Jennifer Schwelik, MEd, WVIZ/PBS ideastream® TRAILS Project Manager Cool New (Free) Tools to Assess Information Literacy OELMA Conference October, 2010

1.What is Information Literacy 2.What is TRAILS 3.Getting Started with TRAILS Providing an Introduction

Access and Evaluate Information Access information efficiently (time) and effectively (sources) Evaluate information critically and competently Partnership for 21 st Century Skills Information Literacy 21 st Century Skill Information Literacy Information Literacy Information Literacy Information Literacy

Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand Manage the flow of information from a wide variety of sources Apply a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information Partnership for 21st Century Skills Information Literacy 21st Century Skill

TRAILS is: Tool to measure information literacy competencies Assessments based on 3 rd, 6 th and 9 th and 12 th grade standards available Freely available on the Web What is TRAILS?

Information Literacy Categories Standards categorized into five measurable information literacy categories: Develop topic Identify potential sources Develop, use, and revise search strategies Evaluate sources and information Recognize how to use information responsibly, ethically, and legally

Developed by library media specialists Field tested in classrooms with students Are the items understandable ? Are the items measuring what was intended? Test Items

TRAILS-3: Two 15-item general assessments covering all five of the information literacy categories. One set of 10-item assessments for each of the five categories. TRAILS-6: Two 20-item general assessments covering all five of the information literacy categories. One set of 10-item assessments for each of the five categories. Available Assessments

TRAILS-9: Two 25-item general assessments covering all five of the information literacy categories. One set of 10-item assessments for each of the five categories. TRAILS-12: Two 30-item general assessments covering all five of the information literacy categories. One set of 10-item assessments for each of the five categories. Available Assessments

1.Create an Account 2.Create a Session 3.View Assessment 4.Manage a Session Getting Started

Create an Account

NOTE: To activate account, you must respond to the confirmation .

View Assessment Each item includes AASL Standard OAC Standard 21 st Cent.Learner Standard TRAILS Objective Red text is the correct answer.

Create a Session

Review Session

Manage a Session

CSV File Sample

How TRAILS has been used to integrate information literacy Collaboration with classroom teachers for a specific class With a particular grade level To target librarian instruction To share results with administration As part of an overall school improvement plan As a professional development opportunity For personal development With response system as instructional tool

Response System

Response System Data

How TRAILS has been used to integrate information literacy

“I am an Illinois high school media specialist and have been using TRAILS with my ninth grade students. Thank you for your work. TRAILS provides an objective evaluation of information skills that would otherwise be difficult to achieve by sole practitioners.” [Illinois] “I have been using a couple of the #2 assessments with Seniors taking a Research Paper class. They have been extremely helpful to reinforce specific information literacy skills for which they have received instruction.” [Minnesota] “We are using Trails 9 to gather baseline assessments. I'm setting up logins by grade level but we are not tracking each student by name. Our goal is to find out where our students currently stand with competencies.” [New York] Users Report

Bench- mark Data TRIALS9

TRAILS: Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy

Presentor Jennifer Schwelik, MEd, WVIZ/PBS ideastream® TRAILS Project Manager