Download - Information literacy 2.0: experts or expats?
Pru Mitchell, Senior Information Officer
Information literacy 2.0:information literacy experts or
expats?
SLANZA July 2007
What’s our role?The school library helps students with... Our ranking
1. Getting information
2. Using information
3. Knowledge
4. Computers
5. Reading
6. Working independently
7. Overall academic achievement
The student voiceThe school library helps with..
1. Getting information
2. Using information
3. Knowledge
4. Computers
5. Reading
6. Working independently
7. Overall academic achievement
Students Staff (TL)
2nd 1st
3rd 3rd (2nd)
6th 4th
1st 7th
5th 6th
7th 2nd (3rd)
4th 5th
Hay 2006 School libraries and student learning http://ispg.csu.edu.au/research/slasl/portal/slaq2006/compare
21st century students
“Net Gen students are not necessarily net savvy”
“rather than traditional structure, hierarchy, and control - they are looking for relating,
mentoring and guidance”
“it is a world of experience – not just evidence”
McCrindle, Mark Engaging with 21st Century Graduates www.mccrindle.com.au/wp_pdf/GraduateEmployment.pdf
Hierarchy of needs
Finkelstein, J adapted from Maslow, A 1954 Motivation and personality Harper, NY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
Institutionalised learning
accredited age-specific authoritative blacklisted
blocked boring catalogued censored clean closed commercial
controlled copyrighted filtered fragmented graduated
neutral private qualified printed private protected responsible
reputable restricted safe sanitised scholarly
slow standardised small systemic structured
text-based time-bound uniform walled
Personalised learningalways-on blogged colourful creative diverse
fast flashy free generative global
immediate informal innovative interesting involving
media-rich motivating muddy multimodal open opinionated
participatory personalised popular
public real recorded relevant responsive rich risky shared
tagged visual
Where do we fit in Web 2.0?
Who participates and what are people doing online BusinessWeek, 11 June 2007
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038405.htm
• Creators publish web pages, write blogs, upload videos to sites like YouTube
• Critics comment on blogs and post ratings & reviews
• Collectors use RSS and tag web pages to gather information
• Joiners use social networking sites• Spectators read blogs, watch peer-generated
videos, listen to podcasts• Inactives are online but don’t yet participate in any
form of social media
So what’s our problem?1. The current institutionalised learning approach
is very different from the personalised learning experience of most students
2. Current information literacy approaches fail to address many areas of student need
3. Even if we want to help students get the best from personalised learning, institutional policies can make it damn difficult
Information literacy expats• assume a pre-selected quality collection
• focus on the format of information sources rather than the learning potential of information
• give the impression that searching for information is a rules-driven process
• pretend that neutral point of view is possible
• ignore cultural, social and relational aspects
• refuse to acknowledge that relevance is in the eye of the beholder
What are our options?1.Keep going as we are, no change 2.Spend all our energy trying to convince the
world that our way is best3.Do what we are now but with a warning that this
works for defined, pre-selected collections4.Go back to principles and adjust examples to
the new landscape5.Look for unknown futures6.Give up and get out
A new information landscape
• collaborative
• creative and shared
• community-based
• personal
• virtual
Information literacy examples
What might information literacy
programmes look like in this landscape?
Collaborator code of conduct
Concept: learning is collaborative• wikis: the discussion pages Antarctica• compare wikis
Conservapedia RationalWiki Uncyclopedia• wikiquette for school wikis
wikispaces
Create > Consume
Concept: learning is creative• growing a ‘create’ culture• creating vs consuming• reusing and sharing• new information products• copyleft and new licences
Friend of a Friend
Concept: learning is community-based• learning from peers and community• finding others who share your interests• criteria for joining an online community• how do groups work?• social networking
Personality and POV
Concept: learning is personal• about and profiles• point of view• cyberbullying• blogger’s code of conduct• literature circles blogs
http://www.librarything.com/
Virtual literacy
Concept: learning is virtual• a whole new world• games-based• learning from mistakes• professional learning
eg. Second Life PhD
View of Terra Icognita
Lindy McKeown's island in Second Life
Information literacy experts• communicate conversation or collaboration?
• create craft or consume/copy?
• describe data or decoration?
• filter fact or fiction?
• share self or somebody else?
• sift scholarship or spin?
• trust tried or trendy?
New literacies
• exchanging
• mashing
• rating
• searching
• tagging
Big picture concerns
• culture globalisation, generations
• governance debate, e-democracy
• identity privacy, reputation
• lifestyle always-on, surveillance
• profit motivation, value
Action• engage: be friendly and flexible
• learn: start with our own learning
• research: understand new information literacy needs
• advocate: work to change institutional policies that prevent engagement
Discuss…“peers are the best teachers”
“opinion and viral marketing matters”
“we can’t be satisfied with what we don’t know”
“libraries may change from being centres of authoritative information
to being more of a hub for informationabout human choices”
Hawtin, Janet 2007 “Literacy exchange” blog posthttp://eduspaces.net/janeth/weblog/179672.html