Week 8 Reflection - Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis

Reflection: Transitioning from Knowledge to Synthesis

When it comes up in conversation that I am taking a graduate class that is technology focused, most people automatically assume that I am either learning to teach students how to use technology or expanding on my technology expertise so I can incorporate more into my classroom. At first, that was my initial impression of technology courses; simply learning how to use technology better and how to incorporate it better in my classroom.

The most striking revelation from this course is that simply incorporating technology or teaching students the proper way to use it is not getting students ready for the real world. In fact, a student who knows the proper way to use technology could essentially leave high school completely unprepared because they are lacking an information literacy skill set that is essential to the 21st century workplace. Information literacy is so much more than knowing how to use technology. More simply, it is showing students how to learn (Laureate, 2009a). Having the proper information literacy means that students can ask the proper questions, search for resources, evaluate resources, synthesize information gained, and communicate what they learned in a collaborative way (Laureate, 2009b).
In my classroom, this revelation changes my approach to technology.

First, I am no longer so concerned with making sure that students know how to use every technology that exists. If all I do in my classroom is teach students how to use technology, then I am doing them a great disservice in preparing them for their future in the workforce. Thomas Friedman (2005) started the battle cry for gaining information literacy and 21st century skills. Friedman (2005) claims that the rest of the world quickly caught, and since passed, the United States in its ability to turn out great mathematicians, engineers, and citizens who can comfortably move from their school environment to the fast growing, ever changing, digital world in which we live. Yet, in the United States, we have continued to make a very slow change from traditional curriculum to a curriculum that meets the needs of students who will be entering the 21st century workforce. In today’s businesses, one must be able to find, evaluate, and use the information and technology given to them to collaborate with not only people here in the United States, but people across the globe. A worker must be able to collect data from multiple sources and use it correctly to solve problems. Those are 21st century skills. So if all I do as a classroom teacher is just teach students how to use the technology and not the information literacy skill set of questioning, searching, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating, I am not helping our students prepare for a quickly changing, unpredictable workforce they will be entering in a few short years.

One of the first things we did in this course was to evaluate ourselves and our students and how we would score ourselves in information literacy. There were certain areas I thought my students scored poorly on and they are the items I want to focus on as this school year begins. As Dr. Hartman (Laureate, 2009a) mentioned and Dr. Leu, et al. (2004, p. 1572) agreed, searching for reliable resources, evaluating them, and making connections between them does not seem to be a strong point for the students that I teach. One of the ways to approach some of these problem areas is to help my students become better at the locating, evaluating, and synthesizing of information. I liked the idea presented by Dr. Leu, et al. (2004, p. 1598) that encouraged using a collaborative environment to have students who are stronger at certain aspects of these literacies to help guide those that are not. Perhaps it just needs to be set up in a way where it is more directed at the beginning and then naturally occurs later. This idea also supports Warlick’s (Laureate, 2009a) idea that students should be able to learn themselves instead of making everything teacher directed. This means that I would have to create a collaborative classroom environment and that working with others is supported. Another way to support this idea is to create user friendly graphic organizers that help guide students through different aspects of the information literacy skill set.

One area that I want to expand on through professional development is assessment. As there is such a focus in my district on the state standards, I feel torn in two directions; assessing the standards and assessing 21st century skills. I would want to learn better ways to assess both in more meaningful and authentic ways. Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari (2007) noted that assessment should be so much more than simply giving a student a grade on the final project that they submit to you (p. 111). This means that there is more to be assessed than simply content knowledge and what the student can conjure up at the end of the unit. Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari (2007) and Jukes and Macdonald (2007) provided a baseline for information regarding assessment, but more professional development on the area of assessing 21st century skills would be so beneficial. If I am trying to incorporate more 21st century skills into my classroom, there needs to be a way to assess them. I feel that this class has given me the proper knowledge to begin this process, but further pursing it would be a benefit to me and my classroom approach to incorporating 21st century skills.

Pursuing other graduate classes here at Walden University as well as professional development opportunities that are offered through my Intermediate Unit would be great ways to gain more knowledge on the subject. There also have been so many teachers in my building who have openly embraced incorporating technology so simply sitting and having a discussion with them would, in my opinion, provide so many great ideas for assessment.

Since I have learned that incorporating technology in my classroom means so much more than simply teaching students how to use technology, I feel that I am better motivated to make sure that I am properly incorporating 21st century information literacy skills as I teach this coming school year. I understand that this does not mean that students have to use technology for every single skill; it can be done in numerous ways as information skills are more than simply using technology. Students can learn how to question, search, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate in daily lessons and not just on certain occasions when technology is available to me. As David Warlick (2009c) said, the information skill set is more of creating an environment for students to connect with each other and share ideas and information through collaboration.


References:
Friedman, T. (2005, April 3). It's a flat world, after all. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/03/magazine/03DOMINANCE.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=It's%20a%20flat%20world,%20after%20all&st=cse

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Program 1. Skills for the future. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009b). Program 2. New Literacies. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009c). Program 13. It’s not about the technology. [Educational video]. Baltimore: Author.

Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L., & Cammack, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the internet and other information and communication technologies. In Ruddell, R.B. & Unrau, N.J., (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed.). (pp. 1570–1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.