Monthly Archives: September 2019

Literacy in the 21st Century

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The redefinition of literacy in the 21st century has seen a move away from the traditional view of decoding and encoding text and now considers a vast array of skills, contexts, forms and media. It is, at its heart, though, still about gleaning,, understanding, communicating and relating information. We do need to adapt the ways we teach. Print based materials that formed the curriculum resources of the past have a certain structure to them that needs to be taught. Students need to learn about chapters, contents pages, indexes, imprint information and so on. The new media forms also have structural features that need to be taught. They are just different structures. Where in the past we might have taught students about appropriate subjects for books, as opposed to newspapers, personal letters or business documents, the 21st century media requires students to learn about appropriate content, forms and features of many different types of information delivery systems. But they are still learning about the organisation, purpose and audience of the thing they are ‘reading’ (viewing/constructing/interacting with…). The proliferation of media items that purport to be something they are not (eg an advert disguised as an informative text) requires students to criticially reflect on everything they read or view and connect it to what they know about the topic from other sources. This is not a new skill, however dealing with and synthesising the sheer amount of information and the constant bombardment in every day life is a learned skill that is more important now than at any time in the past. It is vital to ensure that sifting through the barrage of twaddle is a skill taught and taught well in schools and in the wider community.

Information literacy theories

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Bruce, Edwards and Lupton (2007) describe six approaches to teaching information literacy. Each has its own focus and related skills and assessments. This is useful for teacher librarians who are interested in developing the information literacy skills of their students because they can assess which skills the students are strong in and which need further instruction. Teacher librarians can then work with class teachers to design tasks that fall within that frame.

While Six Frames (bruce, Edwards & Lupton, 2007) seems to be advocating the use of a particular piece of software , ROSS, the concept behind it is useful in so far as it demonstrates a method of ensuring students have the opportunity to engage in different search techniques and to reflect of the success or otherwise of each one. This also has the advantage to encouraging students to be cognisant of the strategies they employ and to apply different techniques in different situations as appropriate. The authors describe four categories of information search “lenses”, increasing in complexity with the increased focus on planning and reflecting on the information search process. If teacher librarians recognise the lens that students are using most often, they can tailor teaching and learning activities to encourage students to be using more sophisticated methods.

Kutner and Armstrong (2012) argue that information literacy teaching must be incorporated into discipline based teaching and learning activities in order to give an authentic purpose to the learning. This requires a high level of collaboration with class and subject teachers. While the authors were writing specifically about the higher education environment, their argument is equally applicable to the school environment. In order to keep information literacy instruction relevant and engaging for students, an authentic purpose for the learning is required. Bruce, Edwards and Lupton (2007) recommend that this might be accomplished through the use of assignments that require students to engage with the information skills they are learning in order to meet the standards of the assessment.

There is much debate in the literature regarding the nature of information literacy: whether it is a learning process or the outcome of a learning process (Combes, Fitzgerald & O’Connell, 2019). At this early stage in my studies, I agree with the notion that information literacy is a set of skills which can be taught and assessed. There is always context, growing global context, social context, for these skills and any search for, analysis, synthesis or use of information sought and found must take account of that context. This is also, in my view, a skill that can be taught. The extent to which it can be taught in a primary school situation, or even a high school situation, is less clear.

References

Bruce, C., Edwards, C., & Lupton, M. (2007). Six frames for information literacy education. In S. Andretta (Ed.). Change and challenge: Information literacy for the 21st century. Blackwood, SA: Auslib Press. eBook, CSU Library Reserve.

Combes, B., Fitzgerald, L. and O’Connell, J. (2019). Information Literacy Theories. In ETL401: Introduction to Teacher Librarianship. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42381_1&content_id=_2899468_1

Kutner, L. & Armstrong, A. (2012). Rethinking information literacy in a globalised world. Communications in Information Literacy, 6(1), 24-33. CSU Library.

What is literacy?

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So many definitions of the term literacy exist that it would be a much larger task than this post to list and categorise them. CILIP has assembled a broad collection. My own understanding of the term is that it has evolved over time and continues to be adapted and modified to suit new technologies, contexts and purposes. In its current use, the term seems to indicate capability, understanding, command of a skill or set of skills, ability to use and understand a particular process or concept. By way of an example, “digital literacy” indicates an ability to use  and understand digital technologies and environments. The ability to operate the technology and turn it efficiently and effectively to one’s own purpose. The term will continue to be adapted to suit the ever changing fields of human endeavour but I believe it will remain used to refer to the making and expressing of meaning and understanding in any and all forms.

ETL401 Module 5.1

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Defining Information Literacy

Information literacy is the bread and butter of the teacher librarian. There are many definitions of information literacy. They fall into two broad categories: the behaviourists and the socioculturalists. The behaviourists believe that information literacy is a set of observable skills that can be learned and assessed. The socioculturalists believe that the most important aspect is the context of the information need and that the actual behaviours utilised will vary depending on the social context in which the information need arises. (Combes, Fitzgerald, & O’Connell, 2019).

Behrens (1994) explains that understanding of information literacy developed from the 1970s, when it was described merely as knowing the techniques and skills for using information tools to solve problems (IIA 1979), through the 1980s when the actual skills were defined and described as recognising a need for information, locating it, evaluating it, organising it and using it effectively to solve problems or make decisions, and into the early 1990s where it became seen as part of a broader definition of literacy, and the importance of a co-operative approach to the teaching of information literacy between librarians and teachers was established. The following is a summary of her article: Behrens, S. J. (1994). A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. College & Research Libraries, 55(4), 309-322. All references are cited therein.

1970s

Zurkowski (1974) says that people who are information literate have learned the skills for using a wide range of information tools and primary sources in developing information-solutions to problems.

Burchinal (1976) introduces the idea that efficiency and effectiveness in the use of information is important for information literacy and states that there is a set of skills required in locating and using information for problem solving and decision making. However, he stops short of describing what those skills actually are.

Hamelink (1976) focuses on critical thinking and individual interpretation of news events, describing the need for citizens to draw their own conclusions about current events rather than rely on the explanations given by “Institutionalised public media”

IIA (1979) removed the idea that information literacy only applied in the workplace, describing an information literate as a “Person who knows the techniques and skills for using information tools in molding solutions to problems.”

1980s

IIA (1982) linked the ability and willingness of people to use new technologies with the ability to access information, arguing that the “information naïve” (those unable or unwilling to use the technology) had limited access to information.

Horton (1982) described computer literacy as understanding the abilities and limitations of the new technology, but wrote that information literacy goes beyond computer literacy. It involves increasing awareness of the knowledge explosion and the ways in which computer aided handling technologies might help to identify, access and obtain sources of information.

Demo (1986) stated that information literacy forms the common pre-requisite for life-long learning.

Tessmer (1985) argued that information literacy extends beyond locating information to include understanding and evaluating the information located.

Kuhlthau (1987) wrote that information literacy involves recognising a need for information, locating that information, managing large amounts of information and keeping uptodate with new developments in technology as they became available.

Olsen and Coons (1989) described information literacy as having the ability to locate, retrieve, generate, manipulate and use information in decision making, utilizing electronic processes.

Breivik (1987) included references to developing information technologies in her description of information literacy as acquiring, evaluating, storing, manipulating and producing information.

Breivik and Gee (1989) believe that the library has a vital role to play in developing life long learners within the undergraduate cohort, arguing that the library and librarians provides the opportunity and skills for specialised, field-specific knowledge to be generalised and applied to real-world problems and contexts. They considered that the teaching of information literacy was a whole community responsibility; including the library, whole university and wider community under this umbrella.

ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy (1989) produced perhaps the most widely acknowledged definition of information literacy, stating that “In order to be information literate, a person must recognise that information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information.” They added organising the needed information once it is found.

1990s

Campbell (1990) describes literacy as the “integration of listening, speaking, reading, writing and critical thinking”. She includes in her description numeracy and the cultural knowledge that allows a literate person to choose and understand language appropriate to a particular situation. She argues that literacy allows people to use language to enhance their ability to think, create and question.

Breivik (1991) argues that a partnership between librarians and teachers can allow for complementary assistance in providing resource-based learning

References

Behrens, S. J. (1994). A conceptual analysis and historical overview of information literacy. College & Research Libraries, 55(4), 309-322.

Combes, B., Fitzgerald, L. and O’Connell, J. (2019). Information Literacy. In ETL401: Introduction to Teacher Librarianship. Retrieved from https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_42381_1&content_id=_2899468_1

Australian Teaching Standards and the TL

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Evidence based practice. I have been hearing this term for many years now around schools and I thought I understood what it meant. I believed that it meant choosing elements and characteristics to add to your teaching practice from the available research and literature in the educational information landscape. That the reference to evidence referred to a study that had shown this technique or that resource type to be effective. This week, upon reading reading the work of Todd (2015), I have come to see that it is actually about collecting evidence about the effectiveness of one’s practice – ultimately evidence of impact on student learning. So many more things make sense now.

The Evidence Guides for Teacher Librarians (ASLA 2014, 2015) reveal themselves in this new light to be illustrations of how a teacher librarian might have an impact on student learning. This is, of course, the ultimate goal of all educators. They show the types of evidence the TL should be looking for in order to determine whether they are having the desired impact. They also serve as a guide to how a TL might modify their practice if they are not seeing the impact on student learning that they would like to have; they provide a description of quality practice that one might measure oneself against; a guide to evaluating ones practice and to demonstrate to oneself and also to the leadership of the school that the TL and the school library is a beneficial entity that should enjoy the support of management.

References

Australian School Library Association (ASLA)  (2014). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the highly accomplished career stage.  Retrieved from: http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence-guide_ha.pdf

Australian School Library Association (2015). Evidence guide for teacher librarians in the proficient career stage. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/evidence_guide_prof.pdf

Todd, R. J. (2015). Evidence-Based Practice and School Libraries: Interconnections of Evidence, Advocacy, and Actions. Knowledge Quest, 43(3), 8-15.