It's been an exhausting campaign - I wasn't running for anything - I, like all of you, had to listen to it all. I'm so glad it's over, and that we as a nation are finally moving in a positive direction.
Here in Hawaii, I am fortunate that we now have Kim Coco Iwamoto on our Board of Education.
I met Kim several months ago. We hit it off right away when she uttered three words in the first paragraph I heard her say: Life Long Learning.
Wow- she believes in life-long learning! How wonderful, as life-long learning is what I teach every day at the library.
Some people think you learn everything at school. People think you learn content there, then go to the workplace. In addition to learning content in school, one needs to learn how to learn. At least for me, depending on what I'm learning, I sometimes prefer to sit with a book, or sit with colleagues, or do hands on. One should learn how to learn at school, learn content, go to the workplace and learn some more! Oh-you learn a lot of content at work too!
I teach Information Literacy with the goal of turning each student I encounter into a life-long learner by empowering him or her to learn how to think critically, and be skeptical of information floating around. I teach a system of evaluation of information to ensure that it is credible and appropriate for the information need at hand.
Here's a quick summary of the work I do from the American Library Association Web site on Information Literacy:
"Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." 1 Information literacy also is increasingly important in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources. Because of the escalating complexity of this environment, individuals are faced with diverse, abundant information choices--in their academic studies, in the workplace, and in their personal lives. Information is available through libraries, community resources, special interest organizations, media, and the Internet--and increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. In addition, information is available through multiple media, including graphical, aural, and textual, and these pose new challenges for individuals in evaluating and understanding it. The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of information pose large challenges for society. The sheer abundance of information will not in itself create a more informed citizenry without a complementary cluster of abilities necessary to use information effectively.
Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. An information literate individual is able to:
- Determine the extent of information needed
- Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
- Evaluate information and its sources critically
- Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
- Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
- Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally
