It is my belief that the lack of information literacy is a problem in Christchurch. People buy computers but are not properly supported to become competent users. Hope you find this useful.
Feedback would be appreciated. <selfquote I spoke on this topic at the Linux users group meeting in Christchurch on Wednesday 30, July. Specific comments about Google and email were added in response to another letters. I've been doing some research on the WSIS process as part of the "civil society" input in New Zealand. I've become aware that the "Information Society" is a non-starter because governments and businesses and far too many individuals have a vested interest in making sure that you are so distracted by dys- information that you have no time and energy to do anything really useful or important. The pretending and posturing and deliberate misdirection of attention associated with the war in Iraq is a disgrace to the USA and the UK and doesn�t give much credit to the United Nations or most other countries in the world. The so called "free press" has managed to disgrace itself, and is still fluffing about pretending that this disgrace didn�t happen. I�ve become aware that the number of internet connections or the amount of broadband access people may have is not a good measure of how much a society in part of the "Information Society" the real question is how do we deal with data (commonly called information). A young Canadian Yaacov Iland, suggested that we should examine the "information practices" that people use. The biggest problem is that word Information itself. The term is badly misused. You only have information when you learn or are given some new data that fits into your existing thinking or into something you are trying to do that informs you in a new way so your understanding is improved or your ability to act effectively is enhanced. If the new data misleads you, makes you believe something that isn�t true, or interferes with your ability to act effectively it�s certainly not "information" yet most of our society pretends that "in the interests of free speech" all sorts of garbage data should fill our newspapers and our television screens. What sort of world is it when monks and shepherds who never watch the news, are often much better informed than those of us who consume our daily dose of propaganda. Incoming messages are only data. Knowing that allows you to cope with "information (sic) overload" better thought of a being drowned by data, most of which is someone's irrelevant propaganda. You have to decide if they are or are not "information" and you do that by seeing if the data "fits the pattern" of what you already know, and if it extends that pattern in some way. Your defence against the barrage of garbage data is what you already know, but most of our education teaches us to ignore what we know and seek information from "expert sources". We have been taught to be information vegetables, passive receptacles for other peoples manure. You have your own PRIMARY experience, and your record of that. Your record. Keep a journal, diary or notebook. Maintain your own files on topics of interest. You know you can rely on that, and to the extent that it�s not reliable, you have a feel for that too. You have your own data many topics, and that informs you in a powerful way. In addition like everyone else you have access to secondary records. What�s in the press, on the Internet, in your mailbox. You can store files, print, read, highlight, learn about, write notes on or discuss this secondary data and in the process you may or may not accept the "information" it�s supposed to contain. But because of your primary data (experience and memory) backed by your journal, your ability to remember correctly, you have special tools for detecting propaganda if you care to use them. Here is my list of essential skills that "information literacy" demands. a) Each person having his or her own data. Primary experience and notes, records and measurements based on that experience. Journals, diaries, bench notes or memories. You've probably broken a few things, and repaired a few things (sometimes badly). Having your own data is your filter against collecting a lot of rubbish from Google. It also helps you to use suitable key words when you do searches. Having your own data gives you reasons for seeking further information in the first place. b) Collecting secondary data from the Internet, radio, books, television or in conversations and letters, and filing the most interesting parts of that in some logical way. Access to these records is important. Using Google fits in here. c) Making an effort occasionally to find the pattern that this data offers. Trying to understand it, to turn it back into information. To learn what the data says. Reading material doesn't mean you "know it". Choosing what to "know" and integrating it with what you knew before is a task that takes time and effort. This might take a lot of time. Understanding new ideas isn�t easy. d) To do something with the new ideas you are generating, to talk about it, to make plans, do something practical, or communicate what you are thinking, maybe by email. Doing something practical is a good test. If it breaks, go back to the beginning. Quite a bit needs to be known about the subject in order for anyone to use the new understanding effectively. Educational specialists often speak about learning as though immediately after the lesson you can have full understanding. Often when you learn things, full understanding of what you know comes weeks, months, even years later. e) This may lead to publication in some form. (If fact "d" is also a form of publication) An essay, a web page, a programme of action, maybe even a book. Or perhaps your own game, or music composition or artwork or designs or �� whatever creative activity you can imagine. This publication might be long delayed. There are many examples of people who get the book written 10 or 20 years after the experience. It matters not a scrap where you begin. Computers, family history, football, or aerospace engineering, it�s all one ball of wax, you can only start where you are. What interests you now? You will go on from there to a dozen other things once you develop the skills required. In fact the whole spectrum of lifelong learning depends exactly on these skills which I'm calling "information literacy" </selfquote Regards John
