Always on a diet! Blog Post #2 Module 3

 I have been on a diet my entire life and now I find out I have to be on a new diet?  Yes!  Prior to this week's classwork, I had honestly never heard of an information diet, but now I understand how important it is.  No dreading this diet.  In an interview with Clay Johnson, NPR (2012) says this diet helps us deal with "the obesity of information that clogs our eyes and our minds and our inboxes."  As an elementary library media specialist, I do need to have a healthy information diet because beyond my purpose as it involves the reading and the sharing of books, lies the importance of being "part of a professional community that encourages sharing information, opinions, and expertise (ALA, 2018)."

Not another diet!

(Man dreading eating another dry rice cake)

Photo from Pixabay

As an elementary library media specialist, my students are as likely to walk in and want to talk about the Yankees vs. the Braves as they are something controversial which is why I really like the 21st Century interdisciplinary themes of Global Awareness; Financial, Economic, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy; Civic Literacy; Health Literacy; and Environmental Literacy that P21 incorporates into their 21st Century Student Outcomes (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2015).  These themes recognize that even in the day-to-day read-alouds and conversations I have with my students I am addressing important informational sources and topics.  This week, we read a biography called A Boy and a Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz.  We looked at the current range of jaguar habitats and used World Wildlife Federation sources to learn more about the jaguar.  Prompted by a statement from the author in the video linked above, students then wrote about the fact that the efforts to save the jaguar also served mankind.  So, in my library classroom this past week we certainly engaged in Environmental Literacy.  

Copy of Book cover, A Boy and A Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz
(Boy and jaguar look at each other from behind trees)
(Cover art by Catia Chien and published by Clarion Books)

As I progress this year in my efforts to teach research skills to my students, I will once again use the Common Sense Media units.  If you have not used them before they are really helpful to the school librarian and can be found at this link.  But what I have not used before is the "blowing up" the keywords strategy as demonstrated in the video from Krueger Library at Winona State University (Krueger Library at Winona State University, 2016).  I look forward to referring to this video when I teach my students about using keywords.  I only wish the video had used a topic other than one featuring violence because then I think I could have used the video with my upper elementary students instead of just applying what I learned from the video.  

When I reflect on how the concepts of information literacy, technology, and digital media intersect, I reflect back to 1998 when I was part of building a magnet program in my district that was entirely focused on information literacy.  We wanted to teach the children how to find the truth in what was - at that time - an overwhelming amount of information at the hands and eyes and ears of Americans.  My district was not at that time a one-to-one district nor did we have that many devices in the classrooms, but we acquired laptop carts for this program which would enable the students in the program to each use a laptop at the same time (pretty advanced in the 90s!).  Today, that magnet program that started as the "Info-Link" program, has been rebranded as CavPlex and is entirely focused on how information literacy and technology are used to create digital media.  I think the journey represents how information literacy and technology combine to allow for digital media - we can only be thankful for programs like this that seek to graduate students who will be responsible journalists and responsible broadcasters.

References:

ALA. (2018, December 5). Me, a librarian?  Education & Careers. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from           https://www.ala.org/educationcareers/careers/librarycareerssite/mealibrarian

Krueger Library at Winona State University. (2016, August 19). Selecting & using keywords [Video].

      You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6kit2Mt_4w

NPR. (2012, January 14). Is it time for you to go on an "information diet"? NPR.org.  Retireved 

      September 10, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2012/01/14/145101748/is-it-time-for-you-to-go-on-

      an-information-diet

Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015, May). Framework for 21st century learning. P21. 

      http://www.P21.org