Project Information Literacy Videos

Posted on April 10th, 2009 in Information Literacy, Teaching the Big6, Technology by Mike Eisenberg

I am working with Dr. Alison Head on a series of studies of information literacy and research skills of college students.  Check out these short videos on YouTube. I think you’ll find them useful for presenting information literacy, starting discussions, and exploring ways of improving student skills.

Project Information LIteracy

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProjInfoLit

15 min of fame…Seattle Times

Posted on August 8th, 2008 in Assessment, Technology by Mike Eisenberg

I spoke to a columnist for the Seattle Times the other day – Jerry Large. He wound up writing a nice column based on our discussion. Check it out and let me know what you think -

Jerry Larrge -”Easing our download overload,” Seattle Times, August 7, 2008. Based on conversation with Mike.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2008097224_jdl07.html

Second Life?

Posted on May 24th, 2008 in Technology by Mike Eisenberg

Are you in Second Life?  I see this as the next “big thing” – as big as the World Wide Web itself.

What? Second Life is a 3D virtual world.  It’s like “living in a cartoon.”  You have an avatar that represents you, and you move around the “world” as an avatar.  You can walk, fly, or teleport. You can text chat or audio chat.

For What?  One major use is for meetings, collaboration, and conferencing.  There are also many interesting events held in Second Life.

Why?  Second Life is an immersive experience.  There really is a sense of “being there.”

How?  Check out www.secondlife.com for more information. You do need to download a client to your machine, but it is free.  You don’t need to spend any money to use Second Life.  But, there is plenty of real commerce taking place in Second Life.

Please respond with your ideas and thoughts and questions.  I would very much like to have an interactive discussion about Second Life.

– Mike

21st Century Skills

Posted on April 18th, 2008 in Education, Elementary Schools, Technology by Laura Robinson

As part of a technology project for fourth and fifth graders (see previous post on “definition of information literacy”), students worked in groups and were asked to define 21st Century Skills.  Groups were asked to identify at least 4 skills.   Here’s the results…

Group 1:  typing on the computer, researching on the computer, using the Internet, email, learning from computers

Group 2: email and IMing, learning how to use the computer for everything, cooperation and teamwork, learning another language,

Group 3:  communicating, writing and reading, research, email, knowing technology

Group 4:  computer work, explaining your thinking, typing, Internet, languages

Group 5: working together, technology, reading and writing, emailing, cooperation

Any thoughts???

An amazing resource! Janet Murray’s “Achieving Educational Standards Using the Big6″

Posted on March 30th, 2008 in Big6, Education, Elementary Schools, Information Literacy, Secondary Schools, Technology by Mike Eisenberg

Related to the previous post, I personally relied on many different resources in helping the Montana standards writing effort. Barbara Jansen’s new book “Big6 in Middle School” and Laura Robinson’s and my “Super3″ were very helpful.

BUT – Janet Murray’s new book on standards was far and away the most useful! First, it’s a compilation of the very latest information, technology, and content standards. Second, Janet does the heavy lifting by creating correlations and connections among the various standards and most importantly, to the Big6. Janet does this in many different ways, but the one I find most useful is Figure 3.2 – page 25 – the Big6 aligned with AASL, NETS, and ICT Literacy Standards.

So, if you are going to buy just one new professional book this year – Janet’s is it! Here’s a link to the book on the Linworth site – http://store.linworth.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=407

Mike

p.s. – for a preview, check out Janet’s article in the December 2007 Big6 eNewsletter -

http://www.big6.com/showenewsarticle.php?id=624

Information Literacy and Technology Standards

Posted on March 30th, 2008 in Education, Information Literacy, Technology by Mike Eisenberg

I spent the weekend working with a statewide group on standards. There are 2 sets of standards – (1) library/information literacy and (2) technology, and the group broke into subgroups for each.

The Big6 was a baseline framework for the standards work. So were the new AASL standards – http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/AASL_Learning_Standards_2007.pdf

and the ISTE – NETS standards – http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdf

In my opinion, the Montana results are quite impressive and will be available to the public within a few months. In terms of a preview -

- the technology standards include problem solving and decision-making, collaboration and communication, and creativity and innovation.

- the library/information literacy include the Big6 stages (in 3 standards consistent with the Super3), legal and ethical use, and literature/creative works.

The Montana folks went on to develop benchmarks at grades 4, 8, and 12 and also performance descriptors.

We will post a link to the Montana work when it is available.

– Mike

March 29, 2009

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