I think Monday's class solidified my idea of relying on the media specialist to help me find technology to engage my students. Our visitor, Ms. Fribley, reminded me that school librarians themselves are resources and don't just help you find resources. Since I was pretty uninterested in the gaming aspect of the day's assignment, I focused on her presentation and really enjoyed hearing about all of the resources available to teachers. I was impressed that there are so many lesson plans available online, I really had no idea that there was so much content-sharing among educators.
I love her idea of using something like the Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site to teach our students about credible sources on the internet. Not only is the site hilarious, the way she described how some of her students were skeptical but believed in the animal's existence at the same time. I think this sort of instruction needs to be the baseline for students with access to technology - they need to be able to tell quickly if their citation is credible and they need to tell quickly if they are being duped. It seems logical to introduce this information to students starting in middle school, before they develop bad internet/research habits.
All in all I think it was a good class and I am glad that some of my colleagues were able to geek out over their video games. Maybe we can talk about knitting or community gardens so I can geek out next in class. Oh wait, does that really fit with technology in the classroom? Here I go again, wondering how to define technology...
You should check out The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. He gives a fantastic toolbox for identifying claims as bogus...called the Baloney Detection Kit: http://people.senecac.on.ca/beth.agnew/FineArtofBaloneyDetection.pdf.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of talking about community gardens in class. Or anything thats constructive and can benefit people outside the classroom. AND students can learn something from things that one would not think would go with English, Math, or French. Plus it gets them moving so thats always good right!?
ReplyDeleteThis whole community garden thing is an idea I want to bring to my classroom/school too. But more than that, I think this post raises some good points about librarians (who, at least in my school, were seen solely as a source for resources, not as a resource herself) and teaching our students about media literacy. What is an example of something you think you could do - maybe with the tree octopus, maybe not - in a lesson to teach your students about looking into sources?
ReplyDeleteFun Fact, David: Two of my friends in Chicago were Resident Heads in the dorm Carl Sagan lived in as a UChicago student.
ReplyDeleteGriffin, I don't think I would use the tree octopus site in a HS English class but after getting to know our middle schoolers these past few weeks, I would absolutely use it for them! I think it would be fun to sneak some fake sites like this into a project where the kids are following clear instructions on how to use the internet for research (I say this while laughing at myself - the internet wasn't like it is now when I was in high school). I also think it would be an interesting task to have the students create their own silly/fake site and see what kind of traffic they get and if anyone thinks it is true. you got me thinking, thank you!
I would agree with both you Ms. B., and Griffin: librarians are resources themselves. I'm starting to learn more and more about this concept as the program continues. So far I've learned how to utilize the services of librarians both as a graduate student, and as a teacher. Coming from a small undergraduate university I became used to an underwhelming library. You can imagine my shock when we stepped into the library during orientation to learn about research and again when I walked into the Duderstadt center for the first time. I am pretty comfortable when it comes to recognizing when I don't know something, and what I've learned is that there is no way I will be able to every fully understand all of the resources available to me as a student and as a teacher. Thus, I have concluded I need to thoroughly utilize the greatest resource I will have available to me, the librarian. I enjoyed your post! I was also wondering, did you check out any of the other websites available? How do you think you'll utilize them in your class?
ReplyDelete