2. INFORMATION ACCESS and USE & TEACHING and LEARNING

My Masters studies have greatly increased my understanding of and appreciation for digital literacy. This has particularly been through the opportunities offered in CLN646: The Knowledge Hub: information services for dynamic learning and CLN601: Cyberlearning: Information and knowledge in a digital age. Both these subjects have challenged me to learn about and utilise various cyber applications including wiki, web, blog, PowerPoint, forum conversation and live chats. I have also had to think about how these may be incorporated into the curriculum and why this might be beneficial to students. I have written frameworks for Cyber-learning experiences (as an assesment item for CLN601 - I got a 7), pathfinders for inclusion on school websites and brochures that provide research tips and suggestions for students undertaking research (a hard copy of a pathfinder, if you will (see below), both for CLN646 assessment - I think I got a 6).

I have found the expansion of knowledge of cyber-space personally rewarding. I now have my own website, participate regularly in online forum discussions, use Windows Movie maker, created visual manipulations and posted videos on Youtube. Once I would have found the prospect of creating web-based documents daunting and intimidating; now I’m eager to continually experiment and expand my knowledge and capabilities in this area and see them as an area of great potential in educational contexts.

I feel that my teaching qualifications in English and SOSE (Geography) have given me a broad knowledge that is very employable in the library context. I find it easy to work with other teachers and understand what they want because of the cross-curricular applications of my teaching areas. I appreciate texts, the written word, the importance of information and how students can actively contribute to the production of quality information . This diagram that I formulated for my cyberlearning framework shows the cycle of information production and how students can be producers of information, not just consumers. It highlights the need for critical evaluation of cyber-resources for quality, trustworthiness, substantiation and reliable source. Use of critically evaluated information to inform the writing/critiquing process and production of Cyber-resource that is trustworthy, reliable and useful.