Sue Maberry's Library tagged InfoLit → View Popular

My
goal for this course was to increase effective instruction on Internet
research and improve the quality of Web-based sources used in student
papers. I focused on developing a series of lessons in research
methods, analytical reading, and critical thinking, all in the context
of Internet research. Moreover, I wanted students to develop a
better sense of the “art” of research, of finding good sources by
sheer work, good judgment, and a bit of serendipitous luck.
6 more annotations...
- Should we be more concerned as teachers about correctness of sources
  or about successful inventiveness?
- The
  final stage is one that we hope our students will reach; students comfortable
  with relativism and having a commitment to relativism have grasped that
  they must make judgments about evidence in terms of context and in a
  way that integrates objectivity and empathy.
- they need to be taught
  methods of bringing together disparate sources.
- Lessons and assignments
  are sequenced, in a scaffolding fashion, so that each assignment builds
  on the last. A scaffold provides support for the student and is
  structured so that one level builds upon the other. For instance,
  instead of a single introduction to searching online, the introduction
  to search engines can be a starting point for progressively more complex
  assignments building on previous knowledge. Lessons are delivered
  at regularly scheduled intervals throughout the course, so that learning
  is evenly distributed.
  Lessons balance
  the transfer of information about technology and research skills.
  Critical thinking
  concepts, which provide an essential framework for research evaluation,
  are incorporated into class and practiced regularly through such means
  as textual annotation, concept mapping, and research logs.
  Reading skills are
  adapted to the online environment; students learn to “read” search
  results, database information, and Web sites. Reading Web sites
  in particular requires that students read vertically, horizontally,
  and through multiple layers and that they recognize the key words that
  most Web sites use to guide the reader (such as “about us” which
  often leads to publication information). One student comment was
  typical about the course: “I learned how to read a site and how to
  read the hits.”
- Research
  challenges students conceptually. Consider the complexity of the
  metaphorical language we use about areas of research: the “search”
  and the metasearch (a truer search?) sound mystical, a kind of archetypal
  quest (especially when combined with geographical terms like “mapping”
  and “logging”); the term keyword has a metaphysical promise;
  other terms invoke complex spatial images such as Web, network,
  and links; and finally “operators” (as in Boolean operators) echo
  with the lingering implication of agency. Given this profusion of rich
  terminology and complex skill building, students need to be grounded
  in regular, persistent sequencing of lessons and activities that encourage
  meta-cognition.
- As we
  teach research skills, fostering that sense of amazement at discovery
  develops students as thoughtful researchers capable of handling the
  serendipitous moment online.

19 Feb 09

Academic Research A Painful Process For Students

acrlog.org/...a-painful-process-for-students - Preview

infolit

PIL seeks to understand how students conduct research for assignments and everyday needs. A desired outcome is to improve the transfer, teaching, learning and measurement of information literacy competencies.
“information coaches”
1 more annotations...
- student’s perception of the librarian as “information advisor”