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Not sure what Information Literacy involves? Also known as Information Competency or Information Fluency, Information Literacy refers to the skills used to identify when information is needed, and then locate, evaluate, and use it effectively. These abilities are especially crucial in our current environment of technological change and nearly unlimited information choices.

I am also concerned that two teachers do not feel comfortable using the resources in the library. I will  redouble my efforts to help our faculty see the relevance of information fluency in all subject areas, to try and energize them with the excitement I feel to encourage them to step outside of their teaching comfort zone,  and to continue to help our faculty members feel at ease using the technology and materials in our library.

Here is my list:1. All educators must achieve a basic level of technological capability.2. People who do not meet the criterion of #1 should be embarrassed, not proud, to say so in public.3. We should finally drop the myth of digital natives and digital immigrants. Back in July 2006 I said in my blog, in the context of issuing guidance to parents about e-safety:"I'm sorry, but I don't go for all this digital natives and immigrants stuff when it comes to this: I don't know anything about the internal combustion engine, but I know it's pretty dangerous to wander about on the road, so I've learnt to handle myself safely when I need to get from one side of the road to the other."

4. Headteachers and Principals who have staff who are technologically-illiterate should be held to account.5. School inspectors who are technologically illiterate should be encouraged to find alternative employment.6. Schools, Universities and Teacher training courses who turn out students who are technologically illiterate should have their right to a licence and/or funding questioned.7. We should stop being so nice. After all, we've got our qualifications and jobs, and we don't have the moral right to sit placidly on the sidelines whilst some educators are potentially jeopardising the chances of our youngsters.

If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write. Extreme? Maybe. Your thoughts?

I myself am a long-time sufferer of YouTube-block (despite my understanding of my District's motivations) and I have developed a variety of strategies for treating the condition. I have seven suggestions:

Kiersten, one of my very favorite students, discovered a strategy for including YouTube (and other Flash) videos in PowerPoint presentations and along the way introduced me to Wikihow. (That site is worthy of its own post for sure!).  Anyway, the seniors are having great success adding videos directly into their PowerPoints. It's gone kinda viral as an alternate to linking or to downloading and converting videos to WMVs using Zamzar.

In his article in the February Educational Leadership ("Learning with Blogs and Wikis"), Bill Ferriter argues that digital tools like RSS feeds and aggregators help educators advance their professional learning. But first, some teachers need to join the ranks of the literate

Sadly, digital illiteracy is more common that you might think in schools. There are hundreds of teachers that haven't yet mastered the kinds of tools that have become a part of the fabric of learning—and life—for our students. We ban cell phones, prohibit text messaging, and block every Web application that our students fall in love with. We see gaming as a corrupting influence in the lives of children and remain convinced that Google is making us stupid. 

Learning to use online forums, be they social network services like MySpace and Facebook, blogs, or wikis is not a sexily contemporary add-on to the curriculum - it's an essential part of the literacy today's youth require for the world they inhabit.