INFORMATION LITERACY GUIDE

INFORMATION LITERACY GUIDE                                  Marilyn Schindler

This is an information literacy guide for students to tap into for some outlined topics and resources. We all have a dependence on technology. This guide is a simple outline for students to use for information and resources. This guide is framed for the new technology and media.

Jenkins stated, “…it does not address the fundamental inequalities in young people’s access to new media technologies and the opportunities for participation they represent (what we call the participation gap)” (Jenkins 2009, P.12).  

Scope: Knowing What Is Available

• Searching in Databases
• Use Proquest, which is a good research source
• Try Jistor in the Academic Library of your college.

Plan: Developing Research Strategies

• Conduct Google Searches
• Ask Librarians on How to Reviewing Search Strategies

Gather: Finding What You Need

• Compare Your Search Strategies
• Decide What Your Primary Sources will be
• Identifying Citations

Evaluate: Assessing Your Research Process and Findings

• Find Relevant Sources & Evaluate their Value
• Identify the Information Purpose of your Need & Use

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There are so many areas of a literacy guide that can be covered. This Information Literacy

Guide is to give some basic information for a ‘learner’ to use. Here are a few topics to research at your school or college.  There is a lot to learn, yet, we become self-directed learners.

TOPICS TO RESEARCH AND LEARN:

 

• Benefits of participatory culture is collaborative problem solving.  
• Software development environment have emerged.
• Creation of Open-Source platforms.
• Users can collaborate together and provide a better product  
• Use of educational simulations
• Alternative and augmented reality games
• Webquests, production activities
• Blogs and wikis

(Jenkins 2009, p.5 - 57). 

Henry Jenkins (2006) provided a list of skills to acquire needed for media literacy:

• Players & Play: “Educators (in school and out) tap into play as a skill when they encourage free-form experimentation and open-ended speculation” (2006 p. 24).
• “Simulation: “The ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real world process” (2006, p. 25).  
• “Performance – the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery” (2006. p. 31).
• “Appropriation – the ability to meaningful sample and remix media content” (2006,

p. 32).

• “Multitasking – the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus onto salient details on an ad hoc basis” (2006 p. 34).
• “Distributive Cognition – the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand our mental capacities” (2006, p. 37).
• “Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others towards a common goal” (2006, p. 39).  
• “Judgment – the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources” (2006, p. 43).
• “Transmedia Navigation – the ability to deal with the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities” (2006, p. 46).  
• “Networking – the ability to search for synthesize, and disseminate information” (2006, p. 49).
• “Negotiation – the ability to travel across communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative sets of norms” (2006,          p. 52).
• “Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others towards a common goal” (2006, p.39)

These are skills that Jenkins (2006) suggest for learners of new media and literacies. The age and background has no bearing on how to learn this media and literacy. The environments available now in the 21^st century, are developing quickly and skills are needed to be learned. 

In conclusion of this presentation of an Information Literacy Guide, we should realize that media convergence and networked participation including “new blogs, viral marketing, and amateur and remix music” (Varnelis, 2012, p. 43). New media and new literacies has converged upon the global world and we will continue to learn these systems and use these systems. We don’t realize how much we depend on broadband which is used for DSL, cable modem, fiber, wireless, and satellite use. (Varnelis, 2012) So many devices and new technologies are developed throughout the year that we must stay literate.

The cost should match the use of the technology and it is not all free to use. Many low-income families may not have access to computers or high speed Internet.   There are still rural areas where the telecommunication companies do not provide data services.   

References:

Jenkins, H. (2009), Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century Retrieved from: Empire State College Moodle-Jenkins_white_paper.pdf.(2014).

Varnelis, K. (Ed.).(2008). Networked Publics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. http://networkedpublics.org