Literacy, information literacy and needs...

I have been thinking a lot about the information literacy needs of the diverse group of students that are on the campus this year. I consider the script approach taken by my colleagues in the big city campus and wonder if it would even impinge on the minds of the teenagers in the High school or the Tafe.

I was reading Dorothy Porters "El Dorado" and in one verse she succinctly put something that spoke quite clearly to me what I have been watching in my own children and the larger population of students;

The child in this situation didn't leave a note about her whereabouts, didn't think pen and paper at all! (shock, horror)She had been texting her father, however his phone was switched off... and the protagonist was remembering that this,

"..generation
is gadget-savvy,
but otherwise totally-
unapologetically-
illiterate."
Porter, D. (2007. pg. 322)

There are many 'key' words in the verse, but I think 'unapologetically' really nailed it, they don't care (sorry, even think about) if we care about our way of doing things, and why can't 'we get it'.

"Illiterate" in my dictionary is:
1. Unable to read or write. and 2. not knowledgeable about a particular subject.

However they are knowledgable about their particular subjects.

Images of the past year at this point float through my mind;
my son struggling to read a novel for the subject we still so strangely call "english", chucking it aside and then,

-texting 3 friends, (reading and writing),

-searching for a particular YouTube video, (keywords in use here),

-updating his myspace and adding visuals to make his point, (photos, graphics etc. He has facebook as well but its not as visually manipulative as myspace),

-playing online with "randoms" in a game on xbox, (gaming and social networking
some of the time the game is UNO, which I find amusing)

I have been reading about getting beyond the bullet points in presentations and others are talking about the same thing, so I think if it can be visually stimulating and not too many words to blur their minds, I might just crack it...now to work out how to do that!

off to do some social networking and think ..FeralTB-) (aka kalgrl)

Cats and OPAC's and other things...

Made the bed with the cat still in it today...she didn't want to move...:-)
Walked to work...

Installed some new "Thin Clients" (computer terminals that are only OPAC's) and spent an hysterical half hour with running gags about,
How thin the new "thin clients were", (the new ones are very small and piggy back onto a Dell screen)... looked a bit like a parasite on the back of the screen.
How to fatten them up..lots of client use, saving and printing searches etc.
How to repackage the older, outdated "thin clients" into the same boxes to send them away... solution - diet...lol

Grappling around a bit at the moment in the new position at MPOW. The new semester will soon be upon us and I will be presenting more information literacy classes then I have before. Funny thing about the whole of my recent course, it didn't teach me how to teach, its sort of an expected, on the job thing for Librarians. I am trying to distil what will be needed here from the Big City Branch, and working out how much, when, on demand or scheduled etc.. Onward and Upward...

We had morning tea today for a member of staff who has worked at the campus for 40 years. He started in 1967 at 18 and never left. He recounted a few funny tales and was presented with some suitable momento's by his manager.
40 years is a very long time, as I think about it I realised that I have worked at my current place of work since 1999, not all permanent, some contract, but still it will be unoffically 10 years next year. He has been here 3 more decades..wow!

All for now FeralTB-)