EDED11449 PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSITY LEARNING
WEEK 2 LECTURE - ENGAGING WITH INFORMATION
SLIDE 1
For many decades now in tertiary institutions throughout the world, librarians and academic staff have collaborated to provide materials and services to assist students with their information needs.
Some months ago, your course coordinators approached the Library to present a lecture on the topic of information literacy (a term we will explore in this presentation) and, in particular, to provide a theoretical background to the topic. In addition, the request was made that the lecture should also explain the information literacy component within the course, Principles of Learning. So that explains in broad terms what this lecture will be about and why I, as a librarian, will be presenting this lecture to you today.
The actual title of this lecture is Engaging with Information and it is within the context of this term that the topic of information literacy will be explored. The term, Engaging with Information, can conjure up various images - a tourist reading a bus timetable; a teenager viewing a friend’s Facebook page; a business person adding a phone number to a mobile phone contacts listing or a student studying a text book the night before an exam. All these are instances of people engaging with information.
And this engagement has required using some source of information (a bus timetable, Facebook page; mobile phone and text book) and a meaningful purpose (finding out where and when to catch a bus, catching up on the latest gossip, adding to a list of phone contacts and preparing for an exam). But what if the people mentioned didn’t know how to access, or how to use, or manage a bus timetable, or a Facebook page, or a mobile phone or text books? What are the implications for people living in our society today if they don’t know how to access, or use, or manage, or organise, or evaluate the information they are constantly exposed to and need?
In this presentation I will take you on a journey with stops along the way but which hopefully will end with you understanding why you are here, in this place, listening to me speaking to you about the how, when, where and why of engaging with information!
SLIDE 2
Specifically, we will stop to consider:
l How do people engage with information?
l How is our information environment changing?
l How can we negotiate this environment?
l What is information literacy?
l Who are the information literate?
l Why the focus on information literacy?
l What is information literacy education?
l What is the information literacy component in Principles of University Learning?
SLIDE 3
Most of us are keenly aware of the avalanche of information coming at us from the time we wake to a radio program or morning breakfast show until we turn off the late-night news or our social networking computer sites. Text messages, books, newspapers, professional journals, phone calls, emails, pamphlets and newsletters all add to the volume of information flooding our lives.
We are challenged on a daily basis to negotiate through vast amounts of information in a meaningful way. Eisenberg, Lowe and Spitzer in the introduction to their text Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age refer to 4 scenarios which illustrate people engaging with their world of information. I have added another scenario as well. And as I relay these to you, you might consider whether the interaction was negative or positive:
· A chief financial officer returned home from vacation and found 2000 email messages waiting for him. He was so overwhelmed that he simply deleted them, thereby eliminating potentially valuable information.
· Scientists needed to record the eclipse of the star Aldebaran from a multitude of viewing points so they issued a call to amateur astronomers via a internet website. Those who answered the call were asked to tune to a particular weather channel to synchronize the starting of their camcorders to record the event. Videotapes were then forwarded to scientists for analysis. These amateur astronomers assisted scientists in adding new information to field of astronomy.
· In October 1987, high winds assaulted the southern half of England destroying more than 15 million trees and damaging almost 1 out of every 6 English homes. British weather forecasters who were perhaps overconfident in relying on their computerized models, failed to predict the worst storm in England in 300 years. Information about how serious the weather conditions would be was not relayed, and so people were under prepared and stock, possessions, and property were all destroyed. In this instance, a lack of, or incorrect information, had devastating effects for thousands of people.
· In 1998, over 100,000 school students became young scientists as they participated in a government sponsored Web-based initiative entitled Journal North. Students tracked the migration of monarch butterflies, American robins, hummingbirds, right whales and other species and reported the latitude and longitude of their sightings, along with other description information via the Internet. They then manipulated the raw data to create maps and conduct other projects demonstrating the migration of these species. The information gathering conducted by the students not only contributed to further government projects but provided the students with the experience of working in an authentic work-related context.
Finally, another scenario that involved large numbers of people interacting with a specific type of information and one that most of us are probably aware of, occurred just a few months ago. Prior to the Federal election last November, former Prime Minister John Howard attempted to engage the Australian voting public and especially young voters by appearing on U Tube. The consensus of opinion in various media outlets after the episode was that ‘meaningful engagement’ did not occur on the part of his intended audience. John Howard and U Tube just did not mix! Many people were turned off!
As these examples illustrate, information can overwhelm, mislead, confuse, enable, empower and dissatisfy. These examples show that engaging with information can be a positive or negative experience. They also demonstrate that our evolving information environments are constantly redefining the way we experience and interact with information in our individual, social and professional roles.
At this point, I would like to show you a short 8 minute video which although is somewhat US-centric in content, allows us to reflect on our changing information environment. The video is entitled Did you know 2.0. Some other information about the video is as follows:
SLIDE 4
PLAY VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
SLIDE 5
· What are your initial reactions to what you saw in the presentation?
· How are these changes manifesting themselves in your personal lives? professional lives?
· What do we think it means to prepare people for the 21st century? What skills do people need to survive and thrive in this new era?
· What implications does this have for our current way of doing things?
· Do we need to change? If so, how?
· How do we get from here to there?
· What challenges must we overcome as we move forward?
· What supports will we need as we move forward?
· What kind of training will we need to move forward?
The video highlights:
· that the opportunities for information sharing are increasing (recall the number of English speaking people in India and China);
· that information and communication technologies (or ICTs), in particular, have provided increased access to information across people of all ages and all locations
· that ICTs have lessened the time in which information is made available
· the video also suggests that our education systems hold the key to preparing the children and youth of today for the information world of tomorrow.
So, how can we negotiate this changing information environment?
We all know that more information doesn’t necessarily mean better information. Increasingly information comes to us unfiltered. This raises questions about the authenticity, validity and reliability of the information we are exposed to. If you read or listen to, or view, information on the Internet, for example, you know that opportunities for inaccuracies, exploitation and deception have grown along with the speed and magnitude of information available to us. In addition, because information is available through multiple media, including graphical, aural and textual, there are challenges for us as individuals in evaluating, understanding and using information in an ethical and legal manner. The sometimes dubious quality and expanding quantity of information also pose large challenges for society. The sheer abundance of information and technology will not in itself create more informed citizens.
SLIDE 6
Coping with bewildering amounts and types of information requires a new form of literacy, one that goes beyond the ability to read, write and comprehend – something educators refer to as information literacy. And it’s information literacy that allows us to make sense of the world of information in which we live. It’s information literacy which allows us to engage with information in a meaningful way. In the scenarios I presented at the beginning of this lecture, the tourist, teenager, business person and student were all exhibiting to some degree what is known as information literacy.
You may well ask how does a person become information literate? Some of the knowledge and skills associated with being information literate are certainly passed on to us by those we know. We can also learn to be information literate through experiential learning or play or by reading or viewing print and online guides and manuals which provide instruction on how to access, or use, or manage, or organise, or evaluate information. Formal instruction by teachers, academics, librarians and other information professionals can also help people to become information literate.
As many of you are perhaps new to the concept of information literacy, it may be helpful to explore some of the definitions of the term. Scholars, academics, agencies and professional bodies in the US, Australia, UK and in other countries, have established definitions of the term and these are available in a variety of print and online publications.
Interestingly enough, the term ‘information literacy’ is not new. Paul G. Zurowski is credited with first using the term in 1974. An information literate individual, according to Zurowski is anyone who had learned to use a range of information sources in order to solve problems at work and in his or her daily life. Zurowski’s definition continues to have validity over 34 years later.
What has happened in the intervening period, however, is that while the term seems to be accepted in use by many professional organisations, agencies and educational institutions, what is meant by the term varies.
Grassian and Kaplowitz (2001) provide an overview of some typical definitions of information literacy and at this point I will draw on the information they provide in their text, Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice.
SLIDE 7
In 1985 Breivik described information literacy as an integrated set of skills and the knowledge of information tools and resources. She also believed that information literacy developed through particular behaviours such as persistence, attention to detail, and a critical, evaluative view of the material found.
Kuhlthau (1989,1990) agreed with Breivik on the need for persistence, attention to detail and caution in accepting information, but points out that one of the most important aspects of information literacy is an understanding of the amount of time and effort involved in information seeking and use. According to her, the information literate individual is aware that information gathering is not linear; it is a complex process in which questions change and evolve as new information is gathered and thought about.
At this point, it is worth mentioning that rather than defining the term information literacy, many scholars, agencies and organisations prefer to describe information literate people.
The American Library Association’s - Presidential Committee on Information Literacy Final Report - published in 1989 describes the information literate individual as someone who has the ability to recognise an information need, and can locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. The report emphasises that information literacy prepares people for lifelong learning – “Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn.”
SLIDE 8
Rader (1991) discusses the information literate individual as someone who can survive and be successful in a rapidly changing information environment. Being information literate allows one to lead a productive and satisfying life in a democratic society and to ensure a better future for coming generations. Note here an emphasis on the perceived social role of information literacy.
The American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology standards published in 1998 also reflect this view.
These standards define the information literate student as one who accesses information efficiently and effectively, critically evaluates the information and uses it accurately and creatively. The standards also emphasise independent learning and social responsibility. The information literatge individual is someone who contributes positively to the learning community and to society at large.
SLIDE 9
One of Australia’s foremost researchers and writers in the area of information literacy, Christine Bruce, describes an information literate person in this diagram. Such a person engages in independent, self-directed learning using a variety of resources and information systems (print and electronic). He or she values information and its use, approaches information critically and has developed a personal information style.
Bruce maintains that information literate individuals become aware of the world of information and strategies for accessing and using that information, and then they develop their own heuristics or `styles' for interacting with information.
Individuals may choose, for example, different entry points to tackling an information problem; one may begin with the design of a search strategy, another may begin with phone calls to personal contacts, another may prefer to browse known resources. Individuals also develop their own styles in other aspects of information literacy such as the use of technology (e.g. Word and Excel to record information), and the communication of information (blogs or wikis or discussion boards) and evaluation of information. Importantly, however, these information styles are based on an educated appreciation of the world of information and its organisation.