Bridging the Gaps: Transliteracy as effective pedagogy for information literacy

Lane Wilkinson, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Friday, May 6th, 2011
2011 LOEX Conference

Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/lanewilkinson/loex-2011-transliteracy?from=ss_embed

Lane Wilkinson defines transliteracy as “the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media.” It is how we navigate information sources and understand how the sources fit together. It originates with the Transliteracy Project, a study of online reading. Transliteracy encompasses new media, new linguistic competencies, new literacies and what Wilkinson calls the Descriptive Literacies (see slide 27). He used the Twitter hashtag as an example of a new linguistic competency.

Wilkinson offered these “three keys for library instruction."

1. “Effective information use requires several information sources.” Students will continue to use Google and Wikipedia and we need to teach them to use these sources effectively. “Address non-library resources at the start.”
2. “Information sources do not stand alone, they interact.” Library instruction needs to emphasize the similarities between library and non-library information sources.
3. “Navigating across information resources requires transferable skills.” Students search by discovery. Take advantage of this “mental model” and teach how popular and scholarly information sources are similar. “Understand transferable skills”

• “Make overt connections.”
• “Provide links to specific applications.”
• “Focus on the purpose of strategies.”
• “Include time for student reflection.”
• “Consider how strategies might be adapted.”
• “Provide feedback to students.”
• “Provide opportunities to apply, re-apply and re-teach.”

Interfaces change. Teach skills that are interface-independent.

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students use Wikipedia to complete a research question worksheet before coming to library instruction.

To sum it all up: Transliteracy is the application of information literacy skills.

Learn more at the Libraries and Transliteracy blog: http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/transliteracy-loex-2011/ and http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/