EDUC 6816 Trapped between a Rock and Hard Place

What does the term "discursive practices" mean? Discursive practice addresses the processes by which cultural meanings are produced and understood.

What does "discourse" mean? I believe the term discourse in this article refers to the “ formal treatment of the subject (information literacy) in speech or writing.

What is the "rock" and what is the "hard place"? “The rock is the current conceptions of information literacy that represent information literacy as a skill or competency that is confined to information access and use, and associated with tools such as text or technology. The hard place refers to attempts to translate this conception from the formal learning regimes of education and academic libraries to other sectors where learning is less structured or systematized, but is just as important (i.e., workplaces).” (Lloyd, 2011)

What are the differences between the skills prescribed for information searching in academic and workplace settings?  In academic settings, “The skills prescribed in searching for information, accessing and using it are formalized by particular rules, regulations, and curriculum that are underpinned by an instrumental rationality. This allows the acquisition of knowledge and ways of knowing to be measured against formalized sets of criteria. In this setting, primacy is awarded to knowledge that is canonical, objective, and explicit, and there is a focus on individual performance and the development of self-sufficiency through independent learning.” (Lloyd, 2011)  In workplace settings, “Workplaces offer another type of social setting, where the information landscape is often described as messy, complex, and distributed through a range of practices that entwine to contribute to the collective performance of work.” (Lloyd, 2011)

How do academic notions of information literacy undermine workplace notions information literacy? “This approach to explaining and describing workplace information literacy appears to undermine important workplace concepts of teamwork and group problem solving aimed at building collective knowledge, where information skills are spread across a team rather than being centered on an individual.”  (Lloyd, 2011)

How are information needs identified in work place setting like nursing and emergency workers?

Emergency workers, problems are solved through collaborative efforts that rely on the expertise and experiences of those involved.  Nursing –“ A tension exists, as nurses must reconcile their own informed understanding of patient care with the dominant and codified knowledge of the medical profession, which acts as the knowledge authority in relation to medical need, practice, and procedure.” (Lloyd, 2011)  

Why do issues of plagiarism not resonate in workplace settings? In a workplace setting, information becomes a collective possession.  Due to working in groups to solve problems, and designing plans of performance (for what works best), the origin of the information becomes lost and becomes a collective wisdom and dialogue.  (Lloyd, 2011)

 Are information literacy skills transferable across contexts and settings? Why or Why not?  “However, evidence from Hartmann (2001), Ellis and Salisbury (2004), and Herring (2010) indicate that information literacy skills do not appear to successfully transfer, either within a school-based setting (e.g., from classroom to classroom), across education settings (from school to university), or into the workplace (Lloyd-Zantiotis, 2004).”  Informational literacy skills do not seem to be a specific set of skills that can be taught in isolation and transfer to all situations.  Informational literacy is specific to each situation, and these skills are unique to the setting.

What is "practice theory"? “Practice theories emphasize the analysis of ways of engaging with the world. These social theories are concerned with exploring human activity, subjectivity, intersubjectivity, embodiment, language, and power in relation to the "organization, reproduction and transformation of social life" (Schatzki, 2001, p. 1).

How does the author of this article define information literacy? Lloyd (2011) states, “An array of information related activities and skills, constituted, justified and organized through the arrangements of a social site, and mediated socially and materially with the aim of producing shared understanding and mutual agreement about ways of knowing and recognizing how performance is enacted, enabled and constrained in collective situated action. As a central information practice, information literacy practice is defined as: Knowledge of information sources within an environment and an understanding of how these sources and the activities used to access them are constructed through discourse. Information literacy is constituted through the connections that exist between people, artifacts, texts and bodily experiences that enable individuals to develop both subjective and intersubjective positions. Information literacy is a way of knowing the many environments that constitute an individual being in the world.”

How do educators need to change their understanding of information literacy in order to prepare student for the information literacy practices they will encounter in workplace settings?

Educators need to prepare students for workplace settings by understanding information literacy as a concept of working in social settings, not as individuals, developing an identity,  providing practice with multimodal opportunities, and understanding that informational literacy is not a skill taught in isolation of context, but skills taught in specific context.

What do the terms "ontological" and "epistemological" mean? Ontological – concepts, relationships, commitment to a particular vocabulary   Epistemological- the creation and dissemination of knowledge in a particular setting

After reading this article, how useful is the traditional research paper we expect students to produce in school in preparing them for workplace settings? What are traditional research papers useful for? Should we still assign traditional research papers? Speaking from a mom’s perspective first, my son just completed a Junior Research paper as part of a 21^st Century passport program, required at his high school.  His paper was completed in isolation, as an individual, with academic rules and regulations, and did not in any way promote collaboration, creating information using different modalities, and in short, it held no value to him. I don’t believe learning to complete a traditional research paper holds any value in a workplace setting because the manner in which it is approached.  The paper was completed in a traditional manner of using index cards without reflection, no peer feedback, and the topic had to be an occupation that he might be interested in- for the future.  Traditional research papers might be useful for citing references, and finding research-based articles, but, if students aren’t taught how to deconstruct articles, journals, etc… and understand where the information comes from, and who published it, and synthesize the information, etc.., then it can’t be very useful. No, we should not assign traditional research papers. Students should learn to conduct research in a collaborative, reflective, engaging manner.

What is one of the biggest challenges to changing the way information literacy is conceptualized in school settings? Administrators, teachers, and some parents are the challenge.  It’s like the “Research Paper” is the almighty esteemed project, holding some academic value, and is a rite of passage if you complete the project with a passing grade.  I believe some school systems are afraid to take away the traditional research paper out of fear of not meeting expectations.

What attributes of the 21st century make it essential that educators change their approaches toward information literacy? Our students are already participating in their specific informational literacy settings. Students exist in a social culture, and to prepare for the workplace setting students need to analyze and synthesize the abundance of information made available to them on a daily basis and become informed decision makers.  I believe we fail our students if we continue to focus on traditional informational literacies.

What changes can teachers make to their classroom activities to engage students in the  information literacy practices they will encounter in 21st century workplace settings? Offer the affordances to students that are meaningful, socially or collaboratively based, and provide opportunities for reflection and responses.

Lloyd, A. (2011). Trapped between a rock and a hard place: What counts as information 

literacy in the workplace and how is it conceptualized?  Library Trends, 60 (2) pp. 277-296.

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