The Scottish Information Literacy Project: working with partners to create an information literate Scotland

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The Scottish Information Literacy
Projectworking with partners to create an
information literate Scotland
The Scottish Information Literacy Project From
ICT to Digital Literacy the importance of
information literacy Christine Irving Dr John
Crawford
digital literacy in an e-world 2008 The 8th
Annual E-Books Conference - Thursday 30th October
2008
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Presentation

• Scottish Information Literacy Project
• Early beginnings ICT and the Drumchapel Project
• Project objectives progress to date,
  partnership and contacts
• A National Information Literacy Framework
  (Scotland)
• Digital Literacy, Digital Information Literacy,
  Information Literacy
• Information Literacy in the workplace
• Whats next
• Quotes / Final thoughts

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ICT / Drumchapel Project

• An exploratory project initially ICT skills
  orientated
• Community ICT facilities little used - Library
  and Cybercafés implications only now being
  addressed
• School and School Library are main focus for IT
  use in deprived areas
• Little integration of information literacy into
  the curriculum
• Levels of ICT deprivation did not seem to be
  high
• Basic IT skills exist- WP, email, Internet
• Pupil evaluation of websites poor
• An asylum seeking issue
• An information literacy skills agenda emerged

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The Scottish Information Literacy Project -
objectives

• to develop an information literacy framework,
  linking primary, secondary and tertiary education
  to lifelong learning including workplace and
  adult literacies agendas
• Advocacy on behalf of information literacy for
  education and the wider community
• Working with information literacy champions both
  UK and worldwide 
• Researching and promoting information literacy in
  the workplace
• Identifying and working with partners, both in
  education and the wider community
• Researching the role of information literacy in
  continuing professional development
• Researching the health literacies agenda

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Progress to date

• First draft of Framework produced and piloted
• Information literacy in the workplace study
• Promoting international contacts
• Contacts developed and strengthened with NGOs
• Extensive communications programme
• Website further developed
• Contact established with Glasgow Chamber of
  Commerce
• Initial health literacies contacts made
• Creation of an information literacy network
• Stimulated unprecedented level of activity in the
  schools sector in Scotland

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Partnerships and contacts

• Schools mainly with librarians
• FE/HE
• Dept. Educational Foundations, University of
  Wisconsin-Whitewater
• Delegation from Finland
• US National Forum for Information Literacy
• University of Aalborg?
• Workplace Scottish Government Glasgow Chamber
  CBI Scotland
• LTS/SQA

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A National Information Literacy Framework
(Scotland) draft outline
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A National Information Literacy Framework
(Scotland) draft contents

• Back ground information and provenance
• Acknowledgements
• Information literacy what it is
• Information literacy and lifelong learning
• Information literacy education
• Use of the Information Literacy framework
• The framework levels
• Information literacy and assessment
• Appendices

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Draft Framework

• Piloting and evaluation survey carried out good
  feedback, more work to do - ongoing
• Exemplars
• Some good examples from partners primary,
  secondary, FE, HE, workplace, transition
• More to come some still being developed. Not as
  many as hoped - practitioners tend not to think
  of their activities as exemplars of good practice
• Sharing Practice for schools
• Learning and Teaching Scotland
• Adding value to LTS Information Literacy Online
  Service 
• Exemplars of good practice http//www.caledonian.
  ac.uk/ils/LTS.html
• Key point
• Need to link to Curriculum for Excellence
• single coherent curriculum for all young people
  aged 3-18 in Scotland
• provides a framework within which excellent
  learning and teaching can take place
• it is an integral part of the improvement agenda
  in Scottish education.

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Curriculum for Excellence Literacy

• Literacy and English Outcomes Draft experiences
  and outcomes
• February 2008
• The three lines of development for literacy
  skills are
• Reading - Enjoyment and Choice, Tools for
  reading, Finding and using information,
  Understanding, analysing and evaluating
• Writing - Enjoyment and Choice, Tools for
  writing, organising and using information,
  creating texts
• Listening and talking - Enjoyment and Choice,
  Tools for listening and talking, Finding and
  using information, Understanding, analysing and
  evaluating, creating texts
• Within each of these there are organizers
  relevant to all curriculum areas.
• www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/Images/
  literacy_across_the_curriculum_tcm4-470951.pdf

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Digital Literacy

• The ability to use ICT and the Internet becomes
  a new form of literacy digital literacy.
• Digital literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite
  for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship
  and without it citizens can neither participate
  fully in society nor acquire the skills and
  knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century.
• European Commission, 20031

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Digital Literacy

• the ability to understand and use information in
  multiple formats from a wide range of sources
  when it is presented via computers.
• Digital literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite
  for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship
  and without it citizens can neither participate
  fully in society nor acquire the skills and
  knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century.
• Paul Glister, 19971-2

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Digital Information Literacy?

• A review of digital information literacy in 0-16
  year olds evidence, development models, and
  recommendations
• What will information sources and access be like
  for our children in another decade or two and
  again when they grow into old age? Clearly
• we are teaching our children to be flexible
  handlers of information to enable them to cope
  with information sources and access technology
  not yet invented. The why and how of education
  immediately becomes more important than the here
  and now. We need to teach them how to find out,
  not teach them the answers
• Geoff Dubber (2008) SLA Guidelines, Cultivating
  Curiosity Information Literacy Skills and the
  Primary School Library (p.8)
• Digital information literacy or information
  literacy in a digital world?

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Information Literacy in a digital environment

• No need for a new definition for IL in a Web 2.0
  world
• Key issue is how you understand the concept of
  information
• Commentators on IL make the assumption that
  information in IL definitions refers to textual
  information, but that is not necessarily the
  case.
• The notes on IL skills which accompany the CILIP
  definition make it clear that information may be
  available on paper, digitally, through other
  media such as broadcast or film or from a
  colleague or friend
• Webber , Sheila. (2008) Educating Web 2.0 LIS
  students for information literacy in Information
  Literacy meets Library 2.0 edited by Peter
  Godwin and Jo Parker (p39)

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Information Literacy

• "Information literacy is knowing when and why you
  need information, where to find it, and how to
  evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical
  manner." CILIP (2004) Information Literacy
  Definition
• Information Literacy was defined as the ability
  to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and
  effectively create, use and communicate
  information to address an issue or problem.
  Prague Declaration

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Information Literacy Prague Declaration

• To date, advancements in information and
  communication
• technologies have only increased the divide
  between the
• information rich and the information poor.
• Three elements to improve this situation
• ready access to information and communication
  technologies
• unrestricted availability of needed information
• an information literate citizenry
• Information literate citizenry is required to
  mobilize an effective
• civil society and create a competitive workforce.
• http//portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID13272
  URL_DODO_TOPICURL_SECTION201.html

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Information literacy in the workplace

• Workplace studies Project objective
• Based on 20 interviews with employees mainly in
  the public sector in central Scotland
• Not a heavily studied area limited literature
• Founded on a review of the pedagogic literature
  of learning in the workplace
• Interviews arranged with the help of Project
  partners and contacts in Adult Literacies,
  Tribunals Service, Scottish Government Library
  Services and health libraries
• Lack of private sector contacts
• Funded by the British Academy

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Conclusions (1)

• The traditional library view of information as
  deriving from electronic and printed sources only
  is invalid in the workplace and must include
  people as sources of information
• It is essential to recognize the key role of
  human relationships in the development of
  information literacy in the workplace
• The public enterprise with its emphasis on skills
  and qualifications is a fertile area for further
  investigation and developmental work
• Adult Literacies training is a powerful driver to
  encourage workplace information literacy

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Conclusions (2)

• Advanced Internet training extends employees
  information horizons
• A skill and qualifications based agenda is an
  important pre-condition
• Most interviewees viewed public libraries as
  irrelevant for anything other than recreational
  purposes
• Information literacy training programmes must be
  highly focused on the target audience
• All organizations have information policies but
  may be unaware of the fact
• An understanding of what constitutes information
  literacy is widespread in the workplace but is
  often implicit rather than explicit and is based
  on qualifications, experience, and networking
  activities
• Organizations which access a wide range of
  information, of high quality, including sources
  outwith their organization, will make the best
  informed decisions

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Recommendations

• Contacts should be established with chambers of
  commerce, skills agencies and other organizations
  involved in workplace training
• Organizations information polices which are
  largely implicit should be made explicit and
  should include accessing a wide range of
  information, of high quality, including sources
  outwith their organization
• Preliminary skills audits should be carried out
  within organizations to determine staff
  information literacy skills and the
  organizations information literacy policy
• The viability of developing information literacy
  training programmes should be further researched
• Information literacy training programmes should
  initially target sympathetic organizations
• Advanced Internet training programmes should be
  offered to all workplace employees
• The private sector should be researched further
• The provision of information literacy training
  programmes by public libraries should be
  investigated
• Developmental work should be undertaken with
  Adult Literacies agencies
• NHS contacts should be expanded to progress the
  health literacies agenda

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Scottish Information Literacy Project - what we
want to do next

• Restructure the National Information Literacy
  Framework Scotland in the light of feedback from
  piloting in the school and FE/HE sectors
• Expand the Framework to extend the lifelong
  learning/community engagement component using the
  data from the workplace/Adult Literacies study
  currently completing
• Investigate the development of information skills
  training modules which could be delivered via
  public libraries, workplace training and Adult
  Literacies programmes
• Review and develop our existing workplace
  information literacy skills expertise with
  chambers of commerce, Adult Literacies partners,
  etc
• Have more time to publicise and promote our work
  to the sectors which we are targeting and to
  disseminate and develop strategic collaborations
  and partnerships on a national and international
  basis.
• To develop further strands in media and health
  literacies
• Get information literacy incorporated into
  Scotland's lifelong learning policy

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Quotes / final thoughts

• Glister identifies critical thinking rather than
  technical competence as the core skill of digital
  literacy , and emphasizes the critical evaluation
  of what is found on the Web, rather than the
  critical skills required to access it.
• Allan Martin (2006) A Framework for Digital
  Literacy
• The internet needs a way to help people separate
  rumour from real science, says the creator of the
  World Wide Web
• Pallab Ghosh, Science correspondent, BBC News
  (2008) http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/76132
  01.stm
• That's why library and information specialists
  build / built portals and gateways for their
  users but a lot of people don't want to use them
  preferring to using Google as they think Google
  has all the answers.
• Sounds like people want technology to do our
  thinking for us instead of not believing
  everything they read but being able to evaluate
  what they read and become information literate.
• Christine Irving (2008)

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Information Literacy in practice

• Pupils from Craigholme School in Glasgow working
  on their Information Literacy Project (Junior 6)

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Contact details

• Dr. John Crawford, Christine Irving
• Library Research Officer,
  Researcher / Project Officer
• Milton Street Building Milton Street Building
• MS004, (ground floor) MS005, (ground floor)
• Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian
  University
• Cowcaddens Road Cowcaddens Road
• Glasgow, G4 0BA Glasgow, G4 0BA
• Tel [phone] Tel [phone]
• Email jcr_at_gcal.ac.uk Email christine.irving_at_gcal.
  ac.uk
• Project website www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/
• Project blog http//caledonianblogs.net/informat
  ion-literacy/