Wiggling

What a fun step in the information inquiry process! Wiggling is something I have done a multitude of times for personal and classroom use. Digging into a book, website or various other media is just something that makes me happy. I love the search, the finding of new information and the epiphany of realizing you have made a breakthrough. After carefully examining this step as I proceeded through this project, I hope to better address this troublesome area of research with my students. The copious amounts of information out there can be daunting, especially to the inexperienced. Anyone who is researching, I feel, must be aware of the tools and processes which can enable you to become a purveyor and expert in the evaluation of information.

Lamb tells us that the first process in the wiggling phase is planning for exploration. This step was not familiar to me, as I am not an organizer. I tend to jump into exploration, without thought as to the “why” of what I am doing. This step intrigued me, as I applied the knowledge to what I see happen to my students as they begin a class project. Why not add this extra step to ensure success as information is evaluated? Lamb suggests that one must “consider the Multiple Intelligences of your students.” As I began my own wiggling, I did just this for myself. What are my Multiple Intelligences? How best do I learn? Personally, I am a linguistic and logical-mathematical learner. For this reason, I chose to make lists of relevant information. I felt this would be best for me as I can organize the information into specific lists. For this project, I chose to begin creating lists with the following headings: African tribes who created masks, reasons for creating masks/ceremonies held with masks, materials used to make masks, and cultural significance of masks.

With these lists in mind, I began wiggling through the webpages to hopefully find pertinent information which would allow me to become an “expert” on the topic of African tribal masks. Reception scaffolds, reading techniques and filtering information are the next processes in the wiggling phase of information inquiry. Lamb tells us that “reception scaffolds assist learners in dealing with information.” I believe my use of lists is similar to the reception scaffold of note-taking. This is the form that works best for me, but it will be different for each learner. I find note-taking to work best for me as I can make interconnections as I go. In Keywords, Concepts and Methods for Information Instruction, Callison discusses the value of note-taking, particularly, the idea that “notes should be considered a work in progress and should be revisited so that the most important items are highlighted and other items discarded. Through review and revision of notes, new information patterns are found.” (pg. 142) I kept this in mind as I began working with my lists, ever mindful that I needed to revisit and revise as much as possible. One question that came to me as I revisited this list was this: are my list subheadings appropriate, or can I revise them to better fit my research needs? At one point in the wiggling phase, I considered adding the topic of women vs. men in the society, but I eventually thought better of it as I was not able to find enough information which would add to the project topic of African tribal masks.

As for reading techniques, I am a skimmer. I don’t know if I have always been one, but I have found that the longer I have been teaching, the faster of a reader I have become. It has become something of a necessity; otherwise I would be inundated with grading. Finding key concepts and vocabulary words is the first area I focus on as I read a student essay, a webpage or a newspaper/magazine article.

Evaluating the validity of websites is next up. Several of the websites I was using for this project were quickly found to be valid. It is hard to question the validity of the PBS or the Smithsonian Institute! For other websites, I was thankful to have had prior training in the validating of websites. My school corporation offers technology training each summer, and I just happened to take the class on the validating of websites. The class I took used information from Teacher Tap, so I was very familiar with the process of looking at authority, objectivity, authenticity, reliability, timeliness, relevance, and efficiency. This class allowed me to be aware of this process and the questions I need to ask when looking at a website. Examples of two websites I questioned the most in this process are: African Traditional Religion and World History Archives. From the homepages of these sites, it was not easy to authenticate their validity. After perusing through them though, I was able to find articles which had extensive bibliographies. With the bibliographies in tow, I believe I can use the information found there without questioning.

After evaluating the websites, I began to filter through the information and began to fine tune my lists. At this point, I decided to add another subheading to my list: religious aspects of masks. I did feel a little inundated at this point. So much information to sift through! Skimming quickly through articles found, helped me to make heads or tails of the mountain of information I had found. A quick skim helped me ascertain if this article was something I would need to use. Although this did help, it still took me several days to wade through!

Collaborating with others was another important aspect of this project. I discussed the project with fellow Social Studies teachers at school. Unfortunately, this did not get me very far. African tribal masks seemed to be a topic that was unfamiliar to many. My next avenue for collaboration came through former students. I was able to “switch” classes with another teacher for an hour so I could discuss this topic with former students. This was an amazing seminar I held with my students from last year. These students helped give me a direction, as they discussed what they felt was lacking from last year’s study of African tribal society. Students wanted to know what the masks were made from and what the masks were used for. Students also wished they had been able to create their own masks to represent aspects of their life.

As I move on with my information inquiry project, I hope I am on the right track!