Winter 2022 Full Circle Kit Release

 

In the new Full Circle Kit for Winter 2022 we feature two guest authors.

Patrick Dennis, an Adobe associate, contacted us with a resource he helped develop on the topic of Plagiarism. It's an excellent overview of the subject, including these sub-sections:

What is plagiarism?

Types of plagiarism

Consequences and results of plagiarism

How to identify plagiarism

Using plagiarism detection tools

Recognizing common detection-avoidance tactics

How to prevent plagiarism

Prioritizing proper citation

Focus on time management

Understanding the gray areas

Resources for students and educators to avoid plagiarism

Read the full article here 

Also in this issue: The Importance of Information Fluency by Anna Medina

Winter 2019 Full Circle Kit

The winter 2019 Full Circle Kit is now available online,

https://21cif.com//fullcircle/winter2019/index.php

This quarter the topic is helping know where to look--database mining. This is different than data mining in that the process relies on student thinking to select relevant information, as opposed to software and algorithms that detect patterns in massive amounts of data.

If you find yourself creating search lists for your students, you need to read this article.

In addition to the feature article (viewable without a subscription), there is also a guide to curricular integration and assessment (with a subscription).

If you know a database you recommend students mine for information, post your suggestion here along with the type of assignment (e.g., history research paper). We'll gladly add your recommendations to the Feature article and credit you.

Winter 2019 Full Circle Kit

Keyword Targets

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's a glimpse inside the Fall 2018 Full Circle Resource Kit. As an instructional and assessment technique, create a wall poster of an archery target, or just buy one. Use sticky notes for each word in a student's query. Some words are bulls eyes: Proper Nouns and numbers. Others land on the target, coming close: nouns. The rest are likely to miss altogether, unless they are accompanied by a noun or number: verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions and exclamation.

A graphic way to make this point is to place sticky notes on the target. It can also be used to provide feedback to students on the effectiveness of their queries.  For example, in the query, Who is the Latina Bronx Tarzan.... The first three keywords miss the target. The proper nouns, when used together, pinpoint the desired information, as shown below:

When one of the effective keywords is removed, however, the two remaining miss the information, coming close.

Next time your students try using complete sentences to search, the target exercise can get the point across that more words is less effective.

Access all the Kit resources with an annual school subscription for $249 (any number of students and staff can enroll for the same price).

Keyword Games

In the newest Full Circle Resource Kit (Fall 2018), the featured article is about using games to change search behaviors. Telling students not to use full sentences and pay attention to their keywords, while instructive, is not very effective.

Student success in searching isn't quite as bad as the illustration shown, but all it takes is a couple of queries to hit to target to satisfy a poor searcher.

We invented a simple search game that serves as a game-making structure to reinforce good search techniques. A Keyword Game is basically a riddle: Who Am I? Three clues are provided: Latina, Bronx, Tarzan. Most people can't guess the identity without using a search engine.

The combination of the terms is what makes them effective, plus they are very specific terms--two are proper nouns.

For more on the games, see the latest edition of the Full Circle Kits (accessible with a school subscription).

The real value in the games is for students to create their own keyword challenges. Using one of the prompts, "Who/What/Where/When am I?" the challenge is to find 3-5 keywords that can be entered into a search engine to reveal the answer. To do so successfully, students engage in these effective search techniques:

• Search with a few words (between two and five keywords)
• Include only effective keywords and unique combinations
• Avoid verbs, pronoun, articles, conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives (including complete sentences)

Have them play each others games to see whether they can be solved. If a set of clues doesn't work, this opens up an opportunity to understand what's wrong with the query.

By the way, the answer to the riddle above is Sonia Sotomayor. In Google there are other search results at the top of the list, but these don't answer the question because they don't contain all the keywords. This emphasizes critical reading to make sure the results match expectations.

Summer Full Circle Resource Kit

Bias Detection is the newest Kit in the Full Circle series.

One of the most popular MicroModules on the Information Fluency site is Bias. Becoming sensitive to bias and knowing that not everything in print or images is neutral or objective is one way to prevent unguarded consumption of fake or distorted news. Bias can be hard to detect, especially when a reader finds it agreeable.

The Feature article examines a front page case where bias was overlooked, resulting in shooting up a pizzeria thought to be a front for pedophile sex abuse in Washington DC.

Curricular Connections provides a helpful checklist for identifying and discussing incidents of bias in non-fiction and images.

Six interactive examples of biased and unbiased articles and one image are packaged in the Assessment section to help students evaluate bias. A score of 80% accuracy indicates fluency in detecting bias.

The Kit requires a subscription, but for a limited time, the feature article is free.

https://21cif.com//fullcircle/summer2018/index.php