The resources we were given this week to explore all revolved around the new way in which the 21st Century creates information, accesses information, and uses information, and then shifted that focus into the question of how are we preparing our students for this new way of information travel. The first video, "InfoWhelm and Information Fluency" was a great start because it succinctly described how the world has changed and become digital, particularly by sharing just how MUCH content has been created and shared digitally. I think it was funny too, because I had viewed this video right after writing my first post, where I had mentioned being overwhelmed by resources and wanting to discern the good from the not so good. So I chuckled at the coincidence. It is a fact though, that there is just far too much content out there for anyone to explore completely. The video made what in my opinion was a profound statement, saying "We can't be experts at anything anymore." In a way, that is completely true, because there is no way one person can explore all content related to a particular topic in order to become an expert.
Now of course, not all content out there is reliable or accurate, for that matter, and that is where the idea of information fluency and inquiry comes in. We have to be evaluators of content, and not just users. Bryan Alexander, in his blog post, referenced a process by Jane Hart that he had catered for his own purposes, where you first seek information, then make sense of what you find, and finally share what is good and useful. This is the process of the world now in the digital age. This is what people are doing, though I think I would add a step that is often, (though not always) used, and that's "shape." Many times, as users of information, once we have sought and made sense of content, we shape it to become our own. We change it, add to it, create something new from it, adding our essence to it, before we share it with the world. Even when you do as little as quote a work in your own paper, you have shaped that bit of information into yours, to make new sense from it.
This is what we want and need from our students in order for them to become effective learners in this new age, and that is what all the resources led to, the idea that as educators, we have to lead the way to this change, adjusting the way we "have always done it," because the world is no longer the same as it once was, whether we like it or not. Students must learn these valuable skills of HOW to seek, make sense of, shape, and share content in a way that is meaningful and useful to their own learning and knowledge base. To build off of this, becoming successful in this new age is more than just knowing how to use the tools out there, but it becomes the difference from being digitally "literate" to being digitally "fluent." Karen Lirenman said that "being digitally fluent means using the tools of technology to do things completely differently than I've ever done before. It's less about using technology to make a routine more exciting, and more about transforming how I think about teaching and learning with technology and how it applies to my students." It means "thinking" digitally, rather than just knowing how to use it. Many of us are still learning fluency, while at the moment being very literate. How many teachers use the digital board to project content that they would have previously shown in the book, or created a prezi instead of a PowerPoint to teach information? There is nothing wrong with this at all, and these are powerful tools, but we need to move even beyond that and begin to think about how these technologies can literally transform the way we are doing business in school.
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWkQq5qmdmc
http://bryanalexander.org/2013/12/26/my-daily-info-wrangling-routine/
http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily/classroom/post/engage/2012/04/23/the-journey-from-digital-literacy-to-digital-fluency#.UtBlfrTs0gE
http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily/classroom/post/engage/2012/04/23/the-journey-from-digital-literacy-to-digital-fluency#.UtBlfrTs0gE
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