ISCI 761 Blog #2 - The Intersection of Information Literacy, Technology and Digital Media

In the modern era, with its abundant access to technology, digital content and media, information literacy education has never been more important. I was particularly struck by a statement made in The Liturgists Podcast episode 55, Fake News and Media Literacy (2017) in which they said that jurors are told what to consider and what to disregard when they were hearing testimony in court, which ensures that they only consider relevant information when rendering a judgment. In the real world, educators have to take on that role. Otherwise, there would be no system in place for ensuring that learners would be able to separate what is true and relevant and what is not.  

Ekdal (2020) said that information is more powerful every year and that “students need solutions to deal with information overload” (p. 41). This cannot be left to chance that individual educators possess the knowledge necessary to support their students. She says that the Big 6, as developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz helps to focus on the process. 

The Big6 Skills Include: Task definition, information seeking strategies, location and access, use of information, synthesis and evaluation.

Information seeking strategies has the greatest intersection of technology, digital resources and information literacy. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning Framework (P21, 2015) shows that in addition to learning the technology skills necessary to find information, learners must also learn to think critically about the information they are able to access with those tools. There are many things to consider when finding sources of information. 

The Liturgists podcast (2017) outlined 5 things to consider when determining if a source is reputable: 

1. Look for named authors and contributors that create accountability. 
2. Where was it published? (Is this a reputable source? Have I heard of it? Is there an editorial review board? Does it have reviews? Does it publish retractions or corrections or is there a way to write to the editor? Who owns the publication?) 
3. Date of Publication – Many articles are published from long ago as if they are new.
4. Look for specifically named sources.
5. Is it well written (grammatical errors, all caps, etc.)?

Additionally they state that even if information is not fake, it is still likely to be biased.  Different information providers may place emphasis on the things that are more relevant to their own agendas and undervalue other information that goes against their views. The American Library Association (ALA, 2015) presents a framework that helps in the consideration of the value of factual information. 

The authority of the creator should be evaluated based on the context for which the information will be used and that information is generally created for a specific purpose and delivered strategically.  The value of the information to the producer is in successful outcome that they intend the information to have.  For example, as Liturgists podcast states, many titles have the intention of gaining the consumer’s interest so that they keep reading, and so they can gain ad revenue. Just because the information captures your interest, however, does not mean it is useful or relevant. Research should be an exercise in inquiry.  The finding of new information should lead to more questions that keep the conversation ever moving forward in complexity, and drawing on multiple perspectives from collaboration in discussing new insights and discoveries.  It is important to factor all of these elements in when evaluating whether the information is reliable for the intended purpose. 

As a school librarian, I believe that my own information diet should be varied and extensive.  The more information I have to draw on, the more I can help my students.  Specifically, it is important to understand the needs and interests of my students and read as much as I can about those subjects, and from as many perspectives as possible. That way, when students ask me questions or make broad statements, I can challenge them to think outside of their narrow views and to consider alternative perspectives as well.  Additionally, I should be constantly seeking information that meet my own interests, so that I am modeling the behaviors and skills that I am teaching to my students. Finally, I should be keeping abreast of new ideas and innovations in the LIS field, so that my skills as an educator will remain relevant and useful to my students. 

References: 

American Library Association. (ALA 2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework. 

Ekdahl, M. (2000). Essential skills for the information age: The Big6 in action. In Teacher librarian (Vancouver) (Vol. 28, Number 2, pp. 41–41). E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC.

Gungor, M. (Executive Producer). (2017). Fake news & media literacy (No. 55) [Audio Podcast Episode]. In The Liturgists Podcast. The Liturgists Inc. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fake-news-media-literacy/id903433534?i=1000382332635

Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (P21, 2015). Framework for 21st century learning. https://www.marietta.edu/sites/default/files/documents/21st_century_skills_standards_book_2.pdf.

ISCI 761 Blog #1 - AASL and ISTE Standards - How They Work Together to Improve Information Literacy Skills

The standards set by both the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) and the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) provide a framework by which educators can prepare students to acquire the skills and attitudes that they will need in order to become knowledgeable, contributing members of society. While both sets of standards encourage inquiry based learning and place high importance on the incorporation of diverse perspectives and sources,  AASL standards seem to focus on a conversation about acquiring and sharing diverse knowledge and information, whereas ISTE standards give learners the skills to utilize the digital tools necessary to carry out this process.  

From an educational standpoint, AASL outlines Four Key Competencies in the learning process which seem to move in a never ending cycle of learning and developing new understandings. 

• Think: Learners must think about a topic that interests them and formulate their questions.  They must think about various perspectives that might contribute to that question and collaborate with others to create deeper meanings through engagement to fully understand what they are learning. ISTE standards compliment the knowledge seeking behaviors by giving learners the ability to the use technology to seek new information and build networks in a global community while learning how to safely and respectfully engage with others around the world. 

• Create: Learners create products that illustrate their learning.  To do this, they must represent diverse perspectives and be able to build connections with others to build on the existing body of knowledge.  They must also use a variety of tools and resources to find the most effective way of locating and managing their new knowledge. Again, ISTE standards help learners find the best tools to accomplish this task, and like the AASL standards, it requires that learners explore real-world issues and take multiple perspectives into consideration. 

• Share: Learners must then share what they have learned and engage with information shared by others.  They must provide feedback and respond to feedback from their peers. They must engage in active debate and incorporate a multitude of perspective into their own understanding to broaden their views on the world around them. ISTE teaches learners to be creative and innovative in both the format and modalities of the presented information, but also in consideration of the most effective platforms in which to share their knowledge to encourage collaboration and further discussion. 

• Grow: Finally, learners must reflect on these processes and use the information to inform new inquiry.  They must constantly seek to learn new information and recognize that society depends on an informed citizenry that recognized the value of every member of society. This aligns with ISTE standards that charge learners continue to stay informed about real world events and continuously build on their knowledge to apply their understanding it to future advances in technology.

These concepts are closely intertwined and can be seen in evidence in Jenna Spiering’s 2019 article entitled Engaging Adolescent Literacies with the Standards. She states that traditional literacy instruction with print media is no longer sufficient as digital technologies allow for a much more broad and collaborative conversation with consideration for a much larger set of perspectives.  Therefore, there must be an emphasis in not only learning how to utilize these new technologies, but also in finding ways to use these technologies to engage in collaborative conversations beyond what was previously only available in the classroom. 

Additionally, technology has allowed for schools to utilize student’s out of school competencies, such as engagement with social media tools and news sources to incorporate even more perspectives into their information seeking behaviors. Even comics and graphic novels have gained more favor as it has been discovered that the images, space, color and dialogue require learners to both create their own and decode existing interpretations of presented materials. 

As learners seek information, it is important that they develop understandings of how the vast amount of information available online could be skewed by bias or even blatant lies designed to misinform.  They must develop the skills necessary to decipher truth from fiction as part of the ISTE standards, and then use the truths they learn, taking into account all of the diverse perspectives to inform their understanding as part of the AASL standards. 

In order to develop literacy skills in the modern digital era, educators must ensure that their students not only develop the skills necessary to carry on informed discussions about the information they want to know about and share, as is the focus of AASL standards, but they must also utilize ISTE standards to develop the competencies to utilize all the technologies that are available to effectively find the information they are seeking and to collaborate with others to both broaden their understanding and share what they have learned. 

References:

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). AASL standards framework for learners. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf.

ISTE Standards. (2016). International Society for Technology in Education. https://cdn.iste.org/www-root/PDF/ISTE%20Standards-One-Sheet_Combined_09-2021_vF3.pdf.

Spiering, J. (2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), pp. 44–49.