Instructional Design Model to Teach Web Literacy Skills
Given the impact of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) on education, students need to be smart information seekers in the digital age. All of the skills needed in online research can be broadly categorized under the term “information literacy”. Students need to know how to use a database, how to evaluate sites and search results, what keywords to use to get optimal results and how to synthesize and integrate the information with proper citations. This instructional design model will provide a framework to teach “web literacy” skills through the introduction of critical reading strategies, building computer literacy skills, and applying them to online contexts.
Core Competencies
This project showcases the theory application, content creation, and analysis competencies that I acquired in the program. In order to come up with an effective instructional design model to address the learning problem that I identified, I needed to do a thorough needs analysis to identify learning gaps and formulate learning goals. It also drove home the importance of learner attitude analysis while designing learning materials and instructional strategies, and assessments. The learning and instructional theories that I learned in the Learning Sciences and technology and Instructional Design Theory classes also helped me to base the instructional model on sound and appropriate learning and pedagogical practices.
How the Model Works
The model is an adaptation of the Dick & Carey model in that it includes analysis of goals, skills, learning and learner contexts, as well as summative and formative assessments. How it differs is that instead of instructional strategy, I chose to include learner tasks as a component. The tasks themselves are learning environments that the learners will interact with support from the instructors, through peer collaboration and practice, and subsequently through individual articulation and exploration. The strength of this model is its flexibility. If the course cannot be taught as a standalone enrichment digital literacy course, then it can be adapted to any subject matter, for instance ELA, Social Science. Most teachers today assign at least one research paper to their middle and high school students. This model can be integrated successfully by teachers into their subject curricula.
Reflections
While designing this Instructional Model, I knew that students have little and even erroneous ideas of how to do a quality web search. While designing instruction, it was also important to consider attitudinal and motivational characteristics of the target learners. Keeping them motivated, engaged, and invested in the learning experience was crucial especially because they may come into class thinking that they possess the requisite skills.
So, it was important to ensure to situate learning in relevant, authentic, “real-world” tasks where students learn by engaging with the task, supported by ‘experts/masters’ (teachers) during the task. They also learn through collaborating with other learners, problem-solving, clearing misconceptions and developing effective strategies. This project provided me an opportunity to apply what I learned in the Learning Sciences and Technology and Instructional Design classes and come up with an instructional design model that may be used to teach web literacy skills. A limitation of this model may be that there is hardly any research available about the effect of online research skills instruction. This will probably make it difficult to evaluate or justify the effectiveness of the model. That being said, this model is a step in the right direction of the much-needed web literacy instruction for learners today.