#DigiFoot12 -- Savvy Searching

I spend most of my time trying to convince students of the need to search smartly and evaluate, evaluate, evaluate ALL the time.  Despite the fact that I front load my student's school year with activities that use their evaluation skills to identify the "joke" Web site, I have to continually remind them as they are searching throughout the year.

I'll be honest, I'm not so sure how much using fake Web sites helps in the end but I also have my favorites that I like to share with kids for a fun activity for a 5th grade library bootcamp, if nothing else.

My absolute favorite is the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.  Google It if you haven't about this amazing cephalopod!!!  It is highly endangered because of habitat loss around the Pacific Northwest.  Since my students live in the Pacific Northwest, we always have at least one kid who admits to seeing one in their back yard.

Using the Tree Octopus Web site with my kids as a joke at the beginning of school gives me the opportunity to establish a code word with kids.  For the rest of their time with me, when I'm looking at a Web site with them that I don't like... I'll ask them if they think that it looks like "tree octopus" information!!!

"Net Smart : How to Thrive Online" by Howard Rheingold

I AM GOING TO READ THIS ASAP!!! So this is not yet a review of Rheingold's book but is a collection of what I took away from his online talk that was hosted by Library 2.0 and Future of Education. Embedded above is the free first chapters from Amazon.  It just came out last week.  I chose to watch his session because his ideas really match my concerns for my students and the teachers that I help to teach.  This is the second online session that I've been a part of with Rheingold.

There are five fundamental literacies that Rheingold highlights as necessary to be fluent user of social media and the network.  They are:

attention crap detection participation collaboraton network smarts

The fact that the first one is ATTENTION is HUGE!  This idea of mindfulness and teaching kids how to fully focus their attention on anything (perhaps their teachers) is going to be very important as our schools begin to implement more use of student personal devices.  I appreciated the fact that he believes that teachers need to be reflective about their own use of communication devices and our own divided brains.

(And as I'm saying this, I'm trying to take care of my 4 and 1/2 year old son who just woke up unhappily from an unplanned nap and I'm trying to sneak in this bit of my own online learning before I leave the session early to take him to T-ball practice.  And then had to make him dinner and navigate his dissatisfaction with that dinner all the while walking around with my laptop) 

I really appreciated how much he's reflected upon how to get students to manage and train their own attention.  He coined a term "infotention" to talk about the quick decisions that we are starting to make online.  I also liked the fact that he's talking about helping students create a "tool set" that will help them to navigate information.

Crap detection is is next literacy, although he calls this "critical consumption."  I feel like schools are doing a better job of helping students develop this skill.  Teachers are definitely on board with this but are often not as fluent with their own crap detector to assist the kids by modeling it. 

Participation is the third literacy and highlights the fact that so many people now have the capability of creating their own content. He refers to Russ Mayfield's Power Law of Participation. 

Cooperation and Network Smarts will have to be saved until I actually read the book.  I've got to go cooperate with the other parents at my T-ball practice right now.

11:01 pm. Upon greater reflection, I think that we also need to be focusing on how to help students create their own internal motivation as well as teach them how to be mindful of their experiences.