Blog Post # 2 Literacy and Information Diet

This week’s assignment in ISCI 761 Technologies in the School Library Program, we had to read several articles on different types of literacy and listen to a podcast on Fake News and Media Literacy.

      I want to first address how I go about finding information. Usually, I have a news alert on my phone that lets me know about an important piece of new intelligence. Most of the time I take it at face value and move on, but there are times that I will dive a little deeper and see if other news agencies also report on the same thing. I do the same for working on research. After completing the required readings and podcast I have determined that I need to be a little more on guard with the information that is presented to me. I also realize that my future elementary students are living in an age where all they have known is the internet and whatever is presented on the social media of their choosing. I see that it is an important process that we as school librarians need to educate students on how to identify and locate factual information.

      I found the Podcast, Fake News, and Media Literacy to be especially illuminating (The Liturgist, 2024). I thought the podcasters had many great points to how we might be able to determine what is true and accurate news versus fake news. I enjoyed their corny song about how to make certain of true material, although I will have to alter it if I choose to teach it to my elementary students. The podcasters both in lyric form and discussion stated that the information presented needs to be checked against other news outlets, was it written by someone who is an expert in their field and on the subject matter, and are the sources listed in the resource named. My husband and I had a lovely discussion about this podcast as he was watching a YouTube video with scientist going back and forth over conspiracy theorists and I was able to relay to him what I had learned. In the School Library Journal, author Joyce Valenza wrote in her article, Truth, Truthiness, Tirangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world that what makes discerning what is accurate is difficult as we all have constant access to internet and anyone can make posts or create outlandish tales without the means of people being able to quickly fact check them (Valenza, 2016). With the knowledge that not everything that is published on the internet is true, as school librarians, we need to teach our students how to reason analytically. One of the ways that we can do that is through the Big6 Skills. This helps to break down the steps needed in order to find an answer to a question and judiciously determine if the resources used to fulfill the response are true (Big6 Skills, n.d.).

        

References

 

(n.d.). Big6 Skills Overview. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a303936a49631dd51f9a7d/t/5b92bf5e03ce644e10c18005/1536343902416/Big6+Skills+Overview.pdf

 

 

The Liturgist. (2024).  Fake news & media literacy [podcast]. https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/fake-news-media-literacy/id903433534?i=1000382332635

 

Valenza, J. (November 26, 2016). 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/