Using Interest to Develop Information Literacy - Annotated Bibliography

Spence, L. K. (2009). Developing multiple literacies in a website
project. The Reading Teacher 62(7), 592-597.

A project to create a Website was lead by the author and included a team of four students. Although the student participants were proficient in speaking and writing two languages, and performing well in school, they were essentially technologically illiterate. Spencer facilitated the project by having the students use their knowledge of language and family to create a theme for the website. Once the theme (“Mexican Heritage”) was chosen the students researched topics, solicited help from family and community members to compile the content for the website. The students were able to plan, design, and create a website consisting of the students’ original art work, stories, jokes, and an English/Spanish translation page. The final product capitalized on the students existing abilities and interest to develop computer literacy.

While technology is readily available and it is widely assumed that the generation currently populating schools has high levels of computer literacies I need to be cognizant of the fact that not all students have been afforded the opportunity to develop computer skills. Regardless of the content that I am teaching, a pre-assessment of computer skills should be preformed and the beginning of the semester. If students lack the computer skills needed to perform projects, I will create opportunities for the students to develop the skills using interest instead of content to assist in the development of their computer literacy.