Odyssey 1 - Chicken and Egg (Information Literacy & Lifelong Learning)

The core of Lifelong Learning is Information Literacy. The relationship between Information literacy and Lifelong learning is similar as the quest of 'chicken and egg'. A 'Chicken' comes first or an 'Egg' comes first.

In 'Information society', Doyle (1992) stated that information literacy education empowered individual to deal with the stress of information overload. An information literate person is one who:
*recognises that accurate and complete information is the basis for intelligent decision making
*recognises the need for information
*formulates questions based on information needs
*identifies potential sources of information
*develops successful search strategies
*accesses sources of information including computer-based technology
*evaluates information
*organises information for practical application
*integrates new information into an exisiting body of knowledge
*uses information in critical thinking and problem solving (Doyle, 1992)

Christine Bruce (1997) used a phenomenological method to study people's experience of information literacy. She identified seven related phases of people finding their information needs, evaluating and using information to solve their problems.

Information Literacy means being information wise, and being able to effectively use information technologies and formats, and enable individuals to develop skills for learning throughout their life and support skills for workplace enterprise and for community participation (ALIA, 2003). Learning 2.0 is a means to exploring and increasing our awareness of information environment and information needs and to develop our skills for lifelong learning and creation of knowledge.

A quest of 'Chicken and Egg': which comes first? Information Literacy or Lifelong Learning? Or they can occur at the same time.

Reference
ALIA. (2003). A library advocate's guide to building inforamtion literate communities. Retrieved on December 11 2008 from http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/literacy.kit.pdf
Bruce, C. (1997). The seven faces of information literacy. Adelaide: Auslib Press.
Doyle, C. (1992). OUTCOME MEASURES FOR INFORMATION LITERACY WITHIN THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS OF 1990. FINAL REPORT TO NATIONAL FORUM ON INFORMATION LITERACY. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS. (ED 351 033)

Beyond Horizon

Learning 2.0 is a new thing to some people. It can be very frigthening if someone have no idea of Information technology or someone who are fairly new to comupter technology.

If we can image that we are just one of the heros in our history, we are marching out of our comfort zone and moving on to a new block of land. The spirit of an explorer! Or the idea of Greek mythology - Odyssey! Then, learning the Web2.0 is very much the same as an exploration of the new ideas of publishing, information and communication, and people learning. It's a journey that leads us to an unknown land, but it's exciting.

Let's embark on our journey!