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March 15, 2003
WEB LITERACY and Critical Thinking (cont'd)
Problem Solving and Applying
If our first challenge when facing the vast Internet is locating desired information, an equally big and important set of literacy skills involves using and interpreting that information. Clearly we need to teach students to cite sources and avoid blatant plagiarism, but it goes far beyond that. How do we help our students do more than simply grab and parrot back the information they find electronically?
The "Right Kind" of Assignments
David Warlick is a strong advocate of goals-based projects, in which students "collect, synthesize, process, assemble, and express" information. With such projects, he writes, "students are less likely to simply copy and paste large chunks of text. [Instead, they] will find and copy smaller chunks of information and then carefully assemble them to produce information products that are designed to accomplish something."
David Jakes and his partners at Internet Innovations, Inc. agree. In their e-paper on inquiry-based learning, they suggest that, rather than asking students to address a question like "What is cancer?" we need to be steering them to such essential questions as "What plan can I develop for reducing the chance that I will contract cancer in my lifetime?"
Other examples of essential questions around which to build research projects include:
- Should Puerto Rico become the 51st state of the United States?
- What invention of the 20th century has had the greatest impact?
- Should animals be genetically altered to produce human proteins?
- Should the remaining cultures of smallpox be destroyed?
- What is the best strategy for reducing the impact of acid rain in the United States?
According to Internet Innovations, foundation questions (the sorts of "what is" or "when did" questions described earlier) play an important supporting role in student inquiries. A number of tools at their site lead students through the inquiry-based research project, beginning with an essential question and a hypothetical scenario in which it would be relevant, then identifying foundation questions that will provide the scaffolding for the final project.
Jakes explains that, when working with a high school class over a period of time, he gradually decreases the amount of guidance he offers. For example, he begins with a complete project page that includes foundation questions, then moves on to projects where students generate their own foundation questions and decide which Web resources to use. Eventually he has them design their own inquiry-based projects from beginning to end.
WebQuests, Anyone?
WebQuests, originated by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, are popular examples of what Warlick and Jakes would call the "right kind" of online assignments. Conduct a search for WebQuests and you will find hundreds and hundreds of examples, some misnamed, but many offering what Dodge refers to as "inquiry-based [activities] designed to use learners' time well, to focus on using information rather than looking for it."
Each WebQuest is built around a task, which provides a context and motivating goal for student work. In his article "A WebQuest Taskonomy", Dodge gives examples of interesting tasks, falling into 12 different categories. These range from mysteries-as in "King Tutankhamun: Was It Murder?" developed at Washington Intermediate School in Pekin, Ill.-to consensus-building Quests such as Tom March's "Searching for China," which has students reading about and debating six different perspectives in order to arrive at a common policy recommendation.
WebQuests offer great ways of enriching the curriculum while teaching students to analyze and synthesize information they find online and elsewhere. If you're looking for exciting WebQuests to try out with your students, you can start with the sites by Bernie Dodge and Tom March, the originators of the WebQuest model. Better yet, you and your students can use some of the examples as inspiration for building relevant WebQuests of your own.
Next: Who's Behind the Curtain?
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