I am cross-posting this from the Module 5.2 forum on ETL401. There was a separate task for blog reflection in the section, but it was about what you could apply to your TL role at school and that is not relevant for me yet.
I think the main takeaway I got from the readings was the need to recognise and engage with the complexity of the concept of information literacy. We need to go beyond a mechanistic skill-based vision to encompass the contextual and social nature of the information landscape and the literacy needed to navigate it effectively – without abandoning the skills and competencies involved in that process. Although I am not certain that I have completely understood or been convinced by the relational frame for viewing information literacy; I was captured by the point in Bruce, Edwards and Lupton’s “Six frames for information literacy” (2006) article that there are multiple valid perspectives that can and should inform our understanding and teaching of information literacy. Being the benefits and validity of a new perspective does not mean you have to completely abandon everything from your previous perspective.
The issues that I have the most difficulty reconciling and struggle with the implications of are the difficulty of assessing – especially in a way that will be recognised as a standard across an educational system – of the more social, relational and contextual aspects of information literacy. How do we promote the development of information literacy skills that truly give learners the capacity to learn how to learn and transfer skills and competencies from one context to another. And how do we check to see whether that has happened successfully? These are the questions I hope to find answers to on MY learning journey.
References
Bruce, C., Edwards, C., & Lupton, M. (2006). Six frames for information literacy education: A conceptual framework for interpreting the relationships between theory and practice. ITALICS, 5(1), 1-18. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/14028.