Engaging Students in Critical, Creative, and Ethical Information Use: Informed Learning (Bruce, 2008) The Content Frame: “Information literacy is knowledge about the world of information” The Competency Frame: “Information literacy is a set of competencies or skills” The “Learning to Learn” Frame: “Information literacy is a way of learning” The Personal Relevance Frame: “Information literacy is learned in context and is different for different people or groups” The Social Impact Frame: “Information literacy issues are important to society” The Relational Frame: “Information literacy is a complex of different ways of interacting with information The six frames of Informed Learning are a conceptual tool. They represent different lenses through which one can view information use: As information sources range from eBooks and citation index databases to the World Wide Web and , digital formats are becoming the dominant mediums for information. The ready availability of electronic formats makes the temptation to commit plagiarism appealing and facile by utilizing the cut-and-paste function that is regularly featured in word processing software packages. In addition, the use of “paper mills” (which enable students to dishonestly submit assignments they paid a Web-based service to write for them) is spreading like wildfire. In the digital age, the occurrence of passing off someone else’s work as your own (i.e. plagiarism) has become a contagion. Plagiarism compromises the integrity of student and faculty work as well as contaminates the entire reputation of the learning institution – often leading to the devaluation of scholarly work. We need to examine how people interact with information more carefully and have them reflect on their interactions meaningfully – if we want them to resist the temptation to just copy and paste. An excellent solution would be to use the Informed Learning (Bruce, 2008) approach to instructing students in critical, creative, and ethical uses of information. Informed learning focuses our attention on how people use information to learn, takes account of the varied needs and contexts of learners, and is relevant to curriculum and assessment. Informed learning involves collaboration between librarians, instructors, and other educators such as ESL teachers and learning advisors. To assist this process, as a basis for practical planning and implementation, collaborative partners can use the “Six Frames” of Informed Learning. Working together, librarians, faculty, and other educators may develop an informed learning framework for embedding information literacy into the curriculum, so that they may experience information with their students and reflect on those experiences collectively. Since informed learning responds flexibly to learners’ varied needs and contexts, it is an especially effective approach with international/ESL students who face many diverse challenges on their learning journeys. Approaches like Informed Learning break the research process down into parts (e.g. looking to the work of information literacy expert Carol Kuhlthau) so that the learner’s interactions with information are more constructive. Under the Informed Learning perspective, completing a research assignment is viewed more like a journey – where the process is just as (if not more) important than the finished product itself. If librarians and teachers collaborate to help students experience information in these significant ways, then the phenomenon of plagiarism will disappear. Educators can incorporate one or more of the frames to stimulate learning about particular content and appropriate information using approaches. The learning experiences and outcomes will vary depending on which frame(s) are in play. References: Bruce, C. (2008). Informed Learning. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Presenter: Dina Hornreich, University of Denver Sample student reflections from an instructional session with a Freshman Composition Class at the Auraria Library: