Three panelists led today's discussion about Information Literacy: Dr. Lisa Stock from DuPage, Dr. Jean Donham from the Univ. of Northern Iowa (and a former instructor at Univ. of IA Library School when I was in Grad School there!); and Dane Ward from Illinois State Univ.
Background information about Information Literacy, including the variety of standards (and diversity of students/patrons) related to information literacy kicked off the session. Recognition was also given to President Barack Obama declaring October 2009 National Information Literacy Month -- here's a link to his proclamation.
Dr. Donham referenced an article published in the Winter 2010 edition of College Teaching entitled Mental Models of Research: Generating Authentic Questions (authentication required to access) that questions how we as educators can help students move to a position of inquiry rather than reporting. Later in the session she referred to 7 dispositions that she believes are useful in ensuring students are ready to learn:
1) open-minded
2) curiosity
3) meta-cognitive
4) strategic
5) investigative
6) reasoning
7) evidence-based
Mr. Ward focused more on the collaborative aspect of information literacy and recognized elements of the collaborative process as:
* spontaneity
* expertise
* pushing the boundaries
* being present in the moment
* knowing each other
* knowing oneself
He summed this up by stating it is important for all involved in the collaboration to be open-minded and not to judge one another during the process.
Emphasis to grow information literacy on a national level needs to focus on these three areas, according to the panelists:
1) standards - moving beyond the boiler-plates that are there and also recognizing the different needs of the communities using the standards
2) work towards a model of moving beyond information seeking
3) context and collaboration are key to success
A follow-up question that piqued my interest was about what textbook they might recommend for a 1-credit information literacy course and Dr. Stock mentioned Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog by William Badke.
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