Technology is moving a little too fast for me I think. When I looked at the course outline for this unit, I had no idea what any of the topics were. I use the internet a lot, and rely on it a lot but never really thought about the different components. I've never used wikipedia as a reliable source of information, I've been told and told and told again to look for 'peer-reviewed journals'. However, I do use it for my own entertainment. And funnily enough, I generally believe the information I've read. I think that is my problem, I don't know if I was ever taught critical literacy in school. Or if I was, I wasn't paying attention. It took four years of uni to drill into me that I should be critical of what I read, including textbooks. However it's a cynical world you live in if you are suspicious of everything you read, some would say I'm already there. On the other hand, verifying the information on a wikipedia page could be an interesting lesson in critical literacy for a class. In terms of creating a class wiki, I like the example of the class that, group by group, added the course content to a class wiki to help them study. I could definitely see using such an approach in a middle to late primary school class. Perhaps the wiki could begin with a set of basic 'facts' and the students have to use their research to validate and expand on these claims. I don't know if I would have the discussion forum, as the children will be doing the work in class. However, perhaps they can comment on eachother additions to the site.
On a side note, as the storm of today has proven, when it comes down to it all you can rely on are candles and matches. And perhaps a radio until the battery dies.
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I agree Shayna it took a university education, particularly the research component of my course to learn critical literacy skills. I know we covered this in our literacy units, but I think the skills required for evaluating internet resources are the same. I would like to see some teaching points for teaching critical literacy.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting variation on the wiki idea, with aim of promoting critical literacy, would be for the teacher to create a wiki containing a number of errors, from the obvious to the subtle, which students have to find and correct.
ReplyDeleteMeredith, we'll cover information literacy (aka critical literacy) in more detail in a few weeks' time. Meanwhile, I've posted a few suggestions on the subject (including a brief response to one of your comments) at: http://misspwillow.blogspot.com/2010/03/wikis-turning-disadvantage-into.html
Can you do a sticky blog under the virtual fish, saying whence they came?
ReplyDeleteOn matters of more substance, as a critical info consumer, I calue Wikipedia as a starting point - an esoteric stuff it is often right, and has info only otherwise found in journals / textbooks you pay a packet to access. It gives the search terms one needs to get into the free technical info in government etc sites.
I think schools are daft to ban its use, and I think they will soon (10 years or less) accept it.
Julie
Sorry Julie, I thought I had replied to this already. The fish are one of the included 'gadgets' that come with Blogger that you can choose to add to your blog page. So if you are not using Blogger, I'm not sure how you get them sorry!
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