6816 - Weekly Reading #5

1.What does the term "discursive practices" mean?

• According to an online definition it means - the words, signs, symbols and ideas that are used to represent material practices. Retrieved from http://www.thebicyclingguitarist.net/studies/geog_glossary.htm#D

2.What does "discourse" mean?

• It is written or spoken communication. 

3.What is the "rock" and what is the "hard place"?

• "The rock is the current conceptions of information literacy that represent information literacy as a skill or competency that is confined to information access and use, and associated with tools such as text or technology. The hard place refers to attempts to translate this conception from the formal learning regimes of education and academic libraries to other sectors where learning is less structured or systematized, but is just as important" (Lloyd, 2011).

4.What are the differences between the skills prescribed for information searching in academic and workplace settings?

• Academic settings normally have "particular rules, regulations, and curriculum that are underpinned by an instrumental rationality."  Workplace settings; however, are defined "as messy, complex, and distributed through a range of practices that entwine to contribute to the collective performance of work" (Lloyd, 2011).

5. How do academic notions of information literacy undermine workplace notions information literacy?

• Academic notions still try to attempt in translating the librarians' thoughts of the operational lists and standards in education.  Whereas the workplace focuses on researchers.

6. How are information needs identified in work place setting like nursing and emergency workers?

• When it comes to nurses - they need to be able to communicate an decipher what the other nurses, doctors, and patients are saying.  Also, it is a team effort - therefore, information needs are entirely important.  Emergency workers are also important in this same sense - the team effort and knowing the information needed.

7. Why do issues of plagiarism not resonate in workplace settings?

• Plagiarism does not resonate in the workplace setting because "this type of knowledge is considered to be a collective possession and disseminated and circulated throughout the workplace, by storytelling, and extended through the distributed networks of professional practice" (Lloyd, 2011).

8. Are information literacy skills transferable across contexts and settings? Why or Why not?

• According to the author, no - information literacy skills are not transferable across contexts and settings.  This is due to not knowing the exact context in which things are being said.  It is also due to the application and the organization of the information, as well.

9. What is "practice theory"?

• Practice theory "emphasize(s) the analysis of ways of engaging with the world" (Lloyd, 2011).

10. How does the author of this article define information literacy?

• "Knowledge of information sources within an environment and an understanding of how these sources and the activities used to access them are constructed through discourse. Information literacy is constituted through the connections that exist between people, artifacts, texts and bodily experiences that enable individuals to develop both subjective and intersubjective positions. Information literacy is a way of knowing the many environments that constitute an individual being in the world. (Lloyd, 2010, p. 26)"

11. How do educators need to change their understanding of information literacy literacy in order to prepare student for the information literacy practices they will encounter in workplace settings?

• Educators need to realize that information literacy is everywhere.  Our students will need to learn how to understand these literacy practices to be better in the workplace.  Information literacy is a critical part of everyday life for these students.

12. What do the terms "ontological" and "epistemological" mean?

• I believe that ontological means being able to deal with the nature of oneself.  I believe that epistemological means the theory of knowledge - what one knows.

13. After reading this article, how useful is the traditional research paper we expect students to produce in school in preparing them for workplace settings? What are traditional research papers useful for? Should we still assign traditional research papers?

• I believe that the traditional research paper that we expect our students to write is not helping them prepare for the workplace setting.  I feel that it is an important part of basic instruction - the students do need to realize how to do a paper an understand the basic ways.  However, I feel that they should not be as drawn-out and on-going.  These students need to focus on the important basics - not the unimportant parts that will not help them in the workplace setting.

14. What is one of the biggest challenges to changing the way information literacy is conceptualized in school settings?

• The biggest challenge is the abundance of information that is shared and collaborative.  Students not only can help each other - but there is so much of the same information that they can be using.  I know that in schools teachers are rooting for individual assignments and work - and opposed to partnering up and working together.

15. What attributes of the 21st century make it essential that educators change their approaches toward information literacy?

• Students need to realize that the amount of information at their fingertips may not be 100% true.  We nee to train these students to triangulate information - check sources - an validate their information.  They need to know that there is a time and a place for certain information.

16. What changes can teachers make to their classroom activities to engage students in the information literacy practices they will encounter in 21st century workplace settings?

• I feel that I would do more research assignments that go along like our TrackStars - I would want to lead them through the evaluating process.  After they understand the evaluating process maybe have group/individual research projects to get them to use their knowledge of evaluating; however, using their knowledge of information literacy, as well.

Source:

Lloyd, A. (2011). Trapped between a Rock and a Hard Place: What Counts as Information
Literacy in the Workplace and How Is It Conceptualized? Library Trends, 60 (2) pp. 277-296