Information Sources

When teachers plan a unit of study, the sources of information that kids will be laying their hands on is a constant source of pressure, concern, and wonder. We feel the need for kids to have correct, timely information about the topics we are teaching. But, where the amount of information available used to be a great concern, when I am planning now, I find that choosing between sources of information is the greatest concern. There are simply so many sources of information, so many people out there creating content that choosing between them is often the issue. An interesting concept really. Between "official" sources of information (textbooks, approved videos, library books, etc.), everything else that is out there, and the information that we are synthesizing, collecting, and creating ourselves, we end up with so much information that it all needs to be sifted and sorted.

Which is fine with me.

Part of what we need to be doing in classrooms is having kids think about what information is the most helpful, the most meaningful, the most relevant to them. A different concept compared to the one - way information path that exists in many classrooms. Constructing a learning space where kids are free to explore their information environment, collect and synthesize what they need, in forms that mean something to them, is a new concept and one that we need to work with.

One thing I am constantly emphasizing to students and teachers that I work with is that giving kids choice in their learning, and choice in the information that they are using does not make them unaccountable to any standards, and does not make things "too easy" for them. I usually find that kids will find nuggets of information, books, newspapers, websites that I've never heard of or seen before. They will usually complicate the process by finding conflicting sources of information, facts that don't agree that need to be checked out, and by sharing these, will exponentially expand what would have happened if I had been the main source of information for them.

But there is an absolutely necessary point that must follow directly along with allowing kids this power of choice; and that is that they must be taught the skills to critically question and validate what they are reading, seeing, and hearing. When we only used textbooks and other sources of information that were on our "approved" lists, this was not an issue; a committee somewhere of "experts" had already gone through the information and verified and validated it. Now, if we want to work with our kids in these ways, allowing them access to information in its real, wild environment, it is up to us to teach our kids these skills. They must be taught to question, to validate, to approve or disprove what they are choosing as information sources. If we don't do these things, it is like setting kids loose on the streets without teaching them to watch out for strangers.

Comments

[Jo McLeay]

I love the idea idea of the "real, wild environment" and I couldn't agree more about the necessity of teaching those skills of critically reading and choosing and justifying their ideas.