Information Literacy

I totally agree with this statement from Gaggle.net founder Jeff Patterson. 

When you're talking about the past, you're talking all about libraries and card catalogs. It was hard to find the information when I was a kid. Now, there's an abundance of information. It's hard to determine whether it's accurate information, authoritative information and then to interpret that information.

One of the challenges - we always struggle with this - is, what is really accurate information? What is the right information and the relevant information? Those are big challenges, and how to interpret what it means. So sometimes it can be a real challenge to look for. 

For example, it's the new year, and I'm looking to lose a little bit of weight. I pulled out the old bathroom scale, and every time I get on it, within a 5-minute period, it will show a variance of 3 pounds, and it's just frustrating. So I've been Googling bathroom scales and accuracy, and I can find out all sorts of new scales to buy, but to find out why my bathroom scale doesn't work right is hard. 

So to me, literacy is being able to find the right relevant information and interpret it; who's trying to sell me something, who has an agenda. Those are real challenges, even for us well-educated adults.

Evaluation needs to be a part of our lives. It's not just a school skill; it's a life skill.