Week #8 - Discipline Based Approach to IL

1. What is the difference between IL and BI and why is this distinction important?  Bibliographic Instruction (BI) refers to instruction in traditional (print) format, such as books and other primary sources.  While we tend to think of Information Literacy (IL) as being "new" it has been around almost as long as I have, but is a concept that is growing exponentially.  IL applies to the ability to learn from other non-traditional (print) media.  As a child of the 70s non-print meant 8Track tapes and 45s or LPs.  Yes, times they are a changing!

2. Why should classroom faculty teach IL?

Students need to be equipped to engage in the world.  In the 1970s BL was enough, because there was very little everyday access to non-traditional media.  Todays student, even the youngest of pre-K are engaged in multi-media activites both in the home and at school.  A certain 3 year old navigated his mothers IPad to show me that he could "write" his alphabet, one line at a time on a special App.  He knew exactly where to go on the IPad to find the app and how to start, stop, and change the size.  As Grafstein states in this weeks reading, "Given the seductively easy accessibility of unregulated information....." (Grafstein, 2002) students today are being inundated and as teachers we need to help develop the skills necessary to process and syntesize that information to make educated and informed decisions regarding its validity.

3. What is the role of classroom faculty in developing information literacy?  While traditionally BI was confied to the library the development of IL goes beyond those hallowed walls.  The development of critical thinking skills necessary for IL cannot and should not be confined to a particular setting.  For the next generation to be productive they need to possess critical thinking skills which are flexible and adaptable to any situation.  The classroom faculty (which in the 21st Century is more than just a teacher), needs to provide guidance, assistance, and mentorship to allow students to explore, create, and synthesize with the information they are receiving.

Quote:  "Information retrieval is certainly a skill, features of which are transferrable across disciplines and applications." 

This strikes in an old school way.  If a student knows how to read, than they can read Dick & Jane, Oliver Twist, or Webster's Dictionary.  If a student can read than can read a prescription bottle or a comic book. If a student can read than they can learn history or how to put together a model.  With the basic skill the world opens to them. 

I have always been good at figuring out how to use a new program (today we call them "apps").  When asked I often honestly told people it was about using the "HELP" screen.  The information was there, you just had to know how to ask the question to receive the desired information.  The same is true with IL, the information is there, you just have to know to ask the right question.

 

 

I liked the way this brief video shows all the various media that we are exposed to, and ironically enough there is one skill that transects all them, the ability to think.  Think about what you are hearing, seeing, experiencing.  Critical thinking is essential to synthesizing information.

Grafstein, Ann (2002), A Discipline-Based Approach to Information Literacy. Retrieved from http://westmont.edu/_offices/provost/documents/Senate/Full/2009-2010/Discipline-Based%20Approach%20to%20Information%20Literacy.pdf

Cramstankin, 2010. Multiliteracies - Final. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHSQZZTYfdc