As more and more classrooms gain access to the world of Internet "data fog", a major focus of classrooms must now turn to assisting students in learning to effectively process information.

Pitfalls have been "cut & paste" research, rehash research, plagiarism, and time-wasted Web browsing.  Teachers & facilitators can take a few proactive steps to maximize the power of the Internet and to assist students in gaining a life-long learning skill that is vital to a competitive edge.

TEACHER'S ROLE:

• Manage the classroom instructional time so that students are able to plan, process, and devise a format to demonstrate their knowledge.
• Mentor student's through the analysis, questioning, & synthesis process
• Model the use of technology playing a role in the processing of ideas, effective communication, and creation of original artifacts.    
• Motivate students to reach higher standards, extend & refine their thinking, carefully evaluate the content, employ a wide range of strategies & media, ask harder questions, or aspire to reach a wider audience.
• Devise rubrics that allow students to reach the highest standards through self-evaluation and monitoring and employ levels of metacognitive responsibility.

Rule of  Thumb: Don't accept the first product.  Ask for refinement, extension, reflection, collaboration, peer editing, rearrangement or clarification.  Students must learn to produce quality projects and / or be creative innovators.

Rule of Thumb: Don't request final research artifacts or projects to be delivered in the same medium from which they were gathered.  

Example:  Student research is based on Internet text or graphics.  Require the student to build a visual model, poem, movie, poster, or mobile.  Set the student up for information processing success by eliminating the ability to "cut & paste".  Other examples that require processing:

• brochures
• plays
• songs
• animations
• Power Point or Hyperstudio Presentations (with word limits as required in bullets)
• Oral presentations (with outline only)
• debates
• court room simulations 

IDEA PROCESSING:

Students need to understand that their research will benefit the "global" database.  Their role as researcher is significant to the world around them. Idea processing requires that students add something new to the "global" database such as a local or unique perspective.  Research projects should not just rehash someone else's information.  A significance to the research should be apparent, whether it is personal growth, finding a solution to a problem, or internal reflection.

How do you know if your students have processed information?

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