1. Learning Communities and Complex Landscapes: The Need for Information and Media
Literacy
Prepared remarks for SENCER SCI-Midwest Spring 2014 Symposium.
I show how library involvement enriches learning communities and share insight gained by teaching
within a Global Warming Learning Community consisting of physical science, biology, English, and
library and information science (LIS 101) classes. Students learned about the science behind this
phenomenon as well as how to communicate about it. The LIS 101 portion of the class focused on the
discrepancy of understanding among scientist in the field (97% attribute global warming to human
activities) and the public at large (<50% “believe in” global warming) and explicated the various
political, economic, cultural, and psychological reasons for this discrepancy. Through investigation of
media ownership, government-, corporate-, and self-censorship students were able to better understand
the complex media environment and how it engenders doubt, misunderstanding, and inaction. While
learning about proper research methods, the scientific method, and peer-reviewed journal articles,
students were able to arm themselves with the best information available and see that not all sources
are created equally.

2. Learning Communities and Complex Landscapes: The Need for Information and Media
Literacy
As many of you know, information literacy is defined by the ACRL as the ability to know when
information is needed, to access that information from a variety of sources, to evaluate that information
for credibility, and to use that information ethically.
Usually schools try to satisfy the objective of information literacy by having some classes assign
research papers and projects, and some of those classes bring their students to the library for a one-hour
training, and that, they hope, is good enough.
SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills), which is probably the most
prevalent info lit gen ed assessment tool, attempts to gauge student abilities in this area. We did it at
my school and found that we were on par with even the best other schools that had used the tool. And
that was great. Until we realized that results across the board were pretty mediocre.
So there is evidence that the traditional model for information literacy instruction is not as effective as
we would like it to be. So as a librarian, I want to see that change…and as non-librarians you are
probably wondering why you came to this presentation.
The short answer is that you are interested in adding new dimensions to your classes that will deepen
student understanding. A longer answer is that it frees up some of your time when you know that
someone else is out there helping your students understand the social, political, economic, and legal
context(s) in which information is created and disseminated. Thus, you are able to spend class time on
your subject confident that students are being taught to navigate the information age by a fellow
content expert.
So we created a 16-week, three-hour information literacy class, LIS 101, that can be attached to any
learning community across the curriculum involving a research or mass media component
There was some institutional resistance to creating such a class. Some felt that it would be a wasted
college credit since students would learn how to do research at a community college, then transfer to
another school with different databases, and just have to relearn how to do everything. Clearly these
people were not active library users, and their concern was wrong on a couple of levels.
First, they didn’t understand that all library databases and OPACs are built with the same architecture.
That is, if you can do it here, you can do it there with minimal guidance.
Second, they were putting all the emphasis on only one part of the definition of information literacy:
the ability to access information from a variety of sources. But learning how to put together a search
strategy is the least of your worries if you haven’t learned 1) when you need more information 2) how
to evaluate it for bias, timeliness, and credibility 3) and how to ethically present it after you find it.
These tasks represent advanced taxonomies, and they are even harder to carry out in an information
landscape filled with distractions, falsities, exaggerations, back and forth polemics masked as
journalism, pay-for-play pseudo-academic journals, and nakedly partisan think tank studies.

3. Consider the uninformed student who goes to Wikipedia and thinks he knows all he needs to write his
research paper.
Consider the student who starts with a thesis in mind, finds evidence to the contrary, and quietly
pretends he never saw that evidence.
Consider the student who makes important academic or life decisions based on biased, untimely, or
incredible evidence.
Consider the student who refuses the science of global warming because of something Bill O’Reilly
said, the student who won’t vaccinate her child because of Jenny McCarthy, and the legions of voters
every 4 years who step into the voting booths having only the vaguest ideas of what they are voting for.
Increasing librarian classroom contact hours benefits students, increasing their critical thinking skills
for future classes and for later life decisions. So this is not just important for the attainment of a gen ed
objective. There is a lot more at stake!
So how does this relate to global warming?
I was at this assessment conference a few years ago and the keynote speaker asked us how many of us
realized that global warming is happening. Almost all the hands went up. He asked how many of us
thought that it was one of the most pressing issues humanity has or will ever face. All the hands stayed
up. He asked, “How many of you are teaching about it?” All the hands went down. And I realized that
I had to just jump in and make it happen. But how?
It dawned on me that, while I had read no small number of journal articles about it, and while I
understood the science behind it, I was reluctant to go out on a limb for it because I am ALWAYS
reading some news or magazine article that suggests that we don’t have all the facts, or that it is a hoax,
or that it is all a government takeover, or that Al Gore is a bad person in real life. It is all pretty
disconcerting. And if that happens to me, surely it happens to students. And how does that doubt--
intentionally sowed by some parties--inhibit student learning?
Because:
So you kind of have to go for it. But as I was designing the course and thinking about the reasons for
our inaction of AGW, the more I realized that I was dealing with a very complex problem: Even if you
give people correct information, they might be resistant to it for any number of reasons that have
nothing to do with the traditional paradigm of information literacy. This class would have to move

4. beyond what I learned in library school to explain why people, in general, are not information literate.
To really unpack it, I would need to discuss physical science, sociology, history, political science,
epistemology, history, and even a bit of psychology.
Although librarians are expected to be experts on leading students to information, we are not expected
to be experts in all of the information that we find. I have an academic interest in but only a basic
understanding of those subjects, so I had to be careful to run my ideas by faculty in those fields who
were often willing to tell me outright what I needed to beef up or to point me in the direction of
research I myself had not yet seen. Collaboration is always key. Also the caveat must be that you are
here to expose them to new ideas, not teach them everything they need to know.
Notwithstanding the challenges, I had these lofty ideas about what we would accomplish and how great
my students would be.
But oops, when I read their first written assignment for the class, which was a critical response to an
Ann Coulter article, I found that many of them agreed with her that the science of global warming is a
hoax because Al Gore IS a hypocrite, because it is a FACT that his house uses more electricity than
other houses in Tennessee, because he really is kind of chubby. Likewise, they found her convincing
when she stated that reports and evidence showed that the very foundation of the science was
crumbling. Yet none of that evidence was cited and none of those reports was named.
And if our science learning is divorced from the social context in which the science is created,
disseminated, and analyzed, then we can expect student responses to be at that level. So I think we
need more.
But shouldn’t rhetorical analysis be part of the English class?
Yes. But it also helps to get reinforcement from another source. Also, if your students are responding
to the written word, then absolutely it is in the domain of English and literature. But if it is happening
on tv or in a movie or in the newspaper or in a magazine or in a think tank study, then there are whole
other dimensions of information ownership, creation, and dissemination that are brought into play…
which we can help you with.
So assignments in LIS 101 were meant to complement the assignments in their other classes. For
instance, if they had a paper due in English, they did the research, the annotating, the outlining, and the
evaluating in my class.
But it was not just support for the other classes. Students were exposed to a lot of ideas that I was not
exposed to as an undergrad, all of which relates to or impacts our ability to be information literate, in
short, to find and use the best information available in an ethical way.
Epistemology and the Scientific Method: how do we know we are justified in believing what we
believe?
Historiography and Sociology: How does history become public memory, how does public memory
become tradition, how does tradition affect culture, and how does culture impact our ability to
understand the social message and constructively dialog with the values of the media, political, and
business elite?
Information Technology: How is the internet constructed to help us create our own echo chambers of
ever-reinforcing bias?

5. Psychology: What about our own minds wills us to seek out sources that agree with us, and if we are
built that way, isn’t this outcome inevitable?
It’s an interesting class. Students were encouraged to engage in the social context of the argument, and
the more sophisticated students learned pretty quickly how the same set of facts would be presented
differently for different audiences and different purposes. They likewise learned that the same set of
facts could spawn an immense, socially-constructed debate where different sides fought proxy battles
with straw men and slick rhetoric.
By the way, many of these students were first-semester freshmen. I would be lying if I said I didn’t
encounter some resistance. One student complained that my class was “squishy.” I asked what she
meant, and she reported that she was accustomed to learning how two things fit together, then they
would snap into place in her mind, and she could file it away as “learned” and go onto the next concept.
But the concepts in this class were harder to pin down, she said. Sometimes she didn’t understand how
two things fit together until she was exposed to other things, a bit later.
On the other hand, another student said he had learned more about “how the world works” in this class
than any other. I asked him what he meant by that, and he responded that he had never thought about
how arguments are made or how the values of a society affect the conversation.
Another student started the class absolutely committed to proving that either global warming was not
going to be “a big deal” and that it might even be beneficial for us. I told him that as long as he found
timely, credible research to make his point, that’s an argument I would be happy to read.
For the annotated bibliography assignment I asked that students cite their sources; summarize them;
evaluate their credibility, timeliness and bias (or lack thereof); and show how the article would be used
in their papers. The student in question listed 7 articles in support of his thesis that global warming was
not going to be as severe or debilitating as global warming alarmists [sic] had suggested. His first two
articles were editorials, his third was a critical response to a scientific study, his fourth and fifth were
peer-reviewed journal articles that did not ultimately support his claim. On the sixth entry he simply
stated that he was going to have to “give up on this topic.” He had realized through his research that
his original beliefs were unfounded. His final research paper investigated how businesses could benefit
by going green.
That doesn’t happen if librarians only get a one hour session with students!
The assignments in my class were pretty straight forward:
Nightly reading and homework assignments
Weekly group assignments
An annotated bibliography
A research paper outline
A final group project
Students received a great deal of instruction in searching databases and OPACs. Even better, there was
time to get into the more complicated aspects of information literacy, such as knowing when you need
to know more, having a better grasp of evaluating sources, and being able to use those sources fairly,
ethically, and legally.
What was the payoff?

6. At the end of the semester the English 101 teacher let me know that her students’ research preparation
had been the strongest of any Eng 101 class she had ever taught and as strong as any of her past Eng
102 courses. The science teachers likewise appreciated my reinforcement of the scientific method and
peer review. And I am confident that my students have a new awareness of the complex information
landscape, which will help them make better decisions.
Our own assessment data suggested that although aggregate students improved in most areas, the
improvement was not as pronounced as we expected. However, this finding is somewhat offset by the
fact that, on average, the PRE-COURSE assessments of this group were better than any other group we
had done before. In short, coming into the class, this group had a more sophisticated grasp of
information literacy concepts than any other group we had pre-tested. Still, we are busy reworking the
course even now to get stronger results next time.
I don’t know of any other college or university that has a 16-week library course. So I would like to
recommend that you approach your librarians about the possibility of creating one at your school. That
is a pretty complicated process in and of itself. We have created a Google Group and email list that you
might want to tell your librarians about. If you are interested or think your librarian might be, sign up
and I will email you an invitation.
Alternately, you can work with the librarians at your school to develop a sequence of sessions that
would complement your course. We sometimes do 5-session sequences that teach students about
research skills, paper outlining, annotating, citations, and the mass media landscape. Again,
collaboration is key.
Finally, even a little exposure to these concepts is a good thing. Even if you library is tiny and
understaffed, as so many of them are, you can always set up a single library visit to at least get your
students acquainted with the resources that will increase the breadth and depth of their engagement
with classroom materials.
If you are interested in reading it, I keep an informal blog of some of my class themes and lecture notes
at unofficialfactchecker.wordpress.com.

7. SLIDE QUOTES
June Pullen Weiss (2004), in her “Contemporary Literacy Skills,” notes that years of documentation
have repeatedly shown that information literacy skills have a “positive impact on curriculum and
student achievement in schools that have strong library media programs” (Pg. 13).
She ranks information literacy as one of the most important skills called for in economic forecasts for
21st century jobs (Pg. 14).
As early as the mid-1990s, businesses were recognizing the importance of information literacy to future
operations. Business writer Peter Drucker (1995) correctly assessed that businesses in the future would
be built around information, and that the sources of that information would have to come from within
the company as well as from outside. (Pg. 55).
Indeed, companies increasingly recognize the value of information literacy and the strategic value of
their employees having access to “the right information at the right time” (Cheuk, 2008, p. 137).
Buket Akkoyunlu and Ayhan Yilmaz (2011) define digital empowerment as the ability to use digital
technologies “in order to develop life skills and strengthen [one]’s capacity within the information
society” (pg. 35).
“Possessing information literacy skills is essential to be equipped for digital empowerment” and that it
helps determine the “competitive power of individuals in the business market, as well as their status
and earning power.” (pg. 37).
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (2008) states that in order for our children to be prepared for
the jobs of the future they must learn information literacy, media literacy, and information
communications and technology literacy skills (pg. 28).
Employees of the future will be looking for workers who can problem solve, make informed decisions
autonomously, collaborate, and think critically (pps. 27, 29).
Not to be too grandiose, but higher education has always placed a premium on creating well-informed
citizens of the world. Dagdilelis (2008) unequivocally stated that, “Education is called upon to form
the future citizens, who will utilize…new/digital technologies as active members of the society: to have
a critical attitude towards the social messages, to actively take part in the decisions that interest them,
to become critical ‘consumers’ and ‘producers’ of digital work” (pg. 31). Information literacy is, of
course, a vital component of this education.
Lewandowsky et al. (2012) discussed the societal cost of the influence and proliferation of
misinformation and recommended that, “The processes by which people form their opinions and beliefs
are…of obvious public interest, particularly if major streams of belief persist that are in opposition to
established fact” (pg. 109).