share who they like and why and then share it with world via our blog.

What do you think?

Kerry


Hey, maybe when I get smarter about Wikis, they could upload their written detail there...