Information Literacy and education

In the age of information and communications technology (ITC), the very concept of what it means to be literate has certainly changed. Without vital technological skills, one would be hard pressed to regard even the best of academic education as complete and proper. By definition technology in education should offer students the opportunity to gather, dissect and synthesize information in a timely manner while using the relevant tools.
What then is the true meaning of information literacy for education across the educational spectrum? Information literacy in education has two platforms to occupy because (a) it is a necessary component of today’s interpretation of what it means to be literate and (b) it is a means to achieve literacy as in distance learning for example. Within these two platforms we find the springboards to both self-directed learning and life-long learning. According to Lawrence, “Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2000, p.207) note five ways in which new technologies can be used:
1. Bringing exciting curricula based on real –world problems into the class-room.
2. Providing scaffolds and tools to enhance learning.
3. Giving students and teachers more opportunities to enhance learning
4. Building local and global communities.
5. Expanding opportunities for learning
(as cited in Uden, Richards and Gasevic, 2008, p. 15).
Central to information literacy is its well crafted integration into curriculums to form meaningful educative goals and experiences. Students must be intellectually able to understand information as a product. Educational institutions must therefore work to erase digital inequity. This inequity is not simply a matter of access or catering to those who are socially-disadvantaged as is often the belief. According to Hsieh, Rai and Keil (2008), “Many people stubbornly cling to the belief that digital inequity can be solved by addressing a single factor: technological access (e.g. Kvasny 2002; Vaan Dij and Hacker 2003). As a result, most governmental digital inequity initiatives have emphasized technology access” (p. 98). The crux of technological literacy therefore in what Hsie et al has termed “user acceptance”. This concept is more about sustained, continual usage of the technology by individuals in all aspect of their daily lives.
James (2008) adds to the debate by opining that, “Access is only a “potential” concept (such as being under the mobile foot-print). But whether this potential is converted into actual use is the real issue, and quite a complex one at that (there may be, for instant, a high percentage of the population under the mobile footprint but a much smaller number who actually use cell phones). All sorts of factors may come between having access to a technology and making good use of it” (p.57). In the educative process, technology acceptance should only be regarded as an early guidepost on the way to total user acceptance. The total integration of ITC into the educative process should be the ultimate goal.
In the realm of education it becomes crucial that technological literacy not be viewed as only familiarity with ITC’s. The perpetual acceptance and application of these technologies will bring a change in the educative process as student- centered learning and peer- collaboration becomes the norm in ways we have not seen. Collaborative communications forms a learning threshold, from which students exchange, disseminate, and distill information. Out of this education milieu will come even more credence for distance learning, both synchronous and asynchronous. It can be reasonably predicted that distance learning will eventually become the normative mode of education. Future generations will no longer expect a set time or physical building to be associated with procuring an education.
The availability of distance learning as a means of achieving literacy will change the face of education as we know it. Distance learning although popular now will have to reinvent its self as information technology becomes a standard in general education. As students of differing learning abilities and intelligences gather in their virtual classroom, institutions will have to find fitting and appropriate ways of delivering content and a variety of ways for students to produce and present their work. Student evaluation without face-to-face meeting can be a challenge for instructors, and instructor evaluations, needed for feedback, course planning and even tenure could be harder to capture.
Information literacy will produce students who are time-independent and place-independent with high expectations for their learning because they have 24/7 access to information. The training of teachers may have to shift away from the mostly dual concentration of student and content to include issues like program design and delivery. The perspectives of both teachers and students will continue to change as the technology grows and evolves.
Since information literacy is still a fairly new paradigm in the field of education it must catch up to learners with higher-order thinking, who are taking ownership of information. The transfer of information from teacher to student is not longer the domain of the teacher. What then is the role of the teacher or instructor in such a democratic learning environment? A facilitator who appreciates a constructivist philosophy towards education comes to mind. As Lawrence, (as cited in Uden, Richards and Gasevic, 2008) stated, “A constructivist approach can be an effective way to successfully integrate technology in schools. The environment provides facilities for students to learn by doing, to work with others, and to have authentic experiences making learning motivating and relevant” (p.14) Information literacy will help power education as learners become intellectually skilled at independently securing, managing and appraise information .






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