helping students become info literate
according to Bruce (2008) when students write a paper, they:
- need to seek evidence:(either to support my point of view, or to understand the big picture)
- find statistics
- find supporting ideas
- find contrasting opinions
2. developing an argument: (either I would stick to my orginal point of view, or adapt a new one according to my readings)
- should have the knowledge about the topic
- organize these knowledge into context
- update the argument point of view
3. the paper should have a purpose (a problem to solve):
- how to help the community
- or how does it affect any social or political changes
i believe these steps should be known to every student needs to do a paper.
ALA confernece in Chicago (ACRL)
I am preparing my self to attend the ALA annual conference in Chicago (9-15 July). My main interest is the Information literacy topic. There are few activities in this conference that represents the information literacy and instruction. i will try to update the readers about the conference and about my experience there.
Am I prepared? well, I am reading a few articles and recent books about the information literacy. I will post the titles sooner. On the other hand, I registered on line for the conference, which makes it much easier. BTW, the ALA free call line was a great help, and people there can guide you smoothly in case you have any kind of problem regarding membership, or conference registration. The on-line registration was not difficult to follow though at some pages I did not understand if the activities posted there are for extra charge. to conclude, the experience was not bad but differently a lot of improvement could be done to the web site. May be I was looking at the site with the critical eye, since my mater thesis was about interface design, and usability.
PhD concern
Today I was searching for help on the net (as usual) for advices to help me finish my PhD. I came across a panel discussion set by a UK university giving tips to PhD students on writing and finishing the painful process. all can be said in few words: read 3 journal articles per week, read 2-3 books each month and write 200 words every day. they also highlight the importance of giving some time to think (reflective thinking), which i believe is an important element in the procedure.
Ok..now does writing Blogs count? i think it does if one’s blog is an academic one and the place to write down own ideas and research notes..why not?
on the other hand, I had this idea when i was writing the previous lines. easily i could cope and past the link to that web site that included the information insted of writing it. that means no writing for me. so the question here if the net encourages for less writing? i have read an article (online)while ago (mentioned by my supervisor actually) raising the question: does the internet makes us different reader (or less)? the author has a point, he argued that he used to read all these long book like ear and piece, nowadays he has no patinets for that. he reserves his time to surfe the net, quick reading, scanning..and so forth. between emails, facebook, wikipeidia and recently the twitter i believe we are not only communicate differently but also we seek information differently and try to bridge the information gap in a very different approach.
is it the inforamtion revolution? the technology booming? or the differnet expectation? i believe all the above plus some other issues i might find later.
now…are these words count for 200? did i do it? i know it is not a pure academic writing, but still it is some serious writing trying to tickle some ideas, right? plus i know i need to practice writing since English is not my first toungue.
main learning theories
main learning theories:
1. behaviorism: depends on trial and repetition till the learners master the required skill or achieve the required learning goal. it is great for motor skills.
2. cognitivism:
3. Constructivism: it says that learners construct their own knowledge using their own prior knowledge. Spiro proposed Cognitive Flexible theory to be the tool for constructivism. CFT says that learners need to see the learning materials in different shapes, different colors and from different angles. and this would serve constructivism since learners can be introduced to the materials from different angels and in different shapes to be able to construct their own knowledge.
Skill Up & Thrive 