Introduction
As students, consumers, and smartphone users, the concept of information literacy is familiar to us all to some degree. The ability to turn on your computer, create a post on social media, send an email, a text, or read the news are all components of information literacy. Writing, both analogue and digital has been a hallmark of our civilization, but is also so embedded in our culture and ways of life, that we may take for granted the multitude of literacies that we actually use, with varying degrees of skill, each day. We may only use a limited number of the various skills that comprise each type of literacy. For example, we may practice digital literacy skills: using a computer, communicating effectively through email, text, or an essay, or writing a poem using word processing software. Simultaneously, we may not know how to locate and select appropriate sources, and we may not know how to evaluate a website for credibility.
This book is meant for students in the library and information sciences. It will discuss various types of different but interconnected literacies and literacy standards. We will also discuss learning theories, determine users’ information and instructional needs, and determine which tools to use to meet those needs. We will also consider how we will assess our teaching. The book was designed for students taking Pedagogy of New Litereracies and Applied Critical Thinking, a course offered through WVRocks, aimed at students who are pursuing an RBA with a concentration in information or library sciences. Teaching these students inspired the codification of the course’s content.
Chapter 1: A discussion of information literacy, digital literacy, metaliteracy/transliteracy, visual literacy, and information literacy standards.
Chapter 2: We will discuss learning theories and face-to-face vs. online instruction.
Chapter 3: We will determine who our audience is and use assessment tools, such as the needs assessment, to discover what they need.
Chapter 4: A discussion about Learning-Centered Teaching (LCT), strategies of LCT, course objectives, and creating learning outcomes.
Chapter 5: This chapter discusses practical tools, including mindfulness-based activities, instruction session structure and allocation of time, active learning activities and their implementation, and lesson planning.
Chapter 6: Determining your effectiveness as a teacher, how to assess student learning, how to figure out where learning isn’t working, and what to do to fix it.
Chapter 7: Chapter 7, “Assessing Critical Thinking Dispositions in an Era of High-Stakes Standardized Testing,” was written by Carol Ann Giancarlo-Gittens. The inclusion of this chapter is imperative for a full discussion of critical thinking. Giancarlo-Gittens discusses critical thinking as an educational outcome, dispositions toward critical thinking, and the impact of high-stakes testing on educating for critical thinking dispositions.
Chapter 8: Written by William Hale, this chapter focuses on critical thinking, teaching, and the importance of imagination.
