A Book Study Empowering Students With Technology by Alan November

Overview  Review major points from first meeting  November Information Literacy Quiz  Share personal experiences  Within the classroom  In the community

Points From First Discussion  What did you find interesting/like?  When looking at the big picture that November presents, what did you like the most or find the most interesting?  Was there anything that you didn’t agree with or didn’t find useful?

Points From First Discussion Cont’  What is information literacy?  Are you more informational literate as a result of the book study?  Quiz

Information Literacy Quiz  1. List 4 major search engines and a major directory.  2. What is a blog?  3. Why might you use quotation marks when conducting a search?  4. URL is an acronym for…  5. Identify three Boolean search terms.  6. How do you find the owner or publisher of a Web site?

Information Literacy Quiz Cont’  7. Identify these extensions and what they represent:.org.com.sch.k12.edu.gov.ac.net.mil.co  8. How do you find out who is linked to your school’s Web site?  9. What clues in a Web address might indicate you are on a personal Web site?

Information Literacy Quiz Cont’  10. How would you conduct a search for the following: a list of Web sites of all the academic institutions in South Africa? (Hint: South Africa’s country code is.za)  11. How do you find the history of any given Web site?  12. How would you conduct a search for the following: US higher education Web sites that contain the word turtle?  13. How do sites get to the top of a result list in Google?

Points From First Discussion Cont’  What is information literacy?  Are your students becoming more information literate?  If yes, how? What are you doing differently?

Points From First Discussion Cont’  Critical Thinking  “What our students cannot learn on their own, and what makes teachers more important than ever, is the urgent need to teach critical thinking and global communications skills” – Alan November  Are we on our way to establishing a climate of critical thinking?  What are some of you doing to create this atmosphere in your classroom?

Points From First Discussion Cont’  How do we implement/incorporate technology?  Sharepoint  Communication across curricula  Challenging question

Further Discussion  What is the purpose of using a particular technology in each circumstance?  Will technology really make a difference?  Does the allocation of resources align with the primary objectives of the school?  Do we have the capacity to support teachers after the technology is installed?  Do we need to help each student’s family understand our investment?  Will we us technology to improve what we have always done?  Can we use technology to do things for our students that we have never been able to do?  Are there new basic skills that all of our students and teachers must have to meet the skill requirements of our society? – Alan November

Further Discussion  What are you doing that satisfies the previous criteria?  Share some tools you are using that take little/no resources, little/no money, and little/no time

Further Discussion  What are you doing that is pioneering and creative?  Some people have gone out into the community. Would you mind sharing your experience and what it has done to either your point of view or what it has shown your students?

Conclusion  Where do we go from here?  What should be our goal as a staff as we reflect upon what we’ve read?  Where do you see technology taking us in the next 5 years as we transition into a new environment?

Further Discussion  Handouts  Informational Literacy Quiz/Key  Information Literacy Resources  “Beyond Technology”, an article by November on the transformation of the workplace  “Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning”, an article by November on critical thinking.