Conclusions
Lindsey, Marti (2000) A Constructivist Study of Developing Curriculum to Teach Internet Information Literacy to Navajo High School Students
I believe the report of this study illustrates that Navajo high school students who participate in multiple series of lessons regarding Internet information literacy develop skills to determine their information needs and are able to locate, consume, organize, evaluate, document, and use current, accurate, interesting, complete, and meaningful information in coursework assignments.
An Internet Information Literacy curriculum has been established teach to Navajo high school students, at the school of this study. Students who have taken three sets of Internet Information Literacy lessons express an ablity to incorporate current, accurate, interesting, complete, and meaningful information into their coursework.
The instruction utilizes teaching strategies that are compatible with the needs of Native American students and the Internet as a search domain. Students are taught, within the context of course-related inquiries, to identify the need for information, locate information by browsing and exploring, consume information by reading, forming opinions, and taking notes, evaluate and collect information that corresponds to the focus of their investigations, prepare graphic organizers and outlines about the information found, document the information used by citing references according to the appropriate methods, share the interesting details of the information found in writing or speech, and reflect on their personal information use process for the purpose of improving that course of action.
I have determined that specifically structured instruction, based on an on-going evaluation of student needs, is required for students to increase their interest and efficiency in using the Internet.
I also found eight principles of Native American learning environments that support student growth. These are holistic learning, culturally relevant content, students being able to exercise choice within the projects, support of visual learning styles, developing self-confidence with a step-by-step approach, promoting formal and informal cooperative learning, sharing information about dominant culture practices and teachers developing personal trusting and respectful relationships with students.
In conclusion, the curriculum for information literacy is a dynamic growing form of social interaction with students that is informed by the standards of the profession of library information science, the growing skills of the students and the changing character of the Internet.