Information Quality Control

This one sentence sums up the attitude that we need to teach the kids in our classrooms about dealing with information in general, and information online in particular. We used to give kids textbooks and tell them the content was valuable and could be trusted. Instead, we now direct the to the web, to library books, to videos, email contacts, twitter streams, etc. etc. But we need to do all we can to help them become their own filters and information managers. They need the skills to separate the signal from the noise and find the pieces that are valuable for them. They need to become responsible for, and take charge of, the quality of the information they are accessing and using. This does not mean that we dump them online and leave them to the wolves. It means we teach, we model, we discuss and we learn along with them. We show them the value of having independent information access skills and model the metacognitive processes needed to relentlessly control their access and their needs.

As technolgy changes and access to information becomes more readily available to students, it becomed more imperative that we teach them the necessary skills to sort through the multiple volumes of information that now overwhlem us.  I can recall during my high school years that information on a subject was often limited to what I could find in an encyclopedia….and often those on the school shelves were a number of years old.  Now, at the stroke of a key, often millions of documents are available to us.  However, anyone having done an internet search knows the frustration of trying to sort through the useful and not so useful information.  It is important that we teach students how to focus on a topic, sort through what is relavent and what is not, and to take away the information that is essential to whatever they are working on.  Access in only part of the equation…..students must know how to effectively use that access to become self-reliant and informed students in the digital age.