Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 1

Information Overload: Working Together to Prepare Tomorrow’s Citizens

Karen Field

Georgia Southern University

Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 2

Abstract

This paper discusses 21st century skills, collaboration, and information literacy. Using current

research on information literacy, standards for media specialists, and 21st century skills, this

paper asserts that everyone in the school house is accountable for teaching information literacy

skills. There must be a collaborate effort in what is taught, how information is taught, how

assessment is tied to the skills of the 21st century, and the ethical responsibility of all

stakeholders to ensure that students are prepared to face the complex nature of the digital world

and use information to problem-solve.

Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 3

Information Overload: Working Together to Prepare Tomorrow’s Citizens

Hundreds of young adults traverse through the media center on a daily basis. Most days

there’s standing room only from the time the doors open at 7:20 a.m. until the tardy bell rings at

7:40. The congestion returns at 11:00 a.m. when the first lunch group arrives until 12:50 when

the third lunch group exits. What is it that draws these young people to what is now the “hub” of

the school house? Is it the books that line the wall? The reference books, so large you can’t help

but notice them? Or is it the newspapers and magazines laying around or arranged strategically

on the magazine racks? In today’s “Net Generation,” none of the above resources have the same

connection to today’s “gadget” oriented student as they did to the previous print-based

generation. Students flock to the media center to check class wikis, search for on-line resource

material, search for the hottest fashions, check up on the latest news stories, blog on sites of

personal interest, download music, or update and connect with their friends on face book or

MySpace. As educators whose jobs revolve around the ability to create and present material in

ways that connect to this “new and improved generation” (Teacher A interview), we are now

responsible for ensuring that we adequately prepare our students to meet the demands of the fast

pace of the information network-- powerful tools that provide an endless supply of information.

The task of combating the diversity and complexity of the internet has become one that

requires the efforts of both teachers and media specialists working in collaboration to ensure that

students are versed in locating information, analyzing the value and credibility of the source,

making sense of the information that is available, and accurately documenting and sharing these

ideas. According to Elena Silva, “Today’s workers in nearly all sectors of the economy must be

able to find and analyze information, often coming from multiple sources, and use this

information to make decisions and create new ideas” (2009). Howie DiBlasi, a retired Chief
Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 4

Information Officer, revealed to FETC conference attendees that one of the top three things

employers are looking for in new recruits is their ability to gather and evaluate information

(Riedel, 2009). Although these skills are not new to the curriculum, what is new is the sense of

urgency in making sure that all students, regardless of region, gender, and economics have the

same equality in the access to these skills. Much of the research on 21st century skills addresses

critical thinking as well an information gathering. The real issue, according to Andrew

Rotherham and Daniel Willingham, co-authors of “21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead,”

is one of ensuring that these skills are accessible at a universal level, not just for the students

who are fortunate enough to attend highly effective schools or who are fortunate enough to have

“encountered great teachers” (2009). If teachers, media specialists and schools are going to meet

the standard of equitable access to information and skills, a concerted effort has to be made to

provide the necessary technology, educational opportunities, and assessments that directly

correlate to the skills required for 21st century learners. Unfortunately, there are barriers that

stand in the way of this necessary progress.

While collaboration among teachers, teachers and media specialists, and teachers and

learners is an essential shift in the 21st century paradigm, the opinion of teachers is that necessary

collaboration time is not readily available. Every spring as schools work tirelessly to create the

most effective master schedule, it is almost impossible to embed collaborative planning periods

for grade level or content specific teachers. Making Strides High School created a schedule this

year that provides collaboration for ninth and tenth grade teachers English teachers; however, it

was impossible to schedule the same planning periods for the tenth and eleventh grade teachers

as well. Their planning has to occur before school, during lunch periods, or after school.
Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 5

Unfortunately, with the diversity of after-school schedules, it is sometimes difficult for this

collaboration to take place.

Even when this collaboration time is allocated, there is still some discussion over what

and how we should teach our students. There are still some teachers who believe that lecture-

based instruction is most effective—tell students what they need to know. Some teachers and

schools are just beginning to make the shift from “what we teach” to “how we learn,” a change

that directly targets the standard of students making sense of what they know and actually doing

something with the knowledge, other than regurgitating that knowledge on a standardized test.

According to Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway, “… children intuitively understand that

knowing how to use information to pursue an interest, a goal or a need is the key and that

learning how from concrete, image-based examples is an excellent starting point” (2009). This

belief creates a learning environment that allows students to take a problem and create a solution.

In order to come up with this solution, students, of course, need to go through the steps necessary

to reach their desired outcome. One teacher shared in an interview that one of her most

successful assessments last year was a class wiki assignment. Mrs. Wells, a classroom teacher,

in conjunction with the collaboration of Mrs. Friendly, a media specialist, instructed their

students on creating class wikis for novels they had read during literature circles. The teacher

meet the standards of her literature curriculum, but at the same time, she was able to provide a

forum for students to use critical thinking and inquiry, collaboration, ethical and proactive

membership in a group, and personal growth (Personal Interview). This assignment did not ask

students to focus on the plot of a book. Instead, the teacher gave the students an opportunity to

decide how to market this book to other students. Part of their design of their wikis focused on

their ability to visually “sell” the book. In addition, they had to understand key themes in the
Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 6

book as well as researching and including a biography of their writer. As they searched, they

had to determine which information was most useful, informative, and contributed to their

overall purpose.

By providing the students with a choice of what they read and then providing an

engaging format, Mrs. Wells’ students created wikis that were informative, visually appealing,

interesting, and something they took personal ownership of. What is interesting about this

scenario is that the collaboration between the teacher and the media specialist began as a result of

the teacher’s student teacher who was knowledgeable of wikis and wanted to incorporate them as

part of his teaching experience, demonstrating that teacher education program recognize the need

to adjust their program to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. Mrs. Wells, a 34 year

veteran, learned about wikis and their connection to her students via changes in the preparation

of tomorrow’s teachers (Personal Interview).

While the previous example demonstrates a successful collaboration between a teacher

and a media specialist, it is still unusual to hear of this. There is still a gap between what the

teacher teaches and what she can expect to media specialist to cover. There are some media

specialists who want to and look forward to the opportunity to collaborate and offer their

services to teachers, but they are concerned about overstepping their boundaries. (Teacher

Librarian Ning, 2009). There are still those individual in the school who think of the media

specialist as a “librarian” and not an effective collaborative partner who has a responsibility to

teach how to research, how to make sense of the amount of information students encounter, how

to establish the reliability of a source, as well as ethical use of the sources found on the internet

or in databases provided by the school. However, with the standards for the 21st century in print,

it should be easier for teachers and media specialists to share the responsibility of providing
Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 7

equal access to diverse information, helping students make sense of what they see and hear,

discern the importance of this new knowledge to them, and create opportunities for students to

share their knowledge in formats that are engaging and purposeful. Unfortunately, not all media

specialists are aware of these standards. The primary media center specialist at Making Strides

High School confessed that she did not know of these standards. The other media specialist, a

teacher turned media specialist, who just finished her media preparation last year, is aware of the

standards. It is she who teachers consult when they want to incorporate technology and

information in their classroom instruction (Personal Interviews).

There seems to be more collaboration at the elementary level compared to middle school

and high school. Mrs. Weekly, an elementary media specialist, has a curriculum map that

outlines lessons that directly relate to use of the media center and information literacy. Some of

these topics include “using the on-line library,” “The Big Research Process,” stories in

collaboration with grade level lessons, “plagiarism,” and “citing on-line resources.” Mrs.

Weekly’s primary jobs in the elementary media center are developing and sharing a love of

reading and research. Mrs. Weekly also stated that she likes to use the Big6 format

(http://www.big6.com) where the media specialist and/or the teacher take the students through

six steps: task definition, information seeking strategies, location and access, use of information,

synthesis, and evaluation, skills she thinks are important outside of the school context, but in

facing any process they encounter. In order to facilitate her connection with the grade levels, she

attends each grade’s collaborative planning sessions. Mrs. Weekly also commentated that using

problem-based assignments develops critical thinking skills and these skills are not just for the

school environment; they are life-long skills (Personal Interview).

Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 8

In order to design engaging and purposeful content lessons, teachers and media

specialists have to consider how students learn. Students should never be viewed as “receivers

of information.” Much of the research indicates that today’s net generation spends far less time

in front of the T.V. screen and more time connected to their mp3 players, I-pods, I-phones, and a

computer screen. If schools are going to reach and engage this group, instruction must have

personal connections, not just in the content, but in the process of completing the assignment.

This is no longer a pencil and paper, or textbook oriented learner. Teachers have to capitalize on

web tools and other forms of technology to captivate them, allow them to create ways that

demonstrate their understanding of the content of the course material, and provide opportunities

for students to share and present this new understanding to their peers. These are the skills that

corporate America will be looking for as our students venture out into the world of work. The

21st century learner should have the skills necessary to think critically, collaborate, and share.

Classroom activities and assessment should be aligned to focus on these specific skills. One way

that Mrs. Poppins draws her students into her classroom is through the use of blogs, wikis,

PowerPoint, moviemaker, and photo story. She provides her students with several opportunities

to choose the medium for their projects and assessments. Rather than requiring students to take

objective tests that demonstrate what they can recall, she challenges her students to find a

purpose in their reading. Her students value a classroom environment where they can upload

music and other sound files from their mp3 players or I-pods to enhance their presentations, an

environment that encourages them to think about why and how they learn and think versus the

traditional “what do you know” assessment (Personal Interview). Even though her students

value these opportunities, there are others who still are unwilling to create a balance between

content and skills.

Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 9

There is some discussion is the literature about the battle between teaching content versus

teaching skills. According to the AASL standards “process skills are best learned in the context

of content learning” (2009). The U.S. Department of Education has recently published a report

revealing findings that “skills and content are best learned together” (Silva, 2009). Students still

need exposure to the standard science, math, history, and language curriculum. However,

knowing this content in isolation does not prepare students to use content knowledge in other

problem-solving situations. Students must have the skills necessary to problem solve in different

situations. One example provided in Hersh’s article uses the idea that the study of science could

be used to discuss many of the world’s problem, rather than just having the discrete content

knowledge of that isolated piece of information (2009). Rotherham and Willingham seem so

think that the debate is not really about content versus skills at all. According to them, “…the

real issue is how to meet the challenges of delivering content in a rich way that genuinely

improves outcomes for students” (2009).

Once again, the discussion circles back to meeting the challenges of the ever-increasingly

diverse world of information. Educators are not in a position to sit back and continue to work

with the mindset of 20th century professionals. The information landscape has changed and the

onus is on us to develop content-specific instruction that is connected to the skills students must

have to go beyond an isolated lesson or class. Joyce Valenza, highlighted this preparation when

she shared a letter from a former student. Her student was able to solve a real-world problem by

knowing where the locate essential information and present his solution in a logical format

because he had the necessary information skills to complete this task. These are the skills that

educators want all students to have in their arsenal, not just discrete facts. The job of preparing

students to be successful in the 21st century is one that belongs to each stake-holder, whether it’s
Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 10

the teacher, the parent, the student, the administrator, or the media specialist. We all should be

working collaboratively, earnestly, and ethically to ensure that our students are prepared to meet

the challenges of the 21st century. Unless students’ experiences are rich and purposeful, and

embedded with information literacy skills, we cannot know that they are prepared to venture out

into a world that is fraught with unanswered questions, problems, and dilemmas. Buffy Hamilton

said it best when she made the comment that “we are at a critical moment in our profession, and

we need to seize the moment to collaborate with our learning community as leaders in

interpreting and teaching information literacy” (2009).

Information Literacy: Global Connections for the 21 st Century 11

References

American Assocation of School Librarians (2009). Standards for the 21st-century learner

in action. Chicago: American Association of School Librarians.

Creighton, Peggy Milan. (2008, July 18). Forum 12 NECC Ning. Video posted to

http://www.neccning.org/video/1997968:Video:34445

Hamilton, Buffy. (2009). Transforming information literacy for nowgen students. Knowledge

Quest, 37(5): 48-53.

Hersh, Richard H. A well rounded education or a flat world. (2009). Educational Leadership,

67(1): 16-21.

Lercher, Susanne. (2009, March 29). Topic-’21st century school libraries!’ Message posted

to http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/main/search/search?q=21st+century+skills

Norris, Cathleen and Elliot Soloway. (2009). From learning what to learning how. District

Administration, 45(3): 38 .

Riedel, Chris. (2009). Create, collaborate, communicate: empowering students with 21st

century skills. The Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com

articles/2009/01/27/2009/Create-Collaborate-Communicate-Enpowering-students-

with-21st-century-skills.aspx?sc_lang=en

Rotherham, Andrew J. and Daniel Willingham. (2009) Educational Leadership, 67(1): 16-21.

Silva, Elena. (2009). Measuring skills for 21st-century learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(9): 630-

634.