LILAC Project Moving Forward

My application for a sabbatical to begin work on developing a (very small) pilot study for the LILAC project was approved. I've already begun preliminary work which I will post when I get the chance.

In the meantime, I've also posted some notes from the 2008 Georgia Conference on Information Literacy on my "In the Beginning" blog at http://mywabbit.blogspot.com/. If you attended the conference, I hope you'll add to my ruminations with some of your own!

The call for proposals is also out for the 2009 Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, Savannah, Georgia, September 25-26, 2009. Visit our Web site at http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/infolit.html for more information!

Application for Sabbatical

Purpose of Activity: State the purpose of the proposed activity to be conducted during the educational leave.

According to results of testing of information literacy skills, whatever we are doing now to teach these essential skills to our students just is not working. Even though educators and librarians have tried a wide variety of ways to teach these skills-from lectures and tutorials, hands-on workshops, librarian-teacher partnerships, and more-students continue to fail. Even when they are able to do well on tests of skills, usually immediately following instruction, they are not able to apply these skills nor do they seem to be able to take these skills with them as they continue to progress in the university.

This educational leave will allow me to plan a study of what we are doing now in the university to foster students' acquisition of 21st century information literacy skills. Using what is learned from this study, I then plan to see where we might be able to intervene-and how we might best do this. I believe that a just-in-time model of teaching and learning, using newly available technologies, might be one way of better helping our students to acquire these essential skills in a way that will move with them beyond the first-year classes where these skills are usually taught.

This Educational Leave will allow me to:

1. Design a study to be piloted at Georgia Southern University beginning Fall 2009.
2. Complete necessary IRB training and approval forms.
3. Compose and submit article to peer-reviewed journal.

After the initial pilot study in Fall 2009, I hope to revise the research protocols as necessary to develop a national longitudinal study. In addition, as part of the LILAC Group (Learning Information Literacy Across the Curriculum) and co-host (with Bede Mitchell, Dean of the Zach S. Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University) of the annual Conference on Information Literacy , I hope to work with faculty as well as librarians, media specialists, and computer programmers to develop or contribute to development of tools that can be used to apply a just-in-time education model to information literacy education.

Expected Outcome(s) with Assessments: State the expected outcome(s) of the proposed project. Identify what is to be accomplished during the educational leave. State how theexpected outcome(s) will be assessed. Identify how you will know the outcomes have been accomplished.

Outcome 1: Design a study to be piloted beginning Fall 2009.

Assessment: Identify at least two first-year composition faculty members at Georgia Southern University to participate in pilot study. Faculty will review study for any suggested revisions; faculty will sign off on study design by agreeing to participate in pilot test.

Outcome 2: Complete necessary IRB training and approval forms.

Assessment: Successful submission of IRB application(s).

Outcome 3: Compose and submit article to peer-reviewed journal.

Assessment: Article submitted.

Significance of Project: Identify the significance of the project. Describe how the proposed project addresses the university's, college's and/or department's strategic plan and mission. Discuss the potential impact of the project.

Preliminary findings from the Educational Testing Service's (ETS) 2006 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment testing of almost 4000 college and high-school students accuse an appalling 87% of students of being information illiterate (Foster). While there seems to be general agreement that there is an urgent need for us to be information literate, there doesn't seem to be the same agreement on how to define what exactly that means. And yet, whether or not we know what information literacy is, we continue to administer tests to determine if students have "it." And of course, we continue to debate ways to teach information literacy skills.

ETS notes that these "bleak" results "show us that institutions need to consider how to better integrate ICT literacy skills into and across the curricula" ("College Students"). Betsy Barefoot, Co-Director for the Policy Center on the First Year of College and Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Brevard College, agrees; she argues that we need to make library instruction "an integral part of courses across the curriculum" through "continuing and creative collaboration between librarians and professors."

In their important book, Information Literacy: Essential skills for the Information Age, Michael B. Eisenberg, Carrie A. Lowe, and Kathleen L. Spitzer stress that "information literacy extends into the realms of critical thinking and ethical usage of information" (6). That is, it is not enough to be able to search for information in the library-or even within a library database; it is not enough even to be able to formulate an effective search string in Google: "[W]e must also be skilled in other literacies: visual, media, network, and, of course, basic literacy" (6-7).

The LILAC Group defines essential information literacy skills as the ability to recognize

1. when information is needed,
2. what kind of information is needed,
3. where to go to locate that information,
4. how to evaluate what we find,
5. how to integrate the information we discover with our own ideas and with those of others,
6. and, finally, how to adequately cite information, ideas, words, pictures, and other borrowings.

We believe that using a just-in-time learning model can help integrate the teaching (and learning) of these essential skills into the reading-and-writing model in a way that is more useful, more readily transferable, and more appropriate for the information age than current, more traditionally based models of instruction, moving from "a supplier-driven system that works efficiently for the teacher to a consumer-driven system that works effectively for students" ( "Just-in-Time Education").

In Datacloud, Johndan Johnson-Eilola argues that "because the pace of work has accelerated, the information space has flattened, with users increasingly unlikely to look outside their immediate interface for assistance on using the computer" (51). While Johnson-Eilola's book deals with software/computer interfaces, it is also directly applicable to instruction-not just instruction in acquiring technological skills, but, I would argue, most any instruction. Many of the components to inaugurate a just-in-time learning process are already in place at many universities, in writing labs, library Web sites, online courses, tutorials, handouts. However, we believe that there is much more that can be done, by providing students (and other researchers) with instruction at the point of need. That is, by using components such as text or voice messaging, blogs, pop-ups, podcasting, etc., in a layered structure, we can provide what one member of the LILAC Group so aptly terms "in your face" access to learning information literacy.

This study will help us to identify how and when we can best intervene in facilitating student acquisition of these essential skills.

Time Frame: Outline a time frame for the project, indicating dates for the accomplishment of specific outcomes.

January

• Begin IRB training
• Begin review of literature

February

• Continue review of literature
• Post summaries of literature to LILAC blog
• Begin drafting questions for study
• Begin draft of article

March

• Identify possible faculty partners
• Post draft of questions to LILAC blog for review
• Revise questions based on reviews
• Continue working on article; post to partners for feedback Identify possible venues for publication

April

• Finalize questions
• Determine possible scenarios for collecting responses from study participants
• Draft necessary permissions and letters to prospective participants
• Submit necessary materials for IRB approval
• Revise article and prepare to submit

May

• Make any necessary revisions for IRB
• Finalize study materials
• Submit article to peer-reviewed journal.
• Prepare for submission to international conferences (Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE], Conference on College Composition and Communication [CCCC] and/or the Computers and Writing Conference [C&W].

Reporting Mechanism: Specify how the results of the project will be reported to the department and college. Identify the time frame for reporting. Please note that the results of an educational leave will be included in the faculty member's annual evaluation.

By the end of May, I will compose a memo to the department chair and the Dean of the college outlining the work that has been completed. Copies of IRB forms, study questions, study scenario, and draft of the article will be posted to the LILAC group blog for department and college review, as well as for discussion among interested researchers, teachers, and others in the field.

Zach S. Henderson Library and the Faculty Learning Community of Information Literacy

Zach S. Henderson Library and the Faculty Learning Community on Information Literacy invite Georgia Southern faculty to visit two new Web pages designed for those seeking to integrate research competencies into their classes.

The following link http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/literacy.html will take you to a resource page summarizing support programs and resources from the Library for teaching students to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

The following link http://library.georgiasouthern.edu/libref/fyseminar.html will take you to sample assignments and tutorails designed to teach research or "information literacy" competencies. The sample assignments were developed by Georgia Southern faculty as well as faculty from around the country, and were compiled by the Faculty Learning Community on Information Literacy.

Kathy Albertson, Acting Chair, Department of Writing and Linguistics
Frank Atuahene, Department of Construction Management and Civil Engineering
Chris Caplinger, Director of First Year Experience
Tom Case, Acting Chair, Department of Information Systems
Bob Fernekes, Information Services Department, Henderson Library
LiLi Li, Information Services Department, Henderson Library
Bede Mitchell, Dean of the Library
Lisa Smith, Information Services Department, Henderson Library
Rebecca Ziegler, Information Services Department, Henderson Library

My Other Blog Has Information, Too!

Instead of repeating information here, even though it is related, I'm just going to link to it (isn't that, after all, the whole point of being online?!). So, here goes:

• Wednesday, November 14, 2007: Notes from the Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, http://mywabbit.blogspot.com/2007/11/notes-from-georgia-conference-on.html
• Saturday, March 8, 2008: Call for Proposals - 2008 Graduate Research Network, http://mywabbit.blogspot.com/2008/03/call-for-proposals-2008-graduate.html
• 2007 Georgia Conference on Information Literacy Pre-Conference Panel: "Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century"
• Call for Proposals, Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, Savannah, GA, October 3-4, 2008

Very strange (and I can't figure out exactly why), but sometimes links don't work until I press the enter key.... Hmmm, I'll have to figure this out someday. If you have problems accessing any of these URLs, try that and see what happens. Let me know if you have a solution to the problem!

I know, I know. It's been a very long time since I've added to this blog--and LOTS has happened in the world of LILAC. But that will have to wait until I have more time.

Right now, I just want to jot down a few notes/quotes from some reading I've been doing. So, here goes.

From "Non-existence of Systematic Education on Computerized Writing in Japanese Schools," by Taku Sugimoto (Computers and Composition 24 (2007): 317-328).

"For high school students, a new subject called 'information studies' is introduced in the current Course of Study. It has three major goals: to develop practical skills of using information, to understand information scientifically, and to cultivate attitudes to actively participate in the information society. There are three different courses under this subject. All the courses cover the three goals above, but the weight placed on each is different. Information Studies A, for example, lays stress on basic practical skills, and in teching those skills it touches on scientific and social issues. Information Studies B puts more emphasis on the scientific understanding of information while Information Studies C deals more with issues related to the information society. Every high school student in the country is mandated to take one of these courses" (320).

I really think this gets at something I've been thinking a lot about--that our current curriculum needs to be reformed. That is, instead of teaching research as part of writing instruction, I'd like for us to dump our "Freshman English" or "Composition" classes entirely (based as they are on an antiquated 19th century model) and, instead, teach "Information Literacy"--perhaps, as here, as a sequence of courses, each building upon the other (and, of course, offering "just-in-time" instruction!).

The article continues: "Besides these subjects for ordinary senior high school students, a vocational course in informatics [emphasis added] was established in the current Course of Study for those students who will enter the information industry right after graduation from high school. And a professional subject course in information studies was created for their education and covers such topics as information and expression, algorithms, development of information systems, network systems, simulations, computer design, processing figures and pictures, multimedia expressions, and so on" (320-21).

"Besides these subject matters on informatics, the Course of Study is designed to encourage information and communication technologies in all the subjects (i.e., mathematics, social studies, and so on). Giving students access to digital technologies for learning and teaching is intended to familiarize children with computers and other information/communication technologies" (321).

So, yeah, this article is dealing more with teaching communication technology, but the idea, I think, is the same, since the courses aren't just teaching how to deal with the technology.

Another article in the same issue deals with game playing, but it, too, I think references some lessons for LILAC, specifically, James Paul Gee's work:

From "On the Bright Side of the Screen: Material-world Interactions Surrounding the Socialization of Outsiders to Digital Spaces," by Sally W. Chandler, Joshua Burnett, and Jacklyn Lopez (Computers and Composition 24 (2007): 346-364).

"Similar to principles Gee attributes to games, Jackie and Josh position the learner to discover what she needs (Discovery Principle) and provide information only when the learner is on the verge of giving up (Explicity Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle) [emphasis added]. Directions help learners master the interface and provide support as they shift from material to digital styles for learning. This support differs from Gee's principles in that it is directed toward a learner who is outside the class of learners this particular game is designed to teach. The kind of person-to-person, material world support Jackie and Josh provide is particularly necessary for outsiders invested in semiotic practices inconsistent with practices built into the learning context. Experienced gamers' questions are answered by the game itself, but outsiders' different patterns for learning and making meaning make the game's information virtually inaccessible; cultural outsiders and technological newcomers initially need personalized, material-world support to use virtual spaces as places to learn" (356-57).

I think this is especially applicable to teaching information literacy skills in that we need to consider how to scaffold lessons. That is, considering learners (our students) as "cultural insiders/outsiders" can help us provide just-in-time instruction at various levels as needed by the learner, keeping in mind that not all of our students will enter the instructional model at the same levels. Or something like that.

By the way, Gee's book could be interesting to apply to our project:

Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).