Information Ecology

Information Ecologies Proposal


The Information Ecology I have selected to research is an Elementary School Classroom. I chose this environment because of all the information available in a classroom.
The diversity of this information includes books, encyclopedias, computers and internet access. The classroom is also provided with teacher assistants to help teach students with learning disabilities and students new to the country.
Classrooms today are becoming equipped with Smartboards as well. A Smartboard is the co-evolutionized product of the original chalk boards, to the over head and projection screens, whiteboards and the later. The Smartboard now gives teachers the internet capabilities as well as advanced teaching programs with interaction features for the students to try. All of these can be projected on a large screen for the whole class to view.
The keystone Species of this Ecology are the teachers and students. Without teachers, there would not be students, and without students, there would be no need for teachers. Both are a key component to how the ecology is run.
The locality of my Information Ecology makes most of the information in this environment primary. Our dictionaries and encyclopedias are going to be very basic with simple wording, as opposed to a college level dictionary with advanced definitions and extended word use. Our computers will be equipped with simple co-curriculum based learning programs, with no free roam of internet for leisure. Smartboards will be used as a glorified whiteboard to project math problems and language arts reviews. In college smart boards are normally used for internet review and article look-ups to share with the class instead of wasting paper printing 100 copies.
I’m very excited to begin digging deeper into this information ecology and I hope to find more information in this environment that I can use to further my research for this project as well as help me understand more of my resources in my classroom.