S.O.S. for Information Literacy

In case you haven't stumbled across this website yet, http://www.informationliteracy.org/ S.O.S. for Information Literacy provides us with some great resources--even a "build your own" feature which allows students to actively take part in the lesson.  The resource is free and it does require you to create an account if you wish to customize the site, but you don't need to do that if you just want to access the resources of the website.  The site bills itself as the "Virtual Idea Factory for Teaching Information Skills" and is recognized as one of the "Top 25 Best Websites for Teaching and Learning" by AASL. 

The site was created as part of a research grant designed to improve the way information literacy skills were being taught.  Now for the kicker--the grant is funded by the Dept. of Education so it may be impacted by the downturn in the economy.  It came online in 2006 so I'm crossing my fingers that it's going to be around for awhile. 

The site's help feature is disguised under "Resources - Training" and some of the links and Spotlight (periodical) are dead and/or dated.  However, the lessons on the site align to the Standards for the 21st Century Learner and for the most part are pretty solid.  The search function is pretty easy to use and the advanced search allows you to search by standards and assessments.  The only little glitch I found was there is not direct "home" link.  Instead, if you click on the SOS banner at the top of the page it will get you back to the home page. 

I have created an account and hope to begin building and customizing the site with my lessons, resources, and activities blended with those found on the site.  I hope somebody else will forge this trail with me. Don't forget, this blog is a great tool for us to use to collaborate.   I look forward to your comments and posts! 

Whew--Almost Done!

Many of you are probably beginning to sigh in relief--hopefully not in frustration.  As we discussed before, this was WAY more than the standard book study.  Most of you are to the point of posting your lessons and glogs.  Even if you have not put the finishing touches on these items, please post them so we know that you are having success in using the technology itself.  Also, please go back through the blog and make sure you have posted to all discussion questions.

Just a reminder, that when you "link" your glogs to the website, put them on the Technology Matters page, under Web 2.0 Tools.  Choose "edit page" to get started, then put in the text you want to show (as a separate bullet point) and highlight that text before selecting "link".  Once you do this, select "web address" and paste in your URL address to your glog.  Select "ok" and you should be linked!

The lessons can be attached to the Lesson Ideas page and they are actually attachments.  You should see this at the bottom of your page and it works similarly to an attachment to an e-mail.  Don't forget about using Google docs from time to time as this is an open format that allows for us to collaboratively create lessons and documents. 

Despite some glitches and hitches I think the value of what you learned will outweigh the pain it took to get there.  If you have any questions about getting things posted or wrapping up loose ends, let me know.  We hope to continue to use these tools in the future to collaborate and share. Thanks to all of you for working so hard to continue growing professionally.  See you all the 19th!