There is little doubt that the digital technology has played a major role in reshaping the ways in which we experience the world. In a few decades the Internet has become a vast repository for knowledge and ideas. New arenas where people may meet and fraternize have emerged, and with the help of various digital tools and websites, the production of new material has increased to an almost unfathomable level.But all is not well on the digital front. As the Internet has become a crucial part of our everyday life, certain skills in handling digital media has become very important to master. A well-developed ability to navigate through this ocean of information is needed, and knowledge in managing the risky nature of the internet is critical.

Syftet med studien är att belysa hur barn i förskolan använder sig utav sina redan vunna literacyfärdigheter. Studien har genomförts med kvalitativ metod där en etnografisk fältstudie legat till grund för de resultat som presenteras. Vi har använt en metodkombination av systematisk observation och dokumentation genom filminspelning.  Vi har följt tio stycken barn och underlaget har samlats in från två förskolor i Linköpings kommun. Resultatet har bearbetats utifrån Vygotskijs sociokulturella perspektiv. Resultatet visar att de unika literacypraktiker barnen är engagerade i är beroende av ett antal olika faktorer.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to study howuniversity librarians in a South African context relate to theconcept of information literacy. We investigated differencesand similarities in approaches to user education andinformation literacy. We have based our study on thefollowing research questions: What are the prerequisites foruser education at the University of the Western Cape? Howdo these prerequisites influence librarians' approaches toinformation literacy and user education at the University ofthe Western Cape? We have used a sociocultural theoreticalperspective and Hofstede's cultural dimensions in orderto pay particular attention to the cultural and social contextof user education.

The object of this master's thesis is to study students writtenappendixes for their first-year-essay, (A-uppsats). In theappendixes the students are asked to describe their search forinformation within five areas; strategy, resources, terminology,analysis and usefulness. The appendixes for the years 2006-2009are studied, 184 appendixes consisting of one A4 page each.This thesis focuses upon the study of resources, processes andfeelings displayed in the appendixes. The theories of Tom Wilson,Carol Collier Kuhlthau and Louise Limberg are used, as results ofother studies within the area. Connections with theories oninformation literacy are also made.The results show that students usually do as they are instructed bylibrarians if it is profitable for their studies.

This master?s thesis studies library teaching at two university libraries, Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and Södertörn University in Sweden. The aim of this paper is to study views on information literacy, how these views affect teaching practice, and how the teaching of information literacy is connected to, on the one hand, German and Swedish learning culture and, on the other, the local community of practice at the studied university libraries. The theories applied in this paper are learning culture and community of practice as developed in the works of Judith Ricken and Etienne Wenger. The methods that have been used are qualitative, semi-structured interviews that were conducted at both university libraries.It was observed that the teaching practices were highly connected to learning cultures.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to investigate the library needs of distance students. This user study has a student perspective and concentrates on the main question of which way library needs might be expressed by distance students. Associated topics addressed by this study include; the problem of learning centres lacking their own library support, how distance students look upon library support as a concept and whether distance students prefer public libraries or university libraries, and why they make this choice. These questions may give the answer to how distance students deal with information literacy. Theories chosen by the study are in the fields of pedagogical and library science, the social cultural theory by Roger Säljö and in Tom Wilson's theories on user studies and information needs.

The aim of this study is to investigate a number of class teachers' thoughts on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in early literacy learning. The study has been conducted as a qualitative study, interviewing five teachers with the help of an interview guide. Three central questions were posed.What perception do the teachers have about the use of ICT in their tuition?What perception do the teachers have about the pupils' literacy learning in teaching with ICT tools?What perception do the teachets have about teaching and learning by means of ICT when it comes to pupils with reading and writing difficulties/dyslexia?The overall theoretical basis of the study is Vygotskij's sociocultural theory.In conclusion, the result of the study is as follows.Most class teachers feel that the training they have undergone in ICT education was adequate, but they also call for skill development.Most teachers believe that the use of ICT tools provide opportunities to adapt their teaching to pupils' knowledge level. The teachers' opinion is that ICT in teaching is useful for pupils' progress in early literacy learning.Most teachers also believe that ICT tools in teaching can be of some help for pupils with reading and writing difficulties/dyslexia.One obstacle in helping these pupils is lack of time.Therefore, the majority of the teachers hand these pupils over to special education outside the classroom..

User education is an important aspect of university libraries' service to its users. This Masters' Thesis is about online user education. The aim of this study is to analyse five Swedish online user courses in relation to information literacy and learning theory. The web-sites were explored through textual analyses to find how concepts of information literacy and learning theory are expressed. The theoretical framework is based on Carol C Kuhlthau's three levels of user education, Paul Ramsden's three theories of teaching in higher education and Christine Bruce's different aspects of information literacy.

This study is a comparative study of the occurrence and function of information literacy in the curricula of the Swedish and Bavarian Gymnasium and investigates the occurrence of the term ?information literacy? and shows through what other linguistic means the notion of information literacy is expressed in the curricula. The study also wishes to analyze how the notion of information literacy manifests itself in the different school systems. Relevant textual passages of both curricula are compared to each other through the theoretic lens of Bruce?s phenomenographic model of information literacy.

According to international and national literacy studies (PISA, PIRLS) Swedish boys are inferior to Swedish girls when it comes to reading. There can be numerous reasons to that statement. One is that Swedish teachers require more knowledge about communication as an important component in literacy. In spite of this shortcoming, Swedish girls manage to gain sufficient literacy. Why is that? The aim of this survey was to examine if there were any differences between girls and boys regarding communication skills when they begin in school.The main questions taken in account were:Which differences and/or similarities in communication skills are discernible between boys and girls this particular preschool?How do boys and girls communicate with each other in different room contexts on this particular preschool?           To be able to answer the questions, I adopted observations and audio recordings from children aged five.

This master thesis is based on the sociocultural perspective. A qualitative research study was conducted to investigate children's attitudes towards reading, texts and libraries.The theoretical background is constituted by ideas from the new sociology of childhood, literacy-studies and reader-response theory.The study was conducted with 23 children, 13 girls and 10 boys, participating in focus groups.The results of the study reveal that children's literacy-activities in school are strongly influenced and limited by adults. Children's interest in pictures and non-fiction-reading do not correspond to the school institution that favors traditional media and fiction. The study also reveals a gender division between children's literacy-activities that tends to grow with age. All the children in the study regard libraries as book-houses and wished for libraries that combine activity and serenity.The thesis shows the importance of being aware of, and engage in, children's reading-interests and reading-practices if the reading stimulating activities in schools and libraries are to be successful.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the teaching of literacy in two schools in different countries, South Africa and Sweden. The basis for the comparison was the decline of the two countries in the international PIRLS assessment. The aim of this essay was thus to identify possible similarities or differences between the two countries, possibly contributing to the decline in the literacy level of young students. The study was conducted by interviewing teachers of young children in South Africa and Sweden about their views on teaching literacy. The research shows that there are several factors contributing both positively and negatively to the literacy of young children.

The aim of the study was to explore how persons with aphasiaexperience literacy and reading and writing. Seven persons with mild-moderateaphasia were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed andanalysed using qualitative content analysis. The analysis resulted in three mainthemes; A changed reading, A changed writing and How to adjust andaccommodate to new conditions. The most apparent aspect was that theinformants experienced that literacy had changed, regarding what and how theyread/write.

The theme of this essay is literacy training in pre-school. The theme takes it starting point in a project, where my colleagues and I noticed our children playing with writing and symbols. It leads to an exciting, reflecting and developing project, a project that will go on for six months together with twenty children in the age of five and six.The essay describes how I and the rest of the staff work with the project, and also how we try to find challenges that are meaningful for our children. When we worked with the project I ended up in a dilemma how I as a teacher was to retain the children?s joy and curiosity for writing without making it boring.

One of the essential needs of human beings is to be involved in a social context. The intention of this study was to see if the opportunity to have an iPod Touch, could make it possible for students with literacy difficulties to participate in the regular classes and if the implementation of iPod Touch in the school setting would result in informal learning outside the school. In this case study two pupils with literacy difficulties have been using an iPod Touch in their daily school activity. The pupils as well as their teachers have been interviewed about their experiences of implementing iPod Touch as a tool in the regular classroom teatching. The results indicate that iPod Touch can help students to be in inclusive education and that they use the iPod Touch outside school.