A Reflection on EDUC6712: Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom

     The biggest revelation that I had in this course about teaching new literacy skills was when I discovered some of the many search engines and websites available for students. I have often struggled in the past with finding places that my students can use for research, because they were above their knowledge of new literacy skills. When I personally explored websites and reviewed the information on them, I realized how easily students get caught up in false or inaccurate information, as well as how they can look too deep into a search and lose focus of the topic.


     Although there is a huge shift going towards the integration of technology in classrooms, many teachers are not prepared to teach them to students, therefore they shy away from using it. In order for educators to be able to be exemplary teachers, they must have a personal understanding of what they teach before instructing students. After completing this course, I feel more prepared to be able to introduce new literacy skills to my students. Developing my own unit plan helped me to learn how I can plan the integration of technology and address any student needs. I have a better understanding of what problems students will face in learning new literacy skills and how I can teach students to avoid them or find answers to their problems. Rather than only introducing common literacy skills such as reading and writing, I can now teach them how to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts that they are learning by developing essential questions, locating and evaluating internet resources, and synthesizing those resources to communicate them effectively. Once my students have a basic understanding of the new literacy skills, we will be able to use these strategies to learn more about all of the standards that the students are required to know about.

     One goal I have set for myself to develop professionally is to locate internet resources related to each of the standards in my curriculum. I will start to include new literacy skills in the lesson plans that I develop, so that my students will have the opportunity to learn more through inquiry-based projects. Completing such projects will help my students to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts we are learning in class. I will continue to introduce them to different forms of technology that they can use to communicate what they have learned. Fortunately, my school has put a huge emphasis on the integration of technology in our classrooms, so I hope to be able to use what I have learned in this course to teach my fellow educators how technology can be used in their classrooms as well.