Lessons for Teaching
See also Curriculum Prototypes; and discussions in Investigating Information Literacy Efforts section
Some writers argue that information literacy is a basic liberal art -- knowing how to find information is part of what it means to be a free individual in today's world.(1)
Though the computer may be one of the important tools, information literacy extends beyond the scope of computer literacy to include the ability to understand a variety of resource types, to understand how information is generated and accessed in the research process. Within a company context, information literacy is seen as being much broader and more encompassing than computer competency:
Information literacy implies an understanding of the general concepts of information processing, how information systems shape and support a person's job function, a department or operating unit, or an enterprisewide application that may be linked, for example, with the company's customers as well as its suppliers.(2)
Sterngold and Hurlbert
have redesigned teaching units for business classes to reflect needs to
prepare students for work in "an increasingly knowledge-based economy."(3)
Acknowledging that students need to know how to use increasingly complex
information technologies, new data-gathering methods, and require instruction
on how to critically evaluate sources, they have designed active learning
laboratories in their business classes. Work is collaborative in nature,
echoing group approaches used in the real world. The presence and
importance of the Internet for business carries special impacts. Ann Rowland
writes about using Web simulations in college business classes as an approach
that "facilitates active learning, collaborative learning, and permits
the including of Web-based knowledge and interactive learning."(4)
Paul Shrivastava, from Bucknell University, notes that the new business
environment of the 21st century "will force us to fundamentally change
our educational systems, processes, and teaching techniques. We will need
to understand what the Internet represents as an information resource,
how IT is transforming business functions and tasks, how management education
should respond, and what new roles teachers and learners must play for
effective learning."(5)
With information literacy skills so important across all curricula, as
preparation for transfer and in occupational programs, more courses
and more programs are infusing interactive technologies into curricula. And
the emphasis on information problem-solving and collaborative work (both in
the workplace and at junior/senior levels in college) has placed premiums
on those approaches.
Reflecting real world-of-work applications, I have come to believe that information literacy instruction should provide more opportunities for
- Interactivity (using the Internet and activity on the Internet to learn, going beyond the point-and-click type of exercise)
- Manipulation of content (not just point-and-click and read)
- Collaboration and teamwork (exercises that use free Web-based collaborative tools)
- Problem-solving (particularly problem identification, brainstorming, varieties of pathways to solutions)
- Instructional efforts should build on skills students already have. Considering the impact that the Digital High School initiative is having, instruction should be two- or three-tiered, reaching students with basic, intermediate, and advanced skills
(1) Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes, "Information Technology as a Liberal Art," Educom Review vol. 31, no. 2 Mar/Apr 1996, p. 31+
(2) Jerry Kanter, "Computer-Information Literacy for Senior Management," Information Strategy: The Executive's Journal vol. 11, no. 3, Spring 1995, p. 6+
(3) Arthur H. Sterngold and Janet M. Hurlbert, "Information Literacy and the Marketing Curriculum: A Multidimensional Definition and Practical Application," Journal of Marketing Education vol. 20, no. 3, Fall 1998, p. 244.
(4) Ann Rowland, Bringing Reality into the Business
Classroom, 25 May 2000 <http://cbae.nmsu.edu/mgt/obtc/abstracts/19/>
(5) Paul Shrivastava, Management Education for the Digital Economy, 25 May 2000 <http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/shrivast/Digital.html>
Investigating
Information Age Realities in the World of Work
