At the Illinois School Library Media Association conference last week, a librarian walked up to me, after the keynote, and asked about online databases. “What’s the future of databases?” “They’re expensive, should we be investing in them?”
Of course, I can’t predict the future of databases. I do not know enough about them to characterize their value. I don’t use them, myself. I said something like this, but without the benefit of reflection…
If you send students to an online database to learn about political conflicts of the 1950s or genetic research, then your young scholars will learn what you intend them to learn (predictable learning) and you will be integrating technology into the process. But the problem with this scenario is that the technology will change. The technology skills will change. ..and I suspect that even what we know about genetics and even the political struggles of the last century will change, perhaps even more so than we might imagine.
But if students are asked to research on a liberally open and reasonably safe Internet, to evaluate and validate what they learn, to apply it to other findings, sift and select and then express what they’ve learned, to be responsible for what they learn, then you’re integrating something into the lesson that will not change — Literacy Habits. Even literacy skills will change. But the habits won’t.
It seems to me that the important action today is for teachers to include in their professional practice the elements of contemporary literacy habit. They should not avoid, but rely far less on textbooks, online databases, and other packaged information sources, and far more on the real-world information landscape so that they can walk into their classrooms and say,
“Here’s how I found this information and this is why I think it is relevant and important. I mixed it with this information because when considered together, they indicate this. And I cooked it with this editing software to express it in this way and enhance its value.”
The first thing we educators have to do to integrate literacy habits into our classrooms is to practice literacy habits as teachers and as master learners.
Beale, Scott. “Microsoft Research TechFest 2007.” Laughing Squid’s Photostream. 7 Mar 2007. 4 Nov 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/413379066/>.
Couldn’t some of these literacy habits be taught with textbooks and prepackaged information sources though? It would require using textbooks differently, but I have seen it done.
My AP Gov teacher from high school used a lousy textbook and the tests straight from the book. He acknowledged that it was bad, but it was closest to the AP test that he was prepping us for. Part of the routine after every unit test from the book was that we got to debate the validity of the test questions. If we could convince him that the question was bad, or the information from the text was bad, everyone in the class got a point for their score. We used the prepackaged source, but we knew to be skeptical about it.
I agree with you. The textbook can be used in this way. If I were still teaching history, I’d begin each year or semester with all the information I could find about the author of the textbook, to validate or de-validate its content.
The reason that I suggest de-emphasizing textbooks (not ignoring or rejecting outright) is that they are packaged and intended to be seen as authoritative, where asking questions about the answers is not necessary.
A more open World Wide Web, on the other hand, begs for validating. It begs for contemporary literacy skills.
That’s true; people are more likely to naturally question the validity of online sources than textbooks. They already see that it’s necessary to evaluate the source; teaching contemporary literacy habits with a textbook requires the added step of convincing people of the value of doing so.
Maybe some of this is also the transparency of online sources versus traditional print media. Encyclopedia Brittanica is meant to be authoritative, as you say, and their process isn’t remotely transparent. Wikipedia has total transparency for every edit so you can see the battles and understand the struggles for NPOV. Most online sources are somewhere in the middle between Brittanica and Wikipedia, but the transparency possible online does make literacy habits easier to teach.
In my experience, students don’t like the “extra steps”, minimal as they are, that using a database involves.
We currently receive a basic EBSCO package through the New York State library, but do not subscribe to any other databases. With the limited usage we have of this resource, if the state ever eliminated the free subscription I would probably not be willing to commit any of my library budget to purchasing similar products.
This is not intended to be a rhetorical questions. I’m curious.
— Who uses databases in real life?
I love what you say in the last few paragraphs of this post, especially the end: “The first thing we educators have to do to integrate literacy habits into our classrooms is to practice literacy habits as teachers and as master learners.” As many have said, we can’t give away what we don’t possess. Too many educators aren’t really teaching students literacy habits – nor can we – because we’re not really practicing them ourselves… so we don’t really understand them.
A “master learner” … that’s what we all need to strive to be, first, before we can be master teachers. A concept I only woke up to in the last year…and one I’m now working to instill not only in myself, but in all the teachers in our school.
So as an admin I am always thinking about conversations with the faculty. In response to what you have written I am wondering what would happen if I sat down and asked… So I see your class is going to be studying “how physical geography effects people.” What sources of information did you review to prepare for this unit and why did you choose those sources?
I have been thinking a lot about planning and how critical it is and how easily it can be overlooked at the elementary level. I already have a session planned on objectives and this may fir right in…it is certainly food for thought.
As for the data bases I hope Cathy Nelson or Joyce V weigh in here with the librarians perspctive.
I agree with you, I believe that one of the most important aspects of teaching is to teach the students to be critical thinkers. If we only allow them to look for information in certain places then it is almost as if we are spoon-feeding it to them. But if we allow students to do their research where they please and be able to justify their actions then we are teaching them not to believe everything they read on the Internet. We look for all types of information on the Internet and if we do not teach them how to evaluate web sites. In today’s world where information can change everyday, wouldn’t it be better if the students could use the new information rather than something that was written one, five, or ten years ago.
i like the legos