"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." ~John Cotton Dana

Saturday, June 22, 2013

EDUC 6816 Weekly Reading #5


  1. What does the term "discursive practices" mean?

The processes by which cultural meanings are produced and understood (anthropology.hawaii.edu)

  1. What does "discourse" mean?

Written or spoken communication or debate (dictionary.com)

  1. What is the "rock" and what is the "hard place"?

The rock is the current conception of information literacy, and the hard place is the translation and understanding of information literacy practice

  1. What are the differences between the skills prescribed for information searching in academic and workplace settings?

The workplace setting is more complex and collaborative.  The setting is not as rigid and regulated as the academic setting.

  1. How do academic notions of information literacy undermine workplace notions information literacy?

Academic notions don’t focus on the researcher.  They don’t take workplace knowledge into consideration; the people, settings, production, distribution, and circulation.

  1. How are information needs identified in work place setting like nursing and emergency workers?

Each profession has a need for a specific body of knowledge.  And each profession relies on communication and collaboration with colleagues.  They need to understand the language, practices, and procedures to do their jobs effectively.

  1. Why do issues of plagiarism not resonate in workplace settings?

The main source of data in the workplace is internal.  Colleagues share information with each other freely.  They see no need to be so formal with their information.

  1. Are information literacy skills transferable across contexts and settings? Why or Why not?

No, information literacy skills are different for each setting and context.  These skills are critical and complex, not generic and transferable.

  1. What is "practice theory"?

Practice theory emphasizes the analysis of ways of engaging with the world.

  1. How does the author of this article define information literacy?

The author defines information literacy as knowledge of how information sources and the activities used to access them, which are constructed through discourse.  Also, connections between people, texts, experiences, and artifacts.

  1. How do educators need to change their understanding of information literacy in order to prepare student for the information literacy practices they will encounter in workplace settings?

It is critical to acknowledge the role of the community with regards to information literacy.  It is also critical to acknowledge that information literacy is a practice, not a skill, that needs to be studied and understood.

  1. What do the terms "ontological" and "epistemological" mean?

Ontological pertains to the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence.  Epistemological pertains to what we know.  (Merriam-webster.com)

  1. After reading this article, how useful is the traditional research paper we expect students to produce in school in preparing them for workplace settings? What are traditional research papers useful for? Should we still assign traditional research papers?

Traditional research papers are not preparing students for the workplace.  They do not take into account the setting and skills needed for a particular workplace.  They also do not encourage collaboration.  Traditional research papers should only be assigned sparingly, and only to teach students about setting up a formal research paper.

  1. What is one of the biggest challenges to changing the way information literacy is conceptualized in school settings?

I think the biggest challenge is the amount of information out there, and that not all of it is correct.  We need to teach our students to look closely at their sources and evaluate them for reliability.

  1. What attributes of the 21st century make it essential that educators change their approaches toward information literacy?

Again, I believe it is important to prepare students for false information.  Anyone can create a web page and post whatever they want.  It is important to begin research projects by teaching about domains, bias, and evaluating sources.

16.   What changes can teachers make to their classroom activities to engage students in the information literacy practices they will encounter in 21st century workplace settings?

I like the idea of using something like TrackStar or Web Quests to guide the students’ research.  Take them through the process of evaluating sources step by step.  Give them guiding questions to get them thinking critically.
 
Source
Lloyd, A. (2011). Trapped between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information
Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? Library Trends, 60 (2) pp. 277-296

5 comments:

  1. When I read epistemology - I thought of Dr. McKeen! When she taught us that in science methods!!

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  2. I agree with your statement that the workplace isn't as rigid or structured as the academic world. I like WebQuests better than TrackStar. I feel that it is more aesthetically appealing and easier to manage as a user.

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  3. I've never used WebQuest before but I might give it a try. I liked the concept of a Trackstar but didn't care for the interface.... I thought it was very clumsy and I could see some of my students struggling with the navigation issues, which means I would need to give much more hands-on support (which is difficult for me since most of my learners are on different levels).

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  4. I agree that students need to be able to look at websites objectively and analyze them accordingly. Just because it is on the Internet doesn't mean that it is true. Having done a WebQuest and TrackStar, I prefer regulr WebQuests. I had problems getting things to work correctly in TrackStar.

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  5. WebQuests are awesome. They get the students involved and a great motivation for the assignments at hand. I enjoyed a WebQuest I had to do at a new teacher training. It was fun even though it was nothing but work related.

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