Information Library and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture

This paper is a "response to the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council" (introduction). The author addresses the issue from a generalist perspective, as someone who has had a wide range of experience in several roles related to the issue.

Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy:
--To Lynch, information technology literacy is an infrastructure that affects much of our lives, including: legal, social, economic and public policy issues. Technology provides tools that allow us to interact with the infrastructure.
--Information literacy encompasses content/communication, research, authoring, analysis, evaluation, etc. Content=several forms and purposes, exs: text, visuals, computer simulation, multimedia work, used for exs: news, art, entertainment, education/research, ads, commerce, politics, etc.
--Both are essential, interrelated, should be taught closely to one another
--Information technology shapes the way we create and use information; thus information technology literacy and information literacy can be codependent.
Information Technology Literacy:
--2 perspectives:
1) focuses on skills in the use of tools (software, computers, internet browsers, email)
2) focuses on understanding how technologies, systems, and infrastructure work, both superficially and at a deeper level.
--skill-oriented training is only good for short term (these date very quickly and can be useless later on)
--objectives should include fluency w/ tools, design principles, and learning/using software (including trouble shooting, solfing problems, programming)
Ex: Simulation tools: important to understand how to construct, analyze, AND use them
--How does the technological world work? Understanding this is key.
--Not just pcs
--needs to consider technology infrastructures that impact us daily, such as telecomm, broadcasting, publishing, and so on.
--Many learn specializations but not the broad components related to technology (skill-oriented rather than understanding the broader perspective AND the task related skills)
--Lynch asks: "Why is it valuable?" He then states that this knowledge is going to become more and more important (I totally agree with him here...everything we do is becoming more reliant on technology.) Not being able to understand the greater principles that support information technology literacy will limit "one's ability to function intelligently in society."
Information Literacy:
--Authoring and critical/analytical reading need to include the "full range of visual and multimedia communication genres." examples: interactive media, fluidity of digital forms, editing ability/fabrication ability of "facts."
--Computer based searching--important to not only understand how it works but to know searching techniques and how information itself is accessed electronically.
--Need to form a conceptual map of information space and where to look for specific information.
--Ownership/use of intellectual property is an issue in information policy and how we manage all this information

My thoughts: What was fascinating about this article was that Lynch drew attention to the fact that information technology really has permeated every aspect of our society. Although I was aware of this fact, it is a fact that is easy to ignore. Unfortunately, I feel as though he acknowledged this idea, he didn't go into enough detail. Though it was from a generalist perspective, I think that addressing more in depth the relationship between information technology literacy and information literacy would have been beneficial to me. The dynamics between the two and how we are going to educate the public (kids, students, etc) is something that needs to be considered.