Challenges to Online Literacy
Research Report: Learning to Become Internet Literate
By Tyree Woodruff, G17, Fall 2002
Section 1:
Introduction
In the first report that I reviewed, the
author seemed to experience and feel many of the same feelings and emotions I
did during this course. Her point of
view on learning on the Internet was at first troubling. She seemed to struggle quite a bit, at
first, with grasping this vast field of technology. Of course, once she began to practice more and more, she began to
feel more competent and could complete her work without much help from others.
Five phases or steps were used by the
author to explain what each student goes through when trying to become Internet
literate. The first phase she explained
was frustration and anger. She
explains that not only do people experience these feelings when dealing with
the Internet, but also when trying to learn anything new. “There were times when I felt like throwing
the computer terminal on the ground because it wasn’t doing what it was
supposed to do, so I thought”.
Phase two to learning on the Internet is
called defeat. We all experience
this feeling, as we struggle with not being able to come up with the exact
information we need, or not being able to do something as simple as upload your
homepage on the first try. “When you’ve
been working as hard as you think you can and things are still going wrong and
nothing seems to be working...you feel like quitting, dropping the class”.
Seeing a glimmer of light is what
the author of this report calls phase 3.
This is when there is that little bit of hope left in you when something
helps bring you back on track and you feel as if you actually may be able to
complete your task. “When you find that
your page is starting to come out the way you want them to, you feel a little
spark of confidence that can probably help you to go further.”
Motivation is the fourth phase in
Internet literacy. This is what happens
after you’ve successfully completed a task that you previously couldn’t. You get an overwhelming drive to do more
once you realize that you’ve conquered something that didn’t seem possible
before. “Once you see your potential,
you feel like you want to do more and even try new things on the Internet.”
Once everything is completed, and you look
back at all that you’ve accomplished, you have stepped over into phase five of
the learning process, the feeling of success. Not only do you feel elated that everything worked out and that
you were able to complete it, you feel a sense of joy and relief that it’s
finally finished and you reflect on how much you learned and went through to
complete it all. “The fact that you
overcame the whole process...gives you the feeling that you can do almost
anything if you persevere.”
I completely relate to the way in which the
author of this report felt about learning on the Internet. It was as if I stepped into her shoes and
went through exactly what she did in the process of exploring the Internet. I think that most of us in Dr. James’ class
go through all of these phases because not many of us have ever had a class
that incorporates this much online learning.
Personally, even though I have completed a
lot and have gained new insight into researching on the Internet, I still would
rather take a class that requires just studying a textbook. I don’t think I have ever put so much effort
into completing assignments, but maybe that’s because before taking this class,
I was completely Internet illiterate. I
have felt so many different emotions ranging from joy to bitter hatred to
complete helplessness, and I can say that I am glad that this is the one and
only class I will take like this since I am graduating this semester.
All of these phases and patterns that us
students seem to go through are due to the fact that technology is so advanced
now, and continues to keep advancing.
Everyone has to constantly keep up with all of the changes on the
Internet, because once you stop practicing, you will fall back to phase one
again. Procrastination is also a big
factor in all of these phases though as well.
When assignments are put off until the last minute, it makes it even that
more frustrating not being able to find something that you need online.
In the future, I hypothesize that the
Internet is going to keep becoming more and more advanced and for one to stay
completely computer and Internet literate, they must keep up with all of these
advances. Practice and usage of the
Internet must be done almost daily, like how Dr. James does, so that one
doesn’t regress in the phase process.
The second report that I reviewed took a
somewhat different approach than the first to researching challenges that us
students face when trying to become Internet literate. The author of this report focused more on
the previous generations’ challenges than on her own, it seemed. There wasn’t any clear cut phases or an
order of steps that each student goes through when researching online. Instead, there were many tips and advice on
how to successfully complete Dr. James’ courses.
The first tip that the author gives to
current students is to not try to take in everything all at once. I call this phase, or tip, the learn to
skim advice. Browsing through
search results can take up lots of time because there are so many different
sites that come up. One way to
eliminate any wasted time is to stay on target and focused on the topic you are
researching and not get distracted by all of the different sites that come up
that may have nothing to do with that topic.
“Don’t even try to take it all in. It would take more lifetimes than members of
this class, all added up together.”
The second bit of advice the author gives
is to remember to bring your diskette.
This phase is the better safe than sorry phase. With all of the time that one spends on the
assignments, it would be a shame to have it all erased and wasted simply
because they forgot their disk. When in
doubt, bring your disk and save all of your material. “I saw one girl lose her semester’s work in the last week. Live and let learn.”
Another important Internet tip that the
author offers is to allow yourself ample time.
I call this phase the plan ahead phase. Procrastination is the number one cause of distress in this class
because as all of Dr. James’ students soon find out, this class is extremely
time consuming! Planning ahead could’ve
eliminated many of the fits of rage I’m sure most of the students who have
taken these courses have encountered.
“If you don’t make time you just may suffer a miserable defeat.”
Practice makes perfect is what I call
tip number four. The author recognizes
the fact that most of us entering Dr. James’ class are like babies entering the
world. We have no idea what is in store
for us, just that we will eventually have to conquer all that lies in our
way. The one way to accomplish this
feat is to practice and perservere.
After everything is completed, no matter how long it may have taken you,
you will experience the joy that comes with growing older and learning new
things.
“You do know for certain that with time,
practice and perseverance, you will succeed and possibly achieve past your own
expectations.”
All of these phases and tips that the
author gives are very helpful to those who go through the many obstacles and
road blocks to completing assignments in this course. I have successfully learned to cut down wasted time by learning
to skim through sites and results and weed out useless information and focus on
the relevant information instead.
Thankfully, I have yet to fall victim to
forgetting to bring a diskette and losing information. What I do find myself constantly doing is
not planning ahead. I have an innate
response to procrastinate on assignments when they are really time
consuming. It seems that it should be
the other way around, that since I realize the amount of time it’ll take to
complete, I would start early and plan ahead, but I don’t. I always put it off until the last minute
because it’s my way of trying to avoid the whole tedious task in the first
place.
Everyone that takes a course like the ones
Dr. James teaches will eventually learn that these tips are useful in helping
successfully complete each assignment.
These tips are useful anytime someone engages in Internet work because it
helps keep things in focus and contributes to time being spent
efficiently.
I hypothesize that in order for anyone to
become completely Internet literate, they must practice, practice,
practice. It’s not like learning to
ride a bike, that once you learn, you never forget. Internet skills that one acquires constantly need to be brushed
up on and relearned because technology is so vast and is always rapidly
changing.
The third report that I reviewed was split into three
sections. The first part showcased
twelve students from previous generations and explained their problems and
victories in dealing with the Internet.
The author also related to the various phases that the twelve students
went through when taking this course.
The second section is where the author tells of what can be experienced
and learned by being part of the generational curriculum. The last part of the report is where the
author offers some advice to future students and to Dr. James. In the first section, the author recognizes
different phases that each student goes through when dealing with the Internet.
When students first enter the world of the
Internet and learn that they must be able to conquer it successfully, they
enter a phase of fear. This fear
and anxiety is usually felt by most that have never had to take a course that
incorporates the Internet in its teachings.
There can be fears of deleting, and also fear of change. The fear of change comes when one is so used
to the traditional style of teaching so they resist becoming a part of this
generational community. “There are
different kinds of fears reported that persist through the initial contact with
the Internet”.
Frustration is the second phase that
students go through after they’ve already faced their initial fear. Students can encounter frustration when not
being able to find exactly what it is that they want. The computer world is so advanced and so vast that sometimes it
is difficult to narrow searches down or even to be able to understand simple
computer setups. “Frustration is
probably one of the most experienced emotions when dealing with computers. Frustration within the reports were mostly
centered around searching for topics on the Internet.”
Sometimes, since there is so much to sift
through on the Internet, students can experience information overload. This can happen when one is trying to narrow
their search down to relevant sites that pertain to their topic, and they are
overwhelmed with the large number of sites that they have to sift through just
to find one that actually relates to their subject. The author expresses her feelings on information overload by saying
“Too many choices, not enough time, and too much to learn in order to be
efficient are basic conceptions that can lead to the emotion of being
overwhelmed by information overload”.
Motivation is the fourth phase in
conquering the Internet. This occurs
once the initial fears are overcome and the student is ready to delve into
online community. Many people turn this
motivation phase into a phase of possible addiction to the Internet. They may become so obsessed with surfing the
net, that they spend hours on end sitting in front of the computer. “We will go beyond what is asked for in
class and dive deeper into the matter, but beware, addiction to computers is a
reality”.
The second section of the report I reviewed
distinguished three more phases that the student goes through when becoming
part of the generational curriculum.
This is phase five and it is called inspiration. Here, the author explains how since the
generational curriculum is different from the traditional system of teaching,
students become inspired to become a part of this community. They get to look back on previous students’
reports and realize that they too can accomplish completely excellent reports
as well. “In this generational
curriculum, we can not only see what our fellow classmates are writing, but
also how the class was organized in the generations before us. It is very inspirational to see the
excellent pages of all the other students”.
Skills and Knowledge is the sixth
phase that students encounter when learning on the Internet. Not only do students get the skills to
explore the Internet successfully, and find relevant sites that pertain to
their topic, but they also learn HTML and how to create a personal web page. Many people know how to look things up online,
but they have no idea how to create their own website and make postings that
other people can read online too. This
class allows the student acquire these helpful skills. “We are getting actively involved in the
Internet and acquire a skill like HTML that is highly marketable and on the
cutting edge of the business trend”.
The last phase that the author talks about
is the communication phase. This
is the basic reason for taking a course like this. It allows the student to actively communicate to the others in
the Internet world by being able to display a personal web page and becoming
part of a generational community that builds off of all the students’
reports. Students learn to express
themselves in their reports and upload it so that future generations can read
it. They become a part of history in a
sense, because their creations will be read by all the future generations to
enter the generational curriculum that Dr. James has set up. “Students are given the opportunity to not
only do their homework, but also to express themselves. This is a form of art where one does not
have to be exceptionally skilled to create great results”.
The various phases that the author of this
report has gone through is experienced by many other students who enter this
generational curriculum as well. I
personally went through the fear and frustration that I’m sure the majority of
students have also encountered. Talking
with others in my class, I find that I am not alone in experiencing and going
through these phases. We have all been
scared at one point in this course because the work does seem to be
overwhelming and sometimes there seems to be too much information to sift
through to narrow down my search results.
The most exciting part of all of these
phases is realizing that we are not alone.
Nearly everyone has encountered these feelings of helplessness at times,
but we are given a glimpse of hope since we can browse through previous
students’ reports and see that they overcame many of the same obstacles that we
have been faced with. I am personally
excited that I am not alone and upon completing this course, I can be that
glimpse of hope to future generations when they feel helpless too.
These feelings and phases that the
generational community goes through seem to be universal. I have yet to read a report that shows that
the student wasn’t confused and frustrated when dealing with completing it. The main cause of the phases that we
students go through is that most of us have never taken a course that
incorporated so much Internet work.
This is the only class that I have taken that didn’t focus on just
studying the text. This sort of work
forces us to think in a different way, because we are the textbooks. The previous generations serve as texts for
us, and we will serve as texts for future generations to come.
I hypothesize that since the world is
becoming more and more reliant on computers and the Internet, this type of
coursework won’t be as difficult for generations say five years from now. It seems almost rare to encounter someone
who has never surfed the net before, and soon, I think that learning HTML will
be more common in coursework and careers as well.
Section 2:
Self-observation Data
For the second section of my research
report, I had to complete a weekly form that followed the research process I
went through when searching for material on my topic of choice. You can access and
explore all of my forms here.
Each week, we had to participate in an
electronic forum discussion with two entries per week. The first entry was to be a discussion
comment on what another student had written about, and the second was to be a
research message. This is where I had
to explore the Internet and find information about one of five topics that Dr.
James had given us. Instructions
for forum discussions can be accessed here.
Out of the five choices to research, I
narrowed my search down to two topics
to focus on for my annotated bibliography report. These topics are the differences between men and women in how
they handle relationships, and drivers’ distractions and the consequences of
engaging in them. Bibliography
Report instructions can be accessed here.
My main search method of choice was by
using the search engine google.com. I
gathered more than half of my information for my bibliography report by using
this search engine. I typed in topics
like men and women in relationships, distractions while driving, cell phone use
while driving, and differences between men and women in relationships. From this, I found results such as chat
groups, psychology articles, websites with safe driving tips, online magazines,
and related articles to the topic.
Another method of searching I used was scholarly databases which I
accessed by going to the UH library website.
Here I found electronic journals, newspapers and e-books that all had
information relevant to my topics. This
method of searching took more time than using search engines, but it definitely
was easier than actually going to the library and browsing through all the
different books and newspaper articles.
Filling out the weekly form was the most
tedious task. I was usually so relieved
that I was finished searching for information on my topic, and then I’d
remember that I had to fill out the form still. It wouldn’t have been so difficult if it was shorter, but the
form takes a while to complete, and it seems like all the questions are basically
the same, just worded in a different way.
Probably the only way that filling out the
forms influenced my search sessions was by making me want to speed up the whole
process. I usually didn’t allow myself
to have ample time to search for information, and knowing that I still had to
complete the form after made me cut my search short at times. I think that overall, however, the data I
gathered and reported on is a good representation of all the effort and work I
put into each search session and assignment.
The bibliography report was extremely time consuming, as is this
research report, but I think that the length and depth of each thus far
reflects all the time and effort I put into them.
After reviewing all of the forms I
completed, they all seem to be about the same.
In all of my search tasks, I didn’t experience rage at all. They all took about the same time to complete
as well. It usually averaged around
20-30 minutes. All of the information
that I gathered, I found to be relevant and useful in completing my annotated
bibliography. The only difficulty I
encountered was when I tried searching using a scholarly database. That took a little more time than using
google.com or the msn search engine.
All of my forms show that I wasn’t
particularly motivated to complete my search, my main area of motivation was
just to get it finished so that I wouldn’t have to come back again later. The only time I was more motivated was if I
had something to do or somewhere to go, or if I was hungry or tired. I seemed to be pretty confident in my skills
and in the search engines that I was using as well. There wasn’t much difference between the information I reported
on from the numbers and averages verses the information in the
explanations. All my searches produced
useful material that I used to complete my weekly forum discussion and that I
used for my bibliography report too.
Overall, I can conclude that I remained
pretty optimistic about finding search results and in my abilities to find
them. I also seemed to remain
optimistic about google, msn, yahoo and aol search engines. The only one that took me awhile to find
something useful was using a scholarly database. Perhaps it’s because I have used the google search engine
numerous times before so I was more comfortable and familiar with it. I am overall fairly confident in my
searching skills and very confident that google.com will provide the useful
information that I need.
Section 3:
Counseling Session
Each of the students in Dr. James’ classes
had to participate in a counseling session with a graduate student. I went into the session not knowing what to
expect, or even what we would be doing, I just knew that it was going to take
about an hour. I was teamed up with
another student and we were asked to use a certain search engine and try to
answer questions that we were given by using this search engine. We then were to write in the answers that we
came up with, how we got them, and describe how confident we felt about finding
them and how excited we were about completing the tasks.
The only thing I learned from the
counseling session was that the Mona Lisa was stolen once and was missing for a
couple years before being found. Also,
I learned that some states receive money from Tobacco Companies and use this
money to build prevention programs. I
didn’t learn how to narrow or quicken my search methods, which is what I
thought I would’ve. I also learned
about the search engine that we used, because I had never heard of it before,
but I’ve already forgotten the name of it.
Some suggestions that the graduate students
could try and do is to give more feedback on whether or not we are making our
search harder than it should be. I
thought that she would tell us ways to find information a lot quicker and
easier, or short cuts to finding certain information, but she didn’t. Instead, the only advice I got out of it was
to read through each site listed to see if it really does have relevant
information pertaining to the subject of interest.
Section 4: The
Psychology of Information Literacy
A. Dr.
James wrote an article called “Creating an Online Learning Environment That
Fosters Information Literacy, Autonomous Learning and Leadership: The Hawaii
Online Generational Community-Classroom”.
You can access
this article here.
Dr. James’ article discusses an approach to
learning called the Generational Curriculum.
“It started in the 1970s by using typed student papers that were
written, read, collected, bound, and referenced by each succeeding generation
of students.” This process is used to
help students write authentically by having them review previous students
reports, and write to other students about the assigned concept and on various
subjects and topics that can help them out.
Then, they become part of the generational community, as future students
read their reports and report on them for the next future students to
come.
All of this creates an online Generational
community of students. The content of
the students’ work and reports help future students to come and also explore
various dimensions of learning in an online environment. Dr. James recognized three phases that
Generational students go through. These
phases are: (1) becoming information literate; (2) becoming self-directed
autonomous learners; (3) exercising leadership and inventiveness.
Phase 1 is the most external of the three
phases. Here, the student is simply
gathering the skills needed to get to the most internal phase 3. This involves maintaining self confidence
and not quitting, acquiring disciplinary content by knowing and reading
previous generations reports, and acting out membership status by participating
in the online activities. Here,
students learn to not procrastinate and to not give up and feel helpless. Work attitudes and ethics are affective
skills that can be learned in this phase of becoming information literate
through Generational identification.
As students become more information
literate, phase two will come into play by continuing the learning process by
becoming self-directed autonomous learners.
This phase consists of becoming involved by being interactive. Modeling is a way of becoming an active participant
so that one can enhance their learning and eventually become an expert.
Phase 3 is the where the learner shows
Generational loyalty to the learning process by strengthening ties to the
target community. This happens depends
on the learners’ willingness to continue learning until they see a personal
use. Once they complete this, they can
achieve excellence and become an expert because their cognitive activities have
become more complex and creative.
There are three behavioral areas that are
conquered in each of these phases.
These three areas are affective, cognitive and sensorimotor. The affective area is where the learner
first identifies with successful peers which allows them to overcome the urge
to give up. Then, the learner begins to
model by becoming an active participant and acquires the desire to keep putting
in all the effort and completing the task.
Lastly, the learner develops loyalty and can then become an expert.
The cognitive area is where the learner
acquires content and vocabulary. They
do this by identifying with prior generations, and then they acquire the style
of reasoning and assessment criteria.
Then, their cognitive abilities become more enhanced when they show
loyalty to the Generational curriculum.
The sensorimotor area is where the learner
acts as a Generational participant.
They do this by taking their place in the Generational classroom, and
cumulating their role and effort into a meaningful project. Then, when they develop Generational
loyalty, excellence can be achieved and they have contributed to the
Generational curriculum for years to come.
B. My
research report fits into this Generational curriculum approach because I am now
part of the community that Dr. James has constructed through all of his
previous students. Before started my
projects, I reviewed previous students reports and used them to help guide me
through the long tasks I had ahead of me.
I have to go through all of the phases in becoming part of this
Generational classroom, and when this semester is completed, I hope to have
successfully accomplished all of them.
Part of my research report is reviewing
previous students’ reports which were also reviews of previous students’
reports before them. For the semesters
to come, those students will be reviewing, learning and absorbing all of the
information that we have gathered which is what we have absorbed from the generations
before us. It’s like the prior generations
are stepping stones and building blocks for the current and future generations
to learn from and add to in order to build an even larger community.
C. I searched on
the Web to find a suitable definition of “information literacy”. The most comprehensive one I found is as
follows: “Information literacy is a new liberal art that extends from knowing
how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the
nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its social, cultural
and even philosophical context and impact”.
I think that the meaning of this definition
is that being information literate means that you are familiar with computers
and how to use them in order to research or explain something comprehensively. You can access the article with this
definition at www.educause.edu/pub/er/review/reviewarticles/31231.html
D. My
research report, the generational curriculum and information literacy are all
connected because in order to complete my report, I had to become somewhat
information literate and in doing so, I have become part of the generational
curriculum. I have become information
literate by reflecting on previous generations reports online and reporting on
them and incorporating them into my own research and using them to enhance my
knowledge on certain subjects. I have
become part of the generational curriculum because once I am completed with
this course, future generations in Dr. James’ classes can look back and browse
through my reports and learn and feed off of them as I have done so with
previous generations’ reports.
In these courses, we are all learning to
become information literate by reviewing previous generations reports and
creating our own. We are now part of
the generational curriculum that will keep growing as the years go by and more
and more students become information literate and learn how to use computers
effectively and successfully.