Big Questions

How do we help our students effectively gather, synthesize and transform information using digital resources?

Researching using the internet is hard for students, there is just too much information that is not at their reading level. Learning how to research, what key words or phrases to put into the search engines is a whole process in itself - let alone learning how to pull key facts from that information and not just copy and paste. I do a lot of modeling of how to pull important information. We start with me talking through my thinking process for the first activity and then during the second time do the process again as a whole class. Then the students work through an assignment on their own. If the project lends itself to it I post or link websites that I want the students to use.

Who owns the information on the web? - we all do but we need to cite our sources and not claim it as our own. Everyone 'owns' it, but how we use it is important and becomes part of the teaching process about digital citizenship. I have read some articles that specifically discuss Wikis and how people who create wikis and invite others to edit it have to come to terms with the idea that we all in a sense own it. But I will say it again - when we take something off the web we need to cite our sources, we cannot claim that we 'thought' up that information, like using a textbook. We see it as different though because it is so fluid, as opposed to a textbook which is set in stone - printed, published, etc. We do need to be responsible - we need to look at what we are finding, why it was posted - the purpose, and use it ethically.

What resources can I use and how can I use them in a wired classroom?
so many resources on the internet as well as using projectors, SmartBoard, cameras, etc.

What I am still looking for is great leveled material about one topic - material that my ESL students can understand, and material about the same topic that my students at grade level can understand and be challenged by.