Reflection: Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

In the words of David Warlick (Laureate, 2009), “We live in a time of rapid change,” and that change is showing up in the classroom and in the way our students learn. The skills our students must learn to be successful in school and in later life revolve around much more than the traditional literacy skills of reading and writing. As technology evolves, so must the literacy skills that our students must learn.

Through the emergence of technology, literacy is taking on a new form, including new skills such as questioning, searching, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating (Laureate, 2009). Through the internet, social networking, and other technology tools, students are doing more than just reading and writing. As Warlick (Laureate, 2009) points out, students today are not just completing assignments to please their teachers. They are using technology to gain skills in making real life connections to their work and learning to share those ideas through many forms of communication. They are learning to think critically and actually using the skills they learn to communicate with countless others all over the world. They are asking their own questions and finding their own answers. More importantly, they are finding meaning in their work and they care about what they are doing. That, to me, is the key to lifelong learning and success.

To me, the most striking revelation to come out of this course, Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom, is the idea that it is about more than the technology. It’s about more than the content knowledge, too. It’s about teaching our students to use the tools that are available to them now and in the future in ways that help them communicate and think critically about their world. New literacies and 21st century skills are the building blocks that help our students learn content knowledge. They are the personal, intrinsic skills that must be developed individually in each student, the skills that allow them to be lifelong learners.

The most important thing I will take from this course is the idea that I must teach these new literacy skills as intensively as traditional literacy skills. The knowledge and experience I gained in this course will influence my teaching practices in many ways. As a kindergarten teacher, I’ve often struggled with the use of technology in my classroom. While I firmly believe in exposing my students to many new things, I never know how much is too much for my young students. But after learning about each new literacy and the QUEST model, as described by Eagleton and Dobler (2007) I’ve learned that my kindergartners are in a perfect position to start learning about new literacy skills. For example, my students are natural questioners and really enjoy searching for answers to their questions. When it comes to communication, they love to share what they’ve learned. The hardest part for me is to teach my students how to evaluate and synthesize the information we locate, but these skills can be taught through small steps. One thing I will keep in mind is that my young students don’t need to gain mastery in these new literacies. Through simple exposure, my students will only be more prepared for future use and mastery of the skills.

At the conclusion of this course, I am currently on my district’s technology committee. We are working to redefine and develop our district’s technology goals, and I can see how the new literacy skills can and should be included within our technology plan. My personal professional development goal is to use the knowledge I’ve gained on information literacy to establish a new set of technology goals for my grade level to support the development of new literacy and 21st century skills. Throughout the next school year, I plan to outline the ways in which my grade level curriculum already meets the technology goals set forth by my state and district, but I also plan to develop new lessons that work to address new literacy skills. My ultimate goal is to have my students using technology, not only as a means to show fluency in traditional literacy skills, but also to use it as a “conduit for the information” they will discover and explore as they learn to use information technology skills (Laureate, 2009).

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

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2009). Programs 2 and 3. New Literacies and Essential Questions in Inquiry Projects [Motion picture]. Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.