Week #5 - Trapped......

1. What does the term "discursive practices" mean?  "This term refers to a historically and culturally specific set of rules for organizing and producing different forms of knowledge. It is not a matter of external determinations being imposed on people's thought, rather it is a matter of rules which, a bit like the grammar of a language, allow certain statements to be made. "  (O'Farrel, 207)



2. What does "discourse" mean? To discourse is to discuss and analyze.



3. What is the "rock" and what is the "hard place"?  The "rock" is the current, unsatisfactory concept of literacy and the "hard place" is the translation of information literacy. 


4. What are the differences between the skills prescribed for information searching in academic and workplace settings?   In academia, "
   
   The skills prescribed in searching for information, accessing and using it are formalized by particular rules, regulations, and curriculum that are underpinned by an instrumental rationality. This allows the acquisition of knowledge and ways of knowing to be measured against formalized sets of criteria. In this setting, primacy is awarded to knowledge that is canonical, objective, and explicit, and there is a focus on individual performance and the development of self-sufficiency through independent learning. (Lloyd, 2011) While the workplace is very different.  Considered to be messy and complex (Lloyd, 2011).   It is significantly inflluenced by interaction and the physical and social workplace environment.   I am curious as to how the author would view a workplace in acadmenia?  I see some of both on a regular basis.


5. How do academic notions of information literacy undermine workplace notions information literacy?  Lloyd comments, "There also appears to be an acceptance that information literacy focuses on individual information use rather than information use as a collective activity. This approach to explaining and describing workplace information literacy appears to undermine important workplace concepts of teamwork and group problem solving aimed at building collective knowledge, where information skills are spread across a team rather than being centered on an ndividual. Lloyd, 2011)  This line of thinking is somewhat obvious to anyone who has work in both the private sector and in an acadmic setting.


6. How are information needs identified in work place setting like nursing and emergency workers?  Those in the medical field rely heavily upon their own personal experiences with application to the current setting.  In a leisure medical setting they may resort to a more academic approach to information literacy, but when time is of the essence they must approach it more aggressively. 


7. Why do issues of plagiarism not resonate in workplace settings?  Because workplace knowledge if considered to be communal knowledge and a group setting is less formal than individual knowledge.


8. Are information literacy skills transferable across contexts and settings? Why or Why not?  Academia claims that these skills are transferrable, but the limited research in workplace literacy does not hold this to be true.  Academia needs to believe that they are teaching you everything one needs to know in order to justify their own course of instruction.  In reality the information literacy skills gained serve as a basis and a resource tool in teh workplace.  It is not practical to teach all that is needed , there must be the ability to intergrate personal experience and group knowledge.


9. What is "practice theory"? 
   
   "Practice theories emphasize the analysis of ways of engaging with the world. These social theories are concerned with exploring human activity, subjectivity, intersubjectivity, embodiment, language, and power in relation to the “organization, reproduction and transformation of social life” (Schatzki, 2001, p. 1)." (Lloyd, 2011).


10. How does the author of this article define information literacy?  "
    
    An array of information related activities and skills, constituted, justified and organized through the arrangements of a social site, and mediated socially and materially with the aim of producing shared understanding and mutual agreement about ways of knowing and recognizing how performance is nacted, enabled and constrained in collective situated action. (Lloyd, 2011)"


11. How do educators need to change their understanding of information literacy literacy in order to prepare student for the information literacy practices they will encounter in workplace settings?  Educators need to more fully understand that information literacy is a skill set, and a key to be proficient in that skill set is the ability to think and act independently.  While this seems contradictory to the "group think" of a workplace, it actually supports it, in that students need to learn to analysis and synthesize information independently of a primary authority who is teaching them what to think and how to think about it.


12. What do the terms "ontological" and "epistemological" mean?  Both deal with the context of understanding the nature and root of being.  While essentially philisophical in nature, the terms work together cohesively.


13. After reading this article, how useful is the traditional research paper we expect students to produce in school in preparing them for workplace settings? What are traditional research papers useful for? Should we still assign traditional research papers?  Traditional research papers are still an important part of the learning process.  I believe that understanding the structure of and composition of a basic research paper is a core skill.  In the process of preparing a paper a student refines basic skills such as how to follow directions, how to investigate sources, and become acquainted with works on a particular topic.  Traditional research papers need to be supplemented with additional assignments such as group projects and interaction with others researching the same topic, but preparing independent works.


14. What is one of the biggest challenges to changing the way information literacy is conceptualized in school settings?  Change is difficult, a major obstacle is to educate the educators on the meaning of information literacy.  They cannot be expected to more fully support information literacy when they do not understand it.  Some educators understand and embrace the need to evolve, but many are simply not willing to make the effort to learn something new or do something different than what they have always done.


15. What attributes of the 21st century make it essential that educators change their approaches toward information literacy?  Technology is no longer something that will arrive someday.  It is here, and is a part of our daily lives.  As a child in the 70s I loved the Saturday morning cartoon "The Jetsons," while we may not be driving hover craft technology is abounding much as it did for Jane, Judy, Elroy, Rosie and the rest of the crew.


16. What changes can teachers make to their classroom activities to engage students in the information literacy practices they will encounter in 21st century workplace settings?  Incorporating more group activities will help bridge the gap, unfortunately evaluating group projects is difficult and requires more time on the part of the educator. 

Lloyd, A.(2011). Trapped between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized?Library Trends 60(2), 277-296. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved June 20, 2013, from Project MUSE database.

O'Farrel, C. (2010, October). Key concepts. Retrieved from http://www.michel-foucault.com/concepts/