A8.5: Week 8 Reflection

Aims and Objectives:

My goals for this week were:

• To revise my project prospectus.  I wanted to review my prospectus and determine what I needed to do to answer my essential question.  I structured my foundation questions in a way that would lead to the conclusion that I wanted people to come too.
• To complete my third genre.  I wanted to complete my third genre and make sure that it would answer a foundation question that was vital to my research.
• To provide my classmates with helpful feedback.  I wanted to help my classmates improve upon their work and give them positive feedback.

Declarative Knowledge:

This week I learned more about information literacy.  I learned that it is a skill that is vital for survival in today’s society.  I think in order to be a life-long learner, good student, and professional you need to possess this skill.  It will help you determine when information is needed and how you can obtain the information.

Procedural Knowledge:

The first assignment that I tackled this week was responding to my classmates second genre.  I went to their websites and read their genre.  I then asked myself the following questions:

• What voice was it written in?
• Who was the target audience?
• What is the author saying?
• What is good about the work?
• How can the work be improved?

I answered these questions and posted my comments to their webpages.  I then researched information literacy and reflected on the importance of it in today’s society.  I posted my thoughts to my weblog.  After meeting with Mrs. McComas I revised my prospectus.  With her help I determined what questions I should ask in order for my audience to come to the conclusion that I wanted them too.  I then decided what my third genre would be and did some additional research through databases.

Conditional Knowledge:

 Knowing more about information literacy will help me improve upon my skills and be more literate.  This skill will help me throughout my life.  I think that is a critical skill to possess in today’s society.  The research project is really  helping me as a student and future clinician.  I think that I am learning a lot of valuable information about my topic.

Questions:

When citing within the poem, for example, I put broken speech (which is my way of saying agrammatism), I learned this from a source, so can it be cited as a summary?

A8.3: Information Literacy

     Information literacy is very important in today’s society.  An information literate person is able to recognize when information is needed and is able to retrieve the needed information.  To begin searching for a subject, an individual must understand what is the question being asked and how should it be answered.  They should also take into account what they already know about the topic before beginning their search.  Once formulating what is being asked the individual should then form a search strategy.  Where can the information be located?  With today’s technology there are ample resources available at the touch of the button.  Then, the individual must decide what resources to use.  An information literate person will be able to easily determine what sources are reliable and the sources that are not reliable.  After retrieving the data needed the individual will then organize it and prepare to present it.

      Of course there are certain skills a person must have to be information literate.  The person has to know when there is a need for information.  They have to know how to obtain the information and then organize it.  These skills are needed to be a good researcher and an information literate person.

      As I have gone through school information literacy has emerged.  I think that my generation is the first that this skill has been emphasized for due to the advances in technology.  Because let’s face it, we are living in the computer age.  The earliest experience that I can remember using the skills involved in information literacy, was when I was in the sixth grade.  In the sixth grade I was required to write a research paper.  I can remember going to the library and using the computer to look up newspaper, journal, and magazine articles that I needed.  While I was there I also learned how to use the card catalog.  This experience helped prepare me for the challenges that awaited me in junior high and high school.  As I continued through school technology advance and the Internet has now become the biggest resource that I have.  It is so easy to research today because all you have to do is type a word into your computer and hundreds, maybe even thousands of results are returned.  The challenge is determining if the source is reliable.  At Marshall, I have learned how to search databases efficiently and now that is were I mainly search when I have a topic I am researching.  I think that being information literacy is now a requirement in today’s society and I think that teachers realize that and are emphasizing it in their classrooms.   These are my thoughts on information literacy.