Information literacy, accuracy, truths, & Mili training.

I am trying to begin to paste together in my mind how all of these online resources fit together.  I hope to use these tools to help my students link my subject matter, French, to their world that embraces every aspect of technology that has been a part of their lives from day one.  I want students to see my class and learning another world language as things that are connected and meaningful, verses an add on.   

I welcome the idea of Web 2.0 as a way of putting all of my students on an equal playing field, no longer will it be so much about what school, teacher or household has a certain product, rather who has the ability to best utilize the basic tools of every product available.  I see web 2.0 as an online "free store" of tools for accessing and manipulating resources.  I love that all of my students will be able to work together just by accessing a computer.

In the immediate future I see many challenges for myself as an educator to find the time to keep up with all of these amazing tools.  I want to spend a week playing with the "web 2.0 sandbox of tools" in order to get my mind thinking about how to introduce them to my students in my classroom and in our computer labs and through take home assignments.  I see the possibilities as endless, however, I feel challenged at finding the best way to start.

I use Google to search for information.   I use book reference materials less and less myself.  I use my email to organize a lot of business/teaching information, and Documents stored in folders on a computer, I have not stored information online, except for some online photo spots and my teacher web page.

I think that Information literacy is correctly defined.  I think that students need to know more than just how to access information, they need to be taught to question the information they find and to judge the validity and strength of their sources.

I knew nothing about web 2.o before my first mili training.  I am impressed and challenged to bring myself up to speed in the area of online resources.  I am excited to be a part of this year long training and know that I will need and appreciate the support along the way.

Truthfulness of our online resources??

Regarding the article on the truth from online sources- teaching students to slow down and think more when they are reading information online is very important.  I share the author's frustration in watching students find information online and refuse to read an entire article.  They skim articles for a piece of information and move to the next resource in order to find the facts they need and nothing more.

I also see the students perspective of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information available from the online resources.  It can be very difficult to know if a source is trust worthy or reliable, this is something that I never had to question when I used the Encyclopedia Britannica to do my research.  

I wonder if it is o.k. to limit the students sources that they are allowed to use for their research.  I may pick 5-10 online sources that I think are good and reliable and give my students the links and let them choose from within a limited number in order to help them better manage their time, because time is always an issue for a research project that will be done during school hours.

Signing up for the computer lab online??

I am worried about getting my name on our school computer lab sign up. We still have a paper sign up, are there suggestions on how to help our library get a template for the online sign up schedule, we had it at Anwatin and it was really slick!
I am excited about starting my project, hopefully second quarter.??