2020 vision: An information literacy continuum for students primary school to post graduation

Abstract

By the year 2020, those now commencing school will have emerged into a variety of contexts. Despite their years of education, these young people may lack the skills of information literacy that an information age demands. One reason for this could be a lack of information literacy vision on the part of their educators. Th e term Information Literacy was coined in the1970s and has, since then, developed a substantial academic literature. Despite the acknowledged need for information literacy, to date there has been little in the way of a comprehensive vision of information literacy development. Ideally, such a vision would accommodate both the vertical and lateral transitions students make as they proceed on their educational journey. One starting point is to perceive learning as a lifelong endeavour, the information literacy needed for that endeavour being the responsibility of all the participants in the learning process. A model which presents information literacy as a continuum off ers a framework which allows the whole information literacy journey to be conceptualised by the participants. Th e model presented here fulfi ls the challenge put by those developing information literacy standards to convert those standards into a useable continuum. It attempts to chart information literacy development form novice reader-writer to independent researcher. As well as having practical, pedagogical application, the information literacy continuum may provide a framework for future research.