Information Literacy: A Relational Approach
In the following essay, I share something I learned about information and information literacy from working with hundreds of college students and from working with dozens of "underserved" urban students. This post is a bit long, but I hope it sparks a discussion among us about information and information literacy. Please forgive me if this topic already has been widely discussed in the literature, during conferences, or in the classroom. I previously conducted information literacy one-shot workshops as transfers of knowledge that resulted in measurable outcomes. It didn't matter that such outcomes were relatively easy to produce or that the assessments I used almost never demonstrated a long-term impact of my teaching. I lectured. Students demonstrated a level of proficiency during or shortly after the workshop. We (the students and I) produced measurable outcomes. However, I changed my approach when I noticed that the same students I taught perhaps a week earlier...
