Currently, I am taking Information Literacy in the Digital Age at the University of Mary Washington. Dr. Teresa Coffman is the professor. She has us working on the framework for a wikibook about Information Literacy in the K12 Classroom. The contributions from the class are coming along beautifully. Here are links to a few of them:

Differentiation and Information Literacy

ESL and Information Literacy

Information Literacy Theories

I could not help but feel, however, like something was missing. Then today, it hit me. I am writing a brief history of literacy in an effort to create a bit of context for the work. What is needed, I think, is a broader background in which educators and students can place this concept of information literacy.

In my brief contribution, I cited Stephen Stroup’s writing about the explosion of literacy rates after the development of printing technology. The printing press was, in fact, a piece of technology. As a matter of fact, it could very well be considered information technology. In the Revolutionary period in U.S. history, lanterns were widely used for communication. Who hasn’t heard the story of Paul Revere and “one if by land, two if by sea”? This simple phrase could be viewed as a form of information literacy. If we follow the American Library Association’s definition of information literacy:

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,

we should most definitely consider the recognition of one lantern or two a simple form of information literacy.

My point is this: information is nothing new, literacy is nothing new, technology is largely contextual in nature, and the interrelation of the three is well established. I believe that educators should be aware that information technology and information literacy are not products of Web 2.0. I further feel that, while we should offer some specific tools that educators can become familiar with now, we should focus our energies on providing educators the framework to find and use all tools: old, modern, and those yet to come.

Perhaps future classes can work towards these goals and further the background that I feel is so important to this topic.