What help do you need? Some ideas to get you started...

[Carl Heine]

We know it's tough to teach Information Fluency. Finding the time and the right resources can be challenging. We regularly hear from librarians and teachers around the world how much they value the resources we produce. Occasionally, we get a request for a resource we haven't thought of, or a suggestion that would make it more effective.

That's what excites us about the possibilities of this Network. We want this to become an interactive site for product development.

If we can help you create something that will get your students thinking and searching more efficiently and effectively, let us know. Recently, media specialists/teachers came to us with questions and comments about the differences between searching and browsing, ways to train science faculty about citation and plagiarism and an alternate solution to the Pump Price Challenge. All three resulted in new additions to the Resource Kit. (You can see some of the discussion surrounding the development of the Plagiarism tutorial in this ning.)

Dennis and I are committed to developing the best resources possible, and we believe this means collaborating with you who work directly with students and staff. We have some ideas what topics are needed, but we want to include you in this discussion.

So if you have ideas or frustrations about getting students to become better searchers, evaluators and ethical users of online information, join the conversation!

[karenklieg]

This is such an important topic and a vital part of our curriculum. As I have said in replies to other posts, I would love to see the elementary-age student (grades 3-5) addressed in your resources. I have been able to use resources such as Cybersmart - http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/lesson_plans/ and develop some of my own, but it would be great to have more resources available for our younger students (who spend a great deal of time online!)

[Carl Heine]

Bringing upper elementary grades into the fold is one of our goals for the coming year. Help us define the area(s) where you need resources the most: building effective queries, finding better keywords, browsing, evaluating...?

[Bob Sprankle]

Thanks for this request, Karen. And yes, Carl... all of the above! :)

I'd also add:

copyright

Thanks!

Bob

[Carl Heine]

I thought I'd try making a younger challenge using the Search Challenge framework. You can find the new challenge at:

http://21cif.imsa.edu/rkitp/challenge/questiontoquery/SC_031.swf

This is an elementary science topic with relatively simple keywords that uses a custom search engine I created in Google. Instead of searching millions of records, it only searches 9 sites that all have relevance to science fairs. I can add more to the engine, even add some sites with information that may need to be evaluated for accuracy.

I encourage you to try it out and give me some feedback. Could your 3rd/4th graders use this?

[Bob Sprankle]

Outstanding! Thank you so much, Carl! I can't wait to use this with them. Keep 'em coming! :)

Bob