The ICT Literacy Project has as its intent to provide a systematic approach to incorporating ICT literacy into education to ensure that students are ICT literate.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy is the responsibility and opportunity of the entire educational community. As such, the MERLOT ICT Literacy Project coordinates a variety of campus entities: libraries, IT, academic technology, discipline faculty, faculty development, and student support services.
Students need a broad ICT literacy base, and deeper knowledge in a discipline, As such, ICT literacy has a developmental aspect: from students' first year experience, as an aspect of general education, through work in a selected major, to graduation and the workplace.
The ICT Literacy Project has several aims:
To leverage the impact of the ICT Literacy Project, an Editorial Board has been established as a peer-review forum and network.
If interested in becoming a member or a reviewer, please contact Lesley Farmer.
The ICT Literacy Project enables faculty and students to gain access to peer-reviewed digital learning materials in their disciplines available through the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT). MERLOT was created in 1997 by the CSU to help faculty and students share high quality online content and pedagogy. Under the CSU's leadership, MERLOT has grown to an international consortium of education institutions, professional societies, digital libraries, and corporations.
"Knowing is inherent in the growth and transformation of identities and it is located in relations among practitioners, their practice, the artifacts of that practice, and the social organization and political economy of communities of practice." (Lave & Wenger, Situated learning, 1991, p. 122)
The first iteration of the ICT Literacy Project grew out of the needs expressed in the 1995 report "Information Competence in the CSU." The report's work group recommended developing a model list of information competence skills for entering and graduating post-secondary students, and developing information competence programs or courses, faculty training, and resources for teaching information competence. In the early 21st century Irene Rochman spearheaded the information competence work as part of the CSU systemwide digital library services agenda.
The next iteration was largely based on the CSU library's 2005 strategic plan "Advancing Together: 21st Century Strategies for the CSU Libraries," which offered a framework under which information/ICT literacy activities could be coordinated. The guiding principles included standards, models and best practices, user focus, collaboration, and assessment and accountability.
The current iteration of the ICT Literacy Project broadens both the scope of information literacy and its integration across the curriculum. Its strength lies in collaboration across campus entities, and in partnership with other like-minded organizations. This version of the project, started in 2015, was inspired by several factors: