LEVEL ONE:
SELF-DIRECTED INDEPENDENT LEARNING
CONTEXT: It has become a vitally necessary survival skill to be able to find information upon a topic, reliably, competently, and at a moment's notice. Never before in human history have learners had the fingertip access to the global knowledge that they have today. Software on the Internet generally referred to as 'search engines' can search millions of resources for very specific information in seconds and are very easy to learn and use.
Minutes spent learning search engines will save hours, even weeks, of time. Learning effective techniques for use of search engines is arguably the most important skill we can help our students learn.
In a similar vein, all software today incorporates thorough help guides and since
software keeps changing and improving, the skill of being able to teach oneself new
software using these help guides on an ongoing basis is vitally important! One can observe
students being very aware of the usefulness of these help guides, while many adults are
unaware of their usefulness.