Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age - Assignment Example

?Information Literacy Part One 1. Introduction Information literacy is assuming greater importance in the current educational scenario. Multipledefinitions for information literacy have been derived over the years but the definition from the American Library Association’s (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy can be considered comprehensive. The definition states that: “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognise when information is needed and has the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (ACRL, 1989) Given the advances in new research and information, there is dire need to teach children about information literacy as soon as possible. I have chosen to implement an information literacy program for first year secondary school students (aged 12 to 13 years). The information literacy program needs to be well planned and evaluated as per major considerations which are discussed below. 1.2. Mission The mission statement for the information literacy program must include a definition for information literacy and should be in line with current standards on information literacy as provided by educational groups or relevant educational authorities. Moreover the mission statement should correspond to the mission statement of the concerned institution and the documents included should bear relevant format. The availability and participation of administration, staff and faculty in programs relating to lifelong learning should be included. Periodic revisions and modification of the mission statement should be carried out as felt necessary. (Islam & Murno, 2006) 1.3. Goals and Objectives Various goals and objectives need to be set for the information literacy programs that provide a baseline for future assessment. These goals and objectives should be in line with the goals and objectives of the concerned institution and its departments and programs. A measurable outcome should be clearly demarcated to reflect on the progress of the program. Moreover the information literacy program should provide reflection of sound pedagogical practices and should be based on inputs from various quarters concerned with education. The information literacy program should be designed such that it can be integrated across the curriculum and can be applied to all kinds of learners without regard for the location or delivery system in question. The entire program should be reviewed, assessed and evaluated on a regular basis to ensure that changes in direction can be incorporated as required. (Julien & Barker, 2009) 1.4. Planning Sound planning needs to be carried out to create a comprehensive information literacy program with maximisation of available resources. The pedagogical foundation of the information literacy program needs to be demarcated clearly along with major aims and objectives. Given that spending would be involved, the information literacy program should be tied up to the institution’s specific information technology (IT) planning as well as budgeting cycles. Constant environmental scans should be carried out and their findings should be incorporated into the information literacy program. Various quarters such as students, staff, librarians and faculty members should be included in the information literacy program as per their relevance. Both formal and informal mechanisms for communicating between academic circles should be established positively. The particular modes of implementation for information literacy programs should be delineated clearly so that adaptation can also be incorporated. The planning phase should also clearly reflect on the human, financial and technological resources required along with the timeline and the appropriate milestones. Any administrative and institutional support deemed necessary should also be outlined at the appropriate levels. The curriculum articulation mechanisms should be drawn up too along with programs for developing the skill sets of professionals, staff and faculty. (Montiell-Overall, 2008) 1.5. Administrative and Institutional Support It is up to the administration of an institution to assign roles and responsibilities for the information literacy program. The adoption of new mission, values, implementation plans as well as policies and procedures is also the responsibility of the administration. Funds must also be provided to initiate and support the formal and informal training required to teach new members and to staff positions at all appropriate levels. The underlying staff including faculty, administrators and librarians should be provided with opportunities to encourage professional development. Collaboration between various quarters implementing the information literacy program must also be ensured by the administration through institutional support at appropriate levels. In order to strengthen the program and its initiatives, the administration and institution should provide for rewards for achievement as well as participation. (Huffman, 2009) 1.6. Articulation with Curriculum The information literacy program should be articulated with the curriculum through pervasive dissemination of information and through formalization of such ties. The entire program should be based on student centred learning and should incorporate the local structures for governance to ensure pervasive integration with vocational and academic programs. The scope as well as the depth of the information literacy program should be delineated along with the competencies needed on the disciplinary and course levels. Formal implementation programs should be created in order to make information literacy an active part of the curricula. 1.7. Pedagogy The pedagogy required for supporting information literacy programs should provide diverse approaches to teaching and learning through the incorporation of appropriate information technology as well as other media based resources. The activities included should be collaborative and should ensure active participation to encourage critical thinking and reasoning. The overall pedagogical approach should be student centred and should be able to build upon the existing knowledge of students. (Eisenberg, 2008) 1.8. Assessment and Evaluation The assessment and evaluation of the information literacy program needs to be separated into two lines which are program based evaluation and student outcomes based evaluation. The program evaluation procedures should encourage continuous improvement and should measure the progress of goals and objectives of the program. The overall assessment should be integrated with the course and curriculum along with institutional evaluations and professional accreditation. The student outcome based evaluation should focus on the performance of student, the acquisition of knowledge as well as appraisals. (Whitmere, 2001) 2. Part Two The target group being considered are students from the first year of secondary school who are bound to interact with more and more information as a result of their expanding scope of education. The students will be physical learners and their backgrounds may vary from both English and non-English speaking families. These students will be members of a typical secondary school and will be assumed to possess appropriate skill sets. The institution being considered is assumed to have access to computing, libraries and other such allied physical, fiscal and technological resources to make the information literacy program a success. The secondary school is an institution of learning and is structured around federal funding programs as well as policies sponsored by the state. The school would have to develop policies as per guidelines provided by the state and federal governments and would have to report policies to appropriate education authorities in order to steward the information literacy program. (Blake, 2006) The aims and objectives of the secondary school are to facilitate education for children from all backgrounds and with all kinds of learning disabilities. The typical clients of the school are children from nearby localities although there is no restriction on ethnic, lingual or other backgrounds. Moreover the secondary school would also have to support children with learning disabilities as per the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). The school is bound to provide resources as per allocated funding for information literacy programs that are structured at various levels. The school will provide human, physical, technological and fiscal resources that are required to initiate and sustain the information literacy program at all levels. The information literacy program will aim to bridge the gaps that hold students back from navigating, evaluating and using information. (Samson, 2010) Moreover the student’s skill sets will also be upgraded in order to facilitate the use and navigation of information technology and other allied resources. The program will also aim to upgrade the skills of the teachers, faculty, staff and administrators whilst providing new opportunities to upgrade skills continuously. The curricula will be modified accordingly but will be kept in line with the broader aims and objective set by the state and federal authorities. The target group will be introduced to new mediums of information technology such as computers, Web 2.0, new platforms such as Android etc. that aid in navigating available information. The groups will also be taught basic searching skills including the use of keywords, relevance of results, sorting through results based on relevance and other such concepts that will help students discover relevant and fitting information. Moreover students will also be taught the use of novel information technology skills such as the utilisation of software and uncomplicated scripts to automate the access to relevant information. The student’s learning will be assessed based on assignments and tasks that would need to be executed to prove improvement in the skill sets. It is advisable to give students unique assignments so that plagiarism can be discouraged. Students can also be provided with skill sets to detect plagiarism in their own work and to control such plagiarism. The information literacy program will be constructed through collaboration with similar programs that have been implemented successfully elsewhere, through coordination with faculty and staff and through consultation with concerned educational authorities. The program cannot be expected to culminate in a few days or weeks but would see the children learn progressively as harder to reach topics are provided as assignments. The information literacy program should ideally be integrated into the curricula as a complete course that would span the length of an entire school calendar year. Individual teaching sessions should be spread over one to two hours so as not to lose the interest of students. The lessons should be carried out twice weekly and the students should be encouraged to practice as much as possible. The learning outcomes of the program should be broken down in a modular structure. (Miller, Chabot, & Messina, 2009) The best way to deliver such a program is through the use of appropriate information technology resources such as presentations, online documents and spreadsheets as well as through media resources such as video casts and podcasts. It would be best to create customised tutorials for such programs along with measurable assignment and tasks. Online resources would be extensively used including access to online libraries and databases. The structure of the program would help students to sort through physical books in the library followed by the use of online information resources. In either case the search would be augmented by information technology resources such as database search tools. Staffing would be decided as per need with emphasis placed on upgrading the skills of existing staff and faculty to promote sustained learning. 3. Part Three Information literacy is emerging as a liberal art that is concerned with increasing knowledge of computer usage as well as the knowledge of accessing information for critically reflecting on the characteristics of the information. The structure of the information as well as its technical infrastructure and its various aspects such as social, philosophical and cultural contexts are delineated using information literacy. (Shapiro & Hughes, 1996) At the higher level of education especially university education, information literacy is of vital importance. The need for information literacy and its various aspects are rising in prominence as time proceeds. The vast amount of information generated from various sources means that more and more information is available for analysis but searching for such information poses a dilemma in itself. The large amounts of information tend to bring up millions of search results that cannot be traversed totally for lack of resources and time. In order to ensure that the right information is available through searches it is extremely necessary to find ways to strike at the very heart of the required information. This means that techniques used to search for the information must be comprehensively understood and used as well. This requires not only knowledge of the platforms used to search for the information but also an understanding of how information should be interpreted. Information literacy is growing in popularity as it provides the required ground to bridge the gap between information and information seekers through proper education and training. In the modern world information is constantly on the change as new developments emerge and new research is published every day. In order to stay abreast with these developments it is necessary to find platforms to access and analyse such information. Computing advances have provided a stable platform to access such information but analysing such information and ensuring its relevance to the concerned subject is still largely a human affair. The analytical skills of human beings accessing such information also need to be developed and upgraded continuously to ensure that they keep up with the march of new research and technology. Information literacy provides a complete framework for making sure that this takes place. While information literacy provides starting ground for accessing and analysing information, it also provides stable ground for sustainability in growing within the information literacy framework. The skills of the student are upgraded so as to create a self analytical being capable of adjusting to new changes and capable of learning new tricks of the trade. This ensures that information literacy provides the learner with a sustainable and expandable platform that can be built upon by the concerned individual to sharpen the analytical skills required for dealing with modern advancements. (Ryan & Capra, 2001) Dealing with information literacy from a learner’s perspective has helped me to expand my personal horizons for obtaining information and for creating a personally sustainable framework that allows me to explore more and learn more at the same time. The power of information literacy has generated new options for millions of people around the globe who can access the right kinds of information at the right time with minimal effort. Instead of focusing on the search alone, information literacy provides methods for the average information seeker to concentrate greater efforts on analysing the information extracted. The large troves of information make it hard to find the relevant information unless one is equipped with the right kinds of tools and is self sufficient in dealing with such information. 4. Bibliography ACRL. (1989, January 10). Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from ACRL: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential.cfm Blake, P. (2006). Restructuring Relationships in Virginia. Change, 38(1) , 26-33. Eisenberg, B. M. (2008). Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age. . Journal of Library & Information Technology 28(2) , 39-47. Huffman, R. (2009, June 17). Big6 and higer education: Big6 transcends boundaries. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from Big6: http://www.big6.com/2009/06/17/big6-and-higher-education-big6-transcends-boundaries-1022/ Islam, R. L., & Murno, L. A. (2006). From perceptions to connections: informing information literacy program planning in academic libraries through examination of high school library media center curricula. College and Research Libraries 67(6) , 492-514. Julien, H., & Barker, S. (2009). How high school students find and evaluate scientific information: a basis for information literacy skills development. Library and Information Science Research 31(1) , 12-17. Miller, C. W., Chabot, M. D., & Messina, T. C. (2009). A student's guide to searching the literature using online databases. American Journal of Physics 77 (12) , 1112. Montiell-Overall, P. (2008). Teacher and librarian collaboration: a qualitative study. Library and Information Research 30(2) , 145-155. Ryan, J., & Capra, S. (2001). Information literacy toolkit. Chicago: American Library Association. Samson, S. (2010). Information literacy learning outcomes and student success. Journal of Academic Librarianship 36(3) , 202-210. Shapiro, J., & Hughes, S. (1996). Information literacy as a liberal art: Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum. Educom Review . Whitmere, E. (2001). The relationship between undergraduates' background characteristics and college experiences and their academic library use. College and Research Libraries 62(6) , 528-540. Read More