Article 3 - Informational Literacy - Learn How to Learn

Bruce, Christine. "Information Literacy as a Catalyst for Educational Change: A Background Paper," 2002, White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Informational Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. Available at: http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/infolitconf&meet/papers/bruce-fullpaper.pdf

"Successful information literacy programs do not only focus on teaching information skills, they focus on designing learning experiences that require the use of information skills" (p. 14).

In such a dynamic information society, it is essential that students are information literate. Furthermore, the foundation for learning must start in primary school. The author notes that there are three critical elements of learning to be information literate: experiencing information literacy (learning); reflection on experience (being aware of learning); and application of experience to novel contexts (transfer of learning). It is not enough that students retrieve information from a variety of sources or have information technologies available to them.

This paper reviews three key models of information literacy and two sets of standards associated with information literacy and elaborates on the role of information literacy education in transforming our information society into a learning society (p. 2). It is interesting to note that one of the key models is Eisenberg and Berkowitz' Big6 information skills, one of the research models from our Riedling text. As most of the members in the discussion noted, students must continually practice the use of these steps when engaged in learning tasks. In order to be considered information literate, learners are encouraged to go beyond surface learning, be independent learners, and engage in lifelong learning. The author suggests that students need more active thinking and problem solving in real world situations, often from many disciplines and from multiple information sources, such as online databases, videos, government documents, and journals (p. 5). In addition, we need to create opportunities for critical processess on the learning process and to foster an awareness in learners of what they have learned. The author uses six case studies to illustrate her points that information literacy education has the power to transform the learning process into one that will empower learners, and give them the capacity to engage in self-directed lifelong learning outside the walls of the formal education process (p. 10).

In order to implement information literacy education, the author suggests that we develop change in educational values, such as adopting best practices; establish policy and guidelines regarding basic levels of information technology infrastructure (role of the teacher-librarian has been shown to be very important for building information literacy); develop professional education and staff development promoting life-long learning; and develop partnerships between key personnel, such as students, information specialists, IT specialists, curriculum designers, community organizations, and teachers.

The author outlines four critical componenets of an information literacy program: resources to facilitate the learning of specific skills; curriculum that provides the opportunity to learn specific skills; curriculum that requires engagement in learning activities that require ongoing interaction with the information environment; and curriculum that provides opportunities for reflection and documentation of learning about effective information practices.

Overall, an engaging article reiterating the points in Riedling and discussed in the posts by others in the class.