To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to promote information literacy.
The Scottish Executive contributed funding for 2000 learners to pursue an Information Handling Skills course in conjunction with Scottish Libraries Information Council (SLIC), Learndirect Scotland and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. This course was developed on behalf of these partners by the Scottish Further Education Unit.
This interactive course aimed at post 16-year-olds, contains 23 stand-alone learning modules and demonstrates how to plan an information task and use, retrieve and evaluate information from a variety of sources including books, newspapers, CD-ROMs and the web. Work is underway to produce six additional learning bites including subject gateways and portals, asking the right question, copying/plagiarism, referencing, note taking and communicating and presenting information.
There is also scope in the school curriculum to address the issues of information literacy within the context of the National 5-14 Guidelines, principally in the guidance on Information and Communication Technology. This guidance is designed to provide a framework for the integration of ICT into existing classroom practice so that all pupils become skilled, confident and informed users. Decisions on what and how to teach rest with education authorities and schools in response to local circumstances.