Information literacy/Critical literacy

Today's classroom topic and discussion was interesting, and whilst I think it is important to explicity teach critical literacy, a part of me feels that the topic is so broad, that to do it justice as means that it has to be taught in an on-going fashion. Teachers also need to be intuitive as to where are the gaps with how children approach their IT research etc.

From the curriculum framework (1998)
"Students recognise when and what information is needed, locate and obtain it from a range of sources and evaluate, use and share it with others".

In respect to the concept that a person needs a baseline of information in order to evaluate the authenticity or accuracy of material, I do not think it is that simple. Instead, in many instances it would be better to teach students which sites can be trusted. A great activity would be to get students to find examples of good 'accurate' information and information that is dubious, then get the children to work out for themselves how to make sound judgements and develop a "ready reckoner". I suggest a sample topic could be "which manufacturer of cars is better, Holden or Ford?". Of course, the students will go to all sorts of sites bagging each...but then they will also discover sites that give accurate objective information and statistics.

In Uni we learn about cochrane reviews, peer reviewed journal articles, and the tier system for ranking research, statistical significance co-efficients etc ( I am rusty....can't quite recall the terminology). What is the benchmark for "how accurate is accurate" for primary school children? Provided that it is not an outright lie or miss truth, is the information ok?

On the place of print literacy;text speak;hypertext literacy; chat and microblogging

The place of print literacy: As a collector of old children's books, and many enjoyable hours spent reading to my kids, I could not imagine a world with out books. Perhaps it is possible to cuddle up on a cold winter's night and use wireless to download a novel this ....but it is not quite the same is it? It is also difficult to be at the hairdressers or wait in a Doctor's/Dentist surgery and hook up your laptop. (Ok, maybe I don't have enough pre-prepared stuff on my mobile, or MP3! )No matter the age of the Readers' Digest or Woman's weekly, you would rather pick that up than sit doing nothing.


Print literacy will always have a place, however I expect will become less common for things like newspapers.


If digital advertising replaced the junk mail, that would be a blessing. An interesting posting on the topic can be found at http://www.redant.co.uk/community/blogs/print-in-the-digital-era/
And another that looks at encouraging a love of reading in the digital era http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2004/pdfs/ocallaghan.s.paper.pdf



Netspeak and Textspeak: Txting teh Gr8 DB8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting_the_great_debate David Crystal is quoted

"Typically, less than 10% of the words are abbreviated in text messages.
Abbreviating is not a new language; instead, it has been present for many decades.
Children and adults both use text language, the latter being more likely to do so.
Students do not habitually use abbreviations in their homework or examinations.
Texting is not a cause of bad spelling because people need to know how to spell before they can text.
Texting improves people's literacy, as it provides more opportunity for people to engage with the language through reading and writing. "

I think ability to use text speak interchangeably with SAE is a sign of intelligence. Many professions develop their own shorthand and jargon; Universities, the Defences, are form my observation the greatest generators and users of acronyms.

As a teacher, it is important to teach critical literacy and the appropriateness of when and where text speak should be used. It is not appropriate in CV's, professional reports, or formal letters, it is appropriate in SMS, MSN to friends. Having been a POS, PIR, POS I think teachers could also educate parents on the meanings of what their kids are writing by advising of some good translation websites.

Use of Chat/Instant Messaging in the classroom. Use of these things, provided that they are used as tools to enhance learning are powerful tools to motivate student learning. Students can chat to students in other parts of the world. This would be suitable to mid to upper primary classes. NSW has developed guidelines.

Instant messaging and facebook, seems that to date, does not need to be taught! Kids have been picking the skills up in their own time. Likewise I am not an advocate of facebook in the school environment. Certainly instant messaging when responding or replying to comments in a collaborative learning project such as blogs, and wikis is appropriate - again, it needs to linked to learning outcomes and have structure.

The notion of continuous partial attention syndrome being a product of new technology is a reality of the world we live in. The Y generation is all about connectivity and relationships.... less priority on productivity. I think this topic would be a lively debate for a Year 7 class.

Microblogging. Students should have the opportunity to learn effective use of microblogging, things like twitter are a fantastic way to readily share information and thereby increase exposure to new material - everyone can share the same learning journey. Gone are the days when students relied on a few books in the library to base their project on. Setting up parameters is important e.g. every student to find two references not older than 5 years and text to the others in their group.