Information Literacy Skills for the Google Generation

• 1. Information Literacy Skills for the Google Generation
  Jo Sennitt B.A., M.A., MCLIP
  Information and Learning
  Resources Manager
  Groby Community College
  2010
  

2. there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns the ones we dont know we dont know.
Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, 2002
There has been an alarming increase in the number of things that I know nothing about.
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh, 1926
Image Winnie the Pooh by d4rr3ll, 18/11/2006, reproduced under Creative Commons licence from Flickr
Image of Rumsfeld from www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2006/11/
3. Just how big is the internet?
All internet content indexed by Google:
Estimated at 0.03% of the total internet
How much of this Google-indexed content is actually useful?
Image Pinwheel Galaxy by Ethan Hein, 4/2/2008, reproduced under Creative Commons licence from Flickr
4. Information obesity
Web 2.0 technology and ubiquitous internet
2000+
1400 onwards
1980s
1990s
Web 3.0?
Image Evolution, American style by Mike Licht, 1/7/09, and image Break/Space by MarcinWichary 18/1/09, reproduced under Creative Commons licence from Flickr
5. Rogue traders?
Google monopoly
Experts or Amateurs?
$$$$
Bias
Fact vs. opinion
Motivations
Hoaxes, urban legends and conspiracy theories
Everyone is an author and publisher
How do students discriminate between
good and bad information?
Image Del Boy by blues.man81, 7/5/10, reproduced under Creative Commons licence from Flickr
6. Copy and paste culture
Focus on presentation
Focus on retrieval
Little or no focus on understanding
Little or no focus on content
Reduced ability to synthesize information
Ethical implications: plagiarism
No independent learning
What are students learning?
7. Non-linear reading
The Google Generation
Surf and
S k i m
and
S c a n
to
Hypertext
Power-browse
using
What are the implications for reading, understanding and processing information?
8. The Research Cycle
Evaluate and communicate
Formulate and locate
Process and synthesize
Based on Marlands 9 Steps Model
9. Formulate and locate (1)
Brainstorming and mind-mapping to activate prior knowledge
KWL/ QUADS grids to scaffold prior and new knowledge
10. Formulate and locate (2)
Black attach case (Miceli) for questioning
Flow diagrams for questions
Identifying keywords
Highlight, mindmap, use dictionaries
Synonyms,broader and narrower terms, related terms
Use a search strategy human Boolean game
Tall AND (dark OR brown OR brunette OR black OR red*) AND (trousers OR pants) AND (blue OR black) AND (top OR shirt OR blouse OR sweatshirt OR hoodie) NOT (glasses OR spec*)
11. Formulate and locate (3)
What type of information do I need?
Where is it most likely to be?
Who can I ask?
How will I get the information?
Why do I need the information?
How much time do I have?
12. Formulate and locate (4)
Selecting the most useful resources
Google or other search engine?
Books
Wikipedia
Magazines / journals
Google Scholar
Subject Gateway
Online
Print
?
Newspapers
Online database
Other
Archives
Meta-search engine
Artefacts
TV / Film
People
13. Useful websites for science
www.scirus.com
www.truevert.com
www.intute.ac.uk
www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/
www.scicentral.com
www.newscientist.com
http://infomine.ucr.edu
www.kngine.com
www.metacrawler.com
14. Process and synthesize (1)
Evaluating information
Judge and Jury
Book / website awards
http://www.avon.k12.ct.us/enrichment/Enrich/quickgr4-0.htm
www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
Triangulation technique
15. Process and synthesize (2)
Note-taking techniques
Trash and treasure / colour-coding (good for visual memory)
Graphic organisers mind-maps, tables, diagrams, charts
Summarising PowerPoint, post-its, Twitter
Card sort and priority lists structuring information
Abbreviations / keys
16. Process and synthesize (3)
RICA STRATEGY: Read, Interpret, Comment, Assess
Instead of simply copying information, this requires the student to understand, process and evaluate what they are writing. Notes are annotated in the margin with:
Summary
Question
Intention
Cross-reference
Criticism
17. Example of RICA strategy
18. Process and synthesize (4)
Research ethics: plagiarism
Accidental
Deliberate
Citation styles: MLA and Harvard
Citation generators at:
www.neilstoolbox.com
NoodleBib Express www.noodletools.com
Plagiarism court: http://www.fairfield.edu/library/lib_plagiarismcourt.html
19. Useful resources
Spoof websites: www.dhmo.orgwww.bigredhair.com/robots http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
Information behaviour of the researcher of the future, UCL 2008, available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf
Pears, Richard and Graham Shields, Cite them right, Durham: Pear Tree Books 2008. ISBN 9780955121616
Authenticity: A guide for teachers, available fromwww.tsoshop.co.uk/ofqual