The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009

Foreword by Maryellen Weimer vii Preface to the Second Edition xi About the Author xxi 1 Using Writing to Promote Thinking: A Busy Professor s Guide to the Whole Book 1 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING AND WRITING 2 How Writing Is Related to Critical Thinking 17 3 Helping Writers Think Rhetorically 39 4 Using a Range of Genres to Extend Critical Thinking and Deepen Learning 52 5 Dealing with Issues of Grammar and Correctness 66 PART 2 DESIGNING PROBLEM-BASED ASSIGNMENTS 6 Formal Writing Assignments 89 7 Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities 120 PART 3 COACHING STUDENTS AS LEARNERS, THINKERS, AND WRITERS 8 Designing Tasks to Promote Active Thinking and Learning 149 9 Helping Students Read Difficult Texts 161 10 Using Small Groups to Coach Thinking and Teach Disciplinary Argument 183 11 Bringing More Critical Thinking into Lectures and Discussions 202 12 Enhancing Learning and Critical Thinking in Essay Exams 211 13 Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research 224 PART 4 READING, COMMENTING ON, AND GRADING STUDENT WRITING 14 Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Grading Criteria 267 15 Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load 290 16 Writing Comments on Students Papers 317 References 337 Index 353

Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom

Like the clothes in their suitcases, the technologies students bring to campus change every year. Occasionally, the change can be dramatic. It’s hard to believe, but when the college seniors we surveyed for this year’s study began their education four years ago, netbooks, iPhones, and the Nintendo Wii had yet to hit the market. When they went home for the holidays during their freshman year, some returned with a brand new game called Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2, and some may have been lucky enough to score a $250 4-GB iPod nano or an ultrathin digital camera. Today’s freshmen have mobile phones that hold more songs than that 4-GB nano, and they can use them to take digital photos and videos of the same quality as the $400 camera today’s seniors got for their high school graduation.

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009—Key Findings

With the advent of digital technologies, awareness of media is acquiring crucial importance. Media literacy, information literacy and digital literacy are the three most prevailing concepts that focus on a critical approach towards media messages.This article gives an overview of the nature of these literacies, which show both similarities to and differences from each other. The various contexts of their functioning are outlined and additional literacies are mentioned. Especial attention is given to the question of the blurring line between media consumers and producers.

The media and the literacies: media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy

The aim of this article is to review and critique the current state of information literacy education, and propose a way forward. Key developments in the UK, USA and Australia are reviewed, including standards and models of information literacy. The place of information literacy in the higher education curriculum is discussed. Problems with current practice are identified, in particular, prescriptive guidelines which encourage a surface learning approach; delivery by librarians who may lack both educational training and power to influence the curriculum; and poor assessment methods. Alternative approaches are highlighted. A case study of a credit bearing information literacy class, offered by the authors to undergraduates at Strathclyde Business School, is analysed, to argue that information literacy can stand alone as a subject of study, with appropriate learning and teaching methods. The article concludes by proposing models for the information literate student and the information literate university.

Information Literacy in Higher Education: A review and case study

In 1999 the ACRL Board established the Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards and charged it to develop competency standards for higher education. ACRL seeks endorsement and promulgation of these standards from professional and accreditation associations in higher education. An Information Literacy Standards Implementation Task Force will be charged to promote the use of the standards in higher education. “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education” was approved by the Board of Directors of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ARCL) on January 18, 2000, at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association in San Antonio, Texas.

Patricia A Iannuzzi

Papers

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education