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A Digital Information Literacy Course for University Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities

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A Digital Information Literacy Course for University Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences 2018 IATUL Proceedings A digital information literacy course for university teachers: Challenges and possibilities Katri Rintamäki University of Vaasa (Finland) Anne Lehto University of Vaasa (Finland) Katri Rintamäki and Anne Lehto, "A digital information literacy course for university teachers: Challenges and possibilities." Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences. Paper 4. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/iatul/2018/infolit/4 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. A digital information literacy course for university teachers: challenges and possibilities Rintamäki, Katri University of Vaasa, Finland, [email protected] Lehto, Anne University of Vaasa, Finland, [email protected] Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Anne Aro and Maria Byholm for additional information and Ann‐Sofie Källund for language revision. Abstract In Finland, digitalization is taken as the basis for the development of education: for creating new kinds of learning resources, learning environments, and pedagogy. From primary schools to universities, digital learning is essential. In digital learning, libraries play an important role. University libraries spend most of their acquisition budget on digital information resources and actively promote high- quality open access resources. In digital learning, the libraries and librarians' expertise in digital information resources, in information and digital literacies, and in open research and open science, are vital. Information literacy education for students, even information literacy courses included in the curricula, is an established task of university libraries. However, information literacy courses for university teachers have seldom been arranged or researched. Pioneeringly, information literacy is now included in university pedagogy in a research-based teaching development project called HELLA – Higher Education Learning Lab. In HELLA, a new study module (60 ECTS) in university pedagogy is developed and piloted in order to strengthen the pedagogic and digital competencies of university teachers. The Tritonia Academic Library is responsible for planning and piloting the course "Digital information resources and information literacy in teaching" (5 ETCS). This course aims to develop university teachers' pedagogic competence to use digital information resources and practices of open science in their teaching and research. The vision of the course is to integrate information literacy into teaching so that the teachers with their own behavior can give a model for students' information skills. The course is based on digital learning, utilizing for example the methods of hybrid learning and flipped classroom. This paper analyses special characteristics, challenges, and possibilities of information literacy courses for university teachers based on digital learning. Keyword: academic libraries, courses, digital learning, information literacy, university teachers, Finland Introduction and background University libraries have taught information literacy for three decades. In 1989, the ALA Presidential Committee on Information Literacy stated that in order to “be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information”. The CILIP Council adopted a very similar interpretation in 2004. Information literacy has close connection to other literacies, like data, digital, ICT, media, research, scientific, and visual literacy. The definition of ICT literacy sounds quite familiar to an information literacy educator: “ICT literacy is using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society” [International ICT Literacy Panel 2007, 2]. During the last decade, the definition of information literacy has widened. More emphasis is given to the research process as a whole, from data collection through data analysis and sharing, to data preservation and discoverability. More and more libraries are launching data information literacy initiatives as a component of the data services offered to their constituencies. [Carlson et al. 2015, 17.] In 2015, the Association of College and Research Libraries defined information literacy to be “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning”. The new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education stresses the research process in a much more holistic fashion, the understanding of research work, and the very nature of scholarship [Badke 2015, 71]. In 2018, CILIP underlined information literacy to be “the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.” The new information literacy definitions emphasize not only searching and using information, but also creating information and participating in the academia and in the society as a whole. The new digital technologies have transformed education profoundly. The ready access to information has dealt a critical blow to intermediaries, like libraries. However, nothing about the digital information world is nearly as easy as its proponents claim it to be. [Badke 2017, 68.] The new literacies are becoming more and more important in the digitalized world. When everyone have an easy access to information online and libraries’ role as information mediators diminishes, librarians gain significance as communication and community builders capable of functioning in both digital and physical environments [Tuominen & Saarti 2012, 133; Maceviciute 2014, 288], using and supporting the technology effectively and gaining maximum value from it [Hurst 2013, 405]. Academic libraries spend most of their acquisition budget on digital information resources and actively promote high- quality open access resources. In digital learning, the libraries and librarians' expertise in digital information resources, information literacy, and open science are vital. Academic libraries should show their value in education, providing proper resources, establishing and managing digital repositories, and giving students and faculty the meeting place for learning and accessing knowledge found nowhere else [Cerbo 2011, 189]. Information literacy education for students, even information literacy courses included in the curricula, is an established task of university libraries. Academic libraries have a very strong status in the information literacy education, but one-shots do not accomplish the main goals of information literacy. The task of developing information-literate students is too large to leave to the librarians alone. Information literacy instruction should be extended beyond the libraries and media centers and into a synergistic environment [Witt & Dickinson 2004, 84]. Enlisting faculty in the cause of information literacy is the key to putting it on the academic agenda. [Badke 2017, 67.] Supervisors form the most valued, most frequent and influential academic contacts for doctoral students (British Library & JISC, 2012, 60; Delaney & Bates 2018, 79). Information literacy is connected to the very core of the academia: critical thinking. It must not be just mechanical information seeking skills, but it must equip students with critical thinking skills to define, consider, solve, embrace, and champion the ethical, political, social, and cultural opportunities and dilemmas that are presented to them in the digital age [Hoffmann & Wallace 2013, 547]. To develop into a skilled information handler takes the entire course of a student’s education. In fact, in many ways, in our era of information glut, becoming informationable actually is the education. [Badke 2017, 67.] And in order to model the information process for their students, it is important for teachers to reflect on their own use of information in professional learning [Williams & Coles 2007, 204]. However, one should not assume teachers to be highly information-literate. Research shows that school teachers often lack the information literacy skills and knowledge required for their work [Godbey 2017]. School teachers use mostly information sources within the familiar surroundings of the school, partly due to easy access, but also due to lack of knowledge about possible sources and lack of confidence in one’s own information skills [Williams & Coles 2007, 193–204]. Even doctoral students have very different information skills being a varied group with varied educational experience: older students are not digital natives, and even young, digital native students usually have more confidence than competency in research literacy [Delaney & Bates 2018, 67–72]. Information literacy courses for university teachers have very seldom been arranged or researched. This case study describes an information literacy course for university teachers that is being planned by Tritonia Academic Library as a part of the new higher education pedagogy study module in the development project HELLA. The paper analyses special characteristics, challenges, and possibilities
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