In our New Media Literacies class, we have been discussing the topic of information fluency. That is, “a new liberal art which extends beyond technical skills and is conceived as the critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure and its social, cultural and even philosophical context and impact” (definition found here). The idea of information fluency is important for modern-day classrooms that are incorporating internet usage into their assignments and daily routine (which, frankly, should be all of them). This link to the core competencies is a quick, easy to understand diagram, which outlines the main ideas of information fluency. A more elaborated list can be found here.
Here’s a list of main points I put together with a classmate that should sum up the idea of information fluency pretty well:
- Students have to ask themselves “what info am I looking for?”
- Translate the question into a language you can use to conduct a search online.
- Effectively act on your question or thesis.
- Brainstorm how they will find the info.
- What sites they can use (google, wiki, academic search engines).
- The have to know how to find the info and how to navigate the web in order to get where the info is.
- The student needs to understand what search terms will produce the most productive results.
- Once they find they find the info they have evaluate how the good, useful, or accurate the info is.
- They have to make sure the info is from a credible source.
- The student needs to determine how the info helps the topic or if it promotes revision.
- Look for commonalities to make sure the sources are credible.
- They have to determine how best to use the info.
- Proper citations, citing the source.
- The students need to determine whether or not they should integrate the digital knowledge found.
- Evaluation
- Evaluate and reflect on your attitude concerning digital sources.
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