Information Literacy and Online Inquiry Reflection

My district has been utilizing the NETS teacher and student technology standards for the past several years but we have struggled with how best to facilitate the development of the associated 21st century skills. The Walden course, ‘Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom’ directly addressed this problem and provided numerous insights and strategies for teaching 21st century skills.

The QUEST model provides an efficient approach for incorporating the key literacy skills of questioning, understanding resources, evaluating, synthesizing and transforming information into authentic lessons (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). Through the process of designing a unit lesson plan, I now recognize the many opportunities there are daily in the classroom for students to develop and hone 21st century literacy skills. Looking back at my teaching career, I realize that I often provided students with quick answers and fact based lectures instead of designing learning environments that actively engaged them in researching information, synthesizing and transforming; ultimately resulting in increased depth of understanding. This approach also supports students in become more self-directed and confident in their individual ability to learn.

As a district level educational technologist, one of my primary goals this school year is to facilitate the development of 21st century skills in teachers and students throughout my district. I believe the learning unit I created in this course can effectively be incorporated into virtually any subject area and grade level and I plan on sharing it with the educators in my district. This past week, I worked with the school level educational technologists on a coordinated approach to emphasizing internet literacy skills such as search techniques, web site evaluation, and information reliability. I am developing an information literacy presentation for the next school leadership meeting so that internet inquiry and literacy skills are encouraged and supported by the administration at each school. I also plan to continue my own research into information literacy and online inquiry so that I can share new strategies and applications to promote the development of 21st century skills in all of the students and educators in the district.

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