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Impact of Information Literacy on Student Learning Tammi Ware COM/705 November 21, 2010 Dr. Kimberly Lockwood The Effects of Information Technology on Student Learning The ability to learn how to learn is a key characteristic of those who are information literate. It is a skill that is utilized throughout life, from the elementary level to corporate America. Information literacy allows an individual to identify information needed, gives an understanding of how to use the information, and determine the best sources of information for a given need. It also allows the individual to locate the sources in a critical manner and share that information, commonly in research. Being information literate is critically important in the world today; with the introduction and growth of the internet, the amount of information available has vastly increased, though the information is not always current or even reliable. This has made the job harder for those in the teaching profession, who are to teach how valuable accurate information is to the student. Information literacy can affect how a student learns, whether the student can process and use the information, and if the student is able to apply it in their studies. Scholarship Students are developing lethargic study habits as they drift away from information literacy available through academic libraries and rely on technology. This new method of learning hinders the learning process of students, lowering information competency. According to Badke (2009), “The average student’s information world is as simple as picking low-hanging apples off a tree in an orchard without guard dogs” (p.47). Educators often permit students to use search engines as the ideal mode for research, with up to eighty percent of higher education students using Google and other search engines for main sources of information (Badke, 47). Even when students are required to use sources other than websites for research, the library is not the first choice for reference sources (Badke 47-48). It is simply easier for students to use the easily access information with a few words typed into the computer rather than search for hours doing research in a library. Practice Literacy information must be imparted early in order to give students an opportunity to properly enhance the skill. “A study on information behavior of young people, released at the University College London “shows “‘…intervention at university age is too late: these students have already developed an ingrained coping behavior’” (Russell, 92). There is a consensus among educators that students struggle with the concept of understanding how to effectively use information. The students have problems determining what information is important and accurate, and therefore turn to quick websites such as Dictionary.com and Wikipedia, which results in getting answers quickly that have not always been verified, leading to erroneous information cited in works. Students lack knowledge of what is beneficial information versus information that is not relevant to the research. (Russell 92). Leadership The American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) published that fifty percent of students do not retain information learned after several months. Even if the students are given notice they are testing after a lecture, they can only answer forty-two percent of questions using notes, and this number decreases drastically after one week. One must also remember that fifty percent of university knowledge is outdated after five years. In order to grow academically, students should depend not so much on knowledge, but information competence, which allows them to adapt to the changing information world (Turusheva 2009). In Eacott’s “Strategy as Leadership: An Alternative Perspective to the Construct of Stategy” it is mentioned that” Brent Davis [states] there has been a shift in thinking about strategy in education from the historically conservative perspective of strategy as management function to that of strategy as a leadership process (55). “To change educational leadership practices, one has to change the ways of understanding; that is, the construction of knowledge relating to educational leadership and the social interactions in which actors engage” (Eacott, 62). For information literacy to have any influence on student learning, teachers’ must change the curriculum and force students to use a broader gamut of informational tools, rather than merely leaning on technology. Educators have failed to incorporate information literacy into the curriculum, and have not acknowledged the long-term impact on students’ educational progress. It has been shown that students’ ability to process information is certain if things such as diverse information is used in classrooms, students are taught to find, evaluate and use information, and effective teaching techniques are used in the classrooms. (Turusheva1 31). Conclusion Literacy competence, a skill that develops over the lifetime, is a key asset to a student. The ability to find, evaluate, use and communicate information in an array of layouts gives students an upper hand. When a student is not information literate, the task of literacy competence becomes difficult. The student is not skilled to determine which information is important enough to learn and retain, instead simply memorizing for assignments and actually learning nothing. Teachers must begin imparting literacy information to students at an early age so that students learn properly, process information correctly, and properly apply it to studies. References Badke,W. (2009, Jul/Aug). How we failed the net generation. Online, 47-49. Eacott, S. (2010, Nov). Strategy as leadership: An alternative perspective to the construct of strategy. ISEA, 38, 55-65. Russell, P. (2009). Why universities need information literacy now more than ever. Feliciter, 55, 92-94. Turusheva, L. (2009). Students' information competence and its importance for life-long education. Problems Of Education In the 21st Century, 12, 126-132.