ERIC Identifier: ED358870
Publication Date: 1993-05-00
Author: Hancock, Vicki E.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on
Information Resources Syracuse NY.
Information Literacy for Lifelong Learning. ERIC Digest.
Beyond the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, the
citizen/worker of the twenty-first century needs complex analytical skills. The
technological tools of the Information Age--computer networks,
telecommunications systems, and databases--have put an unprecedented volume of
information at our fingertips. Yet how aware are we of what is available, when
to use it, and how to find out about it?
Education systems and institutions must take seriously the challenges of the
Information Age. This includes restructuring the learning process to reflect the
use of information in the real world, changing the role of the teacher from
presenter of prefabricated facts to facilitator of active learning, and
including the library/media specialist as a collaborator in curriculum planning
for effective use of information resources.
For many years educators have heard
about a variety of literacies--print, visual, computational, cultural, computer,
scientific--and their importance in every child's education. Each of the
literacies prescribes a process by which the learner can more easily negotiate
the content unique to a particular area of study. Each of the literacies
operates in isolation of the others, and each has its own vocabulary and
conventions for study. Information literacy, on the other hand, is a potential
tool of empowerment for all learners, reached through a "resource-based" learning approach.
Briefly defined, information literacy is an individual's ability to:
a need for information;
and locate appropriate information sources;
how to gain access to the information contained in those sources;
the quality of information obtained;
the information; and
the information effectively. (Doyle, 1992)
Information literacy programs encourage shifts in the roles of teachers and
learners. Such changes are essential to prepare learners to live and work in an
SHIFTS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
In an information literate
environment, students engage in active, self-directed learning activities, and
teachers facilitate students' engagement through a more adventurous style of
instructional delivery. Students involved in information literate activities:
a rich range of information sources;
an understanding of content;
questions about the content being learned;
the environment, people, and tools for learning;
on their own learning;
their own learning; and
responsibility for their own learning.
These students feel good about themselves as learners, and they leave school
feeling passionate about some content.
Teachers trying to create an information literate environment for their
students have given up the view that teaching is telling, that learning is
absorbing, and that knowledge is static. They constantly make difficult choices
about old curriculums, examining subject-area requirements closely, setting
priorities, and considering process as well as content. They look beyond their
classrooms for resources that will enrich the learning environment. They engage
in collaborative activities which enrich their own professional development and
their students' learning experiences. They seek the expertise of their school
library media specialists as partners in the curriculum planning process.
Teachers involve students in complex tasks that have purposes beyond the
limits of the classroom and the teacher's critical evaluation. They also create
collaborative situations to develop students' social skills and problem-solving
skills. They are familiar with a variety of learning tools, both print-based and
electronic, and they encourage their students to move beyond the textbook when
seeking information and solving problems.
RESOURCES FOR INFORMATION LITERACY
thrives in a resource-based learning environment. In such an environment,
students and teachers make decisions about appropriate sources of information
and how to access them. Aside from more traditional print resources--textbooks,
encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines--they use technological resources such as
videotape and videodisc, CD-ROM, software tools, and simulation/modeling tools.
They use computer networking and telecommunications for both data access and
participation in learning communities. They use multimedia technologies as
materials for gathering data and as production tools. They use their school
library media centers to locate and use many of these resources.
In addition to using technological resources, learners also reach beyond
classroom walls into their local communities for the rich supply of materials
and authoritative information provided by businesses, social services agencies,
citizens' groups, and public and university libraries. The mass media--cable and
network television, radio broadcasts, and other national and international print
and electronic services--provide yet another rich source for information.
BENEFITS OF INFORMATION LITERACY
Information literacy--and the resource-based learning programs that foster
it--counteracts the information dependency created by traditional schooling,
where students must rely on the teacher to dispense information. It requires
active learning. Students take more control of their learning, and the teacher
is freed from the role of omniscient expert. Yet the teacher becomes more
important in the role of facilitator of interaction at the small-group or
individual level. The final product of resource-based learning is usually a
paper, presentation or exit performance. Regardless of where and how information
literacy skills are acquired, they are applicable in any school, play, or work
Resource-based learning accommodates varied interests and ability levels.
Students don't need to read exactly the same materials on the same topic when
they are identifying their own approaches to a theme or topic of study. When
teachers encourage students to do their own research, students take
responsibility for their learning, and they retain more of the information they
have gathered for themselves.
Information literate students are more effective consumers of information
resources. They learn to recognize that information is packaged in a variety of
ways, that it is packaged using a variety of techniques, that it serves a
variety of interests, and that it contains a variety of value messages.
Information literate students are more critical when they make decisions about
the resources they use.
Lengthening lifespans and increasing leisure time have altered the formula
for what constitutes a productive, healthy, and satisfying life. To respond
effectively to an ever-changing environment, people need more than just a
knowledge base. They need techniques for exploring, making connections, and
making practical use of information.
Information-literate citizens know how to use information to their best
advantage at work and in everyday life. They identify the most useful
information when making decisions such as where to locate a business, how to
vote, or whether to have a child. They are able to evaluate newscasts,
advertisements, and political campaign speeches, recognizing when statistics are
being used to support only one aspect of a complex issue. Current policy
questions pose unprecedented complexity and international
implications--immigration and "brain drain," the drug crisis, and the state of
the environment. When statistics saturate all aspects of an issue, information
literacy enables citizens to recognize deception and disinformation, so that
they may make a truly informed decision.
These citizens appreciate the value and power of information. They believe in
the need for information to address problems and questions in their own lives,
in their communities, and in society. They understand that information is not
necessarily knowledge until it has been analyzed, questioned, and integrated
into their existing body of knowledge and experiences. They are equipped to be
lifelong learners because they know how to learn.
The workplace of the present and future demands a new kind of worker. Reading
and arithmetic ability simply are not enough. In a global marketplace, data is
dispatched in picoseconds and gigabits. The deluge of information must be
sorted, evaluated, and applied, and workers must be able to gather, synthesize,
interpret, and evaluate. Lack of these skills currently costs business billions
of dollars annually in low productivity, accidents, absenteeism, and poor
product quality. Workers must be information literate.
For the individual worker, the workplace has become a place of cataclysmic
change and untold opportunity. Adapting to a rapidly changing work environment
will mean multiple career and job changes. An early commitment to learning as a
process, not as an end product, and the role information literacy plays in this
process, will enable workers to see these changes as transitional, not
American Association of School Librarians and
Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (1988). INFORMATION
POWER: GUIDELINES FOR SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA PROGRAMS. Chicago: American Library
Association, and Washington: Association for Educational Communications and
Technology. ED 315 029.
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION PRESIDENTIAL COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION LITERACY. FINAL REPORT. (1989). Chicago, Illinois: American Library Association. ED 315 074. (Single copies are available free
by writing ALA, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611.)
Breivik, Patricia Senn. (1991, June-July). Literacy in an information
society. COMMUNITY, TECHNICAL, AND JUNIOR COLLEGE JOURNAL, 61(6), 28-29, 32-35.
Breivik, Patricia S., & Gee, E. Gordon. (1989). INFORMATION LITERACY:
REVOLUTION IN THE LIBRARY. New York: ACE/Macmillan.
Doyle, Christina S. (1992, June). OUTCOME MEASURES FOR INFORMATION LITERACY
WITHIN THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS OF 1990. FINAL REPORT TO THE NATIONAL FORUM ON INFORMATION LITERACY. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS. ED 351 033.
Eisenberg, Michael B., & Berkowitz, Robert E. (1992, January).
Information problem-solving: The Big Six Skills approach. SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA
ACTIVITIES MONTHLY, 8(5), 27-29, 37, 42.
Haycock, Carol-Ann. (1991, May). Resource-based learning: A shift in the
roles of teacher, learner. NASSP BULLETIN, 75(535), 15-22.
Kuhlthau, Carol Collier. (1987). INFORMATION SKILLS FOR AN INFORMATION
SOCIETY. Syracuse, New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources. ED 297