This comic I created using Comic Life really illustrates the realities of teaching information literacy at my school last year. I found that students are eager to learn how to use new ICT tools. However, even if we have gone through several lessons with regards to different aspects of information literacy, they more then often will resort back to old habits. For me, it has been somewhat frustrating repeating the same thing over and over again even though I know it is worth it for them. Reflecting about these experiences right now, I am beginning to think I really have to research some better options that will allow these ideas to “stick” easier it their heads. Moreover, I really think digital literacy has to start right when they enter school when things are fresh. I find, once an intermediate student is cognitively utilizing the same skill sets to complete a task over a few years, they often find it easier to resort to their old ways without even thinking about it. Additionally, many of them have picked up some bad habits from using the internet at home without any guidance from an adult. For example, Wikipedia is often the top hit in a google search so many of students are not even aware that there are other choices available to them.
Shirla, I giggled with complete understanding as I read your fabulous comic. It’s SO true. It makes me think of that old expression, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I have pretty much banned Google Searches in my classroom for that reason and direct my Grade 5s to my Delicious site where I’ve gathered relevant websites for their studies. But I’m probably not doing them any favours. They need to learn how to search, how to vet websites, and how to ALWAYS USE MY FABULOUS LESSONS (and yours).
You have done an exemplary job using digital media to represent your learning (and frustration) about concepts this week.
Thanks for sharing your experiences as a T-L. It is good to learn from those who have gone before. Interesting that you talk about habits that are developed from early on. This brings up a few ideas for me. Should we be connecting more as Librarians with younger and older schools? I know that the middle school that I work at tries hard to transition our students coming in and going out in terms of talking to classroom teachers. I am wondering if we should be talking to our colleagues in our feeder schools about what skills (or bad habits) our students are coming up with and brainstorming strategies that might work across the schools. I also wonder if we couldn’t develop some information for parents regarding information literacy skills as well as some tips to help their students at home. (ie. google is not good for everything). 🙂 This is a new form of collaboration that I had never considered before!
I totally agree and have had the exact same experience! I feel as if my students just nod politely while I teach research skills and the go back to what they were doing before. It is also a bit frightening that they haven’t figured out better search methods on their own considering how much time they spend online! Whenever I teach them to use quotation marks in a Google search, they are mesmerized but promptly forget how to use them!
Shirla, thank you for sharing your comic with us, I can relate to your frustration about teaching the same thing over and over again with the same results. A few years ago I spent a great amount of time teaching my grade 4’s research skills before an individual animal research project. I remember having to constantly remind them that Wikipedia should not be used as a primary resource, only to have the majority of the class use Wikipedia for most of their research. I agree when you say that students may have picked up some bad habits from using the internet at home without any guidance from an adult. Growing up my parents didn’t know much about the internet and would let my siblings and I do our research on the internet without any guidance or supervision. We taught ourselves how to navigate online, it wasn’t until I got into high school that I learned about how to properly research online.
What a great piece! Thank you for that. Refreshing, funny, poignant. Certainly speaking to the tedium of teaching sometimes! I love the idea of techniques that make things ‘stick’ to the students heads! I see them covered in post-it stickies. I think you have identified an important situation, though, and that is the research habits that become so familiar they are second nature. Who doesn’t use Google and Wikipedia, at least as a starting place to find things out. But what about Google Scholar, and other sources of original documentary evidence, rather than someone’s re-cap? I look forward to hearing how you work through this challenge.