Achieving Information Fluency:The Wake Forest Approach

David G. BrownVP, Dean (ICCEL)Professor (Economics)Wake Forest University

IT Everywhere ConferenceGeorge Mason UniversityFairfax, VirginiaApril 30, 2001

Simple Outline

• What is Information Fluency?

• What’s Wake Forest doing to achieve it?

• What might you and others do?

Metaphors for Achieving Information Fluency

• Drive a car• Pass drivers’ exam• Use a library• Write an essay• Give a speech• Name State Capitals

Check the two thatfor you come closest!

• Program a VCR• Understand tennis• Play tennis• Speak French

Components of Information Fluency

• Find materials on the web & in print• Evaluate materials on the web & in print• Create a Spreadsheet• Create a Web Page in html• Place information on the web & in print• Organize information against hypotheses• Know where to get help when stumped• Recognize the perishability of information

Check all that apply & add others.

DEFINITION: Our students will graduate with “information fluency” when they can ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Your responsibility is to finish the sentence onone of our 3x5 index cards. When you have completed your assignment, form dyads (two-somes),swap cards, And for 3 minutes talk with each other about what been written on the cards.

MY DEFINITION: Our students will graduate with “information fluency” when they can find, evaluate, adapt, organize, and use data!

WHY INFORMATION FLUENCY?

…the institutional answer

• Communication & Community!

• Level Playing Field

• After College Use

• Faculty/Students Demand Them

• Customized/Personalized

• Digitized Scholarship

• Marketable Difference Wake Forest UniversityWake Forest University

WHY INFORMATION FLUENCY?…the faculty answer

• Interactive Learning

• Collaborative Learning

• Communication

• Visualization

• Different Strokes for Different FolksWake Forest UniversityWake Forest University

David G. Brown, EditorAnker Publishing. 2000

• 3700 undergraduates• 92% residential• 500 each: Med, Law, MBA, PhD• $950M endowment• Winston-Salem, NC• Baptist Heritage• 1300 average SAT• 28th in US News & World Report • Top 35 Privates in Barron’s Guide• Rhodes Scholars

What’s Wake Forest Doing?

• IBM Laptops for all• Printers for all• New Every 2 Years• Own @ Graduation• 31.000 Connections• Standard Software• 99% E-Mail• Start 1995, 4 Year Phase In• +15% Tuition for 37 Items• +40 Faculty and 30 Staff

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001

THE WAKE FOREST PLANIBM A22e, Pentium III, 700 Mhz, 20GB, 14”ActMatrix, 196MB, Re-writable CD

56k modem, 8MB Video Ram, 10/100 Ethernet, Floppy, USB & Serial & Parellel & Infrared Ports

Computers Enhance My Teaching and/or Learning Via--

PresentationsBetter--20%More Opportunities toPractice & Analyze--35%

More Access to SourceMaterials via Internet--43%

More Communication with Faculty Colleagues, Classmates,and Between Faculty and Students--87%

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001

Computers allow people----

• to belong to more communities• to be more actively engaged in each

community• with more people• over more miles• for more months and years• TO BE MORE COLLABORATIVE

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001

With Ubiquity---The Culture Changes

• Mentality shifts-- like from public phone to personal phone.

• Teaching Assumptions shift-- like from books in the public

library to everyone owns a copy of his/her own.

• Timelines shift-- like from “our class meets MWF” to “we see

each other all the time and MWF we meet together”

• Students’ sense of access shifts-- like from “maybe I can get that

book in the library” to “I have that book in my library.”

• Relationships shift-- like from a family living in many different

states to all family members living in the same town

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001

Ways of Thinking AboutPresidential Campaigns and DebatesA First Year Seminar IntroducingStudents to the Liberal Arts

15 FreshmenMeet twice per weekAll with open laptops

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Brown’s First Year Seminar• Before Class

– Students Find URLs & Identify Criteria

– Interactive exercises– Just-in-Time Quizzes– E-mail dialogue– Cybershows & Lecture Notes

• During Class– One Minute Quiz– Computer Tip Talk– E-mails to Classmates– Class Polls– Team Projects– Chat During Lecture

• After Class– Edit Drafts by Team– Guest Editors– Access Previous Papers– Follow Up Discussion

• Other– Daily Announcements– Team Web Page– Personal Web Pages– Personal Portfolio– Exams include Computer

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001

The Wake Forest Approach

• Integrate instruction with normal classes• Convince students they’ll use it after college• Use the computer as a primary

communication tool • Declare “information literacy” as a given• Use computer to register, participate in

committee work, be active in the fraternity• Empower everyone to be a trainer/teacher.

Raise Awareness

Pilot Programs

Assure Universal Access

Provide Learning Opportunities

Measure/Certify Results

What Can We Do to Advance theCause of Information Fluency on

Our Own Campuses?

Actions to Raise Awareness

• Define Information Fluency

• Conduct PR Campaigns on Campuses

• Sponsor “The Fluency Bowl”

• Appoint Blue Ribbon Advisory Group

• Identify a Lead College• Coordinate the “Eager” Departments

from All Member Colleges• Research Other Programs

Pilot Programs

Assure Universal Access(Field of Dreams Approach)

• Provide “Client Machines” (e.g. laptops)---either individually or at public stations

• Teach Assuming Access

• Buy Electronic Databases

Provide Learning Opportunities

• Fluency Camp

• Non-Credit Sessions (Required or Optional)

• Degree-Credit Course (Required or Elective)

Measure/Certify the Results

• Grade for Course

• Threshold Proficiency Test

• Fluency Certificate

Possible Roles for the Library

• Politic for “Information Fluency”

• Purchase & Manage Electronic Databases

• Suggest All College Standards

• Train All Students (Just in Time)

• Train Faculty and Staff

• Certify Information Fluency

Possible Roles for the Faculty

• Define “information fluency” minimums

• Set policies for the use of technology

• Teach assuming “information fluency”

• Judge the wisdom of a requirement

• Politic for adequate funding

• Monitor the quality of “fluency” training

Possible Roles for IS

• Politic for Information Fluency

• Research & Recommend Hardware and Software

• Choose “back office” components

• Implement and maintain infrastructure

• Sponsor Student Technology Assistants

• Enable After College Access

Our challenge is to make sure that as graduates they can find, evaluate, adapt, organize, & use data!

“Students who have increasingly grown up buying clothes, reading the news, chatting with friends, doing research, and applying to colleges and universities online have come to expect to use the Internet in all facets of their lives.” –Joanne Creighton and Paul Buchanan, Educause Review, March/April, 2001.

Let’s Go Out & Lead The Movement!

David G. BrownWake Forest University

Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109336-758-4878

email: brown@wfu.eduhttp//:www.wfu.edu/~brown

fax: 336-758-4875

ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001ICCEL -- Wake Forest University, 2001