Whose Information Counts?

Kids come to school looking or answers. They are used to being hand - fed information, pre - made questions and sources. Teachers are often looked at as figures who have (and are in thier own right) authoritative sources of information. We often provide kids with textbooks and essays, telling them that they can trust us and the things we give them; basically saying these things are true.

But how do they learn to be independent hunters and gatherers of information in their own right? How can we expect them to search for and find authority if we never give them the chance? I am finding that more and more often in my classroom, I will ask the kids to find the sources of information that we are going to use in class. For example, we are just beginning a science unit on water, water systems, and environmental issues. I've found a few essays that I want the kids to read, designed some experiments, and I'm getting ready to run a week long science river building simulation, but I've also left the students in charge of much of what we are going to find out about. This afternoon, the students in my class are all searching for blogs about these issues we are required to study. They are using ice rocket, technorati and google to find blogs they think we should add as a class into our iGoogle accounts. They are all having to write a blog post about the information they have found, choosing a few of them, writing why they think the blogs they have found should be included in our classroom required reading feed. Currently, we only have two blogs on our required list: Nata Village and dvice.com. From all of their writing, we will be adding more to our list or designing an iGoogle tab we can share in the classroom.

But the point is that this is their classroom as much as it is mine. Together we need to find information, evaluate it for trust and for effectiveness. They must become evaluators and creators of information; active and critical consumers and collectors, but the fact is that they need the opportunities to do these things and in classrooms, they aren't often given. How can we change, restructure and remake the things that we study to include students into the process? How can we build in more time, allowing them to find sources of information, evaluate them for trustworthiness, argue their merits on everything from design to vocabulary used, to breadth and depth of information, to frequency of posting? We need to teach kids all of these things. A textbook will always be there. Something online, as a living source of information needs to be looked at differently, and this requires us to re - envision what happens in our spaces.

Tags: information, classroom, blog, learning

Comments

[Wm Chamberlain]

Just when I think I am getting a handle on my classroom, I read a post like yours and it challenges me to rethink what I am doing and why I am doing it. Great Post!

[Miss Profe]

I don't know if this comment speaks to your post, but, as a language teacher, becoming an independent learner and seeker of knowledge is tantamount. So much of what one does is create with the language, and that creation is largely fueled by the independent pursuit of knowledge. The information been provided to my students by me; it is up to them to use it in the ways which work best for them. There are students who will be more successful in their language studies as a result; being an independent learner requires a certain degree of motivation.

[Diane P]

Wow, I love what you are doing with your students. You're are empowering or trusting them to find the common information for your class.

[mrsdurff]

Is that why learners are so peeved - I won't spoon-feed them the answers? What a cruel person I must be that demands learners learn to think.....heartless.....