TEACHING INFORMATION LITERACY AND 21ST
by Joni L. Rogers, MACUL Grant Recipient
What happens when a displaced media specialist is given the opportunity to develop a digital media class for 7th
and 8th graders?
…The creation of a classroom that allows students to effectively apply new technologies and to develop critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology happens. In a classroom supplied with current technology tools and backed up by a computer lab, digital media students followed a project-based learning model in order to become efficient, effective and ethical users of information. Because this class utilized many creative applications and tools, students were encouraged to express themselves artistically and were given a digital workspace to post their creations. Did this first digital media class meet the goals of teaching information literacy and 21st find out.
century skills? Read on to
It was known from the beginning of this class that the teacher was not the expert on all of the online resources that would be introduced to students. The teacher acted as a facilitator for the introduction of new applications and troubleshooting any technical issues. Students were introduced to one or more applications and
given exploration time. Any usage questions were presented to the entire class, and if students did not find a solution, then it was the facilitator’s task. After exploration, students were presented with a rubric that outlined the expectations for their project. With each additional project, tools were presented for audio and video editing, conversion, and enhancement. Eventually, as many of the students became well versed in the use of various applications and tools, they were able to assist the facilitator in helping fellow students with project issues. Students were given online storage space for saving their project resources and a classroom email address for sending projects to be evaluated by the teacher. Because many of the digital media projects were interactive and could only be viewed online, a digital media gallery was developed, so that students would be able to display and share their creations.
Using a wiki at
pbworks.com, our digital media gallery provided a page for each student to upload their digital files. Each page is introduced by a talking avatar created by the student at voki. com. Initial projects were required to be uploaded to the wiki. However, later projects were optional, as this space became each student’s personal display gallery for them to use at their
28 | CENTURY SKILLS
discretion. Students were also able to display and share creations such as a portrait tracing project, some photo effects projects that were able to be printed, and other projects that were placed on a digital photo frame for display during parent/ teacher conferences. Our digital media gallery can be viewed at www.digitalrogers.
pbworks.com. Additional resources on this website include a rubric template and example, a project planning storyboard, the MACUL 2011 presentation handout, and a full application and tools list used during the 2010/11 school year.
grade standards were used to evaluate students’ understanding of technology and specific information literacy objectives. The TRAILS assessment was used as a pretest/posttest tool and is available at
www.ilile.org, the website for the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education. Students were successful at developing innovative products using technology, using digital media to contribute to the learning of others, applying digital tools to gather and use information, practicing legal and ethical
behavior concerning copyright and fair use, and demonstrating and understanding of technology concepts and operations. Because students were required to cite any resources used in their projects that were not self-created, they were highly motivated to create their own content, and ended up being more creative and technologically knowledgeable with their finished projects. Students also learned that any digital projects that they produced and posted at the digital media gallery were their property and others needed to cite them or request their permission to use it. Before I presented at the 2011 MACUL conference, I requested permission from my students to use their online content to reinforce the point that just because they could download content from the internet, did not mean that it was ethical or appropriate to do so.
The creation of a digital media classroom was very satisfying and gave students access to multiple free and open-source applications and tools that they will be able to use at home and school for years to come. Some of the applications and tools used by students and available online include: Glogster, Animoto, Movie Maker, Art Rage, Stykz, Audacity, Jing, Citation Machine, and
Conference 2012
Teaching Information continued on page 30 |
Student performance assessments such as; teacher checklists, project rubrics, and the TRAILS multiple-choice test based on 6th 9th
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