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Entries in Employability (13)

Tuesday
Apr062010

Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) 2010

This years LILAC took place in Limerick with both John Crawford and myself presenting the last of the Scottish Information Literacy Projects which appropriately dealt with:

The sessions were well attended and in true project style dealing with little covered information literacy areas / issues. The work of the project was acknowledged by project partners Lesley Thomson, Jenny Foreman and Morag Higgison, and Andy Jackson and by Bob Glass from Manchester Metropolitan University (didn’t realise that Bob was musical until I heard him play the guitar and sing at the networking evening)) who chaired John’s session.

Lesley’s presentation Developing an information literacy community of practice in Scotland was really interesting and I plan to continue participating in the community despite the end of the project and would recommend others to join. Just email Lesley.Thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Jenny.Foreman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Jenny and Morag’s presentation Scottish Government information literacy in the work place - measuring impact gave an insight into their information literacy work within the Scottish Government and their investigation measuring the impact. Ralph Catts (Senior Research Fellow at Stirling Institute of Education) one of the keynote speakers attended their session and commended them for evaluating what they were doing as it would be important in the difficult times ahead. Unfortunately I didn’t get to hear his entire keynote ‘Evaluating the Impact of Information Literacy’ as I had a plane to catch. I did hear the other keynotes including Tony Durcan Head of Culture, Libraries and Lifelong Learning for Newcastle City Council who spoke about the role of  information literacy and public libraries ‘Information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health’

Andy Jackson was as ever thought provoking in his session / workshop Just enough education to perform: Information skills, professionalism and employability. He certainly made those who attended think as he suggested that HE needs to look further at graduate attributes and refocus their information skills teaching more towards the graduate. He cited the work of “Simon Barrie (2006; 2008) and others on concepts of ‘graduateness’ places information skills at the heart of what it is to be a graduate”. He also highlighted that HE should

  • seek ways of engaging with the professions

  • offer focused training

  • make connections with local employment forums, skills agencies etc

  • develop the workplace information profession.


The workshop activities he had us doing included thinking about What professional skills did we learn which have been useful in our career? And What attitudes or values did we feel we developed through attending University?. The next activity was we had to select an information skills activity from a list of six he gave us (the group I was in selected – Effective Internet searching) we were also given two Graduate Attributes (we had Develop enterprise skills and commercial awareness and Hold a perspective that acknowledges local, national and international concerns) which we were to build into a learning activity. Then we had to create a brief plan for our learning activity. The examples given in the feedback were interesting and I hope people went away and as Andy suggested actively sought out what their university was doing regarding garduateness and employability and engage with it demonstrating the role of the library / librarians.

Other presentations I attended included Geoff Walton’s ‘Having a shufti: using focus group findings to map unchartered territory in the information literacy landscape’ – informative as ever in relation to the learning support tool ASK (Assignment Survival Kit) http://www.staffs.ac.uk/ask/  I also attended Ruth Stubbing and Jo Myhill’s presentation Developing librarians as teachers to enhance the learner experience to hear about SirLearnaLot an online tutorial that aims to help library staff enhance their understanding of pedagogy so that they can feel confident in designing and delivering teaching.

There were a couple of interesting Posters:

  • So-Young Kim (University of Tokyo) - What are the Post-Effects of Japan's National Curriculum Standards? : Inquiry based Learning and Elementary School Libraries. So-Young Kim attended my presentation and was very interested in the work I was doing in schools.

  • Katherine Reedy (Open University) - i-know  at the OU: information skills for the 21st century workplace. I have posted about this work previously.

  • Sheila Corrall (University of Sheffield)  - Mapping Information Literacy Strategy. Sheila has done a lot of work in this area.


The project also got national mentions from both Wales and Ireland. A mention from Cathie Jackson (Cardiff University) who in her presentation An information literacy strategy for Wales: towards a national framework acknowledged that their inspiration came from the Scottish Information Literacy Project. Great news that they have got nine months funding to employ a project officer to take things forward for them and I wish them all the best. Ireland has also been inspired by the project and Dr Philip Cohen (Head of Library Services, Dublin Institute of Technology) attended both the project sessions and Lesley Thomson’s session on the community of practice in Scotland. I spoke to Philip and Siobhán Fitzpatrick the President of the Library Association of Ireland at the conference dinner and Siobhán gave us a mention in her address after the conference dinner. It is great to think that we have inspired so many people and countries.

It was also good to hear the minister who opened the conference that information literacy was a key support for lifelong learning and that the role of librarian and education was crucial at this time for developing the individual.

Christine Irving  scotinfolit@googlemail.com
Monday
Jan182010

LILAC 2010

I see the LILAC 2010 draft programme for the parallel sessions are now posted on the LILAC 2010 website and that my presentation is first up in the parallel sessions for the conference.

Monday 29th March 2010

3pm - 3.45pm Begin at the beginning - Information Literacy in primary schools  - Christine Irving

4.25pm - 5.10pm  Employability and information literacy: a review of a training programme - John Crawford

Tuesday 30th March 2010

12.10 - 12.40 Developing an information literacy community of practice in Scotland - Lesley Thomson (the program has Thomson with an p)

12.45 - Scottish Government information literacy in the work place - measuring impact -Morag Higgison and Jenny Foreman

Will need to have a look and see who else is presenting plus presentations of interest.
Tuesday
Oct202009

The minister's reply

 Last month, before the Scottish Learning Festival took place (23-24 September), attendees were invited to submit questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education for her to answer.  I submitted the question below but only a few were answered directly by the minister at the conference. The remainder were subsequently dealt with by email.  The minister’s answer is below. Only a relatively short part of it refers directly to information literacy and only to the schools sector. The wider agenda is ignored and there is no answer to the question - what strategic initiatives does she think the Scottish Government can engage in to promote it? I shall be enquiring further and also refer her to the US President’s greater commitment to information literacy. (See URL http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/2009literacy_prc_rel.pdf  

 Question to Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Scottish Government

 

My question to the minister is:

 The important skills of critical literacy / information literacy has been highlighted within the Curriculum for Excellence: Literacy across learning (finding and using information, understanding, analysing and evaluating) levels Early to Fourth. Does the minister agree that  information literacy  skills are essential in  independent learning at all educational levels, career choice and long term management, employability training, workplace decision making and lifelong learning and what strategic initiatives does she think the Scottish Government can engage in to promote it?

Answer from the minister

Thank you for submitting a question, please see below the response from the Education Secretary,

 The Scottish Government is determined to help our children and young people develop the literacy skills they will need to thrive in the 21st century. Skills in literacy unlock access to the wider curriculum, increase opportunities for the individual in all aspects of life and lay the foundations for lifelong learning and work. Curriculum for Excellence, the Scottish Government's major programme of reform for the education sector, emphasises the importance of literacy skills and makes clear that all teachers have responsibility to promote their development.

The Curriculum for Excellence principles and practice paper for literacy sets out the outcomes we want our young people to achieve as they progress through their education.  Young people will need to know about the fundamentals of reading and writing but also how these skills can be applied critically, across different media, to analyse and evaluate information and to work out what trust they may place in it and identify when and how people are aiming to persuade or influence them.

As our children and young people progress through learning they should develop increasing independence in applying these skills, and the ability to use them across a widening range of contexts in both learning and life. Glow, the world’s first national schools Intranet, provides learners with  a range of tools and rich learning materials which can be accessed at any time and anywhere there is an internet connection, offering a safe, accessible online environment which supports independent learning.
Friday
Sep182009

The Third Scottish Information Literacy Project Open Meeting

Open Meeting 2009 Open Meeting 2009

The Scottish Information Literacy Project’s third Open meeting took place on Wednesday 16th September 2009 at Glasgow Caledonian University and about 45 people attended. It was a genuinely cross sectoral event with people attending from all library sectors, educational agencies, government organisations including the Scottish Government and academia.  Inevitably a few people dropped out at the last moment through illness or other commitments. Unfortunately this included our keynote speaker, Professor David Smith, who had to pull out through illness.  

The theme of the day was information literacy as part of the wider skills agenda as one of the Project’s successes has been locating information literacy (IL) within this agenda. I began the day by giving an overview and update of the Project including some of the initial findings of the evaluation which we have done of the excellent employability skills courses which Inverclyde Libraries run.  This drew attention to health as an employability issue and the difficulty in disentangling personal from vocational motivations. This provoked a lively audience discussion during which it emerged that people from different library and educational sectors had shared concerns.  Next Jenny Foreman, the Scottish Government’s Information Literacy Librarian spoke about the Scottish Government’s Information Literacy Strategy. This was very much a policy level presentation explaining the need for a strategy and the issues likely to be encountered in developing it. Jenny also described how the policy is turned into practical training. Her colleague, Lesley Thomson, Knowledge Management Officer at the Scottish Centre for Regeneration then described the Information Literacy Community of Practice which she and Jenny are launching and will host and lead. She explained the principles behind a community of practice and how the website will operate. All are welcome to join and contribute. For further details contact either Lesley.Thomson2@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or Jenny.Foreman@scotland.gsi.gov.uk who will gladly sign you up.

 

After lunch Christine Irving, the Project Officer on the Scottish Information Literacy Project, spoke about the restructuring of the Scottish Information Literacy Framework which is being restructured to make it a genuine lifelong learning document incorporating early years, the workplace, employability and lifelong learning. It is being physically restructured as a weblog so that postings of current activities and developments can be added. It is also interactive and comments and postings can be made. It includes exemplars of good practice from all educational sectors. There is, as yet, less on the workplace and lifelong learning but the work we are doing on the workplace and employability is helping to enrich it. It can be found at /nilfs/ and through the project website http://www.gcal.ac.uk/ils/framework.html .

Next Lou McGill, an elearning and Information Management Consultant reported on a JISC funded study Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA) - http://prezi.com/vv_ynswlwwkv/ see also Project website http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/llida/ . LLiDA is a study of academic, ICT and information literacies across a range of HE institutions including Glasgow Caledonian and takes the form of institutional audits with overall analyses and best practice exemplars drawn from participating institutions. She found that IL people were further ahead in their thinking than other learning literacies areas. Flexible education will be needed as it is impossible to predict future employer needs. She feels that there are still to many ‘silos’ in HE each with its own language. Academic teaching is slow to change and there is resistance to a holistic agenda.

IMcCracken Open Meeting 2009 IMcCracken Open Meeting 2009

The last speaker was Ian McCracken, Learning Resources Manager at Govan High School - Connections between Information Skills and wider skills: the Future Skills Project where he and his colleagues have developed a Future Skills System of 71 skills which pupils can acquire which includes IL.  The Future Skills System is matched to Standard Grades, local and national business requirements, curricular and extra curricular work and the Curriculum for Excellence. Ian also mentioned the problem of a common language as Lou had. The Framework has been in existence long enough for Ian to be able to identify the most used skills throughout Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes as ‘Analytical Skills’, ‘ICT E-Lit’ and ‘Gathering facts’ which have pretty obvious IL implications.

All in all it was a most useful day and a great deal of information was exchanged in informal discussions as well as the formal sessions. Similar issues were identified across a range of sectors and practical difficulties round employability and linking vocational skill training and personal development were reviewed.  The PPTs and accompanying documents will appear shortly on Slideshare as we are running out of space on allocated space with the university and will be linked to the project web event page http://www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/events.html. All the presentations were excellent and represent a great deal of work by those who gave them and I would like to thank all who contributed.
Wednesday
Aug192009

Scottish Information Literacy Project's Third Open Meeting 

The third Scottish Information Literacy Project Open Meeting will take place on Wednesday 16th September between 10.0am  and 4.15 pm  at Glasgow Caledonian University. It is a free event to encourage maximum participation.  The programme is enclosed below.

As with last year’s event there will be a strong focus on partnership involvement with presentations by  Project partners and supporters. This year’s theme is Information literacy within the wider skills agenda as defined by Government policy as the Project has been successful in locating information literacy within this agenda. Professor David Smith, the co-director of the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, has agreed to deliver a keynote reviewing the educational policy background to developments in information literacy.

To reserve a place email us as below listing: name, job title, email address and indicating any specific dietary and/or disability requirements by Friday 4th September.

 

Best wishes

 

Dr. John Crawford,                          Christine Irving

Library Research Officer,              Researcher / Project Officer

Milton Street Building                    Milton Street Building

MS004, (ground floor)                   MS005, (ground floor)

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University

Cowcaddens Road                           Cowcaddens Road

Glasgow, G4 0BA                              Glasgow, G4 0BA             

Tel: 0141-273 -1248                          Tel: 0141-273 -1249

Email jcr@gcal.ac.uk                       Email christine.irving@gcal.ac.uk

Project website    www.caledonian.ac.uk/ils/

Project blog          /information-literacy

 

 


Scottish Information Literacy Project Third Open Meeting – Wednesday 16th September 2009


Information literacy and the skills agenda: a day devoted to linking information literacy with skills strategies at all levels                


Glasgow Caledonian University, Hamish Wood Building W115


Programme



9.30 – 10.00 - Registration and coffee/tea

10.00- 10.10 – Welcome and overview. Dr John Crawford, Director, Scottish Information Literacy Project

10.10-10.55 – Keynote. Information literacy and the knowledge society:  implications for higher education.  Professor David Smith, Co-director, Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning

 

10.55 -11.05 Comfort break

11.05-11.50 – Project overview and update.  John Crawford

11.50- 12.30 - The Scottish Government’s information literacy strategy and the launch of the Information Literacy Community of practice website. Lesley Thompson, Knowledge Management Officer, Scottish Centre for Regeneration and Jenny Foreman, Information Literacy Librarian, Scottish Government

 

12.30- 13.30 – Lunch

13.30 – 14.15 – Restructuring the Scottish Information Literacy Framework.  Christine Irving, Project Officer, Scottish Information Literacy Project

14.15 -15.00 – Learning Literacies for the Digital Age, a JISC funded study (LLiDA).  Lou McGill- eLearning and Information Management Consultant

 

15.00 – 15.20 Afternoon tea

15.20 – 16.05 – Connections between Information Literacy Skills and wider skills:  The Future Skills Project. Ian McCracken, Learning Resources Manager, Govan High School. 

16.05- 16.15 – Summary and close

Most presentations to run for 45 minutes including time for questions