Informed Learning author Christine Susan Bruce defines information literacy as “experiencing different ways of using information to learn” (Bruce, 2008, pg. 5). The skills needed for information literacy are an effective use of technology, library skills, and other information skills (Bruce, 2008). These skills are meant to be the doorway through which students access valuable information. Users still must analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the gathered information for accuracy, reliability, and understanding. Platforms for information gathering can take a variety of forms that were unheard of just fifty years ago. It is important to carefully assess the validity of the information gathered and engage in using said information in “critical, creative, reflective and ethical” applications (Bruce, 2008, pg. 7).
According to the AASL Student Learning Standards, information literacy should enable students to meet these four overarching goals: “inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge; draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge; share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society; and pursue personal and aesthetic growth” (American Library Association, 2007). As a middle school librarian, I believe that students need to be taught how to develop good research questions, determine the best resources to use to answer these questions, evaluate the source for validity and reliability (teaching about bias is very important here), credit/cite an author’s work accurately, learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it and then organize this information to use for personal or academic knowledge. Within these skills are many other sub-skills, such as the ability to persevere when the information is not easily found and continuously assessing the information that has been found to discover areas of weakness for further investigation (American Library Association, 2007). At the middle school level the two most important of the above mentioned abilities that students must master for a strong foundation in later academic pursuits are proper citation (no plagiarism) and checking the reliability of the gathered information. The main goal of my mythical information literacy course would be to create this strong foundation for further learning based upon honesty and ethics in relaying gathered information. Instilling these qualities at an early age will foster stronger more analytical researchers later in life; further organizational skills and search strategies can always be taught and built upon, honesty must be instilled.
American Association of School Librarians (2007). AASL standards for the 21st century learner. Chicago, Illinois: American Library Association.
Bruce, C. (2008). Informed learning. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.
Your comments about instilling honesty ring true with me. I am reminded of an experience when I was three or four-- my mother and I were at the grocery store and I took a piece of candy from one of the bins. Right after we walked out, my mother saw me with it and marched me back into the store to the woman at the register to apologize for stealing and to give it back. I will never forget that moment. It was very clear to me at an early age that stealing, of any sort, was wrong. How can this same lesson be taught with regards to plagiarism? While teaching information literacy, it is our duty to make sure that we are not only teaching skills and processes, but also to be safe and honest digital citizens. Students need lessons that provide them with a strong moral compass so that they can navigate the new era of technology. We know not what tools they will eventually need to know how to use. We cannot train them to use that which has not yet been invented. Consequently, we must arm them with the skills to be able to learn these tools on their own. This involves not only the ability to analyze, synthesize, and create knowledge, but also to do so ethically and responsibly.
ReplyDeleteI second your identification of the two abilities of "proper citation (no plagiarism) and checking the reliability of the gathered information" as being crucial for academic success later on in life. Of the two skills you mention, I see determining the reliability of information gathered as being more difficult. When I was in middle school, sources of information included an encyclopedia, a periodical or a textbook.
ReplyDeleteI had no exposure to checking the reliability of information gathered until college, when I had a professor demonstrate how certain periodicals (Readers' Digest) in the U.S. were used by the American government to disseminate anti-Soviet propaganda. We now live a society in which there is an overabundance of information, and discerning the reliability of information at hand is vital yet more difficult. Your position as a middle school librarian affords you a unique role in transferring the information literacy skill-set to students.
Teaching about bias....so important! When I was teaching, it was amazing (and appalling!) to me how little consistency and discernment there was when researching and parsing out information and its sources. *All* information is biased, but somehow this founding principle has not been communicated early or steadfastly enough to students (or many adults, for that matter), and too many of them tend to take "information" at its word without recognizing that there is an actual person (or corporation) behind those words! It relates to Mike's citation of "Don't make me think" ~ there is a dire need to inform students of the importance of critical analysis when both collecting and applying information. I also saw a resonance with Mike's post in your advocacy for students to continually reflect (what Mike termed "metacognition") upon the information they acquire to determine weaknesses and/or gaps and omissions.
ReplyDeleteThanks for raising these issues Amie!