‘Supporting information age Literacy in Higher Education’ is an interesting article by Justin Marquis. It outlines the eight essential skills needed for students to become leaders in the digital age.
I always encourage students to use new technology in the class specially if they are presenting and communicating. Prezi was a good experience which made the presentations more interesting and alive. Also, maintaining a Blog really helped them in reflecting on their learning process. As to develop their analytical thinking and application, assignments are designed which entail seeking information from a variety of sources. For example in one of my Finance courses, while comparing two financial institutions and coming up with recommendations, students need to search online sources as well as meet the manager and gather task specific information. Projects based on real life situation help build their critical thinking. They get an opportunity to apply the skills they have learnt during the semester in the course to solve real life problems. Integrative projects have proven to be very useful in some of my courses where my part of the course complements the other course and students use both the courses as building blocks to complete structure. This plays a very important for them in understanding the bigger picture.
With overabundance of information available at a click away comes the temptation for short cuts such as plagiarism. Transparency, accountability and a proper bibliography are pivotal to authentic learning. Safe assign should be used and students should be encouraged to submit drafts periodically and a presentation & oral defense must accompany the report to ensure that it was really a product of teamwork.
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