Information Literacy: Embedding the Skills

Information Literacy: Past to Present

The term information has adapted throughout time.  The methods in which information has been stored, presented and shared were once quite limiting.  Only the elite, wealthy had access to information and the masses were uneducated and seen to have little need for such intellectual endeavors.   As the Industrial Revolution shifted societal structures, so did it change access to information.  Education became streamlined and available to more members of society through a variety of print media.  As time shifted into the 20th Century, education was seen as the path to a successful life.  Information was shared across more media formats enabling access to all of society.  Now, in the 21st Century, the Information Age, individuals are inundated with volumes of information in all manner of digital and print formats.  Uneducated in the ways of locating, evaluating, and solving problems with information, today's individual can be overcome by "data smog."  Information Literacy is a necessary life skill for today's students.

Information Literacy skills for the 21st Century learner have been proposed by:
American Association of School Librarians
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
International Society for Technology in Education

The core expectations are:

• Identify the need for information
• Locate information related to the need
• Evaluate the information sources
• Use the information in an effective manner

Below are examples of how these skills can be embedded into classroom lessons for high school students:

Example 1:  Wrangling the Web of Information (9th Grade - STEM)
Students are charged with exploring a significant inventor in the history of the United States.  They are to develop a presentation using the information gathered.  They must document their research efforts by evaluating six sources and limiting their use to the best three sources as judged by a website evaluation rubric as shown below.

Example 2:   Career Comparisons  (9th grade - STEM)
In the past,  I have requested students' generate a PowerPoint presentation on a career field of their choice.   Often the students have a difficult time reducing their interest to one field.  As an adaptation to this challenge.  I will ask students to research/compare and contrast three career fields that are interesting to them.  Results will be documented using Cornell Notes created using Classmint.  This simplified format should remove the urge to copy/paste and focus on finding reliable sources of information.

Example 3.  Ethics of Photo Editing Software  (9th grade - STEM)
In the past, my students have explored careers that utilize photo editing software.  The lesson was primarily focused on researching to identify jobs that used such software and the education required to obtain those jobs.  This was accomplished along side the task of developing photo editing skills.  To embed information literacy into this lesson in the future, students will be asked to explore the concept of photo ethics.  Students will have to locate guidelines for photographers as it pertains to photo ethics, document an example of both unethical and ethical photo editing prior to the completion of the standard unit.

References:

American Library Association. (2006, Sept. 6). A progress report on information literacy: An update on the american library association presidential committee on information literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/progressreport (Accessed November 2, 2013)

Busch, W. (Artist). (1865). Teacher Laempel [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133c/133cCourseResourceLinks.htm

Columbia Journalism Review. (Producer) (2008). David Shenk on data smog. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yze7NRqPJ3E

Gilton, D. L. (N.D.). Information literacy instruction: A history in context. Retrieved from http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/Faculty/gilton/InformationLiteracyInstruction-AHistoryinContext.htm

Johnston, F. B. (Photographer). (1899). Students pledging to the flag [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PledgeOfAllegiance1899.jpg

Raysonho. (Photographer). (2008, Nov 12). Steacie Science and Engineering Library at York University [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SteacieLibrary.jpg

tips@sree.net. (22, Nov 2005). Photo ethics. Retrieved from http://www.sree.net/teaching/photoethics.html