ISCI 761 Post 2: Information Literacy in a Digital World

Information Literacy in a Digital World 

I did not know the difference between misinformation and disinformation, so I am glad Mx. Dreeszen Bowman addressed this in their introduction video for this module. I have only ever heard people use the term misinformation and I have heard it used as both sharing of wrong information deliberately and accidentally. I will make sure I use it correctly and pay attention to how others use these terms moving forward.  

With the availability of the internet, it is easy to see why we need to talk about both technology and information literacy (specifically digital literacy) together. Students need to be able to read, process, and apply what they learn and most of that comes from online.  

Common Sense Media breaks the high school Digital Citizenship Curriculum up into six sections: 

Media Balance & Well-Being 

Privacy & Security 

Digital Footprint & Identity 

Relationships & Communication 

Cyberbullying, Digital Drama & Hate Speech 

News & Media Literacy (Common Sense Media, n.d.) 

Screenshot from the Common Sense Media Website of the six sections listed above 

I chose to focus my attention on the high school section because I will be working in a high school library this coming school year. I like that beyond these six sections it also breaks it up by grade level, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. This would be a good resource for high school librarians or teachers to use when teaching digital literacy skills. I also like that each lesson has a question that can be posed to students to have them reflect on. I think the question could be used before the lesson to introduce the topic or after the lesson for students to reflect on what they have learned.  

 

Screenshot of a preview of the first three lessons in the 9th grade section

Another resource I liked was the document about the Big Six research skills (Big6 Skills Overview, n.d.). I have learned about these in other classes, and I can see how/ why they apply to technology as well. The readings, video, and podcast for this week helped me learn some new things and add to some concepts I was already aware of.  

I agree that it is important for us to get our information from a variety of sources, especially our news. It is so easy to surround ourselves with people and groups who think like us, but we need to seek out opinions that differ from ours. Even news, which is supposed to be factual can have bias. I have noticed that on my TikTok for you page I only get things I like. While this is nice because I usually like the content, I feel disconnected from people who like different things than me, read different books, or have different interests. 

 

Big6 Skills Overview. (n.d.) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a303936a49631dd51f9a7d/t/5b92bf5e03ce644e10c18005/1536343902416/Big6+Skills+Overview.pdf 

Common Sence Media. (n.d.). Digital Citizenship Curriculum. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/curriculum?grades=9%2C10%2C11%2C12