Knowledge Ontario’s Digital Delights

By: Diane Bédard and Anita Brooks-Kirkland

The following article was featured in The Teaching Librarian, a magazine produced by the Ontario Library Association. The article is also available for download as a PDF document.

Considerable research, thinking, and discussion has contributed to the exploration of the “classroom 2.0” and the needed restructuring of the educational experience for students that incorporates the digital literacy skill set. The discussion has percolated through all levels in education and reached a critical mass—even school boards are articulating the need to embrace digital literacy.

In May of this year, the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) released a 30-page report, What If: Technology in the 21st Century Classroom, to encourage more discussion about the integration of technology into the classroom, creating “stimulating school environments” for today’s tech-savvy students. To view the full report, visit www.opsba.org. Embracing digital literacy means that teacher-librarians and classroom teachers must change the way they teach, structure learning activities, and choose resources. Access to high-quality digital resources and quality technical support for staff and students becomes a critical component of the twenty- first-century classroom.

Building access to these kinds of educational resources and providing dependable support is the focus of Knowledge Ontario. Listed as a key technology-based resource in Ontario’s education sector by the OPSBA What If: Technology in the 21st Century Classroom report, Knowledge Ontario is a combination of projects—each providing a specific, unique approach to build and support digital literacy. Together, these projects can be a powerhouse supporting you and your students.

Not sure how to adequately use these phenomenal resources? Take a look at two examples:

Canadian Points of View Resource helps grade 8s navigate a bottled water controversy

“Water is an important resource that needs to be managed sustainably.” So states one of the “big ideas” or enduring understandings of the Grade 8 Science and Technology unit on water systems. Linking this to the current hot topic in the school, the teacher decided to have her students conduct research on bottled water. Witnessing the teacher’s dismay at the difficulty students were having getting to quality information on both sides of the issue, the school’s teacher-librarian directed her to the new database on offer from Resource Ontario, EBSCO’s Canadian Points of View Reference Centre (CPOV). This amazing resource provides context for students to differentiate fact from opinion, see both sides of controversial issues, and ask the deeper questions that will help them to formulate their own point of view. This is how it works:

On opening CPOV, one is presented with a spectrum of categories, from Aboriginal People to Women’s Issues. Students can select a category and then drill down to related topics, all of them current and controversial. For each topic there is an overview, then point and counterpoint articles presenting both sides of the issue. Each article starts with a thesis and a summary, followed by a succinct presentation of the arguments. The articles conclude with a ponder section. This section encourages students to ask deeper questions to drive further research. A bibliography points them to related books, articles, and websites. For every topic there is also a Guide to Critical Analysis, with excerpts from the text expressing related facts and opinions, providing useful material for teaching the reading literacy skills that will help students discern the difference. From this topic framework, students can link to a host of related magazine and newspaper articles and other materials on the topic for deeper research.

This database provides an instructional framework to help students get to the good stuff, develop the critical literacy skills to make sense of what they’re reading, and broaden their perspective on issues. From Grade 8s exploring the controversies of bottled water to Grade 12 students studying difficult world issues—racial profiling, enemy combatants, the case of Canadian Omar Khadr, the “conflict diamond” trade, and more—CPOV is both a topic and a critical thinking pathfinder. Check it out!

Activity to try: live the War of 1812

Using the searching capacity of the Our Ontario portal, the following is a thought-provoking history activity that will engage your students and integrate the digitized primary-source resources into their learning. Live the War of 1812 through the reporters and the newspaper coverage of the day-to- day events from June 1812 to April 1815. You can now access and follow the actual newspaper clippings as they report on the action.

Here’s a specific clipping to get started:
Tuesday November 17, 1812, from the Kingston Gazette--coverage of the attack by the American fleet on the town of Kingston, and the resulting gun battles and responses of the Loyalists.

Want a truly breathtaking example of the time lag that distance imposed on the flow of information in that era? View the full page this clipping came from on page two of the Kingston Gazette, November 17, 1812.

On this page you’ll discover that in the same day’s paper the following news-worthy items are all presented as current events:

• York, October 24, 1812-Major General Sheaffe’s arrival at York to take the Oaths Office of President, commanding his Majesty’s Forces in Upper Canada, and his comments on being sworn into office to replace the recently buried Major General Brock.
• Fort George, October 16, 1812-the funeral procession and interment services for Major General Brock and his provincial aid-de-camp, Lieut. Col. M’Donell (note the early use of text graphics in layout).
• Halifax, September 25, 1812-ship log from the HMS Guerriere which had seen action, and was damaged.
• Quebec, October 22 by way of St John’s, NF; Sept 24 from the captain of the Brig Syren; dated August 29, 1812 from Oporto-Lord Wellington entered Madrid on the 12th and by the 14th, the garrison had surrendered.
• London, England, August 12, 1812-regiments from London and from Barbados were being ordered to Halifax.
• Kingston, November 17, 1812-detailed local description of the attack by the American fleet on the town of Kingston.

This is quite the range of dates, depending on how far away the news happened. Pin these locations on the satellite view of a Google map for a visual representation, and explore how the information might have travelled. (There were few roads back then, so don’t use a hybrid map.) Questions to debate with your students: how would this information lag have affected the decision- making process for political and military leaders? Do you think this had an impact on the war of 1812? Does this happen today?

And finally, note the editor’s closing comments about “disappointment in procuring paper obliges us to publish on a smaller sheet... and want of time sacrificing the number of pages”, raising the excellent discussion question of “What’s interfering with the usual supply of paper and imposing staffing restrictions?”

Educator and teacher-librarian Diane Bédard is the program manager of Learn Ontario, and lives in Windsor. Anita Brooks-Kirkland is the Information Technology Library Consultant with Waterloo Region District School Board, and sits on the Knowledge Ontario board of directors.