What are the key understandings in teaching about information? Think about how information is conceptualized, both within popular consciousness, and academia. Using Bruce's informed learning, as well as standards what do we think is important in understanding information? This is a continuation of the IL discussion (and maybe this part should have come first) - does this change the way you conceive IL standards?
Primarily, I think teaching about information requires an understanding about where the students are coming from. We have to assess their backgrounds and design the curriculum accordingly. For instance, information literacy instruction would differ depending on the age and educational background of the students. I think of our library's integrated course seminars and how the librarians tailor their sessions to the students, depending on where they are in their level of education (are they undergraduates or graduates?, what discipline it is (political science or public administration?) and where the students are in their research (information resources session at the beginning of the course vs. one-on-one instruction as the course progresses). This also brings to mind Bruce's definition of information as "anything that we experience as informing. Information will appear differently in different contexts and different disciplines" (p.5). Most teaching librarians will understand this and take into account the variant nature of information.
This of course, is an academic handling of information. Information is viewed critically, it is evaluated and presented judiciously. As Jessica mentions in the previous discussion, the ACRL standards make the assumption that people come to college with some of these evaluative skills already in place. Branch out to popular consciousness about how information is conceptualized, perhaps the critical/evaluative component is not part of the definition. In popular consciousness, I see it as something that is taken more at face value. It is presented a certain way (e.g. via television, newspapers, web, etc.) and absorbed as fact. It's is something to be digested and added to someone's knowledge base but stops there. I'm not saying that the non-academic person lacks evaluative skills, but I think the popular definition of information is much narrower than the way it is viewed in academia where it is seen as something that can be truly transformational in one's life.
So, what then is important in understanding information? I agree with Bruce that is is anything that informs, regardless of how is is presented, and that it can also become transformational. At this point, looking at the ACRL standards for information literacy, my conception of the standards hasn't changed in that they are for students who come to the table knowing that information is more than just something to be absorbed at face value. I think the AASL K-12 standards should be made a priority in a student's life so that they can come to the table ready to meet the ACRL standards.
I agree that, "teaching about information requires and understanding about where the students are coming from". This reminds me of a what I observed of the interaction between teachers and younger students a few years ago. While working on my undergrad degree ( I was considered a non-traditional student, because I went back to school as an older adult) I noticed that there was a divide between some teachers and students. The younger students were using a lot of technology in their everyday lives, social networking sites, texting, blogging, wikipedia, etc. and most teachers were criticizing the "trend". Fast forward just three years later and I have found many of those same teachers with Facebook accounts. I felt like they didn't really understand the need or ways to use those technologies in a meaningful way and therefore rejected them as legitimate ways of communicating and learning. I think that the teachers never really understood where the students were coming from with their use of these tools. I found that many of the students used Facebook to communicate and collaborate on student organization projects. Through Facebook they would chat, message, send invites, and plan projects for organizations. Meanwhile they didn't use Facebook in that way for their class group projects. They felt like they couldn't bring their knowledge of group collaboration from outside of class over into class. These students had information skills that the teachers hadn't yet gained. Maybe the teachers didn't view Facebook as an information format and disregarded the students skills.
ReplyDeleteThis focus on critical thinking when dealing with information is, I think, a core goal of higher education, at least as reflected by the now ever present student learning outcomes. I agree that some students, and people, take things at face value, although there seems to be a certain amount of pretense of critical thinking, so that the information is taken at face value as long as it comes from X source and totally disregarded as anything truthful when it comes from Y source. Critical thinking about where one has gotten information in the past seems equally important, especially since we tend to seek out that which reconfirms our worldview.
ReplyDelete@ Jessica - really interesting observation about social networking versus what seems acceptable in an academic context. Not only does it show the divide between academic information and "popular" information, but also that students are very much aware of context. As your example suggests, a task for teachers is to get students to transfer the knowledge they do have to new situations.