Tech Play 4 Assignment: Information Literacy

For this Tech Play assignment, I have chosen to explore Information Literacy and resources to access and evaluate information.  According to the United States National Forum on Information Literacy, information literacy is "... the hyper ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand."  Information literacy should be a key focus of educational institutions at all levels. Educational instruction must increase a student's aptitude to connect to the power of information. The key to harnessing the power of information is the ability to evaluate information, to determine its relevance, validity and newness. The information assessment process is critical life skill and a foundation for lifelong-learning.

There are a variety of resources available online for educators to use to teach their students Information Literacy.  These are the four I have chosen to review

- Big 6 (http://big6.com/) 
- GLEAN http://glean.org/ 
- S.O.S. for Information Literacy (http://informationliteracy.org)\
- Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills-TRAILS (http://www.trails-9.org)

The Big 6 format for incorporating curriculum requires students to identify areas of interest, learn information-seeking strategies, and develop skills in organizing and sharing information with others. The Big 6 is a six-stage information literacy model developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz that can be used to help students solve problems or make decisions by using information.  Topics for investigation can be developed in any content area.

The Big 6 problem solving process is an organized approach for helping children problem solve and research information on subjects about which they would like to learn more. This process promotes high standards for projects and clear communication of ideas. Familiar strategies for student research, such as the Project Approach, can easily be adapted to this format.

NFIL infograph-	Research Skills/ Critical Literacy
Pros-	Easy to understand, Focuses on the process
Cons-	In the process of being updated

Glean Learning Tools is a free website produced by The Public Learning Media Laboratory to assist K-12 teachers teach digital literacy components within the context of core curriculum. Glean has a blog regarding teaching information literacy that allows for comments. Lessons for teaching information literacy through core content are available. There are also tools for students to use. Their website includes an interactive for order of operations (PEMDAS) which allows students to create their own problems to answer or answer pre-made problems. Glean has a search engine called Boolify. Users can look for exact words or word phrases and filter the results with words like “not” and “or.”  Boolify could  help students learn how to narrow a search for websites. The most interesting part of Glean is the comparison search. Users type in key words then pick a positive or negative comparison by clicking on certain words like advantages or healthy and disadvantages or detractors.

NFIL infograph	Media Literacy/ Research Skills
Pros	Search engine called Boolify, students can evaluate each website as well as take notes in the same browser.
Cons	Website is not maintained
Justification	Easily found on Google

The S.O.S. for Information Literacy includes web-based multimedia resources for teachers to use to teach information literacy skills to students in K-16.  The project started at the Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University and now receives major support from the Institute of Museum and Library services along with other project partner.  The S.O.S project is designed to provide tools for media specialists and teachers to use when developing and teaching information literacy lessons.  The site includes real-life demonstrations that exemplify specific techniques use by teachers creating and delivering motivation lessons.   

NFIL infograph	Media Literacy/ Research Skills
Pros	Includes peer reviewed lesson plans, digital resources, supports K-16
Cons	Currently in its final stage of development
Justification	A project of the Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University, with major support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (TRAILS) is a knowledge assessment used to determine the information literacy skills of students based on 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th grade standards. The assessment items are based on Ohio Academic Content Standards and the American Association of School Librarians' Information Power and Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. It is a web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for school librarians and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students.

NFIL infograph	Research Skills/ Information Ethics
Pros	Provides assessment downloads and item bank
Cons	Measures only 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th grade standards
Justification	2004 through May 2019, 31,000 teacher/librarians administered TRAILS assessments to nearly 2.5 million students.

While these are only on a few tools available to support learning information literacy skills, each of the tools fit into the NFIL infographic. Many of these tools were expansive in nature because they contained numerous helpful resources aside from their designated purpose. When considering the areas of the infographic, I think one of the literacy skills is addressed witihn the critical areas of the graphic:  media literacy, research and library skill, critical literacy and information ethics. If any area is lacking I would suggest it might be an emphasis on information ethics but perhaps there are additional tools that could be used so that students could be educated in all areas of information literacy.