Research and Information Fluency is the third ISTE Standard for Students. The explosive growth of online resources has raised numerous opportunities and challenges for students to learn new information skills. The rubric below appears in the November 2013 issue of Learning & Leading with Technology. Use the comment fields below to give us your opinion on the indicators.
Standard 3. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
Example 1: No evidence of the standard. Example 2: Some evidence of the standard. Example 3: Obvious evidence of the standard.
Indicator: Students... Follow a teacher-provided link to http://www.nzfrogs.org/ Amphibian+Extinction+Crisis.htm, read the article, and answer questions on a worksheet about amphibian extinction. Are introduced to the web site http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Using the IUCN database, student teams create a class summary of types and locations of endangered species. Based on their readings about amphibian extinction and on information from environmental databases, students evaluate a local wetland for threats to native frogs.
a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry. Rating: Absent. The information and its use are dictated by the teacher. Rating: Addressed. The information source was dictated, but IUCN database searches require some planning. Rating: Addressed or met. Even if the teacher does extensive scaffolding, the complex assignment models real-world inquiry.
b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. Rating: Depends on the nature of the worksheet. If the assignment is mainly note-taking, then Indicator 3b is absent. If the worksheet require synthesis of the article with other information’s, then the indicator is addressed. Rating: Addressed. The task is explicitly to organize complex information. Additional information sources may be necessary for some students to understand terminology in the database. Rating: Addressed or met, depending on information sources and use. The 3b indicators are explicit in the assignment.
c. Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. Rating: Absent. The information and the medium are dictated by the teacher. Rating: Absent, unless students are encouraged to select and use additional tools. Rating: Addressed or met, depending on the level of scaffolding provided by the teacher.
d. Process data and report results. Rating: Absent. The indicator could be addressed or even met if the reading provided a data set for analysis. This particular article, however is an overview of amphibian extinction issues. Rating. More or less addressed, depending on the sophistication of the reports students are expected to produce.. Rating: Addressed or met. A wide range of processing and reporting would be possible.

Question Title

* 1. Would you interpret these indicators differently? If so, why?

ISTE Explanation for Ratings

Many of the ISTE Standards indicators appear in curriculum frameworks. Standard 3 indicators are some of the most closely aligned. See, for instance the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, particularly in science and technical subjects (http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RST/11-12). Outside of the American Common Core states, examples include science process guidelines within the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter112/ch112c.html#112.39) and syllabi based on Singapore’s Science Curriculum Framework (http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/sciences/).

A lesson developed with Standard 3 in mind would probably fit easily into these or similar models. Participants in ISTE Standards training workshops often wonder how they will incorporate “yet another” set of standards. In this case, it should be easy: A rich research activity developed within a curriculum framework will exhibit the ISTE indicators to the extent that technology facilitates the quality and scope of the inquiry, from planning to reporting.

The three examples above could be seen as stand-alone lessons or as stages in a large project. The first example is a digital version of “read the text and fill in the blank.” However, it might be an excellent introduction to the topic. (Struggling readers would need assistance with this web page.) The second assignment might follow on a later day, and last for at least two class periods. Using the database of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources requires learning about Boolean search techniques and biological classification systems. This assignment would probably elicit indicators from other standards, including Communication & Collaboration and Technology Operations & Concepts. The final example is a long-term complex project. Both the teacher and students would need prior experience in project-based learning. The project would likely require multiple indicators from every ISTE Standards area, as well as standards related to ecology and taxonomy from the Next Generation Science standards, Common Core science literacy standards, and other secondary science standards in the United States and other countries.

Because of the reading levels of the web sites we cited, these particular examples are appropriate for high school students. However, all are based on school projects that ISTE has observed at various levels. We adapted example three from a creek study conducted by middle school students in San Rafael, California.

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