Digital and Information literacy

This cloudscape contains a collection of clouds relating to  information literacy (IL) and related areas such as digital literacy, transliteracy and employability. The Assessing IL cloud is intended to be a place where good practice and ideas on how best to assess IL in the curriculum can be shared.  We also link to some existing relevant clouds on skills for independent learning, digital scholarship, digital student and learning design.

The hope is that these clouds will become a place for interacting, debating and sharing experience on the nature and role of  literacy in the 21st century.

Definitions of Information Literacy

There are a number of definitions and models of IL, for example, "Information literacy is knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner" (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, 2004). 

Technology has a strong influence on how IL is learned and taught. IL is increasingly taking centre stage as there is recognition that it is one of the key tools for living and working successfully in the modern world.

Barack Obama declared October 2009 to be national information literacy awareness month to highlight "the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age": http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/presidential-proclamation-national-information-literacy-awareness-month/

Lord Puttnam has said: 

‘I do think anyone with an OU degree should be brilliantly familiar with information gathering on the web. The idea you will graduate from the OU without being a world-class researcher yourself, should be nonsense. We should be challenging students to find their own links, and their own information. I’m not sure we’re doing this enough.’ (Society Matters, 2009): http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/__assets/l3qzxw7ixnli7kr5s4.pdf

In 2006 the high-level International Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning issued the Alexandria proclamation which stated that "information Literacy lies at the core of lifelong learning.  It empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals.  It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion of all nations": http://www.infolit.org/International_Colloquium/index.htm

This built on the earlier Prague declaration "Towards an information literate society" which positioned information literacy as a "part of the basic human right of life long learning" and essential to achieve social justice: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/19636/11228863531PragueDeclaration.pdf/PragueDeclaration.pdf

See also:

• The Learning Design cloudscape: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/566
• The Learning Design toolbox: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/1882