Adapting a Unit Plan

I adapted a unit plan that I have use for two consecutive years. I though my plan was pretty well rounded and done, but after revising it through the eyes of the "Computer skills for Information Problem Solving" and the "Revised Bloom's Taxonomy" I found out that there was a lot to improve in it.

What I found great is that there is no extra work load for students, almost no more extra load for me, but it is a lot more extra learning experience for my students.

The biggest gap in my lesson plan was in analyzing and evaluating the learning process. Just by adding this two essential steps I can predict the students outcome will be much greater than it was on previous years!!

Webquest - QR Code Rally

Fun! Working in teams! Having the same goal! Competition! Challenge!

I learned some many things out of this activity and as it usually happens to me, I want to apply them as soon as I can with my own students:

It was great to work with an other different team, and not always with the ones that I know and I feel confident working with. You learn to see the strengths and abilities of each individual and you also learn to see their fun side. That was great!

Also, the time keeping and the challenge of finishing first was an incredible motivation. I would love to apply this in my own teaching, but of course, thinking in teenagers where they can be mean with each other, I'll need to be careful.

Next, and maybe the most important, is that learning can be fun. Wouldn't it be so nice to have fun while learning all times? Maybe it is not possible, but at least we can try!

Finally: reflecting after finishing an activity it is very useful to sit for a while and reflect, that way you can internalize your learning, make them really yours!

Thanks for this activity!!!

Now I would love to lean on how to do the QR codes, wouldn't it be great to use them in our daily teaching???

Google vs. MS Database

After comparing and contrasting the Middle School databases and Google, we can conclude that the definition of the task is important.
We started by using exactly the same key words either in the MS database (Grolier) and in Google, and examining only the first top five that appeared in both sources we concluded that in this specific topic about students with learning disabilities Grolier database was not the best path to look for this information. However, we believe it would be very different if the topic under History or Geography. On the other hand, Google showed us a couple of interesting articles from very reliable sources such as Scholastic.com and a magazine from the University of North Carolina. The design on both sites were equally attractive. The technical elements found in both were the same, both had image links. Credibility was seen as valid in both databases, however, one could find much more information that is valid under Google because it offers many more sources from important universities and researchers. Based on the fact that our students continuously use Google, we really need to encourage teaching and learning information literacy skills such as using the proper database from our libraries and teach students how to find and discern valid information from Google. We cannot pretend they will stop using Google nor we cannot assume that they know how to identify valid and credible information.

Mind map on Information Literacy

My mind map on Information Literacy

Information Literacy and Media Literacy

Media literacy (ML) and information literacy (IL) practically look the same, it is not easy to observe the difference. For from what I’ve learn during these days and based on the UNESCO reading, IL is the ability of the individual to seek, evaluate and make ethical use of the information, is an acquired capacity to understand different sources that could include ML. In the other hand ML in the way the individual is immerse in a continuous exposure of information, but if “processed” under the umbrella of IL the individual can as well evaluate and make ethical use of it.

IL is an objective view and ML is the way the individual process it through it different sources, is more focused in the self-expression and the personal engagement to it so it would be more subjective. ML must consider and discern the information based on the source it comes from. IL is broader, is kind of an approach to information regardless the impact or relationship of the source to the individual.

Ultimately both of them are based and focused in the whole process of looking for, processes and communication information and the ethical use if it is also common for both of them.