The amount and range of information available to today's students--and indeed to all learners--is unprecedented. Phrases like "the information revolution," "the information (or knowledge) society," and "the knowledge economy" underscore the truism that our society has been transformed by virtually instantaneous access to virtually unlimited information. Thomas Friedman tells us that "The World Is Flat" and that we must devise new political and economic understandings based on the ceaseless communication of information from all corners of the world. The Bush administration tells us that information relating to the "war on terrorism" is so critical that we must allow new kinds of surveillance to keep society safe. Teenage subscribers to social-computing networks not only access information but enter text and video images and publish them widely--becoming the first adolescents in history to be creators as well as consumers of vast quantities of information.
If the characteristics of "the information age" demand new conceptions of commerce, national security, and publishing--among other things--it is logical to assume that they carry implications for education as well. In fact, a good deal has been written over the last several decades about how education as a whole must transform its structure and curriculum to accommodate the possibilities offered by new technologies. Far less has been written, however, about how the specific affordances of these technologies--and the kinds of information they allow students to access and create--relate to the central purpose of education: learning. What does "learning" mean in an information-rich environment? What are its characteristics? What kinds of tasks should it involve? What concepts, strategies, attitudes, and skills do educators and students need to master if they are to learn effectively and efficiently in such an environment? How can researchers, theorists, and practitioners foster the well-founded and widespread development of such key elements of the learning process?
This book explores these questions and suggests some tentative answers. Drawing from research and theory in three distinct but related fields--learning theory, instructional systems design, and information studies--it presents a way to think about learning that responds directly to the actualities of a world brimming with information. The book is grounded in the work of such key figures in learning theory as Bransford and Anderson & Krathwohl. It draws on such theorists of instructional design as Gagne, Mayer, and Merrill. From information studies, it uses ideas from Buckland, Marchionini, and Wilson (who is known for his pioneering work in "information behavior"--that is, the full range of information seeking and use). The book breaks new ground in bringing together ideas that have run in parallel for years but whose relationship has not been fully explored.
About the Author: Delia Neuman is Professor Emerita at Drexel University, where she directed the program to prepare school librarians/media specialists, and Associate Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, where she oversaw a similar program. She has published widely in the areas of information literacy, instructional design, and qualitative research and was the writer on the committee that produced Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (ALA, 1998), which introduced the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning to the K-12 arena.
Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo is Associate Clinical Professor of Literacy Studies in the School of Education at Drexel University. She spent 20 years in public and Catholic schools as a classroom teacher and curriculum developer. At Drexel, Dr. DeCarlo teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the Teacher Education, Special Education, and Reading Specialist programs. Her research interests include a number of areas in literacy studies--including information literacy, digital literacy, early literacy development, and reading comprehension.
Vera J. Lee is Associate Clinical Professor of Literacy Studies in the School of Education at Drexel University. She teaches literacy courses for the prek-4 program, the Reading Specialist Certification program, and the ESL add-on Certificate program. She has published on topics related to information literacy, critical literacy, teacher education, online learning, and family literacy. Her current research focuses on fostering the home/school literacy and language practices of immigrant families, school and community engagement with multilingual families, and civic literacy with adult learners.
Stacey Greenwell is Instructional Design Librarian at the University of Kentucky. She has held a variety of roles there, including Associate Dean and Director of the Information Commons. In her current role, Dr. Greenwell creates online instructional materials to help undergraduates develop information-literacy skills. She teaches graduate classes in the School of Information Science and has co-authored textbooks on academic librarianship and management. Her current research interests are focused on designing effective online instructional materials.
Allen C. Grant is Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies at SUNY Potsdam. He has also taught kindergarten, worked as a language instructor in Spain, consulted as an International Baccalaureate----Primary Years Program expert, and spent many years in state service. His research interests center around emerging technologies, urban school reform, leadership development, and anything dealing with K-12 virtual schooling. He is a frequent contributor as an expert witness and pundit for online learning.
