Break

There's still so much to write about my trip to Malaysia. In fact I've made a list of fourteen possible posts I was going to do but simply didn't have the time to. But I will do so in time.

That is, when my family and I have already settled in our new adoptive country. You see, 18 hours from now, we will be heading for Australia as permanent residents. Preparing for the trip kept me busy the past several weeks that was why my posts were few and far between. And I don't want to relive the exhausting experience.

As this opens another chapter in our adventurous lives, my blogging will serve as witness to that adventure filled with uncertainty. I hope you will still be around. I promise I won't keep you waiting for long.

IWIL 2006: Days 4-6

It's been a month since the workshop and I'm not yet done with my posts. I still have so much to write about but I simply don't have the luxury of time to post regularly.

Anyway, the last three days of the workshop were spent on developing informtaion litercay modules for the Malaysian secondary schools for the current school year nationwide. We were broken up into groups each with our own subject areas and I was grouped with Rajen from Singapore, Halida Yu a lecturer from UiTM, and Norsiah and Mashita from the Ministry of Education. We were assigned to develop a module on a topic covering Geography.

Comoing up with a module was really hardwork. We did a lot of thinking but it was a lot of fun because the textbook we were using was in Bahasa Malay and my groupmates had to translate the text for us. And I would have to thank Rajen, who is from the National Library of Singapore for his excellent facilitating.

We didn't use the Empowering 8 model but instead used a Malaysian one based largely on the Empowering 8 framework and other information literacy models presented earlier by Prof. Woolls.

After two days of wracking our brains coming up with a lesson, we were ready to present our finished products. And my contribution? I did all the encoding! I must admit I did not have much intellectual input because Geography happens to be my favorite subject (not!) so I just did what I do best, use the laptop to encode out outline for which I was appreciated.

There were still inputs from Dr. Diljit Singh and Assoc. Prof. Nor Exan Nasir both from the University of Malaya's Faculty of Information Management and Prof. Blache Woolls.

Dr. Singh presented an update on information literacy efforts all over the world particularly in the Asian region. Assoc. Prof. Nor Exan Nasir discussed researches on information literacy in Malaysia at the graduate level. The final input came from Prof. Woolls who shared some tips and strategies on implementing an information literacy program beginning with creating an awareness of IL to seeling an IL program by using rubrics.

After undergoing the workshop, my perception and understanding of information literacy has grown deeper and broader than just reading about it. I really hope that the leadership of the Philippine Association of Teacher of Library Science (PATLS) take on the challenge of coming up with a follow-up workshop this time for library educators.

IWIL 2006: Day 3

We, the foreign participants, had our turn to present the development and implementation of information literacy in our respective countries and we were given 30 minutes each to present. I won't detail our reports here but suffice it to say that all of the countries represented had a semblance of information literacy instruction in place although not at the government level. In my opinion, Singapore by far had the best program in place. Click here to see the country reps.

The country reports took up the entire morning session and come afternoon we went on a break and toured Putra Jaya, Malaysia's center of government. I've written about that trip here and here.

It was truly an unforgettable experience if only my camera phone did not conk out in the middle of the tour. But Abd Wahid was good enough to share some of his photos with me.

EMPOWERING 8: an information literacy model

Empowering 8 is an information literacy model that was a by-product of two workshops: the first in Colombo, Sri Lanka in November 2004 and the second in Patiala, India in November 2005. Ten countries participated in the workshops: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. Empowering 8 uses the problem-solving approach for resource-based learning.

Information literacy skills embedded in Empowering 8 are the ability to:

1. Identify a topic/subject, the intended audience, a relevant format, keywords, types of resources
2. Explore resources and information
3. Select and record relevant information, identify stages in the process, and collect appropriate citations
4. Organize, evaluate and sequence information, and use visual organizers to compare and contrast information
5. Create information using own words
6. Present, share or display information
7. Assess the output
8. Apply the solutions based on the feedback and assessment and use new knowledge gained in a variety of situations.

What makes Empowering 8 significant is that it was developed by Asians for Asians. However, information literacy instruction has yet to be integrated into the curriculum for most parts of Asia and during the Malaysian workshop, Russell pointed out during his lecture that the success of information literacy instruction in Asia largely depends on the LEADERSHIP of the library and information science professionals in the region. In one of his slides he asked: Does the LIS profession have the LEADERS to deliver - in Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand? In another slide he asks whether the LEADERS in the profession possess leadesrhip skills, the vision to examine the future, the commitment and ownership to achieve, planning skills, cooperation with others and on equal footing, confidence, support of other LIS professionals, the respect of others outside the profession, and the drive, energy and determination to achieve?

The Philippines certainly does not lack professionals with these characteristics. Maybe they just haven't been gathered in one room to work on a common objective such as information literacy.