CI 553 Reflections - Week 3

Using Indexes and Search Engines & the LM Standards

As I worked through the self-check questions for this week I was amazed to find myself searching (and finding!) information in ways that I had never used before. Sure, I've used a few indexes before like Infotrac and ERIC, but I had no idea the sheer volume of the indexes that were available to me online through the UM library. I found myself scouring the lists just looking at all the indexes available and thinking about how MUCH information that I was able to access. It was funny that when I actually started researching for my SCQs, I used the databases that I was most familiar with. I think there is a level of comfort that we all have with research, and often we tend to go to sources that we are familiar with. That is precisely what I did - I used ERIC and Infotrac almost exclusively in my searches, except when there were explicit directions to do otherwise. Upon reflection, I see that this is exactly what my students do when they research, and why they stick so close to Wikipedia and Google - it is challenging for us to go out of our comfort zone.

Something else I found extremely powerful was the subject searches. Though I knew this was an option, I never explored it prior to the the assignment for this week. It was marvelous to discover how easy it was to find good, relevant information. This it a tool that I will definitely take back to the classroom with me. In fact, I may put together something very similar to the SCQs as an assignment for my own students so they, too, can learn how valuable and easy it is to search indexes using subject titles.

Learning how to search and use indexes, as well as using the Boolean tools, is directly applicable to Library Media standard 2 - "Students will locate sources, use information and present findings." As I consider this, and the Big6 set of skills, it occurs to me that one GIANT research project at the end of the year is not a very good way to teach students how to be good researchers who are information literate. Better would be to teach these skills slowly, throughout the year, using a variety of smaller projects. Perhaps there could be some culmination at the end, though at this point I'm not sure exactly what it will look like. It bears further thought...

Using the library with my students...
A good deal of chapter 6 in the text was devoted to ways of orienting students to their library media centers. I appreciated the idea of scavenger hunts that were designed to help orient students to the library, and like the examples provided. This is something that happens with the freshman during their library orientation in the fall, but it occurs to me that by the time my students are juniors, there are many who have forgotten where and how to research in the library. My juniors, too, would benefit from a reintroduction to the library, especially if I require more research from them over the course of a the year. I will need to speak to our librarian and see if she would be willing to collaborate with me on some sort of reintroduction to the library for my students, though I know that she would be more than willing to do this.


My scavenger hunt would include indexes and subject searches, a review of Boolean terms, and the use of meta-search engines (although I don't tend to like these as well as just using Google). Perhaps my libraria can also suggest some other ideas that would be relevant to juniors.

Engaging ethically with information and technology...
I loved the ideas presented in chapter 7, especially those about note-taking in the digital, where students are taught to copy and paste selectively, highlighting relevant information, as well as taking the citation information. I thought figure 7.2 was especially relevant, and plan to present and use a template similar to this when teaching students to research in the digital era. Of course, this brings up the ever present problem of plagiarism, especially when it is so easy for students to just take other people's work. For this, I find that turnitin.com is quite helpful, and encourages students to do their own work. In the beginning, I frame plagiarism as a learning opportunity rather than a blaming/cheating situation. Once they find out that they can't get away with it, they stop trying to steal other people's words and ideas, plus, they get better at thinking for themselves. It's not as if they are penalized; I simply won't accept work that is not their own.

Until they can turn in their own work, they get a zero; once they give me something they have written, I assess based on the provided rubric.

Interestingly, chapter 8 discusses plagiarism and LPP projects in depth. Figure 8 - 2 is a great graphic representation of 21st century literacy, and I will definitely come back to this one again. (I am actually marking these places in the text so I can find them easily in the fall!) It is important to remember that there are many ways to show literacy. I think that teachers often fall into ruts of doing the same things over and over again. This graphic reminds us to switch it up.

Photo Credits: These images are available through a Creative Commons License. Thanks to Flickr users gaspi*yg for Craning for a Book and docman for Istanbul, Color Illustration. I appreciate the use of their images.