Blog Post #6 -

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What is inquiry? Inquiry is defined as a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge. In the educational setting, it is described as the learner's desire to look deeply into a question or idea that interests him or her. As a result of this, the School Library Media Specialist is the person to help when students and teachers are working on class projects and/or research. Library Media Specialists teach students and teachers how to find reliable information from valid sources both online and in print. Teaching students the steps to determining which websites to trust for getting information. For example one way to determine if a website is reliable and has valid information is to check to see if the site has been recently updated. Sites that are recently updated are more likely to post information regularly and can be seen as a reliable source. For my three mini-lessons, the middle school computer lab will be used. I will focus on teaching middle school students how to differentiate between good information and sources and bad information and sources. Since students in middle school have to complete science fair projects each year, in the first lesson, I will get the attention of the students by asking them what they would like to do for their science fair projects. I would then give them an in-class assignment to search for 4-6 websites to find information about their science fair projects. Once, they have searched for sources I will then ask them out of the sources they find, which ones do they think has the most reliable and valid information. In the second lesson, I will teach them steps and guidelines to use when looking for sources to use for research and projects. At the end of the lesson, I will ask them to check the sources they previously found to see if they contain all the information in the guidelines for checking reliable sources. Once they determine which sources are reliable, they will tell why the other sources, if any, are not. For the third lesson, the students will complete a final search for information about their science fair topic. The teacher and myself will observe the students to make sure they are using the steps and guidelines given them to find valid information sources. Students will be able to ask any questions they have concerning searching websites and given immediate feedback.

Blog Post #5 - Reflection of Learning Goals

As I am introduced to new tools and technology, I am learning that I have a lot to become comfortable with using and ultimately introducing this 21st Century information to teachers and students. I consider myself technologically savvy especially when it is something that I am interested in knowing how to use it to benefit me personally. Over the last few weeks, I now know that I am not as technologically savvy as I thought. Throughout some of the assignments, I find myself struggling with how to approach what I am supposed to be doing. I find myself goggling what and how a specific part of the assignment should consist of. As a result, I know that my learning goals are on point because I am learning about different Web 2.0 tools I have never used or heard of as well as getting familiar and comfortable with posting and publishing a blog. Although I had a Twitter account prior to this class, I never really used it but now I have to post and/or respond to others tweets. One of the articles we read this week was about fostering and building a growth mindset. In the article titled Even Geniuses Work Hard (Dweck, Carol S.), the author stated, "there are two distinct ways in which individuals view intelligence and learning. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their intelligence is simply an inborn trait—they have a certain amount, and that's that. In contrast, individuals with a growth mindset believe that they can develop their intelligence over time" (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 1999, 2007). Of the two ways for individuals to view intelligence and learning, I consider myself to have a growth mindset. This is because I believe that we as a people never stop learning but you have to have to want to continue to learn and increase that knowledge over time. I know that having a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset is important in order to work in the fields of Instructional Technology and School Library Media Specialist. Both of these focus on the use of technology and being able to demonstrate and teach the various uses of technology for educational purposes as well as personal. Teachers and those in the education field that have a growth mindset will instill the importance for students to become lifelong learners in and out of school.

Letting Go

In the article, Great Teaching Means Letting Go, Grant Wiggins stated two vital lessons about learning: 1)transfer is the bottom-line goal of all learning, not scripted behavior and 2)transfer means that a learner can draw upon and apply from all of what was learned, as the situation warrants, not just do one move at a time in response to a prompt. I am in agreement with him about the two lessons in learning, students should be able to respond to questions about the information they are learning no matter what format it is in and be able to tell how they reached their answer(s). He also stated that the Gradual Release of Responsibility model does not mean the last step is "Independent Practice." According to Grant, Independent practice is still a scaffolded, prompted, and simplified activity in which the student knows full well what single move we want them to use. Grant also discusses how when teachers give assignments or test that they should not tell or give the students any indication about what process or strategy to use but allow them to dig from the strategies they already know to answer the questions as well as tell what they used to determine the answers and why they choose that particular strategy(ies).

After watching the video, Chris Lehmann - Inquiry: The Very First Step in the Process of Learning, I noticed that he and Grant Wiggins are talking about the same thing except Chris Lehman's video was geared more towards technology and Inquiry Learning. Lehman stated that in order for technology to be inquiry driven it has to incorporate the following:

What are the questions we can ask together?

Has to be student-centered

Teacher-mentored

Community - based (students can learn from others in specific fields within their community)

Collaborative (teachers and students working together)

Integrated - meaning each day has to make sense

Meta-cognitive - students need to think about thinking

Understanding driven - students should understand the importance of doing projects, homework, participating in class, and taking tests and quizzes

The ultimate goal is to have students who are thoughtful, wise, passionate, and kind.

After reading the article and watching the video, I found many similarities to the way I have taught students--telling them how and where to find the answers and giving generic tests to make sure they know but may not necessarily understand what was being taught. Using the scaffolding is beneficial to students but teachers have to learn how to give students space when learning to see if they are able to perform when necessary and in different ways. In hindsight, the article is describing how teachers should allow their students to think for themselves without being given hints or prompts on how to think and how to process information because everyone learns in different ways and will relay information they have learned differently. Teachers should encourage students to think for themselves and use the strategies they have been taught to discuss and answer questions. Having students who can ask and answer questions that requires thinking and pulling from previous knowledge helps to prepare them academically for high school and eventually college as well as for the workforce.

Blog Post #3-Reflective Searching

As a searcher, I feel that I can find valid information and I use various sources to retrieve information. After the videos and readings this week, I now know that there are various ways to search in Google that I did not know of before. I now feel that I am more capable of finding what I am looking for quicker and from more reliable sources. I believe we are a members of a "Google Generation." With access to books and a vast amount of information on the world wide web, it is not as common to pick up a book, magazine, or encyclopedia to search for information as in years prior to the early 1990's. In terms of my web searching behavior, what I have in common with typical teens is the need to get the information right away and not doing thorough research for information.

My typical search pattern is to use Google on my phone or Chromebook, but at work we use Mozilla Fox. If I'm searching for people, I usually look for a website, usually the persons biography, instead of websites with bits and pieces of information on the person. When looking for a particular picture, I use the images tab to search instead of searching for everything that is related to the picture. As a result of this weeks' readings and videos, I will be more conscious of how I search for information so that I can pass that information on to the students and teachers to help with their research process.

Blog Post #2 - Blogging Resources

What commonalities do you see between these 4 readings/videos? Are there any places where they seem disconnected?
The commonalities I see between the 4 readings/videos are that all encourage students and teachers to ask good questions to get better answers, learn how to access information from reliable sources, learn how to decipher between good information and one's opinion, and be able to apply to real life experiences and access the outcomes of what they learned and the process to get the information they need.

Do these resources offer any insights or ideas related to your learning goals?
These resources do offer ideas and insights related to my learning goals. For example, one of my learning goals is to encourage students to ask questions and then be willing to research and find the answer(s) for themselves and be able to share what they have learned to their peers. Giving students the opportunity to have some control over how they learn and receive information will instill a sense of pride and confidence in what they are capable of doing academically now and in the future.

Learning goals for FRIT 7234- Information Fluency and Inquiry Learning

My learning goals for this class are to have a clear understanding of what information fluency is and how it relates to student learning, learn more about inquiry learning and how to encourage students to ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer, and be able to give them the tools to research and find the answers to their questions. The knowledge and skills I want to be sure to acquire by the time the semester is over are knowing how to teach students about information fluency and the correct ways to know if information found on the internet is valid or just someones opinions. I want to have the skills to move them toward inquiry learning, encouraging them to ask questions and research to find the answers and come back and share what they have learned with their peers.