Reflection- App 8- EDUC-6712I-3 Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

In my reflections on this course, I have found myself in awe of the amount of knowledge and technologies available at my fingertips. The vast amounts of Web 2.0 tools and other technologies that have been created in recent years; can be a blessing, but daunting in the same respect. I believe it is my responsibility as an educator to utilize all opportunities to learn as many of these tools or methodologies to aid my students. It is imperative that we help children learn how they learn, so they can adapt and extend their knowledge and strategies when they encounter new tasks in new contexts (Eagleton and Dobler, 2007.) I believe using a variety of techniques allows students to identify and articulate which instructional methodologies best suit their learning style. This way they be an advocate for themselves and adjust and monitor their learning by themselves, and with help of the instructor.
This course has afforded me practice in using Web 2.0 tools, allowed me to comment on the acceptable use policy at my school, and how to validate websites for my students, as well. These practices are very important in this in preparing our students in this ever-changing digital age. It is imperative that our students know how, when, and where to locate useful information on the Internet, or on an Intranet, will become an increasingly important component of the literacy curriculum, especially because the availability of information resources and
search technologies is expanding rapidly, increasing the importance of effective search strategies (Leu, Kinzer, Coir, and Cammack, 2004.) I also believe that knowing how to effectively write and implement a unit plan can allow the educator to organize their thoughts and strategies to afford the best means of implementation for the students.
The one aspect of this course that I wish to pursue further is the tool was utilized in week four, a “think out loud” utilizing Jing. I believe this tool was a great way to allow visual learners to access the validity and reliability of websites with a Web 2.0 tool that the students may not have seen or utilized. I believe that modeling best practices in relation to website validity and the importance of Acceptable Use Policies, and Plagiarism laws is imperative in the classroom with all disciplines. Student need to give credit where credit is due and also know and understand the consequences of all of their actions in the realm of cyberspace (Laureate, 2009.) I hope to have my students use Jing next year to describe the different websites about biomes that their groups have encountered. This will be an engaging inquiry based project that will allow the students to think outside the box and practice working in a collaborative setting.

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.

Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the internet and other information and communication technologies. In Ruddell, R.B. & Unrau, N.J., (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed.). (pp. 1570–1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.