FIT: Betty's Presentation Notes

Betty's Presentation Notes

No other change has offered greater challenges than the emergence of the Information Age. Information is expanding at an unprecedented rate, and rapid strides are being made in the technology for storing, organizing, and accessing the ever-growing deluge of information. As our research and teaching increasingly rely on global networks for the creation, storage, and dissemination of knowledge, a new information literacy has emerged.

While providing access to information used to be our primary challenge, we now face a new and formidable task: coping with an excess of information and ensuring that our students possess the skills and proficiencies necessary to succeed in this evolving, information-rich environment.

What used to suffice as literacy no longer suffices; what used to be considered as effective knowledge is no longer sufficient. Information and technology literacy has become a survival skill.

Instead of drowning in the information that floods their lives, information literate people know how to find, evaluate, and use information critically---whether that information comes from a journal article, a book, a government agency, the Web, a faculty member, the Libraries, television, or any number of other possible sources.

At the core of information literacy are familiar skills that have always been a part of our teaching and research; we have always sought to help our students become "critical thinkers."

To reap the benefits of and, more importantly, to lead in a knowledge-based world, University of Washington graduates must possess sophisticated information and technology proficiencies. They must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively.

Ultimately, information literate graduates are those who have learned how to learn. They are prepared for lifelong learning.

The saturation of our daily lives with information organized and transmitted via information technology, and the way in which public issues and social life are increasingly being shaped by issues such as intellectual property and privacy, require an information curriculum that is multidimensional. This multidimensional approach demands that we collaborate with each other. The broadest range of educators will need to be working together to support the information and technology literacy of our students.

Producing such students will require that we all appreciate and integrate these concepts into the university's curriculum and into our work.

Your attendance here today indicates that you recognize that you have a role to play in equipping our students and our university to take advantage of the opportunities inherent within the information society.

Librarians recognize we have a central role to play.

Librarians have a long tradition of working with faculty to ensure that students make full, independent, and critical use of library resources. As the universe of information expands and becomes even more technologically dependent, librarians - ‹the information expert - s‹bring unique competencies to the educational challenges presented by information and technology literacy.

The University Libraries also works on your behalf to acquire and make widely available the rich collections and information resources you and your students need to carry out research, to learn, and to engage in independent inquiry. With the advent of powerful online tools such as electronic databases, the Web, and, most recently, the Libraries Information Gateway, the Libraries is strengthening its role in selecting, organizing and delivering information resources in meaningful ways.

There is much work to be done, and some notable efforts are already underway.

I'd like to share with you a few of the many collaborative initiatives on our campus that seek to engender the information literacy of our students.

UWired was created to provide resources and support to help find effective ways to use technology in teaching and learning at the University of Washington. Founded in 1994 as a collaboration of the University Libraries, Computing & Communications, and the Office of Undergraduate Education, UWired has grown from a small pilot project for a few incoming freshmen to a campus-wide initiative that serves thousands of students and hundreds of faculty. Partners in the UWired collaboration now include Educational Outreach and the Office of Educational Partnerships.

One of the UWired collaboration's primary goals is to develop strategies to promote information literacy.

Linked courses are one strategy that appears to work well. Linked courses offer undergraduate students the opportunity to learn important skills in classes that are linked to courses in a disciplinary field.

Let me take a moment to review four types of linked courses at the University.

The first type of Linked Courses provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to take an information resources seminar in conjunction with a large lecture class. Librarians collaborate with faculty to develop and deliver instruction in locating, evaluating and using information in the context of a particular academic subject.

Seminars may use such tools as online discussions and peer-reviews, and cover topics such as evaluation criteria, copyright issues, use of library databases and Web searches. Specific curricula support the assignments and coursework of the linked lecture class.

A second variation of the Linked Course is being developed collaboratively by the School of Library and Information Science, the University Libraries, UWired, and several other academic departments. This first undergraduate offering under the aegis of the School of Library and Information Science will be a service course to provide an introduction to the intellectual and pragmatic abilities that can be called information technology literacy.

By working with courses in different disciplines, we hope to explore the range of concepts and abilities that students may require.

The third type of linked courses is the Freshman Interest Group (FIG) program introduced in 1987. First- quarter freshmen enroll in clusters of courses organized around themes, and all students in a FIG take the same set of courses. Each FIG includes a resource seminar taught by a Peer Instructor and in 1994, information and technology topics were added to the seminar curriculum.

The 2,000 freshmen enrolled in FIGs develop core competencies in electronic communication, Internet and the Web, and library resources.

The final example of linked courses is UWired's collaborative effort with the Interdisciplinary Writing Program. The Writing Program uses an integrated instructional model linking writing instruction to specified lecture courses. UWired sponsored a pilot program adding librarian-taught sessions to existing Writing Program courses. Librarians provide instruction in the use of information resources in a way designed to complement course assignments.

The specifics of writing assignments, and hence the information resources and retrieval methods covered by the librarian, vary considerably across sections. A writing link to an American history course may involve students in historical research with primary source materials. Students in a writing course linked to a geography class may be asked to use observational field methods and statistical data sets to examine urban phenomena.

What are the lessons we can learn from linked courses?

Skills are learned best if taught in a disciplinary context
Complex skills require a substantial response ‹not just adding something on top of a course but teaching a new course
Linked courses add coherence to the educational experience, building bridges between subjects and skills, and letting students see how the sum is greater than the parts.
We need collaboration among different people. Faculty, teaching assistants, writing instructors, and librarians are key.
It's all so new that strategies are evolving. We must keep a flexible approach.

While programs such as linked courses are one way that we are collectively responding to the demands of the Information Age, we cannot be content to think information and technology literacy can be taught, supported, and reinforced through these efforts alone. Across the University, faculty are recognizing the challenges posed by our information flood, and are preparing their students for the challenges of the future.

Let me give you two examples.

Professor Kurt Engelmann is enhancing information literacy in his upper division course. Dr. Engelmann's course, "Electronic Resources and Research Methods in Russian and International Studies", gives students a technical foundation and tackles tough information literacy issues specific to electronic resources and student research. The course encourages self-directed research and profiles the face of information available to student researchers today -- all through the lens of the Russian/ Eastern European/ Central Asian Studies Program (REECAS) in the Jackson School.

Throughout his course, Dr. Engelmann builds a logical approach to research conceptualization and teaches students basic technical skills to effectively interact with electronic resources that may assist them in their research pursuits. Dr. Engelmann divides information literacy into finding and creating. Background research, literature reviews, and support research, while falling under the finding category, are typically crucial in the process of creating information such as individual research projects and original publications.

With this distinction in mind, Dr. Engelmann guides students through a research process in which he:

asks students to identify a research topic
points students to useful resources (model links to both useful and unreliable information in the discipline as well as creative sites)
consults with librarians regarding useful databases and search techniques
asks students to critically analyze references (including Web resources).

Dr. Engelmann's ultimate goal is for his students to use information tools toward advanced research in the REECAS program.

In the School of Medicine, Dr. Edward Walker's students are learning how their study and future practice of medicine depends on being fluent with information technology. In his course, "Systems of Human Behavior and Developmental Medicine," Dr. Walker's students study how the complex interaction of biology, developmental history, environment and behavior results in illness and disease.

His course is not about information technology, yet he impresses upon medical students how their practice of medicine will be dependent on their ability to know how to find information, how to evaluate it's credibility, and how to use it to solve patient cases.

Walker's students are assigned in small groups to "virtual clinics" which meet online weekly to consider new patient cases and share their recommendations, thoughts and concerns. The cases the students are presented with have been developed by Walker to illustrate common clinical situations that are difficult to capture in a lecture or textbook.

A patient with the disorder fibromyalgia prompted several students to search the Web for information and set up a discussion of how the Web can be both useful and dangerous, particularly in the context of medicine.

Walker and his students discuss how to evaluate Web sites and other information. Students examine how to assess such factors as peer review, scientific validity, the credentials of the web author and any apparent conflicts of interest.

In another case, medical students are presented with a Cambodian patient, speaking to them through an interpreter, who reports signs of depression. In order to approach this case, students learn how to use online resources such as Ethnomed (developed collaboratively by the University Libraries) that provide them with information and tools to practice medicine that is sensitive to cultural differences and ultimately more efficacious.

Professors Engleman and Walker are but two examples of educators at the University who have recognized the intimate links between their fields of study, information technology, and information literacy.

UWired is working to highlight and support efforts such as these through the newly launched Catalyst initiative. Catalyst is the premier resource UWired provides to campus educators to support their teaching of information technology literacy.

Catalyst is an integrated Web-based collection of resources, training, tools, templates, and support to help UW educators make effective use of technology in teaching. UWired worked with faculty and other educators through much of 1998 to create it. Catalyst Web was launched last week and is accessible through the UWired home page.

Much good work is underway. But something is missing.

We know from the surveys of graduating seniors and alumni that being able to locate information needed to make decisions or solve problems, and being able to work effectively with information technology, are ranked at the top of their list of necessary lifelong skills.

We learned from library surveys that undergraduates place a high priority on instruction in the use of information and technology resources.

We also know that students are looking to the faculty, to librarians, to their departments, and to UWired for more and better-integrated instruction.

Not only do our students value information literacy, but also they come prepared to take advantage of the instruction we can provide.

In a survey of students conducted before they started school last fall,

80% of the entering freshmen expected to have a computer in their UW residence.
90% had used a word processor at least weekly during the past year
and 76% had used the Internet at least weekly.
83% said they were comfortable using a computer and
67% said they were 'very' or 'extremely likely' to seek out opportunities to work with computers or on the Internet.

However, although they are somewhat proficient with the tools, they have much to learn about using them for research and scholarship.

Fewer than half of the entering freshmen rated themselves as 'very good' or 'excellent' in:

Critically analyzing written information (37%)
Defining and solving problems (50%)
Working effectively with modern technology, especially computers (39%)
Locating information needed to make decisions or solve problems (42%)

Additionally, although the majority of students have excellent access to computers and experience using them, there remains the minority who do not. These students are in critical need of additional support.

The need is great. The stakes are high.

While much good work is in place, we must acknowledge that our approach to information and technology literacy has been piecemeal, diffuse, and episodic.

Let me leave you with some questions to consider before we take a break.

How might we share the responsibility for the information and technology literacy of our students?
Where and how might we infuse the curriculum with information and technology literacy?
What curricular approaches are integrative, comprehensive, and scaleable?
What partnerships would be beneficial?
How do we, as an institution, articulate our work with K-12 and community college information literacy competencies and initiatives?
How will we know when our students have attained information and technology literacy?
technology literacy instruction?

With those questions, we will take a 15-minute break.

Please enjoy some refreshments before we reconvene and begin exchanging ideas and strategies.

Thank you for your attention.