{"id":6696,"date":"2016-05-25T17:14:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T17:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/\/\/"},"modified":"2016-08-18T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2016-08-18T15:35:15","slug":"commentary-building-web-research-strategies-for-teachers-and-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citejournal.org\/volume-16\/issue-2-16\/social-studies\/commentary-building-web-research-strategies-for-teachers-and-students","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Building Web Research Strategies for Teachers and Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, social studies educators David Hicks, John Lee, Michael Berson, Cheryl Bolick and Richard Diem<\/a> revisited a set of technology education guidelines for new teachers that had been published in 2000 as part of the inaugural issue of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education<\/em> (Mason et al., 2000<\/a>) The educators\u2019 goal was to update that earlier framework to encompass how the latest technological developments are influencing middle and high school teaching and learning in history\/social studies classrooms.\u00a0 As in 2000, the educators said, computer technology \u201copens the door to learning in ways impossible in the traditional classroom.\u201d\u00a0 With today\u2019s new tools\u2014ranging from tablets and apps to interactive websites and virtual reality simulations\u2014teachers need new and evolving strategies for using \u201ctechnologies in meaningful and appropriate ways to promote effective student learning\u201d (Hicks et al., 2014).<\/p>\n

Reimagined models of technology use are especially needed when teachers and students conduct online research for history and social studies topics. Today, printed books and human librarians are used less frequently, while powerful search engines are consulted more often, delivering millions of online results instantly to desktops, laptops, tablets, or smartphones (Purcell et al., 2012).\u00a0 With nearly instant access to immense amounts of information, students must learn the skills to search the Internet effectively, evaluate online materials, and accurately synthesize and report the facts, ideas, and theories they have learned.<\/p>\n

This paper presents an approach for teachers and students can\u00a0use to develop web research and digital literacy skills by building Dramatic Event, Historical Biography, and Influential Literature pages in a teacher- or class-made wiki.\u00a0 As a digital learning activity, building wiki pages has teachers and students \u201cusing technology to promote effective student learning\u201d\u2014one of the updated principles for technology integration in social studies teacher preparation (Hicks et al., 2014).\u00a0 Inquiry, analysis, and content learning occur in three parts\u2014searching, saving, and sharing\u2014as teachers and students collaboratively examine online sources, assess their credibility, and post their findings online.<\/p>\n

Digital Literacy in an Information Age<\/h2>\n

Educators\u00a0widely agree\u00a0that teachers must teach and students must learn the skills and dispositions of critical web users and online researchers.\u00a0 The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History\/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>(Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2016)\u00a0have affirmed that students must be able to \u201cdetermine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source\u201d (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2<\/a>) and \u201cintegrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to address a question or solve a problem\u201d (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards<\/em> emphasized the importance of students \u201cdeveloping questions and planning inquires, gathering and evaluating sources, and communicating and critiquing conclusions\u201d (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013, p.12).\u00a0The C3 framework also notes what many classroom teachers know well\u2014rapid access to online resources \u201cdoes not translate automatically to their wise use\u201d (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013, p.18).\u00a0 For many online searchers, research means using Google, consulting Wikipedia, or viewing YouTube and then reporting what they find as factual information.\u00a0 Reviewing results of a national survey of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers, the Pew Internet Research Project concluded that given the vast amounts of information to consider, students\u2019 research focus has \u201cshifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment\u201d (Purcell et al., 2012).<\/p>\n

Academic research by elementary, middle, and high school students is fraught with complexities.\u00a0 In paper-based research environments of the past, students might access a book or an article, copy some text verbatim, and then fail to cite the author and attribute the source.\u00a0 While those same shortcomings can happen in a digital setting, new issues arise as well.\u00a0 Students may be unsure what keywords to use when searching; they may consult only the first page of search results and miss important resources; they may not investigate who authored a website and for what purpose; they may assume that if information is online, it must be true (Palmer, 2015).<\/p>\n

To create more collaborative learning environments where students act as informed users of web-based information, educators broadly agree that students must learn the technical skills and intellectual dispositions of digital literacy.\u00a0 \u201cIn the modern world, print literacy is not enough,\u201d stated video game researcher James Paul Gee (2007, p. 19) a decade ago.\u00a0 Digital literacy has been defined as \u201cthe ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills\u201d (American Library Association, 2012).\u00a0 It includes an interconnected set of skills and dispositions called computer\/ICT literacy, media literacy, and information literacy.<\/p>\n

Digital literacy requires that students distinguish useful knowledge from useless, biased, and harmful information (Burbules & Callister, 2000).\u00a0 This literacy includes critically evaluating a website\u2019s credibility (Schrock, 2015).\u00a0 As the Global Digital Citizen Foundation (2015) pointed out, students need multiple opportunities in school to ask thoughtful questions, acquire information from print and online sources, analyze that material for its authenticity and relevance, apply their research to academic topics and questions, and share the results of their work with others.<\/p>\n

A Wiki for History Learning<\/h2>\n

Finding ways for students to learn and apply the skills of digital literacy is a challenge for teachers.\u00a0 Completing an occasional research assignment, while helpful, is not sufficient for students to develop their web research skills.\u00a0 For this reason, we have been developing educational wikis as formats for teaching about digital literacy.<\/p>\n

Wikis are not a new technology.\u00a0 More than a decade ago, in one of its early \u201c7 Things You Should Know About . . .\u201d technology trends briefs, the Educause Learning Initiative (2005) defined wikis as a \u201cdatabase created by a group rather than an individual\u201d that can result in \u201csurprisingly robust, open-ended, collaborative group sites.\u201d\u00a0 Wikis can function as a \u201ccomposition system, a discussion medium, a repository, a mail system, and a tool for collaboration.\u201d\u00a0 Responding to the question, \u201cWhere is it going?\u201d the Educause editors predicted,\u00a0 \u201cSince wikis are easy to edit, they carry an inherent potential to change how we construct knowledge repositories on the Web.\u201d<\/p>\n

The importance of wikis is that \u00a0they can be ever-changing, constantly evolving learning environments (Richardson, 2010).\u00a0 Anyone can read the content posted on a public wiki, such as Wikipedia, and members of the site can add to or revise the online material.\u00a0 To make a change to an existing page or create a new one, a member clicks \u201cedit\u201d and enters the new material.\u00a0\u00a0 Readers can also see all the earlier versions of the page in reverse chronological order by looking in the page history section.\u00a0 Each change is attributed to the member making the change, so content does not appear anonymously on the site.<\/p>\n

The wiki pages described in this paper can be found on resourcesforhistoryteachers<\/a>\u00a0(i.e., “Resources for History Teachers”), a history learning resource for K-12 and higher education teachers and students housed in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. \u00a0[Editor\u2019s Note: URLs for all websites can be found in the Resources section at the end of this paper.<\/em>]<\/strong> Since 2006, resourcesforhistoryteachers<\/a>\u00a0has earned a 2010 Higher Education Webbie Award from the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators (MassCUE) organization and was voted an Edublog Awards Finalist for Best Educational Wiki in 2011, 2013, and 2014.\u00a0 Between March 2012 and October 2015, more than a million people visited the site.<\/p>\n

Regular contributors to the wiki include the author of this article (who is also the webmaster of the site), educators from K-12 schools, and college students from University of Massachusetts Amherst history teacher license program who enroll in a three-credit, semester-long course, \u201cNew Developments in History and Political Science Education.\u201d\u00a0 The webmaster approves every post, removes biased or inaccurate material, and deletes links that are no longer active.\u00a0 Online resources are selected from historical organizations, museums, governmental agencies, libraries, university and college researchers, newspapers, and other academic sources.\u00a0 As much as possible, posted sites are free from advertisements for products, services, or commercial interests.\u00a0 Links to pages on Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias are avoided.<\/p>\n

The site,\u00a0resourcesforhistoryteachers<\/a>, began as a standards-based wiki devoted to supplying students and teachers with materials for addressing the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2003). \u00a0The site\u2019s initial design featured a page of written summaries and linked resources for each of the Massachusetts K-12 learning standards for U.S. history, world history, geography, American government and economics\u2014a total of more than 400 individual pages.<\/p>\n

In the past 3 years, pages have been added for the Advanced Placement standards in U. S. history, world history, and American government, all cross-linked so readers can move seamlessly within the site to access ideas and information about historical and contemporary topics.<\/p>\n

The first design of the wiki pages were text-filled factual presentations of information related to history learning standards.\u00a0 Teachers said they did not need this type of resource, since detailed overviews of people, places, and events were already online at Wikipedia, Britannica.com, Biography.com, Infoplease.com, and many other sites.\u00a0 Elementary, middle, and high students also did not find the wiki\u2019s initial format helpful to them as learners.\u00a0 Students rated the information presentation dry and uninviting; they wanted pictures, videos, games, and interactive resources so they could experience the pages multimodally, not just read them as printed text.<\/p>\n

In response, wiki page formats were reorganized to feature links to multiple types of online materials for use in history\/social studies learning:\u00a0 primary source materials; timelines; maps and interactive geographic resources; multimedia; multicultural resources, women\u2019s history resources; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) resources; economic resources; simulations and serious learning games; and lesson plans and related instructional materials.<\/p>\n

Dramatic Event, Historical Biography, and Influential Literature pages are the latest features of the Resources for History Teachers<\/a> wiki.\u00a0 Organized by topic and linked to standards, these pages offer teachers three ways to teach students how to do online research critically and creatively. Page authors must (a) choose what to post on a page, practicing the skills of website evaluation; (b) learn to design and arrange material so readers can experience information multimodally and interactively; and (c) learn historical content as they connect wiki work to history and social studies learning standards.<\/p>\n

Dramatic Event Pages<\/h2>\n

Dramatic Event pages are based on important or milestone events in history.\u00a0 Learning about such dramatic moments, students and teachers have the opportunity to \u201cdelve into the deeper meanings of selected landmark events and explore their wider context in the greater historical narrative\u201d (in the words of Symcox, 1991, p. 4).\u00a0 In a dramatic moment approach, textbook readings and teacher presentations provide the chronology of a time period, setting the context for why an event itself can be considered a crucial turning-point in history.\u00a0 Then, as students examine primary sources and consult other history learning materials, they become \u201caware that choices had to be made by real human beings, that those decisions were the result of specific factors, and that they set in motion a series of historical consequences\u201d (Symcox, 1991, p. 4)\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dramatic Event wiki pages include the following components:<\/p>\n