Information Fluency: Literacy in the Digital Age

1. Information Fluency: Literacy in the Digital Age Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe janicke@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu

2. Who is Lisa? • Library Instruction Coordinator, ISU • Library Liaison to Teaching Groups • Teaching - Undergraduate and Graduate • Research Activities: • Classroom Design re: Learning • High School to College Transition re: Information Skills: Cognitive, Affective, and Dispositional • Professional Service Area: Information Literacy (ACRL) • After July 17: Coordinator of Information Literacy Services and Instruction, UIUC

3. Describe a memory of doing research in college. What was your experience of research? Which class was the research for? Describe your students doing research for assignments in your classes. What is their experience of research? Remembering… Make a list of key words and phrases that describe the experiences. Make a list of the classes mentioned.

4. Session Overview • Information Literacy Context • Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education • Pedagogical Examples

5. CIRP(Cooperative Institutional Research Program) • Entering First-Year Students - National Fall 2000* • Used the Internet for research/homework: 67.4% • Hours/week reading for pleasure: None: 24.7% 6-10: 5.4% Less Than 1: 27.5% 11-15: 1.9% 1-2: 24.9% 16-20: 0.7% 3-5: 14.1% Over 20: 0.8% *The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2000

6. The Goal: Engaged Learning “The Boyer Commission Report, Reinventing Undergraduate Education, recommends strategies that require the student to engage actively in ‘framing of a significant question or set of questions, the research or creative exploration to find answers, and the communications skills to convey the results…’”* *http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html

7. Courses Structured for Engaged Learning* Student-centered learning environments • Inquiry is the norm. • Problem solving is the focus. • Thinking critically is the process. *http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilintro.html

8. Note on Language • Information Fluency? • Information Literacy? • Information Competency? • Information Skills? • Research Skills? • Technology Literacy? • Information Technology Fluency? • Resource-Based Learning

9. YES! Note on Language • Information Fluency? • Information Literacy? • Information Competency? • Information Skills? • Research Skills? • Technology Literacy? • Information Technology Fluency? • Resource-Based Learning

10. Information Literacy Defined… An information literate person is... “...one who is able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information.” Final Report of the American Library Association Presidential Commission on Information Literacy. 1989. http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/ilit1st.html

11. A Liberal Art? “information literacy should in fact be conceived more broadly as a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its social, cultural and even philosophical context and impact -- as essential to the mental framework of the educated information-age citizen as the trivium of basic liberal arts (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was to the educated person in medieval society” Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes, Information Literacy as a Liberal Art, EDUCOM Review, 31(2), March/April 1996, http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/review/reviewarticles/31231.html

12. SCANS Report • Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS) • What Work Requires from Schools • One of Five Workplace Competencies: Acquires and Uses Information A. Acquires and Evaluates Information B. Organizes and Maintains Information C. Interprets and Communicates Information D. Uses Computers to Process Information

13. White Paper: 21st Century Literacy Summit • Literacies • Technology Literacy • Information Literacy • Media Creativity • Social Competence and Responsibility • Arenas • Education • Workplace Skills • Civic Engagement http://www.21stcenturyliteracy.org/

14. Higher Education Standards • Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html • Companion Document for Librarians: Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction: A Model Statement for Academic Librarians http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/objinfolit.html

15. Standard 1: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

16. Standard 2: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.

17. Standard 3: The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

18. Standard 4: The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

19. Standard 5: The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

20. Information Literacy Skills • scope and content • popular vs scholarly • level of complexity • formats indexed • functionality Technical • web browser • keyword/boolean/ truncation/proximity • email/download • proxy server Conceptual • analyze search strategy and process • reflect and revise • evaluate and select Critical Thinking

21. Goals/Activities Related to Information Literacy • Critical Thinking • Awareness of Controversy and Disagreement in a Discipline • Development of Academic Thought and Discourse • Research Writing

22. Inquiry Image from: http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/

23. Pedagogical Approaches • Assume students have the skill/ability • Provide the results which would come from using the skill/ability • Provide instruction in the skill/ability to students • Assess performance of the skill/ability

24. Tensions Literacy Illiteracy Literacy Aliteracy General Discipline

25. Work Toward Dispositions “Behaviors that require a discipline of mind that is practiced so it becomes a habitual way of working toward more thoughtful, intelligent action” in a productive learning organization.* *Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick. “Preface to the Series” in Activating and Engaging Habits of Mind (ASCD, 2000), p. xii.

26. Requires Collaboration “Collaboration is a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals.”* * Collaboration: What Makes It Work?

27. Whose Help Do You Need? • Faculty • Librarians • Instructional Designers/Specialists • Technologists • Media Developers • Students • Other: __________________________

28. Some Examples • Readings List:http://www.ilstu.edu/~lwhinch/sfttff/infolit.htm • Evaluating Web Resources:http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm • Sample Evaluation Sites:http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/crsres/foiweb.htm • TILT:http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/ • Standards Toolkit:http://www.csusm.edu/acrl/il/toolkit/index.html • Assignment Calculator:http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/

29. Thank You