Why we need to teach information literacy skills for the Internet

On 26th March I was lucky enough to see Tara Brabazon deliver the ISG (Scotland) Annual Lecture.

Portrayed by the media as being 'anti-Google' and a controversial commentator on the digital world her assertion that the Internet isn't a library and Google isn't a catalogue is, unsuprisingly, very much in tune with librarians' thinking.

She states the Internet is far from being an inclusive place where everyone can equally publish and access information. Fair to say, librarians know this and agree.

She highlights there are many in our society who for a variety of reasons are excluded from digital information and describes an information literacy matrix she uses with her students to build an 'information scaffold' enabling them to apply information literacy skills.

To illustrate, she described traditional models of literacy (citing Mary Macken-Horarik's 4 tier model of literacy) as being horizontal (or linear) and using teaching strategies to progress from the easier skills to the harder skills right through to the top tier. All very familiar. But then there's the Internet. A place where people do their online shopping, and routinely cut and paste stuff they think must be accurate because it's in the first page of their Google search results. She went on to describe the movement of information on Web 2.0 tools as "bouncing on the crust of knowledge". People's representation of an event as the story is bounced around the Internet. Where is the truth?

Tara argues the shallowness of this online information seeking behaviour requires an information scaffold to enable us all to apply information literacy skills to the Internet beyond simply how to use particular Web 2.0 tools. In short, she argues information literacy skills are required to take us from the 'how' of Web 2.0 to the 'why'. This is why we need to teach information literacy skills for the Internet.

Tara Brabazon is Professor of Media Studies at The University of Brighton.

Library: the vanguard of Internet training

There is clearly a demand for our Internet skills courses. We have 21 people on the waiting list for Internet Skills in the Workplace and 11 people on the waiting list for our Web 2.0 Workshop. To help reduce this I’ve been arranging additional sessions. This means we are almost running a course a week. And noteworthy that the Library alone is providing these courses. This obviously has resourcing implications for the Library. However, we have received very good feedback from delegates so far, and it appears we are delivering what the organisation needs. So it's all absolutely worthwhile, and right that this is what the Library should be doing.

It has also become clear that due to the speed at which the Internet changes both courses will be in perpetual Beta. I have already helped to make quite a number of revisions to course materials in light of feedback from delegates, Library staff and new resources we felt should be included. But by being aware of changes to the Internet and new tools, it will be fairly easy to keep our materials updated. Whilst this will take some resource to manage, the benefits of up-to-date course materials make this investment in effort worthwhile.

So, no surprise that since my last update I have been involved in a lot of development of Library course materials. Specifically:

Internet Skills in the Workplace
I completed co-writing the Internet Skills in the Workplace course materials and ran through the new Internet Skills in the Workplace course with the rest of the team for comments.

Web 2.0 Workshop
I completed co-writing the Web 2.0 Workshop materials. As with the Internet Skills course this includes trainers and delegates manuals, presentation, exercises and the course checklist for the trainers.

We received feedback on Web 2.0 Workshop exercises from Library colleagues, and redrafted the exercises taking comments on board. This proved to be particularly useful as the exercises provide much of the course content.

So far, I have been co-presenting all Web 2.0 Workshops. But next Wednesday all Library staff will be given training which will enable all Library trainers to deliver this course.

Web 2.0 for Policymakers
I co-wrote the course materials for Web 2.0 for Policymakers, although a colleague did most of the research on this, finding may relevant examples of Web 2.0 in Government. The course was successfully delivered on 26/11.

After further updating and tweaking, course material for the Web 2.0 Workshops and Web 2.0 for Policymakers is now complete. The resources we added to the policymakers course helps ensure the focus is on tools for Government staff. Therefore it was decided to put all the content into our Web 2.0 Workshop and run that for everyone. Trainer’s notes will help ensure we focus on resources relevant to delegates.

Corporate Induction
Having co-presented a Corporate Induction session on 29/9 it was agreed to make the Library part a bit more interactive, and we would spend a couple of minutes asking delegates what they thought the Library could do for them. Writing their ideas on a flipchart before revealing what we do via the ppt slides. This simple change does seem to work and liven up the session a bit.

SG Web 2.0 blog
I set up a test SG Web 2.0 blog (http://sgwebtrainingtest.wordpress.com/) as a place to easily make our course materials available and to encourage discussion amongst SG staff on Web 2.0. If you wish to see our current course materials, take a look. However, we are considering other options, so very likely we do this via another tool. Watch this space!

A-Z list of Library resources
I’ve also been working with our Digital Comms team to make the Library’s list of resources more accessible. Applying metadata to each resource will enable us to do much more with this potentially useful list.

Teaching Web 2.0 skills in the workplace

It's been Graft Central at my desk this week. Back from my hols for a week and (amongst other duties) I've...

Collated and considered feedback for our new look library homepage. Now written, waiting to be published. Now to sort out the rest of them. Stares blankly into the abyss.

Discussed tweaks to the new Internet Skills course. Which needs to be called something zestier than 'Internet Skills'. Mmmmm. Must work on that.

Also helping with the materials for a short interactive hour long Web 2.0 course, and a full 3 hour version of same. Yep. A 3 hour long webby course.

Staff want Web 2.0 tools. Glossing over the apparent demand for YouTube, it's clear there is a need for this. And more tools are being made available in our workplace to satisfy this expectation. So we really do need to show staff the most relevant. It will be interesting to see their expectations, assumptions and interest in these tools. Which ones will they want to use and why?

Anyway, all that left me so weak with effort that I'm on holiday. Again. This time there's no plan to do any work whatsoever.

Well...