EDIT 781 focused on the application of good information using practices within schools. Information using is the ability to access and use information, data, and facts. Good information using is achieved through a five step process: searching, sorting, creating, communicating, and synthesizing (SSCCS). Through this process, users turn raw input into meaningful output. I continued to apply the six guiding design principles, which I learned in EDIT 780, to design educational experiences around information using processes.
Information using starts with a search. To use information, you have to be able to find it. Knowing good search techniques can help you to more effectively obtain the information that you need. I thought I had good search skills until I had to locate specific information via a library database search engine. I had to learn to use the database's search operators before I could be successful in my search attempts.
Students must be able to think critically about where, what, and how they are searching. A good searcher knows that the search location matters; some search engines and databases can be better for specific tasks. A good searcher knows how to identify the keywords or phrases that can be used to give the desired search result and how to use the search functions to optimize a search. Good searchers also know how to sort through the results on the page to determine which results will yield the type of information they are looking for.
Sorting involves active evaluation of resources and information: what is worthwhile and what is not? The ability to sort information is necessary for a healthy information diet. Good sorting involves the evaluation of results for credibility (crap detection). Once good sources are found, a good sorter will identify second or third sources that verify the information.
A student's ability to sort may be scaffolded with activities that require the student to determine the importance, judge the usefulness, or detect the crap of information.
Creating is the thinking process of connecting the dots of the searching & sorting processes into something valuable. Creation involves the transformation of information into a user's own understanding. The act of putting information into your own words or format, such as taking notes based on an assigned article, is the creation of your own meaning.
Communication is more than sending texts, making phone calls, or holding conversations. It is the action of making our internalized thoughts visible to an external audience. The thinking process of communicating involves the sixth guiding design principle: students make meaning from content by constructing meaningful outcomes. When we "do" with our knowledge, we show what we have learned.
Designing for communication involves the consideration of the discourses of a domain: the ways in which professionals in a discipline communicate with each other. Communication tasks involve constructing activities (C of ABCS): building or producing with knowledge. Communication tasks also involve sharing activities (S of ABCS): extending learning beyond the classroom to reach an audience.
Synthesis is the process of reviewing a communicated product for potential changes. Giving feedback and reflecting are two essential synthesis practices through which we think about what we can change or why answers are correct. Giving good feedback is very hard for both teachers and students to master. Students' ability to synthesize may be scaffolded with provided reflection questions or feedback rubrics. Providing opportunities to follow-up on feedback is equally as important. Synthesis is a never-ending give-receive-revise loop.