UTS 2000

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Transforming Learning through Action Research
Information and Critical Literacies

• Dr Ross Todd
• Head, Department of Information Studies
• University of Technology, Sydney
• Ross.Todd_at_uts.edu.au

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• the age of information
• dot.com age
• dot.con age
• age of the mind
• info place ? info space
• info space ? knowledge space

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CYBER SOCIETY

• cyber communities
• cyber democracy
• cyber language
• cyber activism
• cyber patrol

• cyber stress
• cyber overload
• cyber sense
• cyber shopping
• cybrarian

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The information environment

• complex and fluid
• connective and interactive
• diverse and unpredictable
• no longer constrained by time and place
• info place ? info space

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Schooling .

• is all about providing the best learning
  opportunities for students to make the most of
  their lives as sense-making, constructive,
  independent people
• Students know how to be an active agent in
  their rich information space

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ACTIVE LEARNING

constructing knowledge and sense
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CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE

• Turning information into knowledge is the most
  intellectually challenging, time-consuming, and
  potentially controversial process
• SENSE - UNDERSTANDING - KNOWLEDGE

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CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE

• inquiring mind
• sense of curiosity
• critical spirit
• self evaluation
• commitment to reflection
• sense of personal agency
• repertoire of learning skills

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INFORMATION AND CRITICAL LITERACIES

• Key to effective engagement with information space

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INFORMATION CRITICAL LITERACIES

• Reading and writing
• Speaking and listening
• Viewing and visualising
• Touching and empathising (?)
• ? Connecting with information
• ? Interacting with information
• ? Utilising information

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SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEARNING from toys to
tools10 KEY LEARNING PRINCIPLES
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1. Learning is about making and maintaining
connections

• connect with information
• interact with information
• utilise a rich information world
• We cannot learn effectively if we are not
  information literate

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2. Learning is an active search for meaning by
the learner

• Discovery of knowledge
• Transform prior knowledge
• Constructing knowledge
• Demonstrate competencies and use of ideas
• Active searching is underpinned by critical and
  information literacies

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3. Learning is developmental

• Intellectual growth is gradual advancement,
  consolidation, reinforcement
• Information and critical literacies provide a
  staged developmental process

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4. Learning is both individual and social

• Opportunities for co-operative learning
• Cultivating and inclusive community
• Information and critical literacies facilitate
  development of individual and social needs

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5. Learning is strongly affected by educational
climate in which it takes place

• Value academic and personal success and
  intellectual inquiry
• Feeling connected, cared for and trusted
• Mastery of information and critical literacies
• develops self-esteem and belonging

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6. Learning requires feedback, practice, and use

• Feedback ? sustained learning
• Practice ? nourishing learning
• Opportunities to use ? meaningful learning
• Information and critical literacies provide
  opportunities for evaluating progress

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7. Much learning takes place informally and
incidentally

• Activities beyond classroom enrich formal
  learning experiences
• Mentoring relationships beyond the classroom
• Learning in a variety of setting and
  circumstances
• Information and critical literacies foster
  independent learning

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8. Learning is grounded in particular contexts
and individual experiences

• Requires effort to transfer specific knowledge
  and skills to new circumstances
• Unlearn personal views and approaches when
  confronted by new information
• Information and critical literacies enable
  learners to read the world and the word

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9. Learning involves ability of individuals to
monitor own learning

• Understand how knowledge is acquired
• Awareness of own ways of knowing
• Ability to monitor own learning
• Information and critical literacies
  provide an evaluative tool for learning progress

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10. Learning is enhanced by taking place in the
context of compelling situations

• Provides challenge and opportunity
• Stimulates brain to conceptualise, contemplate
  and reflect
• Amplifies the learning process
• Information and critical literacies must be
  situated in meaningful situations

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TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIPfrom toy to tool

• Shared learning
• Shared responsibility
• Shared development
• Shared celebration

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The Death of CPPT

• CO-OPERATIVE PROGRAM PLANNING AND TEACHING

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The urgency of shared learning initiatives
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Electronic Information Seeking(McNicholas
Todd, 1996)

• Design of research activities
• Constructing an appropriate search
• Working with search engines
• Critiquing web sites and making quality
  assessments of the information
• Constructing personal understanding

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Electronic Information SeekingAitkin (1997)
(Primary school children)

• high levels of information overload
• major coping strategies included deliberate
  omission making broad and quick selections based
  on superficial analysis deliberately accepting
  errors getting someone else to do the work
• confusion, frustration, depression

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Electronic Information Seeking(Dilal Watson,
1998) (Year 7 Science students)

• Failure of students to retrieve Web documents
  based on aboutness subject headings, key words,
  concepts
• Inability to make relevance judgements
• Inability to make quality judgements

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Electronic Information Seeking(Kafai Bates,
1997)

• Inability to use search engines
• Difficulty in building a search strategy
• Difficulty in locating appropriate resources
• Dealing with boring, uninvolving or irrelevant
  sites
• Retard the value of the experience

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Electronic Information Seeking(Fidel, 1999)

• Absence of search strategies
• Inability to formulate effective search
  strategies
• Inappropriately favoured visual cues
• Navigational difficulties Lost in Space

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Electronic Information Seeking(Hirsch, 1999)

• Limited patience - abort searches quickly
• Poor management of research process -repetition
  of searches
• Limited navigation of sites in depth
• Limited use of search features
• No skills in judging information quality and
  relevance

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ACTION RESEARCH

• A key framework for setting up strategies and
  activities for implementing change in relation to
  critical and information literacies
• TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• TRANSFORMING LEARNING

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ACTION RESEARCH

• A process through which educators work together
  to improve education by change through action and
  reflection on their daily teaching habits
  (Loerke, 1992)
• Systematic inquiry that is collective,
  collaborative, self-reflective, critical, and
  undertaken by participants in the inquiry
  (McCutchen Jung, 1990)

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ACTION RESEARCHkey words

• inquiry
• participative
• shared
• reflective
• planned

• purposive
• systematic
• improving
• leading to change
• evaluative

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ACTION RESEARCH PHASES

• Problem identification
• Mutual commitment to improvement
• Plan for investigation of problem
• Implement actions / strategies to improve
• Effects of actions observed and recorded
• Reflect on outcomes
• Ongoing cycle of planning, action, evaluation

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ACTION RESEARCH OUTCOMES

• Promotes individual development
• Personal renewal
• Shared knowledge and experience
• Collective renewal
• Influence institutional change
• Organisational renewal

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ACTION RESEARCH

• Responsive
• Interactive
• Constructive
• Experiential
• Reflective
• Systematic
• Outcomes Oriented

• SHARED LEARNING

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The future ..

• we construct the road by walking on it ...