Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

(2005). Exploring behaviour in the online environment: student perceptions of information literacy. ALT-J: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 49-65. doi: 10.1080/0968776042000339790

The aim of this paper is to show how information literacy can be conceptualised as a key learning process related to discipline and academic maturity, rather than as a generic skill. Results of a small-scale study including questionnaires and observation of student behaviour are reported and analysed in relation to Bruce's ‘seven faces of information literacy’ framework. The findings illustrate that information literacy is a highly situated practice that remains undeveloped through mandatory schooling. Some methodological issues are considered in relation to researching information literacy, including the limits of the Bruce model as a framework for analysis. We also show how decontextualised courses can foreground and privilege certain behaviours that are beneficial but that developing higher-level information literate attitudes is likely to be an iterative and contextualised process.