Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century
Warlick presents a scenario for the future of information literacy, and it will be a whole (not necessarily brave) new world. Chapter one gives a vivid fictional picture of a day in a future middle school in which learning and literacy occur through technologies such as interactive portable slates, and human interaction happens in configurations so flexible and fluid as to be impossible in traditional schools. The next three chapters follow a neat information-literacy progression. "Exposing the Information" presents strategies for investigation–tried-and-true methods segueing into new ways of accessing and processing information through interactive technologies. "Employing the Information" looks at how data will be analyzed and interpreted in combinations of new formats and technologies, some only dreamed of today. "Expressing Ideas Compellingly" provides a menu of potential publishing formats that will supersede what we teach today, and the final chapter deals with ethical considerations, which will be even more difficult to define and legislate. Profound and inescapable ideas are examined and spun out to logical consequences and conclusions, one of the clearest being that–like it or not–students are now on the cusp of a change in learning. The burden of determining accuracy and utility in content is fast shifting from the publisher to the consumer, and educators had better prepare those consumers to be up to the job. Well documented and presented with plenty of visuals and models, this is a sobering and critical read for anyone in education.–Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.