Addressing Information Literacy with Students

With this module, I really was impressed with how many excellent resources there are out there for teaching students information literacy. I really enjoyed browsing Common Sense Media's information literacy lessons, especially the ones for elementary learners. 

One of my favorites was the "Is Seeing Believing?" lesson, which takes students through identifying fake or retouched photos on the web. 


Slide 4 from the "Is Seeing Believing?" slide deck

Honestly, I know some adults who would accept this photo as real without consideration, which matches the findings from a study mentioned in the School Library Journal article, "Truth, Truthiness, Triangulation: a News Literacy Toolkit for a 'Post-Truth' World" (Valenza, 2016). The study authors relate that even high school students were surprisingly unprepared to question or identify potential conflicts of interest, untrustworthy sources, or doctored photos. 

As our youngest students are coming into a digital world that is absolutely filled with mis- and disinformation, I can see how vital it is to teach students these skills right from the start of their education. Starting from kindergarten, students need to be taught how to assess the information they find online, so that they don't ever develop the idea that the internet is a fully trustworthy source. Unlearning that idea—which I think many adults, college students, and even high schoolers, have had to do—is far more difficult than never developing it in the first place. 

I definitely thought a lot about vertical planning while browsing these lessons, considering how to begin teaching critical information literacy skills early on and building on them as students progress. All of the information in this module made me think about Paolo Freire's critical pedagogy and critical literacy. 

A portrait of educator Paolo Freire
Image source: Hypotheses

Information literacy is, truly, grounded in two questions that are key to developing critical literacy: Who created a given text, and who benefits from the story it tells? These questions have always been powerful, but in our digital world today, they are not only powerful but necessary. Incidentally, as I was searching for more information on critical literacy, to ensure I was communicating the concept accurately, I came across a journal article about how to incorporate critical literacy into the pre-K classroom (Norris, Lucas, and Prudhoe, 2012) which dovetailed nicely with my interest in teaching information literacy to early information students. 

I also found myself leaning into the critical literacy angle when perusing the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education. Of the six frames, the two I was most interested to explore were "Authority is Constructed and Contextual" and "Scholarship as a Conversation," both of which—though not explicitly—share concepts with Freire's pedagogy, particularly that what is considered "authority" must be critically examined and must be allowed to change according to each situation, and that the one-way banking model of education, in which students are seen as vessels into which teachers deposit knowledge, is oppressive and ineffective. 

Regarding the podcast we listened to, one of the points that stuck with me the most was the discussion of language, from early in the podcast. The host talks about Orwell's 1984 (1949) and the language they use "Newspeak," and goes on to relate that fictional government-sponsored transformation of language to the way not just Trump and the alt-right, but much earlier politicians like George W. Bush have changed language in order to hide or deceive or achieve political ends. 

This, to me, is one of the most frightening aspects of the information world that we and our students live in. Because language is so fundamental and can spread so quickly via digital sources, especially social media, it feels daunting to figure out how to teach our children to identify terms that should set off their alarm bells. The discussion of the term "fake news," for example, illustrated just how complex that term is. It began, of course, as propaganda by the alt-right and Donald Trump to call legitimate news that was negative about Trump "fake"; however, now there actually is fake news, or news sites that publish entirely false information. The term originated to deceive people, then helped give rise to actual fake news, and now can be used as a legitimate term to describe inaccurate information that is intentionally presented as true fact (or disinformation). 

I look forward to learning more about how to incorporate these incredibly complex ideas in practical ways in the library, especially for younger students. 

Regarding my own information diet, I typically apply the standards listed in the podcast episode when evaluating news sources, although the biggest step I take to avoid misinformation is by using only reliable, proven sources like The New York Times, The Washington Post, or Politico. I never use Twitter or Facebook for news. Coming from journalism, I believe I've developed a fairly strong sense for when something sounds like it warrants further investigation, and I use that along with criteria like looking for a named author, looking at the date, and googling any quotes or claims that are unclear or seem off. 

For any library- or book-related information, I use vetted sites like SLJ, Kirk's, Horn Book, ALA, and AASL. 

As a school librarian, I know I will have to expand my information diet to include more credible sources in formats including video and audio. Right now, I mainly stick to electronic "print" sources like magazines and newspapers. And while I personally really dislike social media, and think it's extremely damaging for young people, I know I do need to find some great librarians, educators, and information professionals to follow on more social media platforms. 

References:

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Common Sense Media. (2018, August). Is seeing believing? Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship/lesson/is-seeing-believing

Gungor, M. (Host). (2017, March 7). Fake news & media literacy. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Liturgists. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-liturgists-podcast/id903433534?i=1000382332635

Norris, K., Lucas, L., Prudhoe, C. (2012). Examining critical literacy: Preparing preservice teachers to use critical literacy in the early childhood classroom. Multicultural Education, 19(2), 59-62.

Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen eighty-four. Secker and Warburg. 

Valenza, J. (2016, November 26). Truth, truthiness, triangulation: a news literacy toolkit for a "post-truth" world. School Library Journal. https://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/






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