Information Literacy

[librarygeek]

What is Information Literacy?
Information literacy is finding valid answers to questions that are reliable, usable, and able to be both documented and replicated by others needing the same questions answered if necessary.

- How is your answer different now than it would have been during Week 1?
My answer is different now than in Week 1 because I really didn’t understand how others were performing supposedly the same Google searches but getting different answers. I didn’t know about filter bubbles preventing people from getting specific information without a directed search specifically aimed outside their bubbles.

- What will you do differently now that you have taken this course?
I will make sure more of my conservative family and friends get to see results from websites such as https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news and see the TED talk about filter bubbles (previous post). I think the most important statement in that talk was programming in some ethical responsibility towards other people and viewpoints.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I guess I never really picked up on the idea of separate bubbles. I always have multiple cultural imprints inside me, and growing up I read my dad's history books where it was painfully obvious how people slanted information to their own ends. What does it look like if I view this issue from a tribal perspective? A Celtic one? A Pagan one? &c. So I always tend to view things with some suspicion. Some sources are more reliable than others, but humans in general aren't. Sure, I've got my bigger bubble around the smaller ones, because I prefer to minimize contact with mainstream culture the same way I prefer to avoid wading through a garbage dump. But if I need answers, I wade in and try to scope out the range of coverage. Then I look for pieces that suit my current needs -- sometimes I want a particular angle, or not to include certain things that clash with it.

Regarding other people, I'll include diverse information in what I write, but I rarely try to convince anyone. They hate it and they take it out on me. Fine. An oracle's job is to warn, not to convince. Ironically, the storytelling is more convincing than the activism or the teaching.