After digesting all of the materials this week, I feel like I have a better understanding of information literacy, technology, and the digital/media intersection. Within the last 10-15 years we have seen an explosion in “fake news” and misinformation. I’ve seen firsthand from my own family and friends how misinformation spreads. According to Clay Johnson, author of The Information Diet, misinformation is false or inaccurate information but disinformation is deliberate or intentionally false or inaccurate information. Both are pervasive in our society and both are leading people astray. There was a time when the internet was a reliable place for information. For that reason, people tend to believe what they read on the internet without consciously fact-checking or evaluating the information they find online. So…what does this mean for school librarians and those in the field of information science?
It means we have to take an active role in teaching students and our patrons how to be conscious consumers of information. To do so, we must first be aware of our information consumption. Are we evaluating what we read online? Are we consciously consuming information? Are we engaging in discourse with others to promote information literacy? Are we utilizing resources that have reliable information and we teach others to use these resources?
If you take a look at the Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, you will see that there are lots of commonalities between this framework and the 21st Century Framework for K-12 students. Additionally, there are similarities between the higher education framework and the AASL standards. For example, both frameworks and the AASL standards promote collaboration, content/information production, inquiry, and information evaluation. These examples are just a few ways these frames are similar. If we teach students to be digital and information literate now, then they will become conscious consumers of information later.
The Liturgists Podcast. (2013). The Liturgists Podcast - Fake News & Media Literacy. Google Podcasts. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy81NmVhMWU3OC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/aHR0cDovL3BvZGNhc3QudGhlbGl0dXJnaXN0cy5jb20vZS9tZWRpYS1saXRlcmFjeS0xNDg4ODkyNDg1Lw?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwjg-dDOnN7yAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQEg&hl=en
Information Literacy for Higher Education Framework. (2016). http://ala.org/acrl/files/issues/infolit/framework.pdf
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