There are different terms describing individuals’ intelligent and productive habits of thinking whenever they face uncertainty or have no immediate solutions, such as thinking dispositions, habits of mind, or intelligent thinking behaviors. Since 2000, I have adopted Costa and his associates’ sixteen habits of mind, listed below, as the building blocks to engage participants in credential courses and field-based research projects.

In this project, the sixteen habits of mind are also used as the building blocks for teachers and education specialists to cultivate and engage their information literacy. The following habits of mind are themselves the life long learning attributes that will guide us to become effective analyzers and problem solvers in an information age. For more detailed information, please visit http://www.habits-of-mind.net/. The sixteen habits of mind are:

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It is the ability to find, evaluate and use information both within and beyond library. Please visit the following web sites to learn more:

• Tutorials on information literacy when using a library (http://www.sjlibrary.org/services/literacy/info_comp/index.htm)
• Tutorials on effective research skills  (http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/tutorial/)
• SJSU School of  Library and Information Science (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/)
• Overview of information literacy from American Library Association (http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/infolitoverview/introtoinfolit/introinfolit.cfm)
  
  
• From the web site on Basic Literacy for the 21st century (http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/)

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It is the ability to have a collective understanding of the infrastructure of information and communication technology (ICT) and how it works; how to use software and hardware tools to manipulate digital data; and how to handle data sources that are not just in text, but in multiple media formats.

Technological Literacy

It is the ability to understand and communicate information, and accomplish tasks by using digital hardware and software.

Please visit the following web sites to learn more:

• Online tutorials for absolute beginners in web search, e-mailing, etc.; appropriate for both teachers and students (http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/course/)
• Friendly online tutorials and tips for teachers on MS PowerPoint. (http://dtp.epsb.net/ict/support/tutorials/powerpoint.htm)
• ICT Newsletter for teachers (http://www.ictnewsletter.net/index.htm)
• Online tutorials, from different schools in Canada, to learn more about spreadsheet, multimedia, mindmapping/graphic organizer, and Internet tools (http://www.tlt.ab.ca/tutorials/tutorials_home.html)
• Technology literacy tests for students (http://www.kto8.com/tst/?gclid=CMKwxv_5640CFQ4cYAod8goUxQ )
• ICT literacy (http://www.ictliteracy.info/)
• ICT literacy for K-12 (http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/bysubject/ict/)

Media Literacy

It is the ability to understand and communicate by using information from a variety of medium or integrated media such as image, narration, music, animation, or video. Visual literacy is one of the more important components since most media rely on visual presentation. Visual literacy is the ability to understand the meanings of the components in an image and how to manipulate the components to enhance communication.

Please visit the following web sites to learn more:

• Media Literacy: Comprehensive introduction to the different concepts of media literacy for teachers (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/index.cfm)
• Visual Literacy
• Detailed description of what is visual literacy and why is it important (http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/visual.html)
• Definition of visual literacy and description on how to be visual literate (http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/vlintro0602)
• From Eduscapes, this article explains visual literacy in an interesting way. (http://eduscapes.com/sessions/digital/digital1.htm)

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In today’s schools and classrooms, cultural and social literacy is important. Teachers and education specialists in many parts of the country and regions must teach and interact with students and families with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Knowledge about cultural and social literacy will also guide them to be prepared how information could be perceived or decoded differently by different cultural, ethnic and language groups.

In an information age, Ethical and Legal Literacy is a set of critical literacy. It is vital that we understand and conform to the widely accepted cultural and social etiquette, ethics, and legal requirements in a digital social environment. For example, information literate teachers and education specialists must respect the ethical and legal issues when creating, disseminating and using others’ information in the areas of information integrity and intellectual property. One should also be aware of related issues such as: data security, freedom of speech and its impact on our community, etc. when communicating in a global digital environment.

Please visit the following web sites to learn more:

• Cultural and Social Literacy
  • Recommendations of books for students on social literacy ( http://edoz.com.au/social-literacy/index.html )
  • Site for cultural literacy (http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/projects/ethnography/EthProject.pdf)
• Ethical and Legal Literacy
  • Copyright and Fair Use http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
  • Office of Intellectual Freedom from American Library Association http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=oif
  • Tutorial for students to understand why plagiarism is wrong and how to adopt referencing skills http://edc.polyu.edu.hk/PSP/student.htm
  • More about plagiarism for teachers http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/brookes.pdf
  • Very informative article on Anti Plagiarism by Robert Harris http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm

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