Today in class I was able to clearly break down the components of information literacy. These being, digital literacy, visual literacy and social literacy. Information literacy is often brought up when speaking about ICT, but I had not clearly separated all the parts of being information literate.

ALA’s defines information literate people as, ” those who have learned how to learn. They know how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.” (ALA, 1989) After reading today’s forum posts and ALA’s definition  I know that technology skills continue to improve in education and technology will lead future learning. I think the ALA’s definition from twenty four years ago is still relevant and will be relevant in the future. The ways in which we teach information literacy will change again and again.

A question was asked, What are we teaching in information literacy? I think this completely depends on what stage the school is in in ICT. For those schools who are allowing students to use their own devices, have adequate resources, and the teachers are striving to be a step ahead with ICT than the technology will be used to aid students in “discovering” the curriculum. This should always be our goal. In order to achieve the goal, students have to learn the technology. This means learning how to use the device or software, or online search  techniques.

The class discussions are inspiring, even though at times  I am finding myself in information overload! For the first time in a class setting (where I was the student) I experienced having access to information at my fingertips. I love it! I can take so much more out of the limited time I have to be a student in class. For example a new idea or term comes up and BOOM, I can get a simple definition along with a good website bookmarked and tags. Digital citizenship came up. I could instantly find information about digital citizenship, and then be present in the discussion. If I didn’t have online access at that time there would be a good chance that I would continue guessing at what it really meant. By the time I got to a computer it would have probably been long forgotten. Digital citizenship is not a difficult concept to understand, but now that I have basic knowledge I am confident about using this term. When students have access to information like this and are information literate. I can relate to how much more confident they feel about their learning.

Today in school I was part of a group discussion about the book “Why School?” by Will Richardson. The group was actually assigned to talk about “old school”. I found this to be an interesting perspective. I agree with some of some of the comments made by Richardson about “old school”, but other comments he makes are far fetched.

Richardson states that school hasn’t changed in 150 years. YIKES that would be depressing, if that was true. Technology in the world has changed drastically so of course student learning has changed. I am always surprised and in disbelief when parents or grandparents say, “back in the day when I went to school…” (You can fill the rest in with your own stories!!)  Today’s teachers envision more changes, and are taking actions to change student learning each and everyday. It may not be big steps each day or each year, but schools are heading in the right direction.

Educators have been having conversations about doing school differently. I think this drive for doing school differently rather then the “old school” conversation of doing school better,  inspires a lot of new and experienced teachers.

Unfortunately schools today still use similar “old school” methods of testing. Richardson does make this point and I believe that is true. We just can’t get away from the test. The test may be the provincial exam, or the end of unit test.  School administrators haven’t found another way to gather data. As mentioned in my group, schools don’t have the funds to update standardized tests. The standardized tests often being used are dated and not relevant.  There are bigger factors that contribute to changing the idea of testing. For example the Universities require the grades.Universities need marks for selecting applicants.Inquiry based learning remains to pose a challenge to educators. The students who care about post-secondary are inspired to get good grades on tests and exams. Studying only for the test and forgetting the information immediately afterword is still alive and well, just like it was 150 years ago!

Since reading Will Richardson book “Why School” I have researched him and his ideas a little bit further. I did find a nice condensed youtube version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekcWQxgk3k “Why School” is everywhere. I found many education articles referring to Richardson. His book should be a required reading for all teachers. I found his book to be relevant and to the point (and how could anyone not like the price).