“Are We There Yet?”
Research
Report: Learning to Become Internet
Literate
By
Aiko
Fall 2002
Part I:
Introduction
A) Phases
of Learning
PHASE I: EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES
Learning something new is difficult because we need to adjust to the new information that we are taking in. Difficulties can come in the form of confusion experienced from knowing little or nothing about what you are learning and/or frustration from putting new learning into practice. The following former students have experienced these things.
Christine Marchadie: “I know what it's like going on a computer and it doesn't do what you want it to do. Before taking this course, I only knew about the Internet and how to "surf" it. I experienced frustration when my links weren't working properly, and then when my icons wasn't loading up correctly.”
“Can you believe that even I got stressed from this class?”
Ryan Mitsui: “At first putting up a page is really confusing because you can't just type exactly what you want, there’s all sorts of rules and mark up tags that you have to learn.”
Carol Ohta: “Believe me, I felt lost and confused because I didn't understand a word he was saying.”
PHASE
II: DEALING WITH DIFFICULTIES: JUST DO IT AND KEEP ON DOING IT
Don’t let
difficulties stop you in your tracks.
Overcome them with perseverance.
Keep on trying, don’t be afraid ask questions, keep at it, you’re bound to
get it, as the following students did.
Christine Marchadie: “It wasn't until one night I decided to take a chance and "surf" the net. I found that you could search for anything and anyone on the net.”
Ryan Mitsui: “…but we need to keep pushing on!”
“My advise to you is to just keep at it and don't put it off till later! Do it now!!!”
“If you don't understand just ask, NEVER be afraid to ask questions!!”
Carol Ohta: “I really thought that once I got my login and password it was ready to use. Boy was I wrong and I felt like an idiot. So I figured I'd go to Lab on Monday and send e-mail because I didn't want to go back to Keller Hall because I just made a fool out of myself. When Monday came I figured after my last class I'd go to CLIC Lab and ask for help. I just hope my friend is still a monitor there. Well, I went to CLIC Lab and saw my friend and asked him how do I e-mail someone.”
“I was scared and unsure of myself but I did
it anyway.”
PHASE
III: PASSING IT ON
Once you have overcome your
difficulties and become practiced in your information search behavior, you’ll
want to share what you have experienced to others, especially to those who will
be going through the same experiences as you.
Christine Marchadie: “Second, be prepared whenever you're going to use the computer. Always have your notes and books handy. Also you should give yourself a lot of time doing these reports, they can't be done in a day.”
Ryan Mitsui: “So my only advice is to get help AS SOON AS YOU CAN and just get the reports out of the way.”
“The thing that was most helpful to me was learning to use the copy/paste commands.”
Carol
Ohta: “I recommend you to send as much time in the computer labs as possible.”
“That's another thing you'll find, you'll
need patience.”
B) The
phases described above are similar to what I have experienced during this
course. I can relate to the experiences
of the three former students and I find support in knowing that they have experienced
the same things as I have in going through an online community-classroom
course.
C) Learning
something new is not easy and difficulties will arise. As stated above, difficulties that one deals
with in phase 1 come in the form of confusion experienced from knowing little
or nothing about what one is learning and/or frustration from putting new
learning into practice. For example,
learning to upload files to the Internets was a source of confusion for me because
I was not familiar with the term. I
knew what downloading was, but I didn’t know that its counterpart, uploading
even existed. At times I became
frustrated with uploading because I would forget a step and then I would have
to start over.
In phase 2, there is a decision
to be made regarding those difficulties.
To do or not to do, that is the question here. Does one give up in the face of difficulties or does one
persevere and keep trying, gaining confidences with each successful attempt,
while adjusting to failed attempts. The
students above chose deal with their difficulties by continuously going at it
and working through their difficulties.
There were many times when I became so confused and frustrated that I
was tempted to give up, but I decided not to.
I made a conscious decision each time I attempted a task for this course
to persist through difficulties.
Finally, the learning process leads to the third
phase, passing it on. In this phase,
students pass on what they have learned in the form of technical advice and/or
recommendations of conduct. This phase
helps to prepare future students who will be attending a course like this, so
that they will not experience as many difficulties as previous students. But difficulties are bound to occur in
learning new material and this pass it on phase also serves as a source of
support and encouragement to get through those difficulties. If they can do it, so can I. I think that these students were motivated
to pass it on by a feeling of pride in what they have personally accomplished
and a responsibility for the whole generational project; past, present, and
future.
Part II: Self-observation Data
A) First
of all, I would like to invite you to explore the G17
Forms that I filled out while doing searches on the Internet for this
Research Report. This is where I have
derived the self-observation data for this section, so it is imperative that
you review the content of these forms.
B) The
data that you have just reviewed was gathered while completing the Forum
and Bibliography
components of this Psychology course.
The Annotated Bibliography component consists of summarizing and
evaluating articles on topics specified by the instructor of this course. Evaluating the process of searching for each
article is also a part of the Annotated Bibliography Report. The second component consists of students
participating in a Web Forum by posting messages regarding the articles on the
topics specified by the instructor.
Each week a student posts at least one response message and one research
message. A research message is a
posting of what the student has found on the Internet regarding the specified
topics. A response message is a reply
to another student’s research message.
While
completing these two components, the G17 Forms were filled out during nine
different searches performed on the Internet.
At first I was very resentful at having to fill out these forms while
doing my searches because it changed the way that I had previously performed
searches on the Internet. Before, I
knew what I wanted to find and exactly what I needed to do in order to find
it. I would turn on my computer, click
the icon of my browser that would directly open my preferred search engine,
enter the key words into the search box, click search, and look through the
results until I find what I’m looking for.
Sometimes this last part becomes time consuming and filling out the
forms added more time to the search session.
Filling
out the forms slowed down the search session because I would fill out part I
before beginning the search, Part II during the search, and Part III after the
search. It was frustrating because I
had to incorporate another component to my search sessions, which added more
time to what could already be a time consuming process. In the forms one is asked to rate the level
of irritation, anxiety, frustration, and rage experienced while doing the
search. A lot of my scores on these
items, as well as others, were directed toward having to fill out the form and
not toward the search process itself.
In conclusion, the data represents what actually happens during a search
while filling out this form, but it does not represent a typical search session
where I would not have to fill out a form.
B) The
following table contains most of the items that are on the G17 Form along with
the average score for each of those items.
|
ITEM |
DATA |
AVERAGE |
|
How long did the task
actually take? (in minutes) |
34,37,37,40,63,38,63,77,90 |
53 minutes |
|
How long do you think this
task will actually take today? (in minutes) |
60,60,40,30,60,60,60,60,40 |
52 minutes |
|
If you compare this task
to other search tasks you’ve done, how long should it take in your opinion? |
7,7,5,6,8,8,9,9,8 |
7.44 |
|
How
important to you is this task today? |
7,8,7,7,10,9,9,9,7 |
8.11 |
|
How upset would you be if
you found nothing today? |
3,4,8,7,10,9,9,10,5 |
7.22 |
|
How sure are you that you
will succeed in this task? |
10,9,9,8,9,9,9,8,9 |
8.89 |
|
How likely is it that you
will become good at this type of task? |
10,10,10,8,10,9,9,8,8 |
9.11 |
|
How much luck do you have
in searching in comparison to other types of tasks? |
8,6,10,8,10,9,9,8,8 |
8.44 |
|
How motivated are you to keep
on trying today until you succeed? |
7,9,10,8,10,8,9,10,10 |
9.00 |
|
Computers and search
engines make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for. |
8,9,8,9,10,9,9,9,9 |
8.89 |
|
How likely is it that there
will be something specific on what you’re looking for? |
9,9,10,7,10,9,10,9,10 |
9.22 |
|
How much effort do you
expect this task to take today? |
9,8,5,9,10,8,8,7,8 |
8.00 |
|
How irritated did you feel
in today’s search task? |
5,7,2,3,6,6,3,4,7 |
4.78 |
|
How anxious did you feel
in today’s search task? |
7,3,1,2,3,8,3,5,8 |
4.40 |
|
How frustrated did you
feel in today’s search session? |
5,7,1,3,7,6,3,4,7 |
4.67 |
|
How much rage did you feel
in today’s search task? |
1,7,1,1,1,1,1,1,2 |
1.78 |
|
How much effort did this
task require of you today compared to other search tasks in your experience? |
4,8,1,7,8,5,3,2,10 |
5.33 |
|
How would you evaluate the
relevance of what you found today? |
8,8,8,9,4,9,9,9,9, |
8.11 |
|
How supportive are you of
the search engine or computer facility you used today? |
9,10,10,9,8,10,9,9,8 |
9.11 |
|
How easy was it to use the
search engine or computer facility today? |
2,1,1,2,2,2,1,2,2 |
1.57 |
|
If you compare this task to
other search tasks you’ve done, how long did it take? |
9,5,1,8,9,8,7,9,9 |
7.22 |
|
Which factor was most
important in getting the search results you got? |
B,B,C,B,B,B,B,B,B |
B |
According to the
averages, I was able to predict about how long a search session would take
me. But according to the raw data, this
is not valid. At my first session, it
took me thirty-four minutes to complete my search, but predicted that it would
take me an hour. Even practice could
not help me predict how long a search would take me. At the last search, I predicted that it would take me forty
minutes to complete it, but it ended up taking me ninety minutes, over an hour. But the numbers do not tell the whole story. During the final searches of filling out the
forms I began to underestimate the time I thought the search task would
take. This is due to the fact that I
became more selective in my searches as time passed.
It is valid that
the averages for how sure are you that you will succeed in this task and for
how likely is it that there will be something specific on what you’re looking
for; are about the same. 9.11 and 9.22
respectively. They should be about the
same since both items ask about one’s belief in being able to achieve the goal
of the session. Then it would also
follow that I would rate as being pretty upset (7.22) if I found nothing during
the session because my expectations of succeeding were high. But since I always found a relevant article
during my searches, I rated moderately low on feelings of irritation, anxiety,
and frustration, and even lower on rage.
When it comes
to effort put into the search session and the convenience of computers and
search engines, there is conflicting data.
If something is convenient, then it should take less effort. For example, a microwave makes it easier for
people to cook certain foods and therefore it takes less effort. The easier something is, the less effort it
should take. The data regarding the
search session does not reflect this relationship. In Part I, I rated computers and search engines as very easy to
use, but I also predicted that it would take a great amount of effort to
complete the task. It seems
conflicting, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. While I do believe strongly that search
engines make it easy for people to find what they are looking for, the great
amount of effort came from having to fill out the form while searching .
C) From the data, I conclude that I have been inflexible in my
searching techniques and that I have a tendency to become impatient when
searching on the Internet. When looking
for information on the Internet, I have a set process of going about it. I turn on the computer, click the browser
icon that directly opens up my preferred search engine, enter key words into
the search box, and click search. Then
I comb trough the listed results until I find what I am looking. Sometimes searching on the Internet may take
longer than others, but the steps remain the same. This insistence on keeping to this process resounds in my
resistance to filling out the G17 Form.
I viewed the forms as an obstacle that slowed down the process of
completing a search.
Although
according to the data, the average rates of irritation (4.78), anxiety (4.40),
and frustration (4.67) are moderately low, I expected them to be lower than
what I scored. Looking back on my
explanations for these feelings, the most common reason was that the process
was taking me longer than I wanted it to.
Usually time is not a problem, but because these searches were a part of
assignments that had to be done by a certain time, it was crucial to complete
these searches in a timely manner. I
would conclude that if I had filled out G17 Forms for personal, unrelated to
school searches, the results would be different. There would be lower levels of irritation, anxiety, and
frustration.
Using the G17
forms to compile data while performing searches gave me the opportunity to not
only evaluate my information behavior, but to also assess the computer and
search engines I used. During the
searches where I filled out the form, I remained supportive of the search
engine that I used with scores only raging from eight to ten. I remained very supportive of Yahoo because
it always led me to something relevant that I could use for this class. Although I attempted to use other search
engines, they were not as effective as Yahoo.
In evaluating the computer and search engine, I remained stable in my belief that computers and search engines make it very easy for people to find what they are looking for. Each time I searched on the Internet for an article related to the specified topics, I found something pertinent. Many of the difficulties that I encountered were human related rather than the fault of the computer or the search engine. First there was resistance to filling out the form and others include accidentally losing a file and not properly connecting the printer. What one is able to accomplish with a computer and/or search engine is only limited to that person’s knowledge of the computer and/or search engine.
Part III: Counseling Session
A) The counseling session consists of an observer who assigns the participants several questionnaires and search tasks on the Internet. First the participants fill out a preliminary survey in which they judge a number of items on a scale. These questions are similar to the questions in Part 1 of the G17 Forms that were filled out in order to complete the Self-Observation section above. The participants are also asked which search engine and browser they prefer.
The participants are then given three search tasks in which they were directed to use the Internet to find the answers to several questions within a specified amount of time. The first question is a simple question asking who is the current Director of the National Gallery in London. The other questions are as complicated as finding out how the Mona Lisa went missing from the Louvre, who was responsible for it, and what was the motivation for the Mona Lisa going missing. After each task, the participants are asked to answer another set of regarding the participant’s motivation and how sure they were of their success in next task.
Finally, the participants fill out a final survey. These questions resemble questions in Part 3 of the G17 Forms used to complete Section 2. The participants rate their anxiety, frustration, and rage levels on a scale of 1 through 10. After this part of the session is over, participants are invited to ask any questions that they may have regarding performing tasks on the Internet.
B) The counseling session was brief, not as long as I would have liked it to be. Towards the end of the session, I did not think that I was going to get anything out of the counseling session and I began to feel disappointed. So when the opportunity arose for me to ask questions about searching on the Internet, I decided to take the opportunity to turn the situation around. From my questioning I learned about the search engine Vivisimo that I had used during the session. It is similar to a search engine like Yahoo, except the results are divided into subgroups called clusters. I look forward to using what I have learned about Vivisimo for quicker navigation to information that I am looking for.
Upon reflection of the counseling session, I learned something about myself. First, I should explain that when I was attempting the search tasks, I had a partner because the two of us had signed up for the same time. I did not know the other person, but I found myself getting frustrated toward this person and wanting to take over during our tasks. At first I was a little mystified by it because I usually prefer to work in a team. As I thought about it more, I focused in on the time factor. I believe that when given a very limited amount of time to complete a task, completing it successfully becomes more important to me than working as a team. By putting more thought into the counseling session, I learned about my hierarchy of power motives.
C) Future students may want to use my example in order to improve their learning experience. I realized two very important points by taking responsibility of the learning experience and thinking back to the learning process. First of all, if one wants to improve their own learning experience, they need to think about it as their own. By taking responsibility of their learning experience, they assume control of what they learn. They become active seekers of knowledge, not passive recipients of information. How can students take control of their learning and get something out of their experiences? Commit themselves to asking questions, participating in class discussions, and doing more than the minimum required work, even if it’s optional.
Learning is not limited to understanding academia, which is external. One can also take learning internally and become a student of themselves. For example, take my experience during the counseling session. I felt uncomfortable with the frustration that I was feeling and instead of ignoring it, I chose to seek to understand why I was feeling frustrated. Once it became apparent that my motive for achieving was stronger than my motive for working as a team I could resolve my frustration. I questioned why my motive for achieving was higher in this situation when I was not being graded on what I achieved. Once I realized that I did not have logical reason for being frustrated because I did not achieve all that was asked at the counseling session, I was able to let go of my frustration.
Part IV: The Psychology of
Information Literacy
When learning
skills in an online environment, students will go through three phases or
levels that move from the external to internalization of those skills. That which is more internal is higher on a
motivational hierarchy and therefore “exerts more control over the lower or
more external items.” These phases are
generically called Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. A content analysis was done on previous
generations’ self reports on their experiences in an Internet-integrated
course. From this analysis the phases
were specifically identified as 1) Becoming information literate; 2) Becoming
self-directed autonomous learners; and finally, 3) Exercising leadership and
inventiveness. Each phase is marked by
affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor behaviors.
During the
initial phase of becoming information literate, a learner “acquires the ability
to orient and focus on those elements that are the most external of a task or
situation.” For the Generational
Curriculum, these external elements were identified as maintaining
self-confidence, acquiring disciplinary content, and acting out membership status. Affectively, a student maintains
self-confidence by eliminating procrastination and identifying with other
student who have gone through similar experiences. Cognitively, a student acquires disciplinary content by taking in
what previous generations have written.
Finally, in the sensorimotor domain, a student acts out membership
status by learning behaviors appropriate to that of a generational member.
By
identifying affectively, cognitively, and through sensorimotor processes with
previous and current generations, a student acquires information literacy. The combination of the online
community/classroom technique used in the Generational Curriculum effectively
promotes the acquisition of information literacy. While a student is going through phase I, he/she will begin to
overlap into phase 2, becoming self-directed autonomous learners. In this phase, a student learns how to
continue learning through modeling.
Modeling is more internal because it goes beyond passive absorption of
knowledge and “requires an active participation and social fabrication so that
more inward elements of the learner are engaged.” Here, the online community-classroom approach effectively
promotes this phase by providing a “mechanism of generational modeling.”
While students
are going through phases I and 2, they will simultaneously enter phase 3,
exercising leadership and inventiveness.
This phase requires a more interior involvement of generational loyalty. Here, at the highest and most internal point
of the motivational hierarchy are personalizing, contextualizing, and feeling
loyalty. During this phase, a learner
will affectively “develop loyalty and become motivated to be inventive and
innovative. Cognitively, generational
loyalty comes through in more complex and creative cognitive activities. In the sensorimotor domain generational
loyalty becomes evident when “achieving excellence becomes visible through
products and performances achieved for the benefit of the community’s survival
and enrichment.
These are the
three phases of internalizing learned online skills while taking an online
community-classroom course. But there
are educational principles of the online generational community-classroom. These principles are 1) Mining Hypertext as
a Learning Resource, 2) Creating Community-Building Forces Among Learners, 3)
Maintaining a Focus on Learning Skills, 4) Students as a Cyberspace Learning
Community, and 5) Creating Ethnographic Instructions.
A hypertext creates
a link from one text to another and it is a very important resource in learning
for two stated reasons. First it
involves students “in reading each other’s work and commentaries,” and it
creates a “collective, virtual ‘super-document’ out of the students’ individual
and independent efforts.” As time goes
on and more generations come up and more hypertexts are created, the
super-document will continue to grow exponentially. Meanwhile, this growing document can be analyzed for its content
to better an online community-classroom course.
It is key for
an instructor to create community-building forces among learners because few
can accomplish complex tasks on their own.
In order to create such an environment, Dr. James identified three
properties: intentionality, generational, and organicity. These are promoted by assigning specific
assignments. The third principle is
maintaining a focus on learning the skills according to each phase. In phase 1 information literacy skills such
as creating a Web site and searching the Internet are learned. Scientific and scholarly skills such as
learning to critically analyze other people’s writing are learned in phase
2. Finally in phase 3, leadership and
citizenship skills are learned. These
include going beyond what is expected out of loyalty to the community.
The fourth
principle is students as a cyberspace learning community, or fostering
“intellectual citizenship.” Students
who are quicker at learning help the ones that don’t quite get it and enthusiasm
grows as each student achieves each assignment and sees there work published on
the World Wide Web. The final principle
is creating ethnographic instructions.
This is where the instructor of such a course actually goes through the
process of completing each assignment in order to give the student detailed
step by step instructions.
B) I
see this Research Report as a means of assessing where I stand in regards to
the three phases of learning proposed by
the article discussing Generational Curriculum. I believe with the creation of my Home
Page and Annotated
Bibliography Report and other course activities, I have demonstrated a move
from phase 1to the internal phase 2.
The activities have allowed me to move from the external phases of
learning through maintaining self-confidence, acquiring disciplinary content, and
acting out membership status and consequently become Information literate. This report is the culmination of what I
have previously learned and done and to demonstrate movement through the
phases.
I see this
Research Report as a milestone of movement into level 2, becoming a
self-directed autonomous learner or to learn to continue how to learning. This report encourages autonomous learning
through asking, me, the student to examine and learn from different points of
views. First I was asked to look at and
analyze the learning processes of students from previous generations. One can learn from what others have
learned. Then I was asked to observe my
own behavior and draw conclusions by explaining what I have learned. In this report, I also examine my own
learning process during the counseling session. Although I had a partner during the session, I reflected back on
it and was able to learn from it on my own.
In this final section, I was asked to examine learning from the point of
view of Dr. James Leon and to expand on that learning by relating it to this
Research Report.
This Research
Report also relates fits into the online generational community-classroom
approach by abiding by the generational principles described in the
article. Integrating hypertext into
this report allows one to read the works of other students and this individual
effort adds to the “virtual superdocument,” therefore mining hypertext as a
learning resource. This report also
maintains a focus on learning skills, more specifically, scientific and
scholarly skills. One of those skills
is learning to perform critical analyses of other people’s writing, which I
have done in parts 1 and 3 of this report.
Dr. James Leon, has also provided ethnographic instructions for this
Research Report, thereby fostering a positive outcome.
Finally, this
research Report includes features of an online environment that promote the
development of lifelong autonomous learners.
As stated before, this report includes reflections on my own learning processes,
as described in Part 3; and one of the features discussed in the article is
helping learners recognize when, how, and why they learn new material. Another feature that I have recognized in
creating this report, is that it has created an opportunity to practice
skills. I have practiced being a member
of an online community through participation in a web forum, basic information
literacy skills by creating documents in a web site format, and reviewing my own
process of learning.
C) WHAT
IS INFORMATION LITERACY?
“To be information literate, a
person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the
ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”-
American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy
"the ability to locate,
evaluate, and use information to become independent life-long learners"
- Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
First of all,
I would like to state that in searching for a definition of information
literacy, the majority of them made reference to the American Library
Association definition given above.
Information
literacy includes, but is not limited to identification of a need for
information and having the skills to retrieve the information. Information literacy goes beyond recovering
information by including the ability to critically examine the content of the
information. That is, once a person
finds the needed information he/she should not directly use that
information. Instead, a careful
evaluation of the content and its context should be performed through thought
and inquiry in order to effectively employ the information. The goal of information literacy seems to be
obtaining the ability to learn autonomously.
D) MAKING
THE CONNECTION (Research Report, Generational Curriculum, Information Literacy)
During the course
of completing this report, I have come to understand each component, the
Research Report, Generational Curriculum, and Information Literacy,
individually. Now I am going to discuss
how they are related.
The best way
to do this would be through a diagram.
In this
diagram, Information Literacy is the goal, the Generational Curriculum is a
means of achieving that goal, and the Research Report is the materialization of
the curriculum principles in the form of an assignment. In short, the Research Report is a means of
fulfilling the generational curriculum principles so that one can become
information literate.
For example,
the instructions
for the Research Report directs the student to evaluate and write about the
learning process of others through reading the web sites of previous
students. By directing the student to
critically think and write about the
learning of others, the Research Report fulfills the Generational Curriculum
principle of maintaining a focus on learning skills, more specifically
scientific and scholarly skills. The
student has now demonstrated herself to be information literate because she has
accessed the content of previous students, critically evaluated the content
through careful thought, and effectively employed the information by way of
this Research Report.
