Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and share. The Higher Order skills and competences are grouped into four main
categories: connectedness, ability to balance formal and informal contexts, critical
ability and creativity.
3 Research and Information Management
3.1 Goals, Contents and Expected Learning Outcomes
The aim of the research was to determine whether specific activities can enhance
the development of skills for lifelong learning, such as the ability to search the
Internet and use online resources to promote continuous education and improve on
learning to learn. The main idea was to provide an overview of useful web tools
for learning, a series of practical references and a 'toolbox' to be used in different
contexts (at university, but also self-learning and professional training).
Our general goals were: 1. to analyze different ways of dealing effectively with
the dynamics of the online tools and facilities in order to promote Higher Order
PKM skills; 2. to identify tools supportive of such skills or conducive to learning
and improving on them; 3. to provide suggestions for the actual application of
such tools in the daily practice of teachers.
A brief course on Research and Information Management was designed and
implemented for a group of first year students of Multimedia Communication and
Technology at the University of Udine. The seminar was carried out within the
course of English as foreign language (competence level from B1 to C1 of the
Common European Framework of Reference) with over 100 participants
1
. The
course was
blended
: students were in class with the English teacher (M. Bortoluz-
zi); brief synchronous seminars were carried out online via Skype and social me-
dia (M. Cinque). Students were asked to perform assigned tasks both at university
(using the wi-fi network) and at home.
Initially we administered a questionnaire to investigate on student skills and at-
titude towards technology. The areas of investigation included: metacognition,
motivation and use of ICT tools for learning.
A wiki was used as a 'hub' for all the activities and the contents:
http://pordenonestm.pbworks.com; many other different tools (Google and other
search engines, YouTube, iTunes, Delicious, Wordle, software for mind mapping
etc.) were used for course-work tasks.
The course - carried out between February and March 2012 - lasted 20 contact
hours
2
, including brief seminars and activities on the following subjects: Search
strategies on the Internet (29/02/12); webquests and enquiry based learning
(01/03/12); Google services and tools and criteria to evaluate the credibility of
web sites and resources (07/03/12); top tools for learning (08/03/12); PLE, Per-
sonal Learning Environment (14/03/12).
At the end of the course, students were expected to be able to: 1. search Google
effectively and precisely, by custom-izing it; 2. know when to use other search
1
For our research we gathered data from and about 64 students.
2
Plus a 4-hour session for the final presentations.
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