What is important?: digital literacy or literacy in a digital environment?

Limited training in the use of Information Resources has been introduced in the curricula of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences since 2003. In the academic year 2008-2009 a structured course in Library and Information Sciences has been integrated in the curriculum of the first bachelor in Biomedical Sciences, preparing a research career. The aim of the course is digital literacy. Beside the theoretical teaching, e-learning and self-learning techniques (portfolio, chat box, wiki), were used to learn technical competences in word processing, presentation software and spreadsheet. Search strategies were intensively trained in smaller groups in the PC-room. This paper summarizes the examination results of 138 students coming directly from middle school (K12-level, after secondary school). Three components were separately graded: theoretical knowledge by oral interrogation; technical competences using portfolio and a spreadsheet application; search strategy by a literature task, almost identical to the search exercises instructed during the semester. For the search strategy a paragraph of a text was chosen to formulate context-sensitive research questions, one to be selected and answered using a factual database, another to be answered using three different bibliographic databases. The student had full access on his PC to lecture notes, digital library and the internet. Strict instructions were written on the first page of the examination folder. 66 % successfully passed the theoretical oral part, 81 % the spreadsheet exercise. Portfolio was satisfactory in 92 %. Literature searching, however, was less successful: 43% of the students were unable to distil correct research questions from the text. The choice of index terms from a standard thesaurus (MeSH, Medical Subject Headings, which is the structured thesaurus from NLM - National (US) Library of Medicine) was successful in 68%. Only 25% of the students made the correct choice for factual or bibliographic databases, depending on the question, and 25% of the students correctly used the three bibliographic databases, exactly as written in the instructions. Limits were poorly used to make a selection of the best possible hits, mainly language, recent years of publication and subject. Limitation by publication type was selected by as few as 19%. The bad performance in the search tasks can be explained by poor basic literacy and by lack of critical reading training. The low number of students capable to phrase correct questions, and the failure in choosing the right database, despite the access to teaching material and explicit instructions, reflects poor reading capability and lack of critical and integrative senses. To become digital literate and to take profit of the power of digital technology in learning, basic literacy is more important than technical competences. The overemphasis on digital software in middle school programs, neglecting basic literacy and critical text analysis skills, might become a negative factor in the use of present powerful data and information resources and explain the sometimes disappointing results of digital learning.

ISBN:9781906638528

Jaar van publicatie:2009

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

Toegankelijkheid:Closed