edition 14 - IL / IF and IL models

Into final assignment time ...
I was merrily traveling along til i read some of the forum posts -I had felt i was on the right path but am no longer as certain - the general confusion has confused me lol.

However, in doing more reading i was struck, as with when researching for assignment 1, how much of the literature we are provided with is from the 1990s and how some of the questions raised then, by people such as Langford still appear pertinent today - which led me to question if we are stuck in the conceptual phase of IL or are we simply refining the ideas of IL/IF and what it means in this period of changing technology. Obviously we have moved to the development of tools and processes as well, part a of the assignment is testament to that, but have these been applied in a consensual manner across schools or indeed across subject areas within schools? And have the application of information process models actually changed teaching practices?

Stripling says that IF is "now accepted in the field as a replacement for IL" but i actually think they are different - IF requires the skills needed for IL and can also encompass multiple other literacy types like visual and digital. However, i guess despite the "fuzziness" of the concept the models are designed to scaffold the process of learning from information - i thought it was interesting that Herrings PLUS model evaluation found that the more able students didn't think it helped them - which i guess indicates that these students have already internalised their own information models which follow the same basic principles (and are probably self-directed learners who don't need that level of scaffolding to complete tasks). It would be an interesting exercise to get students to individually record their own processes before introducing a model - in fact i wish i had done that prior to beginning this so i could see how similar/different my own model is to the professionals - perhaps i could create my own!!

Langford, L. (1999) Information literacy? Seeking clarification. In J. Henri and Bonanno (eds.) The Information literate school community: best practice, pp. 43-54 . Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Stripling, B. (2007). Assessing information fluency: gathering evidence of student learning. School library media activities monthly 23(8), 25-29.

Herring, J, Tarter, A. and Naylor, S (2002) An Evaluation of the Use of the PLUS
Model to Develop Pupils' Information Skills in a Secondary School. In School Libraries Worldwide 8 (1) 1-24

edition 13 - blogging, ILSC and TL literature

just a quickie as have to pick up girl 1 from school in 10 mins!
Have been looking at assignment 2 - don't think the marking sheets are as helpful for this one.
Also think that maybe i haven't quite been blogging the learning journey they were expecting - not enough about the course material and too much about my responses to being a student. Perhaps this is one critical reflection for my blog section!
I guess my approach to blogging is quite informal, though i know that some students blogs are quite rigorous and follow the module and forum blogs closely, it just doesn't sit right with the way I'm inclined to write. This is not to say that i haven't been reflecting on my journey, I keep internally referring to some of the reading's I've done and there are a few terms, questions and ideas that recur - has information fluency become the acceptable term now for information literacy? How many principals have heard of an ILSC, why didn't i have a better understanding of the scope of the TL and where/how should that understanding have been communicated to me, and would i still be unaware if i hadn't started this course (very probably) and part of this keeps coming back to modelling of other teachers (after all that's who us beginning teachers look to), the school's pedagogical approaches, philosophies and expectations, teacher training, induction and the cross-over in literature. My subject areas are history, geography, social studies and science (yes it is a funny combination!) but in all the literature i read about teaching in general and subject specific, I don't recall a single article that was either written by a TL or referred to how the library/TL may be utilised in terms of planning or resources. Perhaps the real revolution needs to start at the teacher training level. Though as many of you (and me) have pointed out the potential success of the TL in cases does come down to personality.

anyway, back to the assignment.