We are truly living in the information age. The
instant coverage of news through radio, television and the Internet have significantly
increased the amount of information that comes at us everyday. Handling large amounts of
information and being adept in the application of information are essential in today's
world. Those who can access and use information are more likely to be successful in
school, at work and in life.Principal learning skills
consist of being able to formulate a question, accessing resources of information,
evaluating the information, organizing the information and applying the information to
answer the question. This last competency could be considered the most important step in
the learning process because it is not simply the finding of information, but the use of
it that motivates the learner. A number of national reports emphasize the centrality of
information literacy in the learning process. (Doyle, Christina. Information Literacy in
an Information Society: A Concept for the Information Age. Syracuse, New York: ERIC
Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, 1994.)
Students need to know how to arrange and document their research
appropriately. For example, stress the need for consistency in citing sources and specify
a style manual (APA, MLA, Turabian, etc) to be used. Discussion of copyright and
plagiarism is also desirable.
Students need to know how to critically assess the results of
their research to determine appropriateness of their methods and findings for their class
assignment. After their assessment, the student can make needed corrections to their
research. For example, if the class assignment is a term paper, break it into manageable
parts by constructing a series of assignments with due dates. This helps students
structure the term paper process and learn from each step:
- Identifying a topic from a list of choices
- After discussion of criteria (resources to use), gathering of
sources
- Preparing an annotated bibliography
- Developing an outline of paper (title and major points)
- Writing a first draft including citing of sources
- Rewriting
- Turning in term paper