At the current school I teach at, there is no information literacy policy, though there is some information literacy being taught by the Teacher librarians (TL) to the Year 7 cohort. Information literacy is delivered mainly by the TL in a fortnightly lesson and is usually attached to a unit of work that involves using research and inquiry skills. The main subjects that use these info skills sessions are Science and HASS. In the primary school, information literacy is more collaborative and the teachers and Teacher librarians work in partnerships to run inquiry units for English, Science and HASS throughout the year.
All students at the school I work at, have 1:1 digital access through their own individual laptop device and therefore all students have equal access. There are some limits placed on using technologies, such as smart phones not being allowed to be used during the school day. This rule was implemented in 2021, due to an increasing amount of students using the phones as a distraction in class and some occasional students using inappropriate apps or social media sites. Digital Citizenship is mainly approached through a fortnightly lesson of Digital Literacy, for Year 7 and 8 students. This takes place in the library and is taught by the TLs. There are also ‘forum; classes that deal with issues such as social media presence and cyberbullying. As an English Teacher, I certainly can appreciate that students may be avid and regular users of technology, but this by no means makes them skilled and many lack ‘netiquette.’ Digital Literacy at our school aims to support students with everything from organisation, digital commerce, legal and illegal technology uses, appropriate/inappropriate digital communication, and responsible, courteous behaviour when using technology.
Transliteracy is a term being used to explain being literate in the 21st Century and involves a special relationship between narrative and technology resulting in a multimodal storytelling experience. (Hovious et al., 2020). Transliteracy approaches are something that have not reached our school just yet. These approaches excite me as they sound highly engaging and dynamic. Through this unit, I have discovered how traditional meanings and practises within literacy are evolving and I can now appreciate more how the meaning of literacy goes well beyond words, language and texts. We must remember that the students we teach today were actually born into a digital world. (Brueck., & Lenhart, 2015) I am quite excited to perhaps pilot transliteracy at my school in the near future. ‘Inaminate Alice‘ is an example of a transmedia text that is recognised in the Australian English Curriculum and involves a digital story in many formats. (ACARA, 2015). In exploring this digital story, I discovered how the students are given opportunities to explore cause and effect and I could see the potential of this text to promote multiple perspectives.
I think, as I embrace my new role at school as a TL rather than an English Teacher, I would like to try and offer help with information literacy, to teachers in their own classes as well as facilitating it in my own library lessons. This brings me back to my aspirations of being a visible, emerging TL and is there to support our ever so busy classroom teachers!
References
ACARA. (2015). The Australian Curriculum Version 8.1. http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level5
Hovious, A., & Shinas, V., & Harper, I. (2020). The Compelling Nature of Transmedia Storytelling: Empowering Twenty First-Century Readers and Writers Through Multimodality. Technology, knowledge and learning 26(1) 215-229.
Brueck, J., & Lenhart, L. (2015). E-Books and TPACK. The Reading Teacher, 68(5) 373-376.
O’Connell, J. (2012) Learning without frontiers: School libraries and meta-literacy in action. Australian School Library Association 26(1) pp.4-7.
O’Connell, J. (2012). Change has arrived at an iSchool library near you. In Information literacy beyond library 2.0 pp. 215-228. London: Facet.