Digital Information Literacy—Essential 21st Century Skill

President Obama recently declared October as National Information Literacy Month. This recognition of the importance of information and media literacy provides additional credibility for the new AASL Standards for 21st Century Skills.

ProQuest continues to support these standards and the significant role of librarians in meeting the challenge of National Information Literacy Month. Here is a summary of the President's proclamation:

"Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information. A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decision-making. National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age."

"Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it. Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace. At the same time, Americans have unprecedented access to the diverse and independent sources of information, as well as institutions such as libraries and universities, that can help separate truth from fiction and signal from noise."

"Our Nation's educators and institutions of learning must be aware of—and adjust to—these new realities. In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions, whether financial, medical, educational, or technical."

"This month, we dedicate ourselves to increasing information literacy awareness so that all citizens understand its vital importance. An informed and educated citizenry is essential to the functioning of our modern democratic society, and I encourage educational and community institutions across the country to help Americans find and evaluate the information they seek, in all its forms."

Librarians collaborating with teachers is the key to implementing 21st Century digital information literacy in the schools. Librarians can help teachers move from traditional textbook learning in their classrooms to more effective inquiry-based learning because librarians already have the training and expertise.

This month's learning activity is designed to help librarians help teachers to learn more about the importance of information literacy and how to implement it in the classroom assignments that they make. Using BookCarts makes it easy for teachers to access the best resources without wasting time searching and having to evaluate articles for relevancy on topics with which they may not be familiar.

• Logon to the eLibrary TEACHER EDITION to access BOOKCART EDITOR.
• Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
• Type "21st Century Literacy and Skills" in the Search box
• Click the COPY icon in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
• Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.

This BookCart can easily be edited for most effective use:

• Click the new BookCart Title; it will have the prefix "COPY OF."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the AUTHOR boxes.
• Type your email address in the EMAIL box, or your initials as the required filler.
• Option: edit the samples of EDUCATOR CHALLENGE QUESTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
• Scroll down and click SAVE.
• Click MY LOCAL CARTS tab to see your edited Cart, ready for teachers to use.

You may also want to download our new complete listing of the 800 ProQuest Carts collection. The list is organized by curriculum area and the titles are in alphabetical order. Each Cart title is hyperlinked to the ProQuest collection, so that clicking it while in the Teacher Edition will give you a shortcut to copying it to your local collection.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a PowerPoint presentation of at least seven slides) that cites at least three resources. Students should address at least three of the following essential questions for critical thinking in their reports (you can create or substitute others):

• Why is a lot of the information found on the Internet unreliable?
• How can you tell credible information from false or misleading information on the Internet?
• What benefits do library databases provide for students doing research vs. surfing?
• How can the teacher create assignments that help develop your critical thinking?
• Why is inquiry-based learning replacing textbook learning now and in the future?
• What do you consider to be the most important information literacy skills and why?

1: Type "21st Century Skills and information literacy" in the Search box.

2: Type "Teaching critical thinking with inquiry-based learning" in the Search Box.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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