Information literacy 2.0: experts or expats?

Pru Mitchell, Senior Information Officer

Information literacy 2.0:information literacy experts or

expats?

SLANZA July 2007

What’s our role?The school library helps students with... Our ranking

1. Getting information

2. Using information

3. Knowledge

4. Computers

5. Reading

6. Working independently

7. Overall academic achievement

The student voiceThe school library helps with..

1. Getting information

2. Using information

3. Knowledge

4. Computers

5. Reading

6. Working independently

7. Overall academic achievement

Students Staff (TL)

2nd 1st

3rd 3rd (2nd)

6th 4th

1st 7th

5th 6th

7th 2nd (3rd)

4th 5th

Hay 2006 School libraries and student learning http://ispg.csu.edu.au/research/slasl/portal/slaq2006/compare

21st century students

“Net Gen students are not necessarily net savvy”

“rather than traditional structure, hierarchy, and control - they are looking for relating,

mentoring and guidance”

“it is a world of experience – not just evidence”

McCrindle, Mark Engaging with 21st Century Graduates www.mccrindle.com.au/wp_pdf/GraduateEmployment.pdf

Hierarchy of needs

Finkelstein, J adapted from Maslow, A 1954 Motivation and personality  Harper, NY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Institutionalised learning

accredited age-specific authoritative blacklisted

blocked boring catalogued censored clean closed commercial

controlled copyrighted filtered fragmented graduated

neutral private qualified printed private protected responsible

reputable restricted safe sanitised scholarly

slow standardised small systemic structured

text-based time-bound uniform walled

Personalised learningalways-on blogged colourful creative diverse

fast flashy free generative global

immediate informal innovative interesting involving

media-rich motivating muddy multimodal open opinionated

participatory personalised popular

public real recorded relevant responsive rich risky shared

tagged visual

Where do we fit in Web 2.0?

Who participates and what are people doing online BusinessWeek, 11 June 2007

www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038405.htm

• Creators publish web pages, write blogs, upload videos to sites like YouTube

• Critics comment on blogs and post ratings & reviews

• Collectors use RSS and tag web pages to gather information

• Joiners use social networking sites• Spectators read blogs, watch peer-generated

videos, listen to podcasts• Inactives are online but don’t yet participate in any

form of social media

So what’s our problem?1. The current institutionalised learning approach

is very different from the personalised learning experience of most students

2. Current information literacy approaches fail to address many areas of student need

3. Even if we want to help students get the best from personalised learning, institutional policies can make it damn difficult

Information literacy expats• assume a pre-selected quality collection

• focus on the format of information sources rather than the learning potential of information

• give the impression that searching for information is a rules-driven process

• pretend that neutral point of view is possible

• ignore cultural, social and relational aspects

• refuse to acknowledge that relevance is in the eye of the beholder

What are our options?1.Keep going as we are, no change 2.Spend all our energy trying to convince the

world that our way is best3.Do what we are now but with a warning that this

works for defined, pre-selected collections4.Go back to principles and adjust examples to

the new landscape5.Look for unknown futures6.Give up and get out

A new information landscape

• collaborative

• creative and shared

• community-based

• personal

• virtual

Information literacy examples

What might information literacy

programmes look like in this landscape?

Collaborator code of conduct

Concept: learning is collaborative• wikis: the discussion pages Antarctica• compare wikis

Conservapedia RationalWiki Uncyclopedia• wikiquette for school wikis

wikispaces

Create > Consume

Concept: learning is creative• growing a ‘create’ culture• creating vs consuming• reusing and sharing• new information products• copyleft and new licences

Friend of a Friend

Concept: learning is community-based• learning from peers and community• finding others who share your interests• criteria for joining an online community• how do groups work?• social networking

Personality and POV

Concept: learning is personal• about and profiles• point of view• cyberbullying• blogger’s code of conduct• literature circles blogs

http://www.librarything.com/

Virtual literacy

Concept: learning is virtual• a whole new world• games-based• learning from mistakes• professional learning

eg. Second Life PhD

View of Terra Icognita

Lindy McKeown's island in Second Life

Information literacy experts• communicate conversation or collaboration?

• create craft or consume/copy?

• describe data or decoration?

• filter fact or fiction?

• share self or somebody else?

• sift scholarship or spin?

• trust tried or trendy?

New literacies

• exchanging

• mashing

• rating

• searching

• tagging

Big picture concerns

• culture globalisation, generations

• governance debate, e-democracy

• identity privacy, reputation

• lifestyle always-on, surveillance

• profit motivation, value

Action• engage: be friendly and flexible

• learn: start with our own learning

• research: understand new information literacy needs

• advocate: work to change institutional policies that prevent engagement

Discuss…“peers are the best teachers”

“opinion and viral marketing matters”

“we can’t be satisfied with what we don’t know”

“libraries may change from being centres of authoritative information

to being more of a hub for informationabout human choices”

Hawtin, Janet 2007 “Literacy exchange” blog posthttp://eduspaces.net/janeth/weblog/179672.html