Acquisition of information is one of the four strands within the Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TA TEKS). The ability to acquire information using a variety of strategies and from a mixture of formats is critical to the development of sophisticated thinking skills. Once information is acquired, it must be evaluated for validity and relevance to task in relation to process and product.

Background: 

The Acquisition of Information strand emphasizes the manipulation of data into information. Appropriate productivity tools are used to solve problems. Emphasis is on using multiple strategies to acquire information from a variety of sources.

The Acquisition of Information strand includes three related areas of knowledge and skills.

The student...

1. Uses a variety of strategies to acquire information from electronic resources, with appropriate supervision.
2. Acquires electronic information in a variety of formats, with appropriate supervision.
3. Evaluates acquired electronic information.

Additional Explanation:

Students must employ many strategies to acquire information necessary to solve problems, manipulate data into new knowledge, and use as a component in the acquisition of information for critical thinking. Keyword searches and the use of Boolean logic such as AND, OR, NOT are used on the Internet, intranets, CD-ROMs, and other resources to find the desired data. Increasingly sophisticated search strategies will be used to systematically locate general and specific information. Systematic and targeted searches for data lead to the rapid accumulation of data that must be organized, prioritized and selected based on the task at hand.

A variety of formats (e.g., text-based, graphic, video, audio, etc.) hold electronic information, which can be acquired from secondary storage devices such as hard drives, floppy disks, CD-ROM, DVD, laser disc, as well as from remote locations via a network. Additionally, within each format exist other options that create additional methods for gathering information. For example, online help, in a variety of formats, provides immediate support if the users know how to access and use such a resource.

Information is of little value if it does not correlate to the problem or task. Students must evaluate the acquired electronic information for validity, currency, and relevance. Strategies to resolve information conflicts are an important part of this process. In order to validate data, more information might need to be acquired, additional research conducted on the subject, and/or strategies learned for comparing and contrasting acquired data. Students must also learn how to identify the source, location, and media type in order to access and manipulate acquired information and to check for validity.

Instructions: Three representative samples are listed for each grade cluster (K-2, 3-5, & 6-8) and selected high school Technology Applications courses. The samples represent the three related knowledge and skills for each strand at each grade cluster and for two selected high school courses.

Knowledge and Skills for Acquisition of Information:

1. Uses a variety of strategies to acquire information from electronic resources, with appropriate supervision.
2. Acquires electronic information in a variety of formats, with appropriate supervision.
3. Evaluate acquired electronic information.

Examples:

DISCLAIMER -  Samples listed below are representative samples only. Many other examples could be also be used. Users are encouraged to think about additional ways to present and teach specific TA TEKS student expectations.