Learning Literacies - Find It

Find It

Research and Information Fluency

It is important to be able to find information. The internet is a remarkable source of information, but learning to make use of this incredible resource takes practice. Just because it is on the internet, doesn't mean it is true. Learning to evaluate resources is critical.

Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning

There are many roads to learning. People have different talents and styles of learning. Good students in the class room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can learn in new ways that do not come so easily.


Learning outcomes

• review the basic skills of search
• apply digital tools and strategies to gather, evaluate, and use information to support my learning in the content areas.
• use digital tools such as search engines, online databases, surveys, RSS feeds, etc. to gather, evaluate, and use information effectively.
• understand plagiarism, citation, appropriation, analysis


Keywords

search, keyword, context, link, evaluate, plagiarism

Study notes

• What is a search engine? How many are there? What are some other less well known search engines?
• What are some strategies for improving search results?
• What are some ways to verify that search results are factual?
• How can you analyze and compare web sources and avoid plagiarism?
• What are the accepted academic standards for citing material found on the web?
• How can you receive notifications about changes to web sites without visiting the web site?

Explore

1. Review the Keywords and Study questions at the top of this page. These will help you look for important ideas in the rest of activities.
   
   
2. Searching - Look up your name in one or more search engines. How about Wikipedia? DuckDuckGo? How Many of Me? Are you there? How is your name used? Are there other people with the same name listed? Is there a problem for you if people mistake the other person for you? How many links were found that contained references to people with the same name as you? Look at a few of these sites. Are there some interesting people who share your name? List 3-4 people in discussion Interesting People with My Name.
   There are more than 400,000 references to Valerie Taylor. There is a romance novelist, a professor of Electrical Engineering, an English actress, a shark researcher and a woman who works to build hospitals in Bangladesh, and me, just to name a few.
   
   
3. Habits - Read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Pick 2 that are particularly interesting to you. How will these help your to be successful in school and in the future? Post the Habits you selected and a brief description of why these are important to the 7 Habits discussion. Reply to 2 others.
   
   

Apply

1. Searching, evaluating - Review several of the Searching selections in the Media section. Are there new ideas for using searching? How do you decide which result is from a reputable source? What are strategies for refining your search to get better results? How do sites get to be at the top of the results lists? What's the problem with this? In the Searching and finding discussion, post a tip and a question about using searches for school work.
   
2. Some times search results can be unexpected, wrong or funny. Pick a topic that is interesting to you and search for the topic. Look through the search results. Select 3 that produced different and unexpected results. What were looking for? What were the range of results? What were your evaluation criteria? In the Searching and finding discussion, post the topic keywords for your search, the results you selected and a brief description of why you selected these to illustrate why you need to evaluate results.
   
   

Organize

1. Organization, Note-taking - Read, view, listen to Organization, Notetaking selections in the Media section. You don't have to review them all. Browse through several and find 2-3 that are interesting to you personally. What interests you about this selection? What keywords or study questions are addressed? What questions do you have from reading your selection? Post a brief summary of ONE item from the Selected media to the Organization, Notetaking discussion. Include 2-3 of your questions in your post.
   
   

Math Matters

1. Math matters - Some people struggle with math. Usually it is because they missed some important concept that is the basis for higher level concepts. If you don't have the foundation, the rest isn't going to make any sense. The other element of math success is practice. There is no substitute for math practice. Technology provides the tools for personalization - building concepts in a logical sequence and providing practice to ensure that skills are mastered before moving on. Check it out. Spend time working at different levels with the IXL and/or Khan Academy. How was the material presented? Was it logical? Were the practice problems varied and progressive? Did you see how you were progressing? Is this format suitable for learners at all grade levels? Post a brief summary of your experiences with traditional and online math practice to the Math matters discussion.
   
   

Tools

1. Test drive - Social bookmarks and sites that offer information sharing are good sources of information about something that you find interesting. You may not know any of the contributors, but you can be part of the community. suggestions - Reddit, Pinterest. If you use a similar social sharing site, tell us about it. We are always looking for the next big thing. Test drive several of these and post a review of one to the Test drive - Information sharing discussion. Reply to 3 other posts.
   
   

Evaluate

1. Self-directed learning - Watch the video Stedman Graham on forming your own identity (1:21) through your passions and the things you love. What more do you need to learn about learning? Your response should be two or three unanswered questions along with a brief description of how you could find the answers to these questions. Use the I learned... Find it assignment to submit your reply.

Media

Effective people

• Why (and How) You Should Change Up Your Routine, Even if it's Working
• Habits of Mind for the New Year: 10 Steps to Actually Accomplish Your Resolutions - written by a teacher for the beginning of the year but these suggestions can help you to reach your goals any time of the year.
• Stedman Graham on forming your own identity (video 1:21) through your passions and the things you love.
• 7 Characteristics of Great Leaders - Deb Cheslow has spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a great leader, and the characteristics are adapted from her writings.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• How to Focus - infographic
• The Connection Between NASA and Habits - It’s important to understand that it’s not good enough to just decide to break a bad habit. Once the bad habit is gone, what is it replaced with?
• 44 Simple Daily Activities To Enjoy Your Work (Infographic) - When thinking about these daily activities, it’s important to remember that these are things to do for long term changes. You should be trying to build good habits that will make you healthier, happier, and more productive over time.
• The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

Math matters

• IXL - comprehensive, standards-aligned math and language arts practice for K–12.
• Khan Academy - library of tutorials
• Getting Ready for Math (video 04:30) - good overview of preparing for college math
• Math resources - tutorials, strategies

Listening, Note-taking

• Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Better Listener
• How to take Cornell notes (video 5:26) - A helpful tutorial on how to take Cornell notes. This explains why you should take them and how.
• 11 Note-Taking Tips For The Digital Classroom - The most effective system will be different for each student and their learning style
• Taking Notes in the 21st Century - infographic with illustrations, statistics and good tips
• Notetaking - strategies, suggestions
• Listening, Notetaking and Using Visual Organizers- listening with questions in your mind or written on paper will help you to stay focused on the lecture.
• Taking Notes: 5 College Success Tips
• Tips for College Note Taking
• Methods Of Note Taking - Cornell Note-Taking System, Mapping, Outline
• Note-taking in a Digital Classroom - infographic with suggestions
• Doing a Lab Write-up] with example.

Search, evaluation, citation, plagiarism

• Google Cheat Sheet
• Google Basic Search Help
• advanced Google searching - a 1 hour (fast!) tutorial
• Search Strategies (2007) What's a search strategy? How do I use Boolean logic in my search? What tutorials are available for students to learn search strategies?
• Finding and Evaluating Sources - Finding Sources of Information, Evaluating Sources - Cornell University
• Evaluating Resources and Using Proper Paraphrasing, Quoting, and Documenting To Avoid Plagiarism - Select information from sources using appropriate search terms. Learn how to paraphrase, make quotes, and include proper citations.
• Search Operators - Narrow down your search results by adding symbols and words to your search called search operators.
• How to Become a Search Ninja: Harnessing the True Power of Google - boost your search skills. If the results are in Google's index, they can be found. Example html cheatsheet filetype:pdf

Creative Commons, images, video

• Creative Commons - a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice.
• WikiMedia Commons - a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone
• Flickr Creative Commons - Many Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
• A Shared Culture (video 3:20) - some of the leading thinkers behind Creative Commons describe how the organization is helping save the world from failed sharing through free tools that enable creators to easily make their work available to the public for legal sharing and remix.
• Wanna Work Together? (video 3:00) - using Creative Commons (CC) licenses to build a better, more vibrant creative culture.

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