Infomancy by Design
December 2nd, 2005 by Christopher HarrisTime for another remix…Information Literacy meets Backwards Design otherwise known as Backwards Infomancy.
Backwards Design is a deliberate planning and development strategy that begins with identification of the desired outcomes, follows with the development of an assessment plan to measure success, and finally concludes with the creation of activities that will lead to the desired outcomes. Infomancy is a deliberate approach to information literacy that focuses on the use of information resources and tools to reach desired outcomes.
Backwards Infomancy is thus a deliberate instructional planning strategy that identifies information literacy standards as part of the desired outcomes, uses information tools to support identification and ongoing reflection around big ideas and essential questions, employs technologies to document evidence of understanding, and embeds information skills instruction during the regular instruction of content.
I like that the Backwards Infomancy strategy is a deliberate inclusion of information and technology skills from the very beginning of the process. How many library or computer lessons begin with the item? I have seen that we too often teach about atlases, Word, dictionaries, Inspiration, and the internet. What happens if we turn this around to say that we are teaching about physical/political spaces and the impact of geography on cultures, communicating in a written format, expressing ideas concisely and precisely through mastery of vocabulary, organizing concepts to demonstrate details and connections, and the power of a global network of information communities? Then we are teaching about the Euphrates River Valley and why that was the cradle of civilization while we look at the region using physical and political maps that we happen to find in…an atlas.
This seems awkward to me as I begin thinking about it. It is hard to teach atlases without starting from the idea of using an atlas. It seems that Backwards Infomancy will only really work when the library works in very close collaboration with the classrooms.
How do you plan in your library? How do you plan with teachers?
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:59 am
Chris,
When I was teaching I used UbD in my classroom and with planning with other teachers and it is one of those strategies that can truly shift thinking. Once someone grasps the idea that we aren’t teaching dictionaries, MS Word, etc. and that we are teaching concepts teaching they are almost liberated. The feeling I had at that “ah-ha” moment allowed me to explore all sorts of experiences for my students. Thanks for the posts.
Brian
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:25 pm
That Ah-Ha moment is powerful. I will be the first to admit that when I switched from the classroom to a computer lab, I started out with a lot of teaching Word. Teaching in a lab or in a library is different from a classroom. The change in perception that I had back then was helped along quite a lot by a very strong librarian who did some incredible things as part of a flexible schedule.
You identified the key though, it is a change from teacher-centered teaching to student-centered learning.
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