Delia Neuman

Learning in Information-Rich Environments

The first € price and the £ and

Evaluating Evolution: Naturalistic Inquiry and the Perseus Project.

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. D. Neuman Learning in Information-Rich Environments

I-LEARN: Information Literacy for Learners

Project Perseus is a unique effort to develop a hypermedia library of text and images related to the study of Classical Greece. After providing a brief overview of the project, this paper describes the design of its four-year evaluation cycle; in particular the paper focuses on the contributions of naturalistic inquiry (NI) to the evaluation effort. The paper has two primary aims: to outline the value of NI for interactive learning environments and to highlight results gained through this approach during the first years evaluation of Project Perseus.

Re-visioning school library media programs for the future : Implications of the new AASL/AECT national guidelines for LIS education

The six-stage I-LEARN model—Identify, Locate, Evaluate, Apply, Reflect, kNow—both describes the process of learning with information and presents a mnemonic that can help people accomplish such learning. Built on the three familiar components of information literacy (access, evaluate, and use), the model expands on these to become a learning model, not merely an information-seeking one. This focus on learning distinguishes I-LEARN from similar models and makes it particularly relevant for 21st-century learning. Using the model, a learner Identifies what s/he wants to learn; Locates relevant information; Evaluates the information for authority, timeliness, etc.; Applies the information to generate a new understanding—that is, to learn; and Reflects on what has been learned and on the process that has led to this point. In the kNow stage, the learner uses the new understanding as the basis for generating new questions and continuing the learning cycle.

A Collaborative I-LEARN Project With Kindergarten and Second-Grade Urban Teachers and Students at a University-Assisted School:

The new national guidelines for the school library media field offer challenges for graduate library and information science (LIS) programs as well as for school library media programs at the K-12 level. Preparation programs that accept the mandate of Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning must take clear steps to ensure that their curricular content and instructional practices reflect the philosophical and practical approaches embodied in the document. To prepare the kind of personnel required to implement the complex and multifaceted roles described there, LIS and other programs that educate school library media specialists (LMSs) must examine their current offerings and update and revise them as necessary to align with the concepts and strategies of the new guidelines. As a first step in this process, the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland held a one-day invitational conference to gather data to inform the review and potential restructuring of the colleges school library media program. This paper describes the conference itself, the analysis of the data it generated, the results of that analysis, and the implications of those results for school library media preparation programs in general.

I-LEARN: Helping Young Children Become Information Literate

This study describes an information/digital literacy project that was conducted with kindergarten and second-grade students and teachers at a university-assisted school. The study centered on the I-LEARN model—a learning model that blends research and theory from information science and instructional systems design—and investigated how the model could be used to support information-rich learning at the school; the dimensions of digital literacy that were most salient for the teachers and students; and how information/digital literacies can be taught in this setting. The data revealed that each teacher’s approach to the project, their assumptions about their students’ background with technology and research, and their own knowledge about information/digital literacies had significant effects on their students’ learning outcomes.

Using I-LEARN to Foster the Information and Digital Literacies of Middle School Students

This study involved 49 children and four teachers in the design, development, and evaluation of a research project built around the I-LEARN model [1-2]. The objectives were to investigate the use of the model with an early-childhood population and to understand how digital and information literacy evolves in best practices for implementing problem-based learning as informed by I-LEARN. Analysis revealed that teachers adjusted their implementation of I-LEARN’s steps to meet students’ needs and to mesh with their own styles. Students were able to build new knowledge and enjoyed learning a variety of ways to acquire information. The model made the idea of research concrete and helped learners focus on specific tasks and accomplishments. Teachers’ technological/pedagogical knowledge grew, and teachers concluded that students’ projects were successful and that they overcame a lack of computer experience to focus on finding and analyzing sources and reflecting on their learning.

Toward a Theory of Information Literacy: Information Science Meets Instructional Systems Design

This paper summarizes the findings from focus group data of four teachers and 41 middle school students in an urban school who were involved in a project that used the I-LEARN framework to develop the participants’ skills in information and digital literacy. An analysis of the data revealed that the students found it useful and/or challenging to find and evaluate information on the Internet and to design digital products and that their digital skills improved in different ways. The teachers cited various approaches and purposes for using technology during the project and held varying assumptions about their students’ digital literacy skills.

Impact-driven work: tearing down the firewalls between research and practice

This paper addresses the need for a comprehensive theory of information literacy by beginning to lay the groundwork for a theory that encompasses the use of information as well as its location and evaluation. First—drawing on research and theory from two fields grounded in complementary understandings of “information”—the theory posits that information literacy and learning are strongly related because information itself is the basic building block for human learning. Second, the paper discusses the importance of knowing how the characteristics of different information formats—visual, multisensory, and digital—can be used to support different kinds of learning. The paper concludes by arguing that students and others must understand these characteristics in order to be truly information literate—that is, to use information effectively to engage in deep and meaningful learning in the information-rich environment of the 21st century.

Revised Library Media Standards Adopted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

This panel will showcase information research that aims to have strong impact on community at the local or national level and offer ideas for increasing the impact of information research on communities. It will also engage audience members in an interactive discussion of ideas for increasing the real‐life impact of information research.