Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Information Literacy and IT Literacy
Clifford Lynch had me from the very beginning when he spoke about the importance of teaching information literacy, and his concluding statements about information literacy were quite prescient in 1998. Having just spent a semester learning about information literacy skills and the importance of teaching them in schools, I definitely agree with his statements. However, he lost me with his discussion of the extensiveness of information technology literacy in order for us all to function as informed citizens. I think an understanding of those areas, such as electrical power distribution, broadcasting and financial infrastructure, would indeed be valuable, but I hardly believe that not having a basic understanding of these and other areas will, as Lynch stated, limit one's ability to function intelligently in society.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Melisa,
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of a quote that I've seen attributed to Arthur C. Clarke (eg here), "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Where "sufficiently advanced" lies depends on the observer. I know a few people for whom an iPhone is essentially magic. I sort of think that Lynch's point was that we can't allow that "magic" threshold to fall too far into the primitive.
There are problems inherent in any society where a vast number of people are using technology that only a few know anything about. The one that I personally see with some frequency is the hopeless frustration of attempting to deal with problems in a system you don't understand.
For example, when my parents try to use the internet and get angry that it's too slow (they're still on dial-up), they resort to pounding on the mouse (click...click...clickclickclickclickclickclickclick), trying to speed things up. Obviously, this is counter productive, but they don't know that because they have little understanding of how the internet actually works.
I imagine the equivalent of not knowing how electricity works might be attempting to make a homemade extension cord out of some copper cable. Or in the case of financial infrastructure, it might be getting roped into a loan that puts your mortgage underwater within 5 years.
I simply adore this notion of “sufficiently advanced technology” as being “indistinguishable from magic.” However, I fear that the threshold for what qualifies as “sufficiently advanced” is hovering much closer to primitive than most people would like to admit. For instance, I’ve literally witnessed people in library computer labs ask for assistance by speaking directly into their mouse, walkie talkie syle. No joke!
ReplyDeleteIn a way though, this reflects the continued relevance of librarians as mediators between information and it’s rapidly evolving containers. Can you imagine the sort of loyalty an IT illiterate patron might have for their magic wielding librarian?