Using the
Information Process to raise the cognitive load of extended writing tasks
(aka:How you can have your cake, and eat it too)
By
Mrs Maureen Twomey
and Mr Peter Whitehouse
St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace.
Introduction
The use of information
services available (such as CDROM, online databases, the World Wide Web,
E-mail and so on) necessitate a fundamental change in the way we ask our students
to respond to extended writing tasks.
Need
proof?
TAKE 10
Mins: Select a topic that you would ask students to write an essay on.
Use the link below to jump to a whole bunch of free essays that were
prepared earlier and find one that would suffice for your topic:
GIMME
FREE STUFF
Stuck
for a topic? Try one of these:
Muscle
Tissue In Red Vs. White Meat
Emphasise differences in muscular structure and in the
relative presence of iron. Discuss striated and smooth muscle tissue
as well as myoglobin and its function in the physiology of animals particularly
in the supply and transport of oxygen.
Plate
Tectonics
Discuss the theory of plate tectonics, describe how
exploring plate tectonics helps us to better understand the validity
of Continental Drift
The Dow
Jones Industrial Average
Discuss the Dow Jones industrial average, who started
it, how and when it was started, what it consists of, what companies
are on it today/past, and its affects on our economy. Compare it to
other indices and a discuss how the Dow benefits our economy.
The Postmodern
Film
Examine the postmodern film and its essential elements.
Also discuss the difficulty inherent in defining the term "postmodern."
Use several contemporary movies and analyse them in detail including
The Crying Game, Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction.
The Nurse
in Romeo and Juliet
Analyse the character of the Nurse in Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet. Shows how she reveals their tragedies through both
her offhand but oddly prophetic remarks and her earthy pragmatism.
Nutrition
and Athletic Performance
Explore the role of nutrition in athletic performance.
Discuss the value as well as potential detrimental effects of fat and
carbohydrate loading, hydration, vitamins and minerals. Suggest recommended
intake of these elements.
Aristotle
/ Contributions To Mathematics
Discuss Aristotle's contributions to the field of mathematics.
Specifically discuss Aristotle's views on mathematics, in terms of the
advancement of science, and his logical approach to mathematical study
through syllogisms.
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This workshop
is designed to help you understand the issues involved in encouraging authentic
authorship by students. This is a vital issue in an era where it is trivial
for our students to copy and paste documents directly from the huge array
available freely via the Internet without engaging the content we want them
to understand.
Rationale
Writing tasks
that require students to analyse and understand the information they have
downloaded encourage critical thinking and effective use of Information Technology
as an integral part of The Information Process. Writing and research tasks
that can be completed using copy and paste do not encourage our students to
engage in important higher order cognitive skills.
Integral to
successful information literacy are the 6 steps in the Information Process,
as outlined in our Student Handbook. These are:
- Deconstruct
What do I really want to find out?
- Locating
Where can I find the information I need?
- Selecting
What information do I really need to use?
- Analysing
How do we sort, make connections and arive at conclusions?
- Organising
How best can I use this information?
- Presenting
How can I present this information?
- Evaluating
What did I learn from this? Did I fulfil my purpose?
Jumping from
Locating to Presenting within this process is an easy option
for students. It is easy because it requires little or no higher-order thinking
skills. This is a shame, as Selecting, Analysing and Organising
are some of the most valuable skills students can acquire on the road to becoming
successful life-long learners. Further to this, these higher order skills
should be integral to the task, and correspond to the bulk of the 49 common
curriculum elements identified on page 3 of the Student Handbook.
A relative new-comer
into the field of research is the World Wide Web. Never before have our students
had such a rich array of information in which to browse and select. Never
before has it been so difficult for teachers to be sufficiently well versed
in their subject areas so as to recognise student plagiarism.
The veracity
and reliability of much of the information available on the world wide web
is also questionnable - any fool can publish their opinions on the Internet.
Does the fact that they are on a webpage make them any more credible?
So what can we do?
If we take a
look at the questions we are asking, examine what we are asking our students
to do, we may be able see other ways of creating extended writing tasks.
Given the right
assignment, a student can download, wordprocess and print a 1,000 word assignment
on almost any topic in about 4 minutes. To minimise the suitablilty of copy
and paste, there are many strategies that you can use to change the nature
of the question.
- Change the audience
- explain to a novice rather than someone well versed in
the subject, explain it to a mate, a disabled person, someone who has English
as a second (or third) language
- Personalise the question
- explain what you would do if ..., how would you react?
- Vary the format
- try a brochure, advertisement, poster, interview suitable
for radio, timeline, powerpoint presentation using point notes on palm cards,
table of comparisons and contrasts.
- Include local content
- what would be the effect on your own town/suburb/country/family,
how would this differ if it happened locally?
- Change the level of
student personal involvement
- employ Bloom's Taxonomy, or De Bono's Thinking
Hats to explore the topic from a different perspective
- Bibliography
- annotate references found, use a number of different sources,
evaluate relevance and veracity of information found
- Include the process
not just the product in your assessment
- concept map of main ideas and their relation to each other,
make this count int he marking scheme, rough notes and drafts as well -
reinforce the process, reward the steps taken towards the product
- Make effective searching
part of the learning outcome
- evaluate a collection of resources, find the four best
sites for a topic and give reasons why ther are the best, compare
and contrast opinions expressed from various sources.
- Concentrate on the
Learning Outcomes implicit in the task FIRST
- consider the content after you have identified what skills
you are wanting to foster
Some examples
Some Homework
Consider re-writing an
assignment within your subject area. Arrange a planning time with Maureen
and/or Peter to consider ways you can implement the assignment effectively.
There are allocated times within Terrace's Mastering Learning Technology
programme in which you can cooperatively plan - sign up and give it a
go - the only thing you have to lose is dodgy student writing (and that's
not so much a loss as a gain for all concerned)
Acknowledgements
Jill Johnson
and Karen Visser
Computers, Research & Students : A Survival Kit
Australian School Library Association ACT |
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TR
371.30281
COM |
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