Educators as Facilitators

The 21st century student goes to the internet for research and information acquisition before they use the library. Now is the time for educators to bring information skills into a collaborative and supportive classroom environment to facilitate student centered learning. Today the Net Generation navigates the internet with ease, but they a reluctant to approach library staff and faculty for research using technology. Libraries and digital information resources can play an important role in the education of today's learner.
Technology advances like Web 2.0, blogs, and wikis open the classroom environment in multiple directions by opening communications that allow for an interactive way to share information among groups of people and construct knowledge through critical thinking about information. Currently, most education takes place outside the classroom and provides for learner discovery through the lens of technology. The challenge that faces the educator is to facilitate learner information literacy to allow for how the learning takes place and not what the learner needs to learn. We need to force the learner to take a risk by creating a trusted environment to discover and build the knowledge of the future.