The document outlines Margo Pickworth's EdD research proposal on how young learners make sense of online information. The research will use qualitative methodology to explore the strategies young competent readers use to understand online information, and what teaching methods can help. It will involve think-aloud protocols and screen capture software to study students' online search and reading processes. The proposal discusses the conceptual frameworks of constructivism and information literacy that inform the study, and outlines plans for ethics approval, data collection and future research phases.

1. New Literacies: young learners
making sense of online information
Margo Pickworth
EdD Candidate, 4th November, 2011

2. Topic/Problematic
Background and Context
Conceptual Framework
Methodology
Ethics
Research Plan
Future Plans

3. Topic and Problematic
‘The proliferation of powerful, multimodal literacies
demands that educators transform literacy programs
to teach new forms of communication, which are
necessary to participate fully in our dynamic and
culturally diverse society’
(Mills, 2009, p. 111)

4. How do younger competent readers
make sense of online information?
What teaching and learning strategies can assist
What literacy strategies do young readers use to
young readers to make sense of online
make sense of online information?
information?
What is the role
How can the
of the school
teacher librarian
library in this
assist?
process?

7. Conceptual framework
‘Constructivism’
 John Dewey – ‘learn by doing’
 George Kelly – ‘Personal Construct Theory’
 Jerome Bruner – actively involved in making sense
of the world, importance of the ‘interpretive task’

8. Conceptual Framework:
‘Information Literacy’
 Carol Kulthau – information search process
 Ross Todd- four constructs
 People active consumers of information
 Info enables ‘sense-making’ of the world
 Centrality of cognitive activity
 Enabling purposeful utilisation of info

9. Key References
‘Our students are very skilled in online personal
communication but much less knowledgeable when
searching for and using curriculum-based information’
(Coombes, B, 2009)
‘New Literacy’- Coiro,J Knobel,M Lankshear, C, Leu,
D.

10. Five main areas of my readings
 Nature of the web itself
 Web searching behaviour
 Using Web as an educational tool
 Focus on learner attributes
 Nature of the learning activity itself

11. Nature of the Web itself
 Scope and topicality
 Accessibility
 Hypertext
 Visual elements of the web

12. Web Searching behaviour
 Attitudes
 Browsing/Key word
 Search process
 Search Results
 Gender Differences
 Assessing and evaluating found information

13. Web as an Educational Tool
 Teachers need to assess purpose of using web
 Students lack research skills
 Offering of pre-selected websites

14. Attributes of the User
 Prior knowledge
 Metacognition
 Spatial Ability
 Cognitive Style
 Motivation and Effect

15. Nature of the Learning Activity
 Inquiry approach?
 Teacher Directed?

16. Where do I go from here?
 Still unsure of my context
 Competent readers
 School environment – maybe boys?
 Inquiry learning

17. Methodology - Qualitative
 Natural setting
 Researcher will collecting information
 Multiple data sources
 Interpretive inquiry
 Holistic view of social phenomena
(Cresswell, 2007)

18. Case Study? Data Collection?
Methodology
Decisions?
Framework? Sampling?

19. Size? Representative?
Sampling
decisions?
Access? Context?

20. Think Aloud Protocol
 Used by Kirsty Young in her case study of young
Internet users
 Minimal input from researcher
 Thoughts captured by audio recording
 Sequence of thoughts captured
 Uncover what subject is actually doing

21. Advantages
 Reduces problem of memory failure
 More reliable because task is authentic
 Increases reliability

22. Disadvantages
 Reactivity, - some people unable to think and attend
to task at same time
 Effect of talking during a task that is normally
undertaken in silence
 Drawing participants attention to cognitive processes
underlying task being undertaken
 Students vary in verbal ability
 Validity – does data accurately effect thinking?

23. Screen Capture software - example

24. Ethics – Working with Children
 Permission from Participants and parents
 Transparency at all stages of process
 Allow time to read and absorb
 Cultural considerations

25. Clear recruitment strategy
 Confidentiality, anonymity
 Protocol of institutes
 Integrity of my institution and name
 Open communication
 Interviews – rapport and trust

26. Collecting Online Data
 Unique challenges
 Installation of software
 Observe privacy
 Need written permission
 Avoid identification

27. Ethics in dual role of participant/researcher
 Convenience of sample
 Influence of setting and role
 Value of research will be recognised

28. Research Plan
 Doctoral Assessment – May, 2012
 Ethics – June – Dec 2012
 Research 2013
 Writing and assembling portfolio – 2013, 2014

29. References
Coombes, B, 2010, How much do traditional literacy skills count? Literacy in the 21st century and reading from the screen. Paper presented at the 39th Annual
Conference incorporating the 14th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, Brisbane, Australia.
Coiro, J Knobel, M Lankshear, C Leu, D. 2008, ‘Central issues in new literacies and new literacies research’ in Coiro, J, Knobel, M,Lankshear, C, Leu,D
(eds.),Handbook on research in new literacies, Routledge, New York, pp. 267 - 296
Corio, J Dobler, M 2007, Exploring the online reading comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade readers to search for and locate information on the internet.
Reading Research Quarterly, vol. 42,no. 2, pp. 214 - 257
Cresswell, JW, 2007, Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks
Knobel, M,Lankshear, C, Leu,D (eds.),Handbook on research in new literacies, Routledge, New York, pp. 267 – 296
Kiili, C, Laurinen, L,Marttunen, M, 2008, Students evaluating internet sources: from versatile evaluators to uncritical readers, Journal of Educational Computing
Research, Vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 75 – 95
Kulthau, C, 2004, Seeking Meaning, Libraries Unlimited, Westport
Kuiper, E and Volman, M, 2008, ‘The web as a source of information for students in K-12 Education’, in Coiro, J, Knobel, M,Lankshear, C, Leu,D (eds.),Handbook on
research in new literacies, Routledge, New York, pp. 267 - 296
Ladbrook, J and Probert, E, 2011, ‘Information skills and critical literacy: where are our digikids at with online searching and are their teachers
helping?’, Australiasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 105 – 121, viewed 14 April
2011, <http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet27/ladbrook.html>
Lawless, K and Schrader, P.G, 2008,’Where do we go now? Understanding research on navigation in complex digital environments’, in
Coiro, J, Knobel, M,Lankshear, C, Leu,D (eds.),Handbook on research in new literacies, Routledge, New York, pp. 267 - 296
Todd, R 2000, ‘A theory of information literacy: In-formation and outward looking’ in Bruce, C and Candy, P, (eds) Information literacy around the world, Centre
for Information Studies, Wagga Wagga, pp. 163 - 176
Wyatt –Smith, C and Elkins, J. 2008, ‘Multimodal reading and comprehension in online environments’, , in Coiro, J, Knobel, M,Lankshear, C, Leu,D
(eds.),Handbook on research in new literacies,Routledge, New York, pp. 267 – 296
Young, K Direct for the source: the value of ‘think-aloud’ data in understanding learning, Australian Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 6. No. 1, 2005