First of all, this course changed my thoughts about literacy. Before, ability to read and understand a printed document was enough to be literate. Today, the whole idea of literacy has changed greatly and must be proficient in more areas to become literate (Laureate Education, Inc, 2010a). There are lots of information resources, and students can learn new information not only in class but anywhere. Therefore, teachers should teach students how to learn themselves (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 4). In this EDUC 6712 course, I acknowledged that students must know how to ask good questions, how to read visual resources, how to use search engines effectively to find valid and relevant information, must be able to evaluate websites and synthesize information from multiple resources. In other words, students must learn how to gather information from other sources such as movies, animations, pictures, podcast and Internet. In the unpredictable future, students will need new skills (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b). Accordingly, it is our duty to revise our teaching strategies and start using student-centered strategies. Thanks to this course, I started to change teaching philosophy. I will value new literacy skills and encourage students to learn themselves. Additionally, I will prepare more inquiry based lesson plans and guide students while they locate, evaluate, synthesize information and present their final products. As a result, students will learn how to learn reliable and valid information themselves.
Preparing an inquiry-based unit plan was the most striking part of EDUC 6712 course. I am happy to see that it is not difficult to develop and use an inquiry based lesson plan. Additionally, I understood that inquiry based projects can engage and motivate students and make the lesson enjoyable. Students can work in groups and learn not only the curriculum content but also the 21st century skills and new literacy skills. QUEST model is a supportive and encouraging framework that can be used to gather information and transform information to form new ideas (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 277). With using QUEST model, students can break down their project into manageable pieces. Students may complete each step one by one, and combine their findings at the end. Meanwhile, I can observe, guide and assess the progress of students with monitoring each step. Finally, students will successfully complete their project and present in front of the class.
In the future, I am planning to prepare Internet inquiry based lesson plans with using QUEST model. . I am aware that it is not my duty to teach QUEST model to my students. Therefore, I will talk with administration and IT teachers, and ask them to include QUEST and teach model into their IT curriculum. I will explain why it is so important to teach new literacy skills. I hope they will understand and act accordingly. I will also spend some time in my physics lesson to show how to ask a good question, create search keywords, use search engines effectively, locate and evaluate the websites, separate bias and valid information, synthesize information from multiple resources and create a final product with owning gathered information (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I am sure that my students will successfully complete their assessments with using QUEST model.
I know that technology changes every day and I have to develop my skills to catch new technology. I am planning to read more about different search engines. Furthermore, I will read more about QUEST model and search lesson plans prepared with using QUEST model. My goal is to engage students to the physics lesson, and teach them skills that they will benefit in the future. To achieve this goal, I will use technology and inquiry based unit plans. I will prepare an Inquiry based lesson plan for each unit. Students will complete one project at the end of each course. As a result, students will both learn physics, 21st century skills and new literacy skills.
References
Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Laureate Education, Inc. 2010a (Producer). New literacies. (DVD). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education, Inc. 2010b (Producer). Skills for the Future. (DVD). Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore, MD: Author.
