The Role Of Information Literacy In Lifelong Learning

Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. Information and communication technology literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society. More than that, it involves the skill in accessing the

Through ICT, images can easily be used in teaching and improving the retentive memory of students. Also, ICT can be used as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information. There are several medium in using ICT such as:

2.1 Database

Database used to search for materials like article, journal, e-book and so on. It is easy to use because it does not require a lot of movement. Also, databases can store very large numbers of records efficiently and more than one person can access the same database at the same time.

2.2 OPAC

OPAC means Online Public Access Catalogue and it is the computerized version of the library catalogue or a database of the library holdings. OPAC provide access to any of the information contained in the library. It allows student to search a document by authors, titles, subject and keywords from a terminal and also allows printing, downloading or exporting records via different electronics means. Student can see the collections and issue status of each document of the library and can reserve or renew a document of their interest when needed.

2.3

Computer software programs are being used in timetabling and school management to improve the use of staff time, student time and space, thus reducing costs significantly. Only a few computers are necessary for this type of application. It is noted that ICT in schools can improve quality with less cost. Old ICT are still cost effective for provision of education to out of school children and youth in developing countries. New ICT have a very large potential for teacher education in larger quantity and better quality. A combination of old ICT to widen coverage and access and new ICT to provide interactivity is supposed to be cost-effective for teacher education. If a nationwide network of community learning centers equipped with computer laboratories with broadband access and trained staff to access online distance learning and to provide tutoring support could be set up in developing countries until a computer is available at home, there are possibilities for these countries to take advantage of the benefits of e-learning mentioned