1
Information Literacy for Hong Kong Students Background
Since 1998, the EDB has introduced a series of strategies on Information Technology (IT) in Education to facilitate schools’ incorporation of IT in learning and teaching. In 2000, a set of IT Learning Targets, highlighting the use of IT and information, was developed to serve as a set of guidelines for schools to organise relevant learning and teaching activities. In tandem with the Learning to Learn curriculum reform which is now moving towards continual curriculum renewal, we have reviewed the implementation of the IT Learning Targets and further strengthened the role of information literacy (IL) which is essential for lifelong and self-directed learning. The IL for HK Students is thus developed to help schools understand how to develop students’ knowledge, skills and attitude to use information and information technology at different key stages. (Please refer to the Annex for details.)
IL as a Learning Goal
Students will use information and information technology ethically and effectively as responsible citizens and lifelong learners.
Objectives
Information Literacy (IL) refers to the ability and attitude that would lead to an effective and ethical use of information. The IL for HK Students aims to develop students’ abilities to:
identify the need for information;
locate, evaluate, extract, organise and present information;
create new ideas;
cope with the dynamic in our information world; and
refrain from unethical use of information such as cyber-bullying and infringing intellectual property rights.
Relationship with Values Education/Generic Skills/Four Key Tasks/Key Learning Areas
Incorporation of IL in the school curriculum will provide authentic contexts to promote
values education. While the learning and teaching effectiveness is enhanced through an
IT-rich environment supported by high-quality and easy-to-use e-resources, due attention
has to be given to the promotion of ethical use of information. IL can be developed in the
context of handling information with different media when students are provided with
learning experiences which involve the application of Generic Skills (e.g. creativity and
problem solving) or the planning and implementation of the Four Key Tasks (i.e. Moral and
Civic Education, Reading to Learn: Towards Reading across the Curriculum, Project
Learning, and IT for Self-directed Learning) to develop learning to learn capabilities. While
students apply IL in relevant Key Learning Areas/Subjects/School Library activities, they
can accommodate the advances in technology to benefit their learning and simulate the
practice of informed and responsible citizens.
Annex
The Information Literacy for Hong Kong Students encompasses the following 8 literacy areas in developing students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes:
Category Eight Literacy Areas Effective and Ethical use
of information for lifelong learning
1 Use, provide and communicate information ethically and responsibly
Generic IL Skills 2 Identify and define a need for information 3 Locate and access relevant information
4 Evaluate information and information providers, in terms of authority, credibility and current purpose
5 Extract and organise information and create new ideas
Information World 6 Be able to apply IT skills in order to process information and produce user-generated content 7 Recognise the roles and functions of information
providers (e.g. libraries, museums, internet) in the society
8 Recognise the conditions under which reliable
information could be obtained
3
Category Eight Literacy Areas Details Effective and
Ethical use of information for lifelong learning
1 Use, provide and communicate information ethically and responsibly
Respect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), including copyright and Creative Commons.
Protect the privacy rights of oneself and the others.
Guard against the possible dangers and risks on the Internet.
Communicate information properly in relevant contexts.
Produce information in consideration of diverse perspectives and representations and be aware of how editing shapes meaning in visual media and their messages (e.g. omission of alternative perspectives, filtered or implied viewpoints, emphasis on specific ideas).
Generic IL Skills 2 Identify and define a need for information
Define and articulate a need for information, and evaluate the nature and extent of information needed.
Understand the purpose, scope and appropriateness of a variety of information sources (e.g. websites, documentaries, advertisement, news programmes), and use diverse sources of information to inform decision.
3 Locate and access relevant information
Select appropriate methods or tools for locating information.
Construct and implement effective search
strategies, such as identifying keywords and related terms for accessing the information needed and identifying a variety of types and formats of potential sources of information.
Keep up to date with information sources,
information technologies, information access tools and investigative methods.
Describe criteria used to make informed decisions and choices.
4 Evaluate information and information providers, in terms of authority, credibility and current purpose
Judge the extent to which the information satisfies the needs.
Be able to examine and compare information from various sources in order to evaluate its reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness and bias.
Use a variety of criteria (e.g. clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, bias, relevance of facts) to evaluate information sources (e.g. websites, documentaries, advertisements, news programmes).
Recognise prejudice, deception or manipulation.
Recognise the cultural, social or other contexts within which the information was created and understand the impact of context on interpreting information.
Compare new ideas with prior knowledge to
Category Eight Literacy Areas Details
determine the value-addedness, contradictions, or other unique characteristics of the information.
Use a range of strategies to interpret information (e.g. draw conclusions, making generalisations, synthesising materials viewed, referring to images or information in visual media to support a point of view, deconstructing the images and information in visual media to determine the underlying biases and decode the subtext).
5 Extract and organise
information and create new ideas
Extract relevant and appropriate information to fulfil the need.
Describe, manage and demonstrate understanding of key aspects of organising information. (e.g.
using classification schemes).
Interpret and represent information to integrate, synthesise, summarise, compare and contrast information from multiple sources.
Operate on the ideas abstracted from content.
Create new ideas for value-addedness.
Information World 6 Be able to apply IT skills in order to process information and produce
user-generated content
Use IT skills to identify and define a need for information, locate and access relevant information, evaluate, extract and organise information and create new ideas.
Develop skills in using online and library resources as tools for study.
7 Recognise the roles and functions of information providers (e.g.
libraries, museums, internet) in the society
Identify different information providers and describe their functions in society.
Interpret and describe the relationship between information literacy and being citizens in the 21st Century.
Describe information ethics and be able to identify a breach of it.
8 Recognise the conditions under which reliable information could be obtained
Interpret information and context and recognise the values projected by information providers.
Observe stereotypes in information provided by information providers (e.g. identifying techniques used in visual media that perpetuate stereotypes).
Explore representations, misrepresentations and
lack of representation in information provided by
information providers.
5
Key Stage Targets
Key Stage 1
P1 - P3 2
P4 - P6 3
S1 - S3 4
S4 - S6 Literacy Area 1:
Use, provide and communicate information ethically and responsibly
Have basic understanding of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), e.g. copyright.
Become aware of safe, proper and healthy use of the Internet.
Know and practise IPR and data privacy.
Have some knowledge in citation and referencing.
Recognise the need to protect oneself on the Internet.
Become aware of the legal, social and ethical responsibility in using IT, including IPR (e.g. copyright and plagiarism) and data privacy.
Know, practise and behave ethically in applying IT in information processing.
Be able to use citation and referencing in relevant learning activities.
Understand the legal, social and ethical responsibility in using IT, including IPR (e.g. copyright and plagiarism) and data privacy.
Know and make use of different publication platforms(e.g. blogs).
Know how to share information without infringing others’ rights (e.g. using correct academic practices in quoting, citing and paraphrasing).
Know, practise, reflect and behave ethically in applying IT in
information processing.
Literacy Area 2:
Identify and define a need for information
Become aware that information is
needed in daily life. Understand and be able to select appropriate words to express a need for information.
Understand that information may come from various sources and in different formats.
Develop the ability to express what kind of information is needed.
Identify and define a need for information in consideration of information organisation, e.g.
subject disciplines.
Be able to clearly define what kind of information is needed.
Become aware of the diversity of information sources.
Develop the ability to identify various sources and formats of information.
Identify and define a need for information in consideration of various disciplines.
Be able to clearly define what kind of information is needed with the use of appropriate information sources.
Understand the purpose, scope and appropriateness of information sources.
Identify and define a need for information in consideration of various contexts.
Literacy Area 3:
Locate and access relevant information
Become aware of some methods to locate and access information with given searching criteria.
Have some knowledge of the methods to locate and access information.
Understand a variety of methods to locate and access information.
Define criteria to be used for searching, e.g. using keyword search.
Develop some search strategies such as identifying keywords and related terms.
Have a general understanding of methods to locate and access information.
Be able to define and refine criteria to be used with a variety of search strategies to locate and access relevant information.
Be able to locate various types and formats of information.
Become aware that timely information and search strategies are necessary.
Be able to select methods to access relevant information.
Be able to describe the criteria of various strategies to locate and access relevant information.
Become an adept user of a variety of timely search strategies to locate and access relevant and up-to-date information.
Be able to select appropriate methods to access relevant information.
Key Stage 1
P1 - P3 2
P4 - P6 3
S1 - S3 4
S4 - S6 Literacy Area 4:
Evaluate
information and information providers, in terms of authority, credibility and current purpose
Recognise that different persons
may have different viewpoints. Be able to determine if a piece of information satisfies a need.
Understand that different persons at different times may have different perspectives on an issue and be able to recognise their view points.
Understand a variety of criteria (e.g.
clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, perceptions, relevance) to evaluate information.
Be able to recognise the prejudice, deception and manipulation of information.
Be able to recognise the contexts where information is created.
Be able to use a variety of criteria (e.g. clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, perceptions, relevance) to evaluate information.
Demonstrate the ability to verify and evaluate the accuracy and reliability of information in consideration of social and cultural contexts.
Be able to determine the
value-addedness, contradictions and other characteristics of the
information.
Demonstrate the ability to interpret information with respect to its conclusions, generalisations etc.
Be able to use a variety of criteria (e.g. clarity, accuracy, effectiveness, perceptions, relevance) to evaluate the information.
Demonstrate the ability to verify and evaluate the accuracy and reliability of information in consideration of various contexts.
Literacy Area 5:
Extract and organise
information and create new ideas
Be able to read relevant
information to fulfil the need. Become able to extract relevant information and organise it according to some simple schemes (e.g. classification scheme).
Be able to extract and organise information from multiple sources.
Be able to integrate, synthesise, summarise, compare and contrast the extracted information.
Develop the ability to operate on existing information and create new ideas.
Become an adept user to get information from multiple sources and organise it in a meaningful way for further process.
Be able to process the information and create new ideas with the intention of communicating the ideas to an audience.
Literacy Area 6:
Be able to apply IT skills in order to process
information and produce
user-generated content
Develop an interest in IT and basic operation skills.
Search for relevant information from given sources using simple searching strategies.
Demonstrate concerns about and apply techniques in information processing.
Search for relevant information from a variety of sources using some searching strategies.
Communicate with peers in a safe information world.
Gather and use information from online and library resources to create, present and safely share ideas, including texts, graphs, images and audio files.
Strengthen the capability in using IT for learning.
Search for different types of information from a range of information sources.
Create and present information and ideas in different forms, including texts, images, graphs, audio files, with audience awareness.
Strengthen the capability in using IT for lifelong learning.
Be able to select information from different sources to serve specific purposes.
Process and present information and ideas for different purposes by using information from different sources, in view of the needs of the audience.
7
Key Stage 1
P1 - P3 2
P4 - P6 3
S1 - S3 4
S4 - S6 Literacy Area 7:
Recognise the roles and functions of information providers (e.g.
libraries, museums, internet) in the society
Recognise that we are living in an information age and there are different information providers in society.
Understand that information providers should act ethically and lawfully.
Recognise that some information providers do not act properly in a society.
Have basic concepts on the features of information providers.
Recognise that information providers are vehicles for cultural expression and cultural cohesion within and between nations.
Understand that information providers should act ethically and lawfully. Information should be supported with evidence.
Recognise that some information providers do not act properly in a society.
Have exposure to assess the functions of information providers, highlighting the importance of accuracy, accountability and transparency.
Recognise that every citizen could act as a responsible information provider for the purpose of building a better society. We are part of the society and could involve in social construction for personal and social development.
Explain how information providers could act ethically and lawfully.
Recognise that some information providers do not act properly in a society.
Assess the functions of information providers, highlighting the
importance of accuracy, accountability and transparency.
Literacy Area 8:
Recognise the conditions under which reliable information could be obtained
Know and identify the source of
information. Become aware that there are values projected by information providers.
Recognise that images /
representations influence the way we see ourselves and others.
Recognise that audience has expectations on information providers, in terms of transparency, accountability, fairness, etc.
Become aware that there are different viewpoints of information.
Recognise that different images / representations influence the knowledge and understanding of the world beyond our immediate experience.
Recognise the values projected by information providers and observe stereotypes in information provided by information providers.
Be able to examine images and representations to identify misrepresentations and lack of representation.
Recognise that there are different viewpoints of information.
Recognise that different images / representations influence the knowledge and understanding of the world beyond our immediate experience.
Be able to analyse the values projected by information providers and observe stereotypes in information provided by information providers.
Be able to examine images and representations to identify misrepresentations and lack of representation.
Become aware that there is social implication in the use of information.
