Information and Computing Literacy Task Force Web Page

The task force was formed in the fall of 2000, and charged with studying the issues and providing recommendations to move the campus forward with the strategic goal of integrating information and computer literacy through the curriculum. The final report is posted here for campus review, as are the interim task force reports and recommendations.

Task Force co-chairs are:  Ron Davis and Holly Heller-Ross. Task Force members are: Mohammed Djerdjour, Peter Friesen, Karen Killough, Tim Hartnett, Jeff Hornibrook, Tim Mihuc, Teting Su, Cynthia Taylor, and Vivien E. Zazzau.

To learn more follow these links about Information Literacy and Computing Literacy    Here is another paper on New Literacy Technologies and Academics that you might find interesting.

Final Report and Recommendations

Report of the Information and Computer Literacy Task Force¹

 July 23, 2001

The Information and Computer Literacy Task Force was formed in October 2000 by the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs in direct response to Plattsburgh State's fifth strategic goal: "Invest in Technology & Emphasize Information Literacy." The task force was charged to "study, develop, and propose the best mechanisms for achieving integration of both information and technology literacy throughout the curriculum." To achieve this goal, the task force was specifically asked to 1) study, develop and propose a campus definition of information and technology literacy, in light of national standards; and 2) propose a plan for achieving greater integration of information and technology literacy across the curriculum.

 Why Information and Technology Literacy Is Critical

         We live in an information age of ever-expanding scope. Providing our graduates with the skills and abilities required to locate and use information and technology wisely in their everyday lives and to create new knowledge for themselves and others is vital to fulfilling our university's mission and goals. In addition to being mandated by Plattsburgh's fifth strategic goal, information and technology literacy is required by the SUNY trustees General Education Competency for Information Management, which requires that the curriculum be infused with instruction to prepare students to "perform the basic operations of personal computer use; understand and use basic research techniques; and locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources."  Information Literacy is also a CHE Middle States Association expectation as listed under questions to be addressed by self-study teams: "Are there information literacy programs designed to increase the information competence of students, faculty, and administrative staff to know when they have an information need and to evaluate and effectively utilize the information?" ² Many colleges and universities are revising their undergraduate curriculum to meet information and technology literacy expectations, and are using the standards outlined by the Association of College & Research Libraries information literacy competency standards and the National Academy of Sciences information technology report to make their revisions.³

In its General Education information-research requirement, Plattsburgh State has been a SUNY leader. Our students learn research concepts, strategies, and tools as well as critical information evaluation skills in LIB 101, Introduction to Information Research. But information and technology literacy — which includes literacy in media, computers, networks, technology, and research in disciplines —cannot be fully taught in a single stand-alone course. To continue to be a leader in SUNY and meet strategic-goal and trustee mandates and Middle States expectations for accreditation, the college needs to integrate information and technology literacy concepts and skills more thoroughly into General Education and into every academic discipline. These concepts and skills should be developed progressively throughout a student's college career.

Recommendations for Information and Technology Literacy

  The Information and Computer Literacy Task Force recommends that:

•    The following definitions be accepted for campus use. Information literacy is the ability to recognize the extent and nature of an information need, then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information.⁴ Technology literacy is the ability to understand the potentials and limitations of technology and to identify and effectively use the appropriate technology to satisfy an information need or other desired outcome

•      Information and technology literacy concepts and skills be introduced, reinforced, and expanded on three curricular levels: in lower-level General Education requirements, upper-level General education requirements, and in each major.

•   The Library Skills requirement in the General Education Learning Skills category be changed to Information and Technology Literacy requirement.

 •    The college include information and technology literacy competencies in its assessment of entering students and in its learning outcomes assessments, and that academic departmental assessment plans include the information and technology literacy concepts and skills required for their majors.

Inclusion of Information and Technology Literacy in Lower-level General Education

•    During their first year at Plattsburgh State, students should develop competence in technology literacy critical to their academic success and should complete LIB 101 or its integrated learning community equivalent. To develop competence in technology literacy, students should:

•     Become familiar with Plattsburgh’s technology facilities and services, the essentials of using computers, and basic e-mail communication and word processing.

•     Be introduced to the potential uses of spreadsheets, databases, graphics and presentation programs.

•     Be introduced to ethical, legal, and socioeconomic issues surrounding technology use at Plattsburgh and in society, such as Plattsburgh's technology use policies, copyright and intellectual property, information privacy and security, and socioeconomic issues regarding access to information technology.

To meet this competency goal, either or a combination of the following options should be adopted:

Option A

Several (4-7) hours of classroom instruction on technology literacy should be developed and provided to students. These hours might be included in a Freshman Experience or Freshman Learning Community credit-based course. Or they might be scheduled in the LIB 101 computer classroom at the same time but on a different day as a student’s LIB 101 class. Students in LIB 101 on Monday at 10 a.m., e.g., would take technology competency on Wednesday at 10 a.m., and vice-versa. The same schedule would be set up for Tuesday/Thursday sections of LIB 101. Adjunct or current faculty would be assigned to teach these sessions.

Option B

 A web-based instructional tutorial with competency assessment should be purchased or developed. Successful completion of the tutorial (or passing a proficiency exam) would be required of all students, before or concurrent with registering for LIB101. The tutorial would remain available to all students and faculty for use and reference.

Transfer students can meet this requirement by transferring a C or higher in a course equivalent to LIB 101 and basic computing competencies at another college, by transferring with an A.A. or A.S. that qualifies for a waiver (determined by admissions), or by passing a proficiency exam in information and technology literacy.

•    ENG 101 should include reinforcement of foundational information and technology literacy concepts and skills.

 •    The Natural and Social Sciences categories of General Education should be revised to introduce technology literacy concepts and skills appropriate to their academic disciplines.

Inclusion of Information and Technology Literacy in Upper-level General Education

 •   A significant research component reinforcing information and technology literacy should be incorporated into the upper-level General Education requirements through the Perspectives courses. (A Task Force review of current courses indicates that many courses already require information research and incorporate a technology component.)

Inclusion of Information and Technology Literacy in the Major

 •   Students should be required to take at least one course in their major that expands their knowledge of information and technology literacy in discipline-specific aspects critical to their profession. Departmental faculty would decide which concepts and skills should be developed in their discipline, which course/s would incorporate these aspects, and whether to incorporate them in one required course, such as the Advanced Writing Requirement, or in multiple courses. . (A Task Force review of current courses indicates that many departments already require information research and incorporate a technology component into at least one course.)

Recommended Next Steps

         The Faculty Senate General Education Committee should:

•     Consider these General Education recommendations in its current revision of General Education.

•     Consider the attached supporting documentation and curriculum matrix in planning General Education changes.

•     Review General education courses to determine the extent of current integration of information and technology literacy in existing courses.

The Faculty Senate should:

 •            Consider requiring the inclusion of information and technology in the major.

•            Consider the need for additional faculty to provide technology literacy instruction.

The Division of Library & Information Services should:  

•     nvestigate web-based tutorials for technology literacy.

•      Continue to offer information literacy instruction in focused sections for Allied Health, Arts/Social Sciences, Business, Education, & Math/Science.

•     Continue to provide information-literacy course-related sessions and faculty workshops, and provide information services in support of information based teaching, learning and research.

•     Continue to offer instructional technology workshops and support for faculty development in the use of technology for teaching and research.

•     Continue to provide computing support for faculty, staff and administrative offices, labs, residence halls, and classrooms use of technology.

•     Continue to improve campus technology infrastructure (networks, labs, residence halls, and classrooms) in support of teaching and learning with technology.

•   If information and technology literacy are not integrated into a learning community, should continue to provide information literacy instruction through LIB101.

Departmental Faculty should:

           •     Review these recommendations and consider them in curriculum discussions and program planning meetings.

•     Collaborate with LIS library faculty and instructional technologists to investigate association and accreditation guidelines for discipline-specific information and technology literacy.

•     Collaborate with LIS library faculty and instructional technologists to incorporate selected discipline-specific information and technology literacy in their programs and courses.

^1.                Ron Davis, Professor/English Department and Holly Heller-Ross, Associate Librarian, co-chaired the campus-wide task force of nine academic and professional faculty. Task force members were Mohammed Djerdjour (Management & Marketing), Peter Friesen (Instructional Technology), Karen Killough,(Learning Center), Tim Hartnett (Library), Jeff Hornibrook (History), Tim Mihuc (Earth & Environmental Science), Teting Su (Sociology & Criminal Justice), Cynthia Taylor (Nursing, Food & Nutrition), and Vivien E. Zazzau (Library).

²    Commission on Higher Education Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, Designs for Excellence: Handbook for Institutional Self-Study, 7^th edition, p. 30).

³.    The task force based recommendations on standards for information literacy from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). The ACRL 2000 standards, titled Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, are attached to this report.  Recommendations for technology literacy were based primarily on work done by the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council, published in 1999 as Being Fluent with Information Technology ; part of that publication is also attached to this report.

⁴     The task force further discussed examples and ways to assess student knowledge and mastery of these abilities:

·         recognizing an information need (clarify & define the research question or problem, categorize/classify/identify the type of information needed).

·         locating information (identify and use information sources in a variety of formats, construct and implement research strategies, retrieve information online or in person, collect and/or generate data).

·         evaluating information (evaluate the credibility and reliability of information sources, information and data, and research methodologies).

·         effectively using the collected information (written and oral communication of the information collected, analyze and generate new data and information, synthesize ideas to construct new concepts, make informed decisions and draw new conclusions, consider the ethical, political and socioeconomic aspects of information uses).

May Update: The task force met on April 10th to discuss general education and consider recommendations. James Armstrong, Chair of the Faculty Senate General Education Committee joined us both to provide information and to get a sense of the task force's early recomendations. The co-chairs met several times through April and May drafting a report based on meeting discussions, then several task force members met again on May 16 to refine the draft and identify unresolved issues. 

The Task Force agreed to the following recommendations. Details will be provided to the Provost, Deans, and Faculty Senate when they are finished, and will be also posted here for all-campus review.

Recommendations for Information and Technology Literacy:

The Information and Computer Literacy Task Force recommends that the following definitions be accepted for widespread campus use. Information literacy is the ability to recognize the extent and nature of an information need, then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information. Technology literacy is the ability to understand the potentials and limitations of technology and to identify and effectively use appropriate technology to satisfy an information need or other desired outcome.

The Information and Computer Literacy Task Force further recommends that the library skills requirement in the General Education learning skills category be changed to Information and Technology Literacy Requirement.

The Information and Computer Literacy Task Force further recommends that information and technology literacy concepts and skills be introduced, reinforced, and expanded on three curricular levels: in lower-level General Education requirements, upper-level General education requirements, and in each major.

Finally, the Information and Computer Literacy Task Force recommends that the college include information and technology literacy competencies in its assessments of entering students and in its learning outcomes assessments, and that academic departmental assessment plans include the information and technology literacy concepts and skills required for their majors.

March Update: The task force met on March 13th to discuss definitions of technology literacy and to review three models from other colleges. The models are from the Cal.State San Marcos, Florida International University, and the University of Arizona.  A draft definition of technology literacy was developed and is posted here for further review and revision. We welcome any and all comments.

" Technology literacy is the ability to understand the limitations and potential of technology and to identify and efficiently use the appropriate tools to produce a desired outcome."

Task force members are still considering several issues surrounding these definitions: 1. Should they be less broad and encompassing and more specific? 2. Should information and technology literacies be merged in one definition? 3. Should they be accompanied by a listing of expected competencies?
Please comment on these issues as well as on the definitions themselves.

February Update: The task force met for the second time on February 6th to discuss Plattsburgh definitions for information and computing literacy. A draft definition for information literacy was developed and is posted here for further review and revision. Please send your ideas to any member of the task force listed above.

" Information literacy is the ability to recognize the extent and nature of an information need, then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information"

The task force further discussed examples and ways to assess student knowledge and mastery of these abilities. Examples for recognizing an information need (clarify & define the research question or problem,categorize/classify/identify the type of information needed) locating information (identify and use information sources in a variety of formats, construct and implement research strategies, retrieve information online or in person, collect and/or generate data) evaluating information (evaluate the creadibility and reliability of information sources, information and data, and research methodologies)
effectively use the collected information ( written and oral communication of the information collected, analyze and generate new data and information, synthesize ideas to construct new concepts, make informed deciaions and draw new conclusions, consider the ethical, political and socioeconomic aspects of information uses).

Maintained by Holly Heller-Ross, MLS holly.hellerross@plattsburgh.edu