The New Literacy

Information literacy has emerged as the new literacy. It is a combination of visual, aural, and digital literacy. It cannot be ignored. It must be fostered as it develops. The 21st Century Literacy Summit generated an intentional strategy to enhance information literacy skills that includes five elements:
1. develop a strategic research agenda
2. raise awareness & visibility of the field
3. make tools for creating & experiencing new media broadly available
4. empower teachers with 21st century literacy skills
5. work as a community
Each one of these requires vast resources, but as with any goal, they require a commitment from and the will of many people. It is clear that education is a critical domain for this literacy to be nurtured in our young people. One main barrier is the financial resources to support this movement. Technology spending has been criticized as a black hole by some. All the more reason to ensure that the first element be addressed. A strategic research agenda must first be developed and endorsed by major players. The government, in particular the ministries of education need to take action. The empowerment of teachers with 21st century skills is a laudable goal and one that will take its toll on the teaching profession as it is today. New curriculum standards and assessment tools will be developed and teachers will be required to implement new ways. The digital natives will lead and new ways of teaching and learning will emerge. How exciting! Schools may take on a different look altogether. Online courses are already flourishing.
One thing is for sure, change is inevitable and information literacy continues to evolve.

Just discovered a cousin's blog

As I was relating my newfound knowledge of electronic resources to my son last weekend, he led me to a cousin's blog. "Oh yeah", he says, "she has been blogging about her extended stay in Europe and has lots of pictures up." Well, I immediately found the blog site and read about this cousin's travels to many interesting sites. She had posted many pictures. It was fabulous! What a great way to communicate when travelling! I feel like I've taken a step further into discovering this mighty resource called the internet.

Information Literate or not?

What does it mean to be information literate? The meaning of literacy has grown so much in this complex multifaceted world. It is no longer enough to know how to read and write text. An information literate person is one who:
-- is willing to take risks,
-- is a problem solver,
-- is persistent, and
-- is open to new learning.
Those are the personal competencies. In addition to these, as described by the Canadian Education Association (2003), Focus on Literacy, to be information literate, one must be able to locate, evaluate and effectively use information from a wide variety of sources. This includes gaining meaning from a wide variety of symbols and using technology.

cart before the horse

All the places to look up hoaxes, plagiarism, etc. can really help a web user! But, one has to be sophisticated to even know about which websites to go to. This web world if filled with deep crevasses as well as much enlightenement. It's critical that we taech children abou t all of the pitfalls when we provide access and encourage web surfing. I wonder if there is a university prep course for all educators about this world. After all, the expectation is that every teacher integrate technology into their teaching. Is the cart before the horse?