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From Information to Knowledge: Learning in Digital Age Schools
Ross Todd, SCILS, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Abstract:
The development of large and complex print and digital information collections in elementary, middle and high schools has major implications not only for the technology and resource infrastructure of the school library, but increasingly, on how instruction and meaningful learning can be enabled through the school library. This presentation presents the findings of research undertaken by Todd and Kuhlthau from 2003 to 2005 that focuses on the nature of learning in digital age schools. This research sought to identify how students’ knowledge of a curriculum topic changed as they made use of diverse digital and print information sources, and lead by collaborating teams of school librarians and classroom teachers. In order to examine the change in a students’ knowledge of a topic, the following specific research questions were investigated through quantitative and qualitative data collection approaches:
- What changes, if any, are evident in students’ knowledge of a curriculum related topic, as they proceed through the stages of a collaborative inquiry project, making use of diverse print and digital sources?
- What changes, if any, are shown in the students’ feelings as they proceed through the stages of a collaborative inquiry project?
- How does the students’ study approach influence knowledge construction of a curriculum topic in collaborative inquiry projects?
- What interactions exist between knowledge construction, feelings, and study approach, and what are some of the explanations for these interactions?
The project, funded by the Institute for Museums and Library Services (USA) involved 10 school librarian-classroom teacher teams working with 574 students in Grades 6 – 13, and in a range of curriculum areas – chemistry, biology, humanities, and social science. A series of quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments we employed at the initiation, midpoint and completion of the projects. Students utilized a range of print and digital information services and products, and received instruction during the process. The study identifies some key findings about students’ search processes and their process of building new knowledge. These will be documented in this presentation. The research showed that through inquiry projects:
- students’ initial knowledge underwent a significant conceptual change with distinctive patterns shown in their knowledge construction;
- some students learned topical content in deep ways, shown in complex and coherent knowledge structures;
- students generally became more skillful and confident as information seekers;
- students became increasingly engaged, interested and reflective during their learning process, and saw information seeking as a constructive process of building both deep knowledge and deep understanding
- students became more critically aware of the broad variety of sources and their different purposes;
- students gained practical skills in independent information seeking, moving from fact finding to information analysis and synthesis;
- students showed increasing awareness of the varied quality of information, as well as of information as a problematic and often contradictory.
To conclude, this presentation will some of the implications of this research for the ongoing development of digital age school libraries in relation to three components: informational – the information technology and resources infrastructure; transformational – the nature of effective instruction to enable students to build new knowledge; and formational – meeting and measuring learning outcomes.
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