Exploring Personal Digital Literacy (PDI) in my classroom

The topic that I am planning to research for my final project is Personal Digital Literacy (PDI). I was inspired to pursue this topic further after reading in our text of a student who used this method to learn and share information with the community about native bird species. As a math and science teacher who is also involved in the Beekeeping and Gardening Clubs at my school, the possibilities of application in my classroom are vast. 

Coiro, J., Castek, J., & Quinn, D. J. (2016). Personal Inquiry and Online Research. Reading Teacher, 69(5), 483–492. https://doi-org.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/trtr.1450 

           This article outlines how to introduce and implement the process of personal digital inquiry (PDI) in the classroom. Teachers model expectations, provide prompts to guide student investigation, support knowledge building opportunities, and monitor student progress. Students are able to research personally relevant topics and then publish and reflect on what they have learned. Through this process students become more emotionally engaged in what they are learning as their research is interest driven. Students are guided to consider purposeful choices of technology in their inquiry while developing their ideas.  The information provided by Coiro et al., will be beneficial to me when I introduce and guide my students through PDI in my classroom.

Green, L. S., & Chassereau, K. (2023). Modeling Guided Inquiry and School Librarian Instructional Partnerships to Pre-Service Teachers Through Digital Video Production. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 64(2), 185–205. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis-2022-0015 

            This article discusses the importance of the teacher/librarian partnership. Although the article is about pre-service teachers working with librarians it can be applied to classroom teachers as well. Students need to be introduced to methods of guided inquiry so that they are able to access and compare the multiple types of information sources to do meaningful research. In my school the librarians are available to teach a number of digital literacy lessons and can walk students through ways to gain meaningful understanding of their topics of interest.

McCormick, L. J., & Heaton, L. (2020). Review of From curiosity to deep learning: Personal digital inquiry in grades K-5. Education Review (Tempe, Ariz.), 27. https://doi.org/10.14507/er.v27.2895 

           McCormick & Heaton discuss the benefit of giving students "voice and choice" when it comes to engaging in their own learning. When educators build relationships with their students and offer digital enhancements to their lessons it inspires students to be more reflective and action minded. The scaffolding provided by teachers helps to drive and facilitate student inquiry processes. This information will be helpful to me when the time comes to model and scaffold student inquiry in their area of personal interest.

Rivera-Amezola, R. (2020). Preservation and Education: Teacher Inquiry and the "Family and Community Stories" Project. Language Arts, 97(5), 324-329. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fpreservation-education-teacher-inquiry-family%2Fdocview%2F2405674039%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067 

           This article details the efforts of a district who sought to engage the families in the community to share their stories through digital storytelling. The idea was to team with families and the community to present the diverse stories of individuals and their experiences. The authors share the unforeseen obstacles that they encountered from being too ambitious with their timeline and goals, to re-framing their expectations when it came to how the stories would be told. This article was important for me to include because it served as an example of how digital literacy projects can take many forms and the participants may not present their ideas of follow the timeline in the way that is initially planned.

Wargo, J. M., & Giunco, K. (2023). Interrogating Young Children’s itineraries for writing: Promoting disciplinary literacy through personal digital inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 77(4), 428–438. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2253

            This article focuses on how students can work together on their individual PDI projects while also providing feedback to one another. PDI follows four core sets of practices to link problem based learning, personal investigation and inquiry. Teachers craft questions to initiate student thinking and combined with their own background knowledge they are able to brainstorm and refine their research. This article will aid me in the instruction and application of PDI in my classroom.