Post 5- Things, the beginning

I am going to go back to the first thing- Information Literacy- and try to do this with some method to the madness. I have been doing quite a bit of reading on the topic of information literacy and am struck with several things:

1. I really liked the Shapiro and Hughes article that references it as a "liberal art." I have thought of it more as a very badly neglected basic skill, the liberal art argument elevates the notion in a way that seems to... add value, perhaps.
2. Most experts talk about information literacy (IL) as one of the many "new literacies" that educators not only need to be aware of, but teach. I actually see it as an umbrella that includes all of the related 21st century literacy skills. For example, if our students are going to get information from audio and video as well as print sources, then media literacy is the evaluation component of IL.
3. And lastly, I have seen several very well written "call to action" articles regarding the importance of teaching IL, with publication dates in the 1990's. So, I am wondering why IL is still not on the radar of our school leaders and policymakers. We remain so very focused on basic skills, at the detriment of our students. I really worry about the soulessness (sp?) of where we are at.

The good news is that here we are, in year two of the MILP, school by school and teacher by teacher, making a difference for our students. It is a pleasure to work with you all.

Leslie