“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Evelyn Beatrice Hall summarizing Voltaire)

I was following the theft story of the mathematics high school final exams (sorry, still working on finding a link in English) in Israel full with admiration.
The exam-form was leaked out, published on Facebook, and sold to students.

Why am I full with admiration? Let me explain…

We all did it, o.k.? We all tried to cheat on tests, get copies of them and so on, but that is also not the thing.

These are times in which the most profitable companies don’t produce real products. Instead they recognize an information need in society, get (please note: gets, not produce!) this information, develop tools to manage it and sell it as a service.
Those kids were clever enough to find out a market-need for specific information, knew where and how to get it, used the right tools to publish it and made a profit by selling it. They also did it disregarding the class-divide that they were reproducing (don’t worry, I’ll get to that). Like everything in today’s world, it was made on a large scale – not just at the few nearby schools, but across the country.

That’s not being a brat, that’s just playing by the rules, of capitalism.

When we think about it on a brighter scale, they did it with disregard to the fact that they were further increasing the class-divide. It’s been a while since I’ve used my math skills, but I’ll try it anyway:

• You have spare money to buy the exam and of course can afford having a computer and internet at home (they call it middle and upper class these days) = you can buy the exam
• You have the exam form = you’ll get a better mark in the exam
• You have a better mark in math = higher chances to get in to the university
• If   A=B, B=C and C=D   than  A=D, and that means:

• You have money = your chance for higher education increases

Let me tell you about something called…

Information literacy.
There are different models for it, but we can sum it up by saying it’s the ability to:

1. recognize ones information need
2. choose the right sources/tools to find it (incl. being able to use those sources)
3. organize the information
4. select the most relevant information
5. present the information (after processing it)

Other competences like the old fashion read and write, knowing how to use the computer (computer literacy), the internet (internet literacy), the library etc. – are all tools to accomplish the overall  information literacy.

Nowadays schools have less to do with conveying information (as an object) to the students and more to do with conveying information literacy to the students.

So did the schools do a good job on those kids? Indeed, they made it through all 5 factors!

But wait, there is one more factor that crosses all of those abilities, and that is the ethical use of information.

Not being ethical has many names, in the academic world we call it plagiarism, the entertainment world calls it file-sharing (although the record companies and film industry were so, and I mean sooooooo, unethical for all those years, so I can’t say they don’t deserve it) and the Chinese call it  检查员 (censor).

So that’s where, in my opinion, the system failed.
And when saying system I don’t mean just the education system. That thingy with information literacy is a co-operation of the education system and the parents. Sadly enough the parents, who grew up in a totally different era (concerning  information) are having big trouble facing the challenge of the new generation of information literacy and information ethics.

Let me make you an offer you can’t refuse

Information literacy can and should go far beyond the model I’ve briefly summarized here. Information literacy is also about knowing which information is suitable for a person, how that person can use it ethically, legally and without harming himself and others.

The key to avoiding abuse of information is not limiting access to it, but to educate the ones that are concerned with how and when, if at all, they should use it.

And that doesn’t have to do just with the stolen exam; it’s about censorship, internet filtering, pornography, file-sharing, leaking secrets of national security to the press, handling personal information (of ourselves and of others) and the list just keeps on going…

The times have changed; we have a wide world of information at our fingertips and the old fashion control mechanisms just can’t supply the goods anymore. If we want information to be used properly it’s all about education, it’s about the system (again, I mean both the education system and the parents) stepping in and working on that other factor of information literacy.

Because the bottom line is that the younger the kids, the better their ability to use Google and Wiki.
And leaving us way behind while doing so.