Web Literacy for Educators Chapter 7

Strategies and Evaluation

Putting it all together

We must teach critical thinking skills when we teach students to use the internet. November suggests using REAL.
R = Read the URL
E = Examine the content
A= Ask about the author and publisher
L= Look at the links

Read and look at the URL, do you look at the domain name or the extension?
Is the information helpful and correct? Are there links and do they work?
Is the author's name on the site, are they an expert, is there information about the author?
Forward links, does the domain change? Back links, where do they lead and what do they say?

Validating tools are listed on page 97
Sites for students to practice validating are on pages 97 and 98.

This chapter is a great resource for understanding how to validate websites and also for teaching students how to do this.

Chapter 5

On-line learning is here to stay, what we choose to do with this will enhance our students learning as well as ours. I have taken an on-line class and I really enjoyed it. We read information and shared comments to each other, it was a very safe way to express ideas and share information.

I think on-line learning is important and can be of benefit to all students to a certain extent. Our Moodle is a great example of on-line learning where students are protected. We will eventually need to let students be more independent in their on-line learning, but we will need to teach them responsibility and safety.

Chapter 4

Primary sources: we have so many ways for students to access information from primary sources from interviewing to web archives to collecting and interpreting data. It will be our job to guide students without directing students about information. I see our job to be much smaller than when they get older, but we still need to be letting students have access to all kinds of sources within guidelines.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 was a little overwhelming for me. November is really telling us that we will need to change our roles as teachers and let others step in to help teach as well as letting students begin to start guiding their own learning. I find this thought exciting and scary at the same time.

Letting others have access to our classroom to enhance and collaborate is not new, but the how it might be done in the future will be.

I like the video project idea, it might be something we can do in science or in social studies using "local experts" to link us with the community.

Problem solving on a big scale would be a benefit to using collaboration, but again I find it a little scary as it will take us out of our regular roles and change how we approach education. Are we ready for this? Some will be, the challenge will be to move ourselves out of our comfort zone and into a new one.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 was very insightful on getting across the point that when students get information from the internet, they must learn how to read a URL and how to discrimintate between evidence and interpretation. If we fail to teach this to our students will fail to get them to understand that not everything on the internet is true.

Chapter 2

I am not sure how fax buddies would work in our building with only one fax machine. As we were talking today I am wondering if we can use the idea of a Video Conference to enhance any project we decide to do. Finally, we must start teaching students to connect to the world.

I am just learning how blogging works!