Information fluency: global and international perspectives
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(Published version)
Date
2011
Authors
Sanderson, G.
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Journal article
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Journal of information fluency, 2011; 1(1):10-21
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Abstract
Throughout human history, civilizations have been directed by discernible epochs in which revolutions in social and/or scientific thought have had profound impact on the ways in which we interpret ourselves, our interactions with others, our surroundings, and our place in the universe. Whether by means of material advances such as those of the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Industrial Revolution, or during periods of intellectual vigor such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, paradigmatic shifts in our perspectives on material, social and spiritual phenomena have charted the course of human endeavor. Rather than the end of the Twentieth Century signifying a break in these successive periods of change, the processes of contemporary globalization, featuring some remarkable advances in technology, communications and economic development, look to dramatically influence the transition of human societies into the early decades of the third millennium.
This paper contemplates an aspect of current global processes, namely the explosion of information and its availability through Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). In particular it focuses on the emergence of a specific educational approach called Information Fluency (IF) which seeks to develop in students certain knowledge, skills, practices and dispositions to help them make sense out of the static produced by overwhelming amounts of information available, for example, through the Internet. The paper leaves aside related conceptual and practical considerations about the place of IF as distinct from and in relation to broader information and academic literacies. Instead, it takes it as given that the current milieu has created a legitimate space in which to regard competence for working productively, ethically, and critically with digitally-based and distributed information. Moreover, in light of the extensive flows of information across borders, attention will be given to global and international perspectives of IF to both contextualize and problematize its application in the real world and as experienced by students who increasingly encounter and work with digital information.
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Copyright 2011 The Author. The Journal of Information Fluency applies the Creative Commons Attribution License, Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike (CCAL) to all published works. Utilizing CCAL, the authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, distribute, and/or copy articles in the Journal of Information Fluency so long as the original authors and sources are cited. No permission is required from the authors or publishers. Information regarding this license and its conditions may be found at the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses)