My, how things have changed...

When I began teaching eighteen years ago my students needed to be able to read, comprehend what they read, and write intelligibly and legibly to be considered literate. During the twelve year hiatus I took to raise my children, the world of literacy became something I was no longer familiar with. I thought I was, but I was so wrong, on so many levels. Literacy has not only changed for our students, it has changed for the teachers and administrators as well; the sad part is that many of them do not yet realize they have been left behind. Without the opportunity to learn through my Walden University courses, I am afraid I would be one of those left behind. Literacy now requires that one be able to recognize the material needed to fulfill the void, the ability to locate and validate that material, and the skills to bring it all together and present it in a comprehensible way (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). These are the new literacy skills that today’s students are in need of to be considered knowledgeable and educated. To do my part as an educator, I must become literate according to these standards, even if it means I learn right alongside my students.
Through this Walden University course, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, I have seen the value of the new defining requirements of literacy. We are at the mercy of our own imaginations when we try to identify the world our students will enter after school, but we do know it will be different from our own. Jukes and Macdonald (2007, p.1) quote Thomas Friedman as saying “we are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems we haven’t begun to think about….[therefore] the definition of what it means to be educated in the light of the modern world has changed and continues to change.” Dr. Warlick (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009a) concurs when he states that we are preparing our students for an unpredictable future, so we must stop teaching them how to be taught and teach them how to find and access the resources to go and do what they need to do.
Information is no longer power, knowing how to find information is the key to succeeding today. To begin the process, students must know the right questions that will direct their search. Dr. Armstrong (Laureate Education, Inc., 2009b) believes that students who know how to investigate will go beyond the classroom walls, will think creatively, will think outside the box, and will eventually find answers to questions we have not yet been able to answer. The essential questions will begin the inquiry process.
There are many steps to evaluating the resources our students will be searching through, and the REAL strategy (November, 2008) provides a scaffolded four-step process that enables users to 1) read the URL of the online sites, 2) examine the content found within these sites, 3) ask questions to authenticate the author and owner of the site, and 4) link forward and back to validate the information and site. By teaching these steps to my students, I will equip them with tools to become independent users of online resources. Once these conditions have been met, taking the information and making it his own becomes the responsibility of the user as a means of synthesizing the data. This is actually a series of procedures rather than a single one, as “most assignments involve more than one Synthesis action…” (Darrow, 2005, p. 28). Every time the student takes information from a variety of sources and creates his own understanding, he is synthesizing the information, or making it his own. It requires the student to do more than just recall the data she read, it takes her to a higher-level of understanding as she “personalizes the text by integrating words and ideas with [her] own thoughts and questions” ( Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 199). This process begins with activating prior knowledge as a foundation, but continues as the user skims texts, determines the main or important ideas, and then formulates them into her own.
The final step into inquiry based learning calls for the student to transform the collected information and produce a representation of the data. By allowing students a wide berth in their selection of approaches, their participation and involvement will increase along with their interest. This is a means of “expanding the boundaries of learning for …students” that November (2008) believes will “connect them to authentic audiences and challenge them to create work that can have an impact around the world” (p. 79). These may include such technological opportunities as blogging, podcasts, threaded discussions, or emails, or the student may choose to go with a more multimedia project such as webpage design, video recording, or digital storytelling. These are just a few of the tools available for students and teachers alike in which to learn, participate, and expand their skills.
Though I am far from mastering many of these new literacy skills, I have taken the first step in realizing the needs my students have for learning them. I have practiced them and will continue to work on mastering them, even if I have to do it along with my students. Modeling my own learning will not only encourage my students, but will provide an example of life-long learning that they should all aspire to. These are no longer extra-curricular activities that students should be offered if interested, but are now necessary skills to guide them into becoming educated adults ready to enter their workforce.




References
Darrow, R. (2005, October). Synthesis can take many forms. Library Media Connection, 24(2), 28.
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for internet inquiry
(Solving problems in teaching of literacy). New York: The Guilford Press.
Jukes, I., & Macdonald, B., (2007). 21st century fluency skills: Attributes of a 21st century
learner. Retrieved from http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts/twca.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009a). Program two. New literacies [Motion
picture]. Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom.
Baltimore: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009b). Program three. Essential questions in inquiry
projects [Motion picture]. Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the
classroom.Baltimore: Author.
November, A. C. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.