Young people and the evaluation of information on the World Wide Web: Principles, practice and beliefs

A recurrent theme in LIS literature is the tendency of young people not to evaluate rigorously the information with which they come into contact. Although many information literacy models stress the need to take a critical approach, the reality of behaviour is often very different. Recent research conducted in an English high school has explored the importance that teenagers attach to ten particular evaluative criteria. 149 youngsters contributed data via an online questionnaire. Participants felt that information on the Web should be current/topical, free from spelling and grammatical errors and easily verifiable elsewhere but authorship was much less of a priority to them. The findings are likely to be of special relevance to information literacy teachers who are defining priorities for their own programmes

Diffusion of ICT in Rural Areas Community for Socio-Economic Development under the Platform of E-CLRC

This research study proposed a framework for Community Learning and Resources Center for ICTs literacy, awareness, skills and use in disadvantage and rural areas of developing countries, in order to improve the quality of education and socio-economic in youth using the artistic use of ICTs towards accomplishing the goal such as “No child Left Behind” owing to lack of access and monetary resources in rural and remote areas. The study conducted with tie relationship with National ICT strategy  (NICTS) and Education for All(World Education forum Dakar 2000 (WEF2k)) , it compares and lists the benefits of E-CLRC in context of NICT strategy and WEF 2000,  A series of seminars, workshops and group discussion conducted in selected areas of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan including schools, communities and parents. This was a voluntarily initiated by youth to start an ICT awareness campaign in the rural areas of Pakistan. It also aims to find out the current ICT implementation level in schools and other educational Institutions. This E-CLRC will increase access to valuable information that gratifies diversified needs of various segments such as ICTs, socio-economic development and team work capability of native populace. Keywords: Information and communication technologies, E-Community Learning Resources Center, World Education Forum, CBES

Student use of computers in the media center: does it support educational goals?

This study explored the ways students from study halls used computers in a media center at 22 student workstations. A shift toward use of computers and electronic resources for recreation and for research had been observed. A study was initiated to determine what students accomplish during these periods and if their use benefited learning. The first research method employed was a direct observation of 1264 students visiting the media center during 64 different periods over a three-week time period. Students were observed and the kinds of applications used were counted. In a second method, ninety-seven students from across the school\u27s population completed a questionnaire. Questions focused on student choice of computer applications and the satisfaction of their experience. Of the 694 students observed using computers, 67% browsed the web and 10% were using the web for research. Sixty-four percent of the 97 students reported that their computer use satisfied some research need, supported some learning in a subject, enhanced learning in some way, and were interested in learning more using a computer. These numbers are indicative of the lure and appeal computers hold for youth. This study reinforces the need for innovative measures to maximize learning as an educational goal of computer use

Can computer technology help elementary students achieve information literacy?

In an attempt to determine if computer technology helps elementary students achieve information literacy, a quasi-experiment was conducted using the Solomon four-group design with two fourth grade and two fifth grade classes. Information Literacy Standards from Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning and Eisenberg and Berkowitz\u27 Big 6™ Information Literacy model were used to structure the experiment. The researcher was a participant observer, the school\u27s librarian. Two classes were pretested and posttested, the other two were only posttested following Solomon four-group protocol. The researcher used a rubric to assess students at each step of the Big 6™ Information Literacy model in the course of their information problem-solving search. The scores from the pre- and posttests were not conclusive in themselves. While one class demonstrated improvement on its posttest scores, all the classes\u27 posttest scores were within a few percentage points of each other. Likewise, the Rubric for Assessment determined the four groups to be adequate or slightly better at each of the Big 6™ steps. The role of the teacher-librarian was also studied and found to be crucial. Continuing study of teacher-librarian roles is recommended as computer technology advances and its use continues to increase in education

The characteristics and development of young people's information universes

Recent developments towards "the learning society" have increased the importance of youngsters acquiring skills in finding information. Research, however, has not kept pace with this progress and relatively little attention has been directed to young people's information universes. This study is an attempt to gain greater understanding of this area. The work draws on the ideas of youngsters themselves in order to explore these universes and to examine how the universes develop during childhood. Three particular aspects have been selected for scrutiny: young people's understanding of the term, "information", their information needs and the methods they employ to satisfy these needs. Essentially qualitative in nature, the study sampled 188 youngsters from six schools within a town in north-east England. Participants ranged from four- to eighteen-year-olds. The work is unique in using the ideas of youngsters of such a variety of ages to investigate, within a single inquiry, the three nominated areas. The main data collection methods were those of the focus group and individual interview, although some data was also elicited from documents. The youngest informants typically understood information to be facts obtained from sources such as books and computers but teenagers were more open and disparate in their beliefs. A diversity of information needs was revealed. They embraced areas such as advice, affective support and skill-related, subject and consumer information. Situational factors pertaining to, for example, the amount and up-to-dateness of the information required were important considerations for some individuals. The approaches taken by informants in response to their needs were also varied, and ranged from direct observation to the exploitation of recognised sources, including books and the Internet. Needs frequently went unmet and, for many youngsters, problems during the information-seeking process were common. Even when attempting to use other people, participants were often unable to gain the information they sought. In order to help youngsters develop more effective ways of finding information, considerable changes are needed, within schools, especially. Some changes involve modifications to existing practices but others demand that the whole ethos of the learning environment be rethought

A Structural Analysis of the Information Problem Solving Strategies of Selected Home Schooled Students

This research investigated the information problem solving curriculum of home schooled students who lived in four central Iowa school districts, all of whom belonged to the same home school networking group. Fourteen home schooling parents were interviewed, and asked to respond to questions dealing with the research process, and how those skills were being taught, the major focus being on whether the skills were taught as part of the curriculum, or in supplement to it, and whether information problem solving was taught as a process or separately as content. Use of electronic searching was also investigated. This study indicated that a large majority of the home schooled students interviewed conduct research on a regular basis, and that they all used the public library for pleasure reading and information. Skills to conduct research were generally taught by the parent educators, and were integrated into a total process. Even though information problem solving was predominantly taught as a process, and non-traditional projects were assigned, these children primarily conducted research in the traditional manner, through the use of the print materials, card catalog, and the Dewey Classification System. A large majority of the families had access to an electronic encyclopedia, and over half used the internet, but their instruction in how to execute electronic search strategies was inadequate

University-school link partnership projects (USLP) for promotion of intergeneration communication

Started as a pilot experiment, the University-School Link Partnership (USLP) was designed to encourage interactions between young and old people. It was first initiated in 2000 and implemented from September 2001 to September 2002. Co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS), Lingnan University and the Church of Christ in China Ming Kei College, the USLP involved four schools and ten social welfare organizations with a total of 288 students, 265 older persons and 106 volunteers participating in the project. The aims of the project were to enhance the intergenerational relationship between the young and the older participants through a series of well-structured programmes including training workshops, social service projects, project reports presentation, CD-ROM production, as well as experiences of mutual care and support during an overnight camp. The activities have not only improved the social competence skills of the participants of all ages, but also developed an off-campus curriculum (service learning) for the students and provided insights for elderly service agencies