Information Literacy
Information Literacy is an interesting area with many differing views, but it is also confusing!
“Becoming information literate is a sociocultural and an embodied process that is constituted through the whole body being in the world, experiencing information not only from textual modalities, but also from social and corporeal modalities. In this respect the phenomenon is context-dependent and, as such, should be explored through the grounded information experiences of individuals and groups in situ” (Lloyd, 2007).
As information requirements become more specialised and specific to an area of knowledge, social modalities become increasingly important and essential. Information can be enriched and complemented bu social contexts; how to work within a team, classroom behaviour management, saving lives as a paramedic and motivating students to learn.
Multiliteracies
“The multiliteracies theory reflects a change from the traditional literacy (text based) to digital resources that are by nature interactive; exhibiting modifiability and multimodality (the combination of text, sound and image). It also points out “subcultural diversity in communication, reading and writing practices, and in ways of using and producing texts, representations and information resources“(Talja & Lloyd, 2010).
The way that we use and produce information resources is constantly changing due to continual developments in digital resources. I have discovered so many interesting web 2.0 applications during this course: Padlet, Edmodo, Bubbl.us, Ginkoapp, Blabberize, Bookbuilder, Animoto, Glogster, Piktochart, Prezi, Vimeo, and Evernote. It has been a huge learning curve for me. There are others that I am keen to try: Lino, Mindmeister, Audacity, easel.ly, Infogr.am, Jing, Voicethread, Voki, Weebly for education, Wordle, iRubric, Penzu classroom and Socrative.
Kalantzis et al (2002) outlines changes in technology, visual communication, diversity, global English and social mobility impacting on our understanding of literacy. Literacies, rather than literacy, has multiplied due to the global nature of the English language (in many cultural, social or professional contexts globally) and multimodal meanings arising from new communication technologies (modes of meaning include linguistic, audio, gestural and spatial, with multimodal meaning any combinations of these). How do we teach students to extract meaning from these increasingly complicated and diverse literacies? (p. 2).
Kalantzis et al (2002) identifies four elements of teaching practice in the multiliteracies pedagogy including:
- Situated practice – immersion in experience – students bring to school or new experiences
- Overt instruction – describing patterns in meaning – explicit teaching
- critical framing – locating purpose – explaining purposes
- Transformed practice – adding meaning – applied learning (real-world meanings).
These provide a framework for teachers focusing on ‘designs of meaning’ – depending on the particular social or cultural context (meanings either work or don’t work) (p. 2). This is a complex, yet intriguing pedagogy regarding literacies and the factors creating change in our technologically driven world and information landscape. Given Kalantziz et al discussed technological developments that continue to impact literacies in the same way, is innovative and remarkable given the changes that were ahead when this was written. I’d like to further examine this framework by reading other articles to gain further perspective.
I’ve joined Twitter, (Follow me – here) following many teacher librarians and information services professionals. I have also joined a Facebook group called “Future Read Librarians“, where the latest craze is creating a Bitmoji classroom to engage students. I created a Facebook group called TL Study Group for students starting their Masters of Education (Teacher librarianship) which now has 43 members! It has been useful to connect, share information and help each other. More and more I am finding that collaboration across the board, helps me along my path to becoming a TL and beyond.
There is a wealth of information out there and I am loving receiving it and being a part of the conversation. My husband recently commented to me, as I was telling him something that I had just discovered, how I had his “excited work voice”. I haven’t been this interested or engaged in something ever! This course has really captured all of my passions and interests – I only wish I had started sooner!
References
Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., & Fehring, H. (2002). Multiliteracies: teaching and learning in the new communications environment. PEN, 133, 1-8.
Lloyd, A. (2007). Recasting information literacy as sociocultural practice: Implications for library and information science researchers. Information Research, 12(4).
Talja, S. & Lloyd, A. (2010). Integrating theories of learning, literacies and information practices. In Talja, S. & Lloyd, A. (2010). Practising information literacy: Bringing theories of learning, practice and information literacy together. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies. pp. ix-xviii.