Welcome to the Big6

We've had a number of inquiries lately regarding purchasing Big6 and Super3 materials.  In order to keep prices as low as possible, we prefer order and payments via our Amazon Store - http://big6-store.hostedbyamazon.com/

However, if you are unable to make online, credit card purchases, we will accept direct school or district purchase orders via email: 

sales(at)big6(dot)com

If you have any questions about purchase orders, please email to this address as well.

Best,

Mike Eisenberg for Big6

We recently uncovered this short, 1 minute video of a "young" Bob Berkowitz explaining the Big6 to Danny Callison from Indiana University. This clip has been used in courses at IU and IUPUI for years!  Still highly relevant!

http://www.indiana.edu/~video/stream/launchflash.html?folder=slisal&filename=nquir03.m4v

Crediting and citing - let's make it positive, easy, and fun, not punative, hard and a chore.

I've been thinking a lot about developing citing/creditng skills among elementary students.

This can and should be fun - creating a "culture of crediting" in a school with classroom teachers, teacher-librarians, technology teachers, administrators and even parents modeling for students by continually crediting and citing sources - in coversation, teaching, on paper, and electronically.

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Information Alchemy: Transforming Data and Information into Knowledge and Wisdom

March 30, 2012

Mike Eisenberg

Dean Emeritus and Professor
The Information School of the University of Washington

One of the key conceptual models of the information field is the "information spectrum," the hierarchy of data - information - knowledge - wisdom.

I first learned this model from Bob Taylor, former dean of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, and it is explained in his book, Value-Added Processes in Information Systems, Ablex, 1986, as the "Value-Added Spectrum," (p. 6). 

I teach this model to almost all of my classes, especially to my undergraduate students as part of developing an "information perspective" -- looking at the world through information-colored glasses. 

This is the way I explain the information spectrum (sometimes referred to as the DIKW hierarchy):

• Data = characters, symbols, numbers, signs whose meaning may or may not be apparent.
• Information = data with labels or definition; data that has structure or relationships.
• Knowledge = collected, combined, organized, processed information for a purpose. 
• Wisdom = knowledge over time; knowledge without thinking. 

Musings from Mike Eisenberg - 

I'm preparing a number of presentations for different audiences about information and technology literacy and information problem-solving. In order to "set the scene" I like to talk about what it's like to live in our information society - in a world where there is an abundance of information, not scarcity.

This wasn't always the case.  Even 30-40 years ago, it was a challenge to find and gather relevant and credible information. We aren't that far removed from the times when you had to make an appointment with a professional librarian if you wanted to conduct an online search. Access was so limited and costly, that the librarian would conduct a pre-search interview and then do the search for you - sometimes not even with you present! Again, those were the days when the challenge was finding, search, and gathering.

The new Big6 store is up and running!  - http://big6-store.hostedbyamazon.com/

To celebrate, we are holding a Spring Sale of the blackline masters - for Super3 and Big6.

• Super3 Discover Blackline Masters
• Big6 Basics Blackline Masters

Also, due to extra inventory, we are offering the Super3 Project Instruction DVD (normally $89.95) at 50% off = $44.98.

This is a ready-to-go kit for classroom teachers and teacher-librarians to implement projects aimed at very young students (pre-K through grade 2). The kit includes templates, PowerPoint slides, teacher, and student training materials.  

Super3 Project Instruction DVD

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We will be adding more resources to the store in the near future. Please contact sales(at)big6(dot)com if there is something missing that you would like us to include.

Announcing a “celebrity makeover.” For whom?  Why, for Big6! We’re VERY pleased and excited to reveal our complete makeover of the www.Big6.com website!

Thousands of educators, students, and parents use the www.Big6.com website every week. Our new website offers you organized, easy access to our rich treasure trove of Big6, Super3, and information & technology literacy materials.

Try it - here it is!  The new www.Big6.com website.  We have redone everything – reviewed, reorganized, reformatted, and revised the content, structure, and updated the look and feel of the website.

We aim to make the Big6 site paths more direct, and content focused on the materials you want most. Behind the scenes, we’ve improved performance, in terms of speed and security; and quality by focusing on authoritative, complete, and up-to-date materials. We offer you relevant, credible, and precise resources; and new outward aesthetics, by presenting an engaging, attractive, and satisfying experience.