 Plethora of literacies (functional, information, computer, digital, visual, e-literacy etc.) - Educational challenges  Add literacy to everything (mathematical, economic, emotional)  Term ‘literacy’ – quicksand of meanings and philosophical discussions ◦ Meta (behind, after, beyond, higher order) ◦ Trans (across, beyond, transcending)  War of Semantics  Constantly changing Slide 3 of 28

 Certainties are: Constant change Data and information abundance Globalisation (nationalisation)  Many academics and authoritative organisations worldwide indicated the changing twenty-first century skills expectations of people in learning, the work place as well as in their personal lives (Breivik 2005; Dede 2009; Horton 2008:i; IFLA; NRC; UNESCO).

 Twenty-first century skills include: deep cognitive learning critical thinking problem solving knowledge creation and application Information literacy/ICT fluency creativity innovation working in networks and teams problem-solving risk-taking coping with change

 The Partnership for 21 st Century Skills (P21) - specifically formed to consider these expectations and provide a framework.  Existing organisations: ◦ Metiri/NCREL ◦ OECD ◦ American Association of College and Universities (AACU) ◦ International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) ◦ CHE (in South Africa)  Information literacy appears consistently as an important twenty-first century competency.

 “to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (ALA 1989).  Adaptations (social aspects, technology)  Information literacy - umbrella term for media literacy, computer literacy, digital literacy, Internet literacy, ICT literacy…. (à la David Bawden)

 One of the driving forces behind all these changes in skills expectations is not technology per se, but specifically sophisticated ICTs.  Information literacy is one of the tools to make sense of information overload and to use ICTs effectively.  Being able to post on fb or tweet on twitter “does not an information literate make”.

 There seems to be a general understanding internationally that the ability to use technologies is not enough, nor is the easy access to and availability of information.  In order to be prepared for the twenty-first century, one must be information literate and have the ability to think critically about information

 Less instruction in how to locate information  Self-reliant and confident about information needs - to think critical about it.  Decode the packaging of information in any format from traditional text to electronic packaging where data is delivered as a screen image.  Problem is: need the basics to work from (library skills, bibliographic skills, finding skills e.g. using a dictionary or a book index)

Slide 6 of 28 There is no context to link information literacy to

 52 million people  1/3 under 4 years of age  Unemployment rate 25,5%  Low literacy levels (PIRLS reports)  7% functional school libraries  Less than 12% of population have some form of access to Internet.  Research shows that workforce does not read well enough for technological society  General believe that “using” a computer can leapfrog all these problems (or worse, dumping tablets in schools without intervention and mediation will change the face of education) Slide 3 of 28

 Teacher quality unqualified teachers  Less than 25% use libraries  Teachers are not taught information literacy skills during pre- service training  Principals and teachers: no or very low information literacy levels  There is no context to link information literacy to (no library etc)  Many teachers are not (even traditionally) information literate  Information literacy is not taught effectively in most South African Schools  Question is: what about university educators?

 Reference techniques  Verbatim copying  Plagiarism  Copyright

 No reading culture  Google generation  Do not care about DDC or keywords; much less about taxonomies and controlled vocabulary  Table of Contents  Index (economic index yes)  Third year information students – lack basic reference techniques  The same never visited or use a library  Question the relevance of cataloguing and classification

 Matthew effects(accumulated advantage)  Dunning-Kruger effect (mistakenly assessing one’s ability to be much higher than is accurate)  Also the librarian’s (indexer’s) challenge!