What if... No-one had information literacy skills? - Sarah Pavey
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What if... No-one had information literacy skills? - Sarah Pavey
- 1. Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA Education Consultant www.sp4il.co.uk Email: sarahjpavey@gmail.com Twitter: @Sarahinthelib What if …. No-one had information literacy skills?
- 2. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Learning Outcomes By the end of this workshop we will understand… Definitions of critical thinking, digital literacy and information literacy Why these skills are important and the impact they have on our lives and the future at a personal, community and global level
- 3. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk “Information literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion in all nations.“ UNESCO (Alexandria Proclamation 2005)
- 4. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk https://www.thebalancecareers.com/critical-thinking-definition-with-examples-2063745
- 5. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Digital Literacy Skills https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy
- 6. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Information Literacy Skills Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.
- 7. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Part 1 What would happen to society if people do not have this skill?
- 8. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk What would happen if you couldn’t engage with… • Evaluation skills • Plagiarism • Research methodologies • Questioning • Challenging assumptions
- 9. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk What would happen if you couldn’t engage with… • When and how to take medicine or give it to others • Hospital and GP Communication • Understanding implications of a diagnosis • Choosing what care to accept and how to get it
- 10. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk What would happen if you couldn’t engage with… • Hotel reviews • Insurance policies • Sharing social media • Online identity • Security issues • Authenticity • Legacy
- 11. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk What would happen if you couldn’t engage with… • Reaching targets • Understanding & presenting statistics • Copyright • Sharing information with others
- 12. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk What would happen if you couldn’t engage with… • Social exclusion • Making uninformed assumptions • Participation in democracy • Ethical journalism
- 13. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Part 1 – Plenary What would happen to society if people do not have this skill?
- 14. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Part 2 Move tables so all strands are represented
- 15. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk
- 16. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Personal Community Global Part 2 – Plenary
- 17. ©Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA www.sp4il.co.uk Learning Outcomes By the end of this workshop we will understand… Definitions of critical thinking, digital literacy and information literacy Why these skills are important and the impact they have on our lives and the future at a personal, community and global level
- 18. Sarah Pavey MSc FCLIP FRSA Education Consultant www.sp4il.co.uk Email: sarahjpavey@gmail.com Twitter: @Sarahinthelib
Notes de l'éditeur
- Welcome to this workshop where we will be finding out why equipping people with IL competencies is so vital. This is also an exercise that can be used for student groups and others
- At the end of this workshop you will have a better idea of what we mean by these terms, why they are important and why we need to ensure students are aware of these life competencies
- UNESCO define information literacy as a human right and consider its impact on society
- Critical thinking is a confusing term and many people think it is just being negative about what we read. The term was first coined in 1941 and has adapted over the years. Here we can see that it actually embraces a range of skills and we need to provide opportunities for our students to practice these because they are what is needed by HE and the workplace and for life
- Many people mistake digital literacy for the ability to use digital technology or an awareness of safeguarding issues but this is very limiting. It is about being able to operate in the digital world in its widest sense and again we can see this embraces a range of skills which are needed for life
- We live in the age of access to information like never before. Information Literacy is a difficult term for people to understand and it is mistakenly thought of anything to do with a library or even computer skills. The ILG redefined the term in 2018 and developed a definition which shows the importance to being a global citizen. Here we can see how IL impacts on every area of our existence and why there is now a push to extend IL into the community as well.
- With others at your table you will be given one of the strands from the 2018 IL definition – discuss the impact on society if people had no ability to engage with this competency. We will look at the scenarios briefly before we begin.
- “information literacy can be seen as the critical capacity to read between the lines. It enables learners to engage in deep learning - perceiving relationships between important ideas, asking novel questions, and pursuing innovative lines of thought. This active and critical way of learning encourages pupils and students to quickly master factual and descriptive elements of content (‘What’ and ‘How’) and then move on to investigate higher-level aspects such as source, degree of authority, possibility of bias, and what it means in the wider context” (CILIP ILG, 2018). One of the issues highlighted by academics in higher education, is the fact that many students arrive at university with inadequate information literacy skills to cope with the expected level of academic rigour (Stebbing, D. et al, 2019). This provides an insight into the impact on academic research and writing should students, lecturers and researchers no longer have these skills. Figures compiled by The Guardian newspaper from freedom of information requests to Russell Group universities showed the number of academic misconduct cases surged by 40%, from 2,640 to 3,721, between the academic years 2014-15 and 2016-17 (Marsh, 2018). Academic dishonesty is a growing worldwide problem exacerbated by the large number of “paper mill” websites offering to write student essays for payment. An interesting trans-global study by Králíková et al (2019) considered the impact this type of cheating had on the country’s economy.
- The current global health crisis of COVID-19 has, to some extent, pushed the need for information literacy, within the context of health literacy, to the fore. Information literacy skills help people make informed choices relating to the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families. Not that long ago people would put total faith in health professional guidance and advice but now people can be vulnerable to false information and conspiracy theories clouding their judgement with far reaching global consequences. The BBC reporter Leo Kelion (2020) wrote in April about a surge in 5G mobile mast vandalism following a theory perpetuated on social media that these communication channels were helping the virus to spread. The theory was being endorsed by celebrities in the UK. As a result, communication lines were broken including those needed for vital health services. Aside from COVID-19 there are now serious health issues in some communities caused by the now discredited research by Andrew Wakefield that the MMR vaccine caused autism (Public Health England, 2013). However, there is also a need for information literacy skills for individuals to prevent premature deaths or disease exacerbation. Rowlands et al (2015) conducted a survey which showed 43% of respondents did not understand text only health information and that the percentage rose to 61% when numerical data was added. Results included the sad experience of a lady told her cancer biopsy was “positive” and she failed to understand why her health was not improving. The survey did issue a wake up call to health professionals in England and Wales and the outcome led to the development of a “toolkit” ensuring that patients become active partners in their healthcare. Information is explained as part of a routine and checked that it has been understood in practical terms. This allows patients to engage in an informed dialogue with their care team (Public Health England, 2015). Health literacy initiatives are global and in 2019 The International Union for Health Promotion and Education issued a position statement setting out a vision for a health literate world (Levin-Zamir et al, 2019). The lessons learned from a lack of health literacy and the very real impact this has had on society has shown the importance of equipping the general public with information literacy skills to support this type of information handling. The fact that there has been a response is encouraging and should prevent an alarming scenario of a population unable to deal with health information for survival
- Information literacy skills are used by everyone, every day but usually without people being aware that this is what they are called. Actions such as reading road signs or following a map may simply require processing information and then acting upon it. But what if the action is comparing insurance policies or reading trade reviews online about a product a person wishes to purchase? Now the interaction requires more skill in understanding the limitation of these resources. People need to be aware of the purpose for which the article has been written and to be discerning about its value. There have been many investigations exposing the extent of fake reviews deliberately designed to dupe people including that by the consumer investigation company Which? (2019) targeting practices by Amazon. This survey showed that nearly half the respondents accepted the Amazon endorsement of a product without question and had as a result received faulty goods or no goods at all. If we consider this scenario, in the light of the deluge of information warning us about “fake news” it would seem the skills are not transferable for many people. Without the knowledge of how to delve deeper into what is written and what to trust, society may be plagued with substandard or counterfeit devices. This may be just result in disappointment in the performance of a camera or TV but what if it concerns smoke alarms, car tyres, electrical devices, medical tests, or children’s toys? Critical thinking skills are also essential to avoid the plethora of online and phone scams and for understanding internet security that can be put in place to guard against fraudulent transactions. Large losses have been reported wordwide as individuals are deceived into transferring money into a fraudster’s account. The scammers usually start with a phone call purporting to be from the police or a bank, or with an email from a cloned address masquerading as a payment request from a genuine conveyancing solicitor or trader employed by the victim. According to an announcement in October 2019, The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that “between June 2016 and July 2019 there have been more than 166,000 domestic and international reports of email fraud resulting in more than $26 billion in losses”. Many of these scams target the more vulnerable – not just the elderly but also those already struggling financially and people looking for love. Recently the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau in the UK reported in the Guardian newspaper that there had been over 500 scams linked specifically to the COVID-19 outbreak including fake fundraisers and blackmail against infection representing a £1.6million loss. (Townsend, 2020). It is a global issue and overlaps with a need to promote digital literacy concepts to the general public. The CILIP/ILG definition also states that “information literacy helps individuals to behave ethically in their online activities, allowing them to be mindful of the information they use and share about themselves and others on all types of online platforms, including social media”. Being aware of the digital footprint you create online is a fundamental skill for the global citizen. Because this is an area of the online world that affects minors, it is an aspect of information literacy that has been part of a school curriculum. However, yet again, emphasis in teaching has been placed on spotting what is wrong rather than providing people with examples of best practice. An Ofcom survey (2019) showed that parents were more concerned that companies could collect information about their child and pass it on to third parties than they were about the potential for cyberbullying. Marmor (2020) argues we should perhaps be more concerned about our own privacy online than about property rights. An information literate citizen will not only be safeguarding their own information but also that of others in what they choose to create. It is important to illustrate the wider picture, showing why there is a need to take responsibility for our own information and its authenticity so we can learn from others knowing we have a solid base. If no-one possessed information literacy skills in their everyday lives then trust in society would probably die rapidly. We would be unable to take anything for granted. Our infrastructure would crumble, and our lines of communication would collapse. Consequently, this resulting instability of nations in general would inevitably lead to some kind of Armageddon. Clearly, we need information literacy skills to survive.
- The document states this is “knowing when and how to use information in order to help achieve organisational aims, and to add value to organisational activities. This applies whatever the scale and location of the workplace, and whether the work environment is in the commercial, public or not-for-profit sector.” Studies such as that by Andolfatto (2017) have shown the workplace skills that will be needed in the future with a far greater emphasis placed on non-routine cognitive tasks. These tasks are unlikely to be performed with efficiency in the near future by computers unlike some other roles which are declining in opportunities for workers. These necessary skills are underpinned by information literacy contributing to teamworking, problem-solving and analytical skills all recognised as essentials to employers. The 2019 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report “getting young people work ready” suggests “We need to provide a curriculum that instead of narrowing horizons, broadens them, and fosters skills such as creativity, resilience, communication, and problem-solving” which sounds like a call to include more information literacy! University studies too have demonstrated that information literacy teaching can help prepare graduates and post-graduates better for the world of work (Head, 2017). In addition to the functional technical skills needed in the workplace the future will demand more interpersonal skills as the routine will be performed by machines. Information literacy skills will enable workers to interpret work-related information, share it within organisations and also with external stakeholders, such as clients. or customers. The skill will be in understanding the information and being able to transform it into knowledge. This will require extensive reading and informed selection. Even a young 16 year old apprentice asked to research a new photocopier will have to do better than just provide a sheet of Google sourced images and here lies the dilemma. Currently this is all the Curriculum requires and this is why employers are underwhelmed by the skill set of school leavers. The workplace is inextricably linked to the economy and an inefficient workforce lacking in skills costs employers and ultimately society time and money. The age of online information and the ease of access to data has also had implications for data protection and intellectual property rights such as copyright. This too forms part of an information literacy skills portfolio and allows people to work ethically, both in terms of the information behaviour of individual workers and in the corporate policies, strategies and activities of organisations. Information literacy might also incorporate other employment-related concepts such as knowledge management and data management. There have been many examples worldwide of multinational companies falling foul of data protection rules (Marr, 2018) yet when the new GDPR laws were introduced into the UK in 2018 there was panic and uncertainty on how they should be interpreted. Although this was European legislation it has had a knock on effect globally (Roe, 2019). If there had been no consultation with information literate employees how would the important elements of this legal protection have been enabled. Aside from large corporate data protection issues, expansion in self-employment and the gig economy has also required individuals to become aware of information legislation for their own benefit and survival. Take the typical example of an enterprising and creative college leaver who explained she was approached by a large high street retail brand who wanted to use her work extensively. She had no experience of the situation and did not know how much to charge. She did not understand licensing and although she was aware of copyright, did not know that you had to put a legally binding agreement in place. School asked a marketing company to design a curriculum initiative for them in a format to show parents and gave them an example they liked from another school. The marketing company just copied the example and reformatted it a bit. When the school queried it they just asked what part of the presentation was the issue !!! If no-one had information literacy skills then exploitation would run rife and creativity ultimately would be crushed.
- UNESCO’s statement of information literacy as a human right illustrates the importance to global citizenship. If populations can move beyond their own needs in their everyday lives and apply the same strategies to global issues, then we head towards peaceful societies living in harmony. The CILIP ILG (2018) definition strand here says these skills allow “individuals to acquire and develop their understanding of the world around them; to reach informed views; where appropriate, to challenge, credibly and in an informed way assumptions or orthodoxies (including one’s own), and even authority; to recognise bias and misinformation; and thereby to be engaged citizens, able to play a full part in democratic life and society”. It is known that the development of global mass media has benefits of enhancing communication, creating business opportunities, promoting diverse arts and cultural experiences and giving a voice to disadvantaged or marginalised groups. However, in a society without discerning information literacy skills these same benefits can be diminished and used in a harmful way to empower the already powerful, homogenise culture and spread hatred. An ability to display critical judgement about multiple information sources whether this is in relation to conventional news outlets, social media, internet searches or simply information communicated orally is crucial as this informs our participation in society. Information literacy techniques help people decide on their own viewpoint based upon factual as well as on emotional evidence and avoids pitfalls such as confirmation bias. Information literacy reinforces democracy and civic engagement. Yet if our society is lacking in these skills it can result in long term governance which may be unintentional. An example from the UK is the 2016 vote on leaving the European Union. Consider this report. The Washington Post reported that just a few hours after the polls closed, the Google Trends Twitter account reported a 250 percent increase in people searching "what happens if we leave the EU." (Fung, 2016) suggesting many people did not understand what they were voting for but were following the leads given to them by the media. If this is the case then in a scenario where there were no information skills, society would be open to manipulation by powerful media moguls and we might all be all told how we must think – a “Big Brother” scenario. Information literacy, along with media literacy, underpins ethical journalism and responsible citizenship. The issues surrounding the recent US Election and the terrible consequences in the storming of the Capitol building is another example of this in practice. It could also be argued that having skills in information literacy gives people the self confidence to be their own person. This, in a pre-online era, is very much in line with the philosophy of Schiller who felt that for self-actualisation an individual needed to consider the rational and theoretical alongside the emotional and aesthetic (Schiller, 2004). Where this balance is not in place chaos may reign (Schiller cites the French Revolution of an example of this process in practice). Clearly, society needs information literate citizens to function.
- Feedback from the strands on main findings
- With others at your table you will be given one of the strands from the 2018 IL definition – discuss the impact on society if people had no ability to engage with this competency. We will look at the scenarios briefly before we begin.
- Each table will now be given some UN sustainable development goals. Think about how from the viewpoint of the IL strands IL skills will help society attain these goals at a personal, community and global level
- Feedback from tables re UN goals
- Were the learning goals met
- Thank you and contact details