Teaching Information Fluency
How to Teach Students to Be Efficient, Ethical, and Critical Information Consumers
By (author) Carl Heine, Dennis O'Connor
Publication date:
14 November 2013Length of book:
230 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressDimensions:
227x151mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780810890626
Teaching Information Fluency describes the skills and dispositions of information fluency adept searchers. Readers will receive in-depth information on what it takes to locate, evaluate, and ethically use digital information.
The book realistically examines the abilities of Internet searchers today in terms of their efficiency and effectiveness in finding online information, evaluating it and using it ethically. Since the majority of people develop these skills on their own, rather than being taught, the strategies they invent may suffice for simple searches, but for more complex tasks, such as those required by academic and professional work, the average person’s performance is adequate only about 50% of the time.
The book is laid out in five parts: an introduction to the problem and how search engine improvements are not sufficient to be of real help, speculative searching, investigative searching, ethical use and applications of information fluency. The intent of the book is to provide readers ways to improve their performance as consumers of digital information and to help teachers devise useful ways to integrate information fluency instruction into their teaching, since deliberate instruction is needed to develop fluency. Since it is unlikely that dedicated class time will be available for such instruction, the approach taken embeds information fluency activities into classroom instruction in language arts, history and science.
Numerous model lessons and resources are woven into the fabric of the text, including think-alouds, individual and group search challenges, discussions, assessments and curation, all targeted to Common Core State Standards as well as information fluency competencies.
The book realistically examines the abilities of Internet searchers today in terms of their efficiency and effectiveness in finding online information, evaluating it and using it ethically. Since the majority of people develop these skills on their own, rather than being taught, the strategies they invent may suffice for simple searches, but for more complex tasks, such as those required by academic and professional work, the average person’s performance is adequate only about 50% of the time.
The book is laid out in five parts: an introduction to the problem and how search engine improvements are not sufficient to be of real help, speculative searching, investigative searching, ethical use and applications of information fluency. The intent of the book is to provide readers ways to improve their performance as consumers of digital information and to help teachers devise useful ways to integrate information fluency instruction into their teaching, since deliberate instruction is needed to develop fluency. Since it is unlikely that dedicated class time will be available for such instruction, the approach taken embeds information fluency activities into classroom instruction in language arts, history and science.
Numerous model lessons and resources are woven into the fabric of the text, including think-alouds, individual and group search challenges, discussions, assessments and curation, all targeted to Common Core State Standards as well as information fluency competencies.
We live in an era where much of the information we gather and share comes from digital sources and most young people today have grown up using electronic devises for their research needs. Research has shown, however, that just because they are skilled Web users does not mean that they are information fluent—meaning that they have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential to using this newfound wealth of information to make a difference in our world. This book, written by a Ph.D. in education who has worked with the 21st Century Information Fluency Project and a teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, examines the abilities of students today in finding online information, evaluating it, and using it ethically to determine how information fluent they truly are. The book addresses information fluency in five areas: digital information fluency, speculative searching, investigative searching, ethical and fair use, and instructional applications. Along the way the authors provide tips to teachers to devise methods of integrate information fluency into their teaching, particularly in the areas of language arts, history, and science. For anyone interested in information literacy and information fluency this is a must read.