What's the Purpose?

Image by Cdammen via Flickr"Go to www.kennelclub.org and find out all you can about Jack Russell terriers and write a report."

"Find reliable sources of information on the internet to use in an article on Jack Russell terriers."

These statements exemplify two different approaches which teachers may use to give seemingly similar assignments. Taken out of context, as they are here, it could be said that each could be appropriate instruction given the objective of producing an article about Jack Russell terriers. And, either might be suitable within the it's own setting.

However, each sentence intends to have the students take very different routes to creating that product. If you're goal is to simply have a student find some basic information and shout it back at you, the first example will suffice. If your purpose is to have your students become knowledgeable consumers of information, as it should be in the 21st century, then you need to make assignments more in the style of the second instruction.

The second approach makes the student responsible for seeking out multiple reputable, trustworthy, authoritative sources of information on the subject as opposed to your having provided a single "safe" resource in the first. Students will need to judge the quality of their sources, they'll need to think about the content and decide on its value and usefulness.

If we want to develop intelligent users of information, we need to more often take the approach of the second example.