Information literacy at the OU

An overview of current work in IL at the OU

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Katharine Reedy
12 March 2010

OU Library staff support the OU's Learning and Teaching Strategy by working towards the integration of information literacy into the curriculum.

We have also developed our own courses with OU colleagues, such as The evolving information professional and TU120 Beyond Google (which has now finished presentation). Current work includes:

a levels framework for IL at masters level, which builds on the undergraduate levels framework now in use by OU module and programme teams, and aims to encourage progression
supporting Open University tutors in their IL skills development, to enable them to help students develop IL skills
producing an evaluation and benchmarking framework for IL materials
creating guidelines for authoring IL materials, and assessing IL
together with other key OU partners, investigating digital literacies and mapping the overlaps between information and digital literacy

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Discussion (7)
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Gráinne Conole
8:57am 19 March 2010

Hi Katherine

Have you seen Jenkin's report on participatory cultures? In it he sites 12 new skills needed to participate in today's technological environment.

Play - the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance - the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation - the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
Appropriation - the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking - the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details
Distributed Cognition - the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence - the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment - the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation - the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking - the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation - the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms
Visualization - the ability to interpret and create data representations for the purposes of expressing ideas, finding patterns, and identifying trends (Jenkins et al 2006: np.)

I'll add a link to the paper.

Katharine Reedy
10:35am 19 March 2010

Hi Grainne

Thanks for this - I haven't seen this report but will certainly have a read. I think this is relevant to digital and trans literacy too, and a really helpful contribution to the discussion around these.

Gráinne Conole
10:46am 19 March 2010

Glad its of use. I think it's an excellent report and the list of 12 literacies is a valuable starting point.

Fred Davies
11:24am 19 May 2010

Hi Katharine

I dio think a levels framework for IL will be useful but perhaps it is best integrated into the Information Literacy Toolkit and perhaps also SAFARI so it reaches the end users

Katharine Reedy
4:31pm 19 May 2010 (Edited 4:32pm 19 May 2010)

Hi Fred

Thanks for your comment. I agree that the IL Levels Framework will be useful when integrated. We're working with programme and module teams to get the skills written into courses. There is a VLE site, Library Information Literacy (LIL) which is gradually being developed, and will contain a resource bank of activities to support development of the skills: http://learn.open.ac.uk/site/lil

Fred Davies
5:54pm 19 May 2010

Hi Katharine

Thanks for the link to the VLE site, Library Information Literacy (LIL). Even if it is 'gradually being developed' can I use it for my students?

Katharine Reedy
8:12am 20 May 2010

Hi Fred

Yes, it's freely available now and open to anyone, staff or students. It contains mostly generic activities - if you can make use of any of them please do.

Katharine