International Conference highlights
UNESCO’s address to the Conference participants
Jānis Kārkliņš, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information:
Jānis Kārkliņš - © UNESCO
The notion of literacy is constantly changing. The impact of globalization us in a way we never could have imagined. What was an issue for a small community yesterday is a global concern for everyone today. Many countries are now more diverse and interlinked than ever before. This creates the challenge of helping people from diverse social and economic backgrounds to succeed in an ever more complex world.
Literacy within the context of Knowledge Societies
Albert K. Boekhorst (The Netherlands), University of Amsterdam and European Network for School Libraries and Information Literacy:
Albert K. Boekhorst - © Russian IFAP Committee
Increasing complexity of environment leads to need for more skills to select, retrieve and process information and external factors create backlog. (…) MIL in a container concept which being as a competence is critical attitudes, knowledge and skills.
Andrew Whitworth, University of Manchester, United Kingdom:
Andrew Whitworth - © Russian IFAP Committee
Knowledge is flexible, adaptable and constantly evolving, and to engage with it requires a "mélange" of different approaches to the retrieval, processing and communication of information; and facility with a range of media. (…) A holistic Media and Information Literacy can be defined as the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices required to access, analyse, evaluate, use, create, and communicate information and knowledge, in creative, legal and ethical ways.
MIL as a new concept and its linkages with other literacies
Carolyn Wilson, University of Western Ontario and Association of Media Literacy, Canada:
Carolyn Wilson - © Russian IFAP Committee
Literacy is about more than reading or writing –it is about how we communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture. (...) Media and information literacy is an expanded definition of literacy, one that includes print, screen-based and electronic media.
MIL Mainstreaming, Application and Advocacy in Knowledge Societies
Ralph Catts, Allimar Community Diagnostics Ltd, Australia:
Ralph Catts (left) - © Russian IFAP Committee
There is a need for new types of indicators to assess MIL competencies which are able to address various societal, technological and educational implications.
Institutional, Regional and National Context of MIL Capacity Building, Tools and Resources and case studies
Natalia Gendina, Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts, Russian Federation:
Natalia Gendina - © Russian IFAP Committee
Information culture is an ability to create a new information product and use it in a creative way. It is necessary to include information literacy (information culture) and media literacy into educational syllabuses of educational institutions at all stages. It is also necessary to attract public attention to information culture and MIL.
Tatiana Jereissati, Regional Centre of Studies for the Development of the Information Society (UNESCO Category 2 Centre), Brazil:
Tatiana Jereissati - © Russian IFAP Committee
Brazil has been engaged in the production of national statistics on children's use of ICTs that provide relevant information on the issue of media literacy in the country.
Alice Lee, Hong Kong Baptist University, China:
Alice Lee - © Russian IFAP Committee
Safeguarding freedom of speech and cultivating media-and-information-literate citizens are regarded as vital to societies development. (...) Innovation and technology, creative industries and education services in particular require the free flow of news, ideas and information to flourish.
Khalid Abusin, Sudan University of Science and Technology, Sudan:
Khalid Abusin - © Russian IFAP Committee
The rapid development in technology is providing new challenges to the library profession in developing countries and increasing the need for librarians who can use the technology effectively as to serve their clients.
Ramza Jaber Saad, Lebanese National Commission of UNESCO:
Ramza Jaber Saad - © Russian IFAP Committee
Libraries are now at the threshold of a new information age. Changes necessitate expanded knowledge, skills, and vision. The focus of a school library [should be]: celebrate the understood, not the found.