How many times have I (and all my colleagues who teach the library segment of Freshman Seminar) spent time emphasizing to students that it's not just FINDING information (which gets easier and easier) but learning to EVALUATE the information you find that is the important task these days? The blizzard of information that a simple Google search results in--that is QUANTITY that is often overwhelming and time-wasting. But how does one determine QUALITY of information? That is the skill we try to help students develop. Many universities have useful sites for evaluating websites, such as Cornell's and University of Maryland's . Ideally the lessons should begin at the primary level.
Well, imagine my surprise and delight to learn that the Obama Administration has determined this task important enough to bring it to the public's attention by making October NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY AWARENESS MONTH. He gets it!
Here is the entire text of the Proclamation
3 comments:
I agree - it is quite overwhelming to sift through the hits that are returned from internet searches, trying to find some solid, meaningful info .... this has become an essential skill.
I can remember, from a teacher from way back when, that it wasn't important to memorize everything but it was important to know that kinds of info existed and where to go find it when you needed it. Now, with the overload of info at your disposal, you have to know how to find the quality info ...
Overload is the right word. There is more than one can imagine being published in all sorts of media every day. No one can absorb even a fraction of 1 percent of it. The periodical information that our students use in their papers is so much more abundant than one could have dreamed of just 20 years ago. It amazes me, but the kids know no other world tha the present. When I was in college (well more than 20 years ago) the difficulty was in finding the necessary information for a paper. Now the problem is: too much information. Narrowing down a topic by combining search terms and evaluating and selecting the journals and in some cases websites... that is the student's task, but so often they avoid the thinking-work by grabbing the first article they come upon and copying and pasting chunks of it (with or without citing it)into their paper. Technology makes all this easy. Some profs don't even know that full-text articles are in our databases. A few still think the issues of periodicals are sitting on our shelves! Databases level the playing field.; institutions large and small can have the same resources. Our enrollment this fall is up dramatically.
Perhaps one good effect of the economic crisis is an increased enrollment in colleges.
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