What is information literacy?
When I was an undergraduate student, one of my professors often commented on what he considered to be the difference between "knowledge" and "information." There is plenty of information in our lives. We live in an information-heavy society; the internet is the "information superhighway," --we are bombarded with information--ads, blogs, walls, likes, comments, .gov,.org,.com, newspapers, billboards, church signs, airplane banners, chocolate wrappers. Some studies indicate that the number of ad messages we are exposed to per day is around 5,000. There are over 152 million blogs online (as of last year), and over 644 million active websites.
So how did my professor define knowledge?
That's a great question.
Knowledge, to him, was what was true (which can loosely be defined as credible, useful information, because in all honesty, what is "true?"). As budding scholars, my undergraduate class was presented with the responsibility of being able to distinguish between information and knowledge. It was our duty to weed out the opinion blogs and make sure every website ended in practically anything but .com. When presented with a piece of information, we needed to know what to do with it.
That is what information literacy is, to me.
Being presented with some piece of information and knowing what to do with it.
For example, if I presented you with this piece of information:
13 people are killed each year by vending machines falling on them.
What would you do with it? Hopefully, you would begin to formulate some thoughts.
Is this true? Who is April Youngblood, and is she a vending machine scholar? Did she get this statistic from a vending machine scholar? What is her source? If her source is credible, does that mean I should stop shaking the vending machine when it doesn't deposit my Bugels promptly enough?
Then, you might take some action.
I am going to look up this statistic and see if I can verify its accuracy.
(and, if it is accurate)
I am never going to stand under another vending machine again.
Information literacy involves thinking critically and applying what you've learned to your situation. It is sifting through all the information our society presents us with and figuring out what to do with it.
Shifting Gears: Instructional Literacy
There are four components of instructional literacy, or, what I understand to be "learning how to teach." These four components and my experience with each of them are below.
Reflective practice: Or, becoming a better teacher as you teach. The book humorously describes this as "moxie," or nerve (xvii). The less prepared I feel when I'm teaching, whether it's teaching the front stroke or King Lear, the more panicked I feel, and the less likely I am to learn anything while I'm going along. Note to self: be a prepared instructor.
Educational theory: Or, Teachers teaching teachers how to teach. In undergrad I took a tutoring course, but in all honesty I barely remember it. I feel as though the most I've learned in my teaching career I've learned from observing other teachers. But I suppose theory is valuable too!
Teaching technologies: Or, what physical tools do you use while you teach? This past spring I participated in 23 Mobile Things which was a great time to learn some handy apps for personal and professional use. If you are interested in which apps I learned about, you can browse the earlier posts in this blog!
Instructional Design: Or, the best way to integrate your knowledge and tools to effectively design a great course. I was an Instructional Design assistant at Northwestern College for a year and a half. At the time, I honestly had no idea that the tasks I performed would eventually help me with my library career! I helped design syllabi, research technology trends, choose course materials, and process course evaluations. You never know what life experiences will come in handy!
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