Learning does not come from a single source, it comes from multiple visual, textual, digital, audible sources and a combination of all of them. Learning is not about books, it is about using and discerning information from multiple sources.
I am a TL, an English and history teacher, which means I love books, but I also love ideas and creativty. I want my students to love them too. I have used digital text to create skills in multiple literacies for my students from quality texts like the documentary K’Gari, newspaper stories like Snowfall and 3D poetry Seaprayer. While these texts require the ability to read, interpret and analyse through multiple literacies, they also develop traditional literacy skills such as persuasion, information and emotive language manipulation.
At my school there is not a policy for multiple literacies or digital literacy. The library handbook does say Working with subject departments is integral to the work of the Library. The staff in the Library liaise with Leaders of Learning and specific subject teachers on not only acquiring resources but in developing students’ information literacy skills. The Library also offers opportunities for teaching staff in developing skills in information literacy, familiarity with print and non-print resources and in using new forms of ICT. It is a nod to digital literacy without fully embracing it.
The convergence of literacies means that TL need to be progressive in developing their skills across multiple literacies and allowing students ease of access to these through selected syllabus links.
While this is what the Library can provide, as a TL I need to be able to communicate with the various KLAs about the material that can best suit their needs as well as teaching students how to ask for help, seek material and create greater depth in their understanding of the mass of information around them. Students should have access to this critical skill at the beginning of a new inquiry-based assessment task.
Additionally, it is important to note that transfer of information does not happen over a single entry point, but needs multiple reiterations to cement the learning. According to the study by Garrison and Fitzgerald, students had three successive Guided Inquiry tasks and ‘they progressed and developed a firmer understanding of the research process. Their responses reinforce the importance of consistency and suggest that using a school wide approach to research may beparticularly useful in building skills.’ The second statement suggests that I need to be part of a strategy to teach teachers how to better access information (not just websites) that conform to a school-wide approach according to an Information Literacy Policy to be written in the not to distant future.
