2. Information literacy is knowing when and why you
need information, where to find it, how to
evaluate, use and communicate it, in an ethical
manner.
Information by Heath Brandon
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
This presentation shows some key benefits of information literacy for schools and, more importantly, their pupils. The benefits in this presentation are not listed in order of priority - the priority is for you to decide.
There are many definitions for information literacy which have been developed since the mid 70’s. This is the definition used by the Welsh Information Literacy Project and was coined by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). As you can see it is very applicable to the skills needed by learners in all subjects. OUR WORLD IS RAPIDLY CHANGING, WE ARE NOW IN THE INFORMATION AGE. A TIME WERE WE HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO US. ThIs brings great benefits but also many pit falls.Our children are often aware of the benefits but seldom have the pit falls pointed out to them…unless you count parents and teachers telling them they have spent too long on the computer and to turn it off!
One of the most important benefits this information age has brought ius is the ability to learn what we are intereste din when we want to learn it. This is fabulous for us adults. If we don’t know the meaning of a word, missed our favourite TV program, want to know what the causes of the first world war were…we can look it up. However it’s not so easy for our children. They are easily distracted, not alwasys sure where to look or how to tell if the website they are looking at is real or not. Therefore the first important benefit for our children is that information literacy fosters the research and critical evaluation skills required for researching, evaluating and putting information into context which is essential for independent and lifelong learning . Children at QBS are given lessons on evaluating websites. On how to tell if the website is real or if it is a hoax. They are taught how to spot reliable sites and information through looking at the URL or triangulating their sources. Skills like this do not develop over night and it is a constant drip feed but we feel that by exposing them early and making them realise that not everything on the Internet can be believed develops a health sceptiscm whereby they can evaluate information and become independent learners who are able to make judgements and decisions based on facts. Only 30% of school aged children receive any instruction of this kind. QBS are in that 30%
Information Literacy is task oriented. Reading skills are practiced through seeking and evaluating information. Writing skills are reinforced when recording and presenting information. The children practice their skills in ways which are real and relevant. As students develop the skills to use library and information resources and locate relevant information, they are encouraged to practice reading in a sustainable way. In order to use information you need to be able to read and write. Information literacy lessons offer practival real and relevant ways to practice those skills. Research has shown that Information Literacy programs have a positive impact on reading scores. The children initailly learn to read but through information literacy skills lessons begin to read to learn.
With access to unprecedented amounts of information come ethical and moral issues. Plagiarism has become an increasingly important topic in recent years due to the abundance of information and means of accessing it. Without sufficient information literacy skills and techniques, students are frequently open to allegations of plagiarism and the consequences can be serious. Obviously not at primary school but students taking exams can easily end up being disqualified or disbarred from their examinations due to copying. If children in primary schools are made aware of referencing and acknowledging the work of others we would hope that they would understand that copying something as it is is not the right thing to do. At QBS I teache that copying is OK if they acknowledge where the work/picture came from, transform it in some way (change it) combine…add some of their own ideas. Being creative is not just about doing something completely new and that even the greats like Newton claimed that they stood on the shoulders of giants in order to develop their own work.
Information literacy is essential to developing effective citizenship skills for education and for life. Children must be able to seek and compare information and to evaluate its source. They need to be able to engage with others in the digital world. They need to know how to communicate appropriately, what can be shared and what should not be shared. Why passwords should be kept a secret and how to set privacy settings. Cyber safety and digital safety is taught throughout school. Starting at Year one where we teach them to consider what is real and what is not real to other year groups which cover issues such as how to deal with cyber bullying, successful online communication, how to write appropriate emails and what to share and not to share online.
The information literate person can find and exchange information using digital means. They are therefore digitally included and empowered to benefit from the financial, economic and social advantages that the internet can offer. My father is nearly 78. He has grappled with the internet and has not always been succcessful, however he feels he needs to develop the skills of online shopping, purchasing flights, reading the news and using facebook because he wants to be included. I don’t have an iphone and am probably one of the few people left in the world that doesn’t…I sometimes feel excluded and that I am unable to keep apace with the digital world. In order for our children to be successful in the future they will need to be included and have the information literacy skills to cope with the digital world. Hear I am not suggesting that every child has their own laptop or phone but that every child has the opportunity to develop their information literacy skills. This does not mean that playing out, reading or swimming should be forgotten, after all we all want well rounded happy children but we mustn’t forget they also need those digital skills and the older they become the more they will need them. Technology and the information highway is not just going to disappear.
It has been demonstrated that, when librarians and teachers work together students achieve higher levels of literacy, reading, learning, problem solving, and information and communication technology skills. Research shows that that students, who attend schools with well-funded, properly-stocked libraries managed by qualified teacher-librarians, have higher achievement, improved literacy and greater success at the post-secondary level. Standardized scores tend to be 10 to 20% higher than in schools without an investment in a school library program and the relationship between library resource levels and increased achievement is not explained away by other school variables (e.g., per student spending, teacher-pupil ratios) or community conditions (e.g., poverty, demographics). In fact, no fewer than forty years of research provides an abundance of evidence about the positive impact of qualified teacher-librarians and school libraries on children and adolescents. What ’ s not to like?