Jun 11 2008
Wikibooks
My information literacy students are going to work on creating an information literacy book on Wikibooks. We are now in the initial stages of book creation. As anyone knows who has created a book or thought about creating a book this is a big task but an exciting one. I have had students do something similar in the past - the difference - it was a page within an existing Wikibook.
I like the idea of students working with Wikipedia in some shape or form. It is a good way to get a true experience in creating a shared public document. In this case, a shared public presentation of work that others, colleagues and other teachers from around the world, will potentially access and use. A lot goes into creating something public - from needing to ensure the information is accurate and necessary to ensuring that information gathered is done so ethically.
I hope that anyone who reads this posting helps to keep tabs on this project to ensure that it is and remains a quality product. The idea is to create a book for K12 teachers to learn about information literacy concepts and ideas in this digital world that we live in. Hopefully, this information will provide what teachers need to begin carefully evaluating information found on the Internet as well as carefully creating and using information for and on the Web.
This is a work in progress that will be developed through the semesters.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Information_Literacy_in_the_K12_Classroom
An article I was recently reading, Make Students Info Literate, in TechLearning Magazine, highlights Wikipedia. It suggests that teachers provide opportunities for students to work with Wikipedia in different ways in their classroom in order to teach and enhance skills of information literacy. Timely I think.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196605232
Teresa,
What an awesome project. I couldn’t agree with you more about the important public dimensions of a site like Wikipedia, and having your class collaboratively create a public resource for other teachers is really the future of how we think about this stuff, I love that you are pushing that cutting edge, bravo!
I will certainly be following the work of your class, and if you want some other examples, check out Jon Beasley Murray’s work in Wikipedia with his Murder Mayhem Madness class at the University of British Columbia, a wildly impressive example:
Murder, Madness, Mayhem.