Web literacy in the classroom
As an instructional librarian at a university I am constantly helping students find information online. Whether at the research help desk, in the classroom, via email, over the phone- even passing by in the hallways. And though there are still plenty of great resources in print, the majority of the research my students do is online. The focus of the faculty in my departments is current and up-to-date research; research that is therefore most easily obtained on the Web. And as an information literacy professional, I often wonder how to best teach about information, the World Wide Web and the Internet. Do I show them the details of each and every database that could be relevant to their searching? Do I explain the superficial differences between web search engines and databases? Or do I get more specific and explain the mechanisms behind those differences? What about differences between similar-looking databases? It is well accepted that it is better to teach about how something works and help your students explore and test it out than to simply ask them to memorize or identify. But how specific do we get? How do we teach what we, ourselves, don’t fully understand? With such a limited amount of time to teach students, how can we give up any time to talk about the Internet, of all things?
How many of us really understand how Google’s or Bing’s ever-changing search algorithms work, anyway?
What is Web Literacy?
Since I am a librarian, I am going to explain web literacy in terms of information literacy. Information literacy is the librarian’s time-tested buzzword for being aware of your information needs and knowing how to find and use relevant and valid information. The specifics are, in short, understanding when you need information and then searching for, identifying, evaluating, organizing and using that information effectively (see the American Library Association’s Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report for more info). But this concept covers a lot of ground- the definition I’m citing was written in 1989 and pre-dates the widespread use of digital technologies. Thus, over the intervening years, there have been renewed attempts to create a definition that accomodates for the changes that these technologies have brought us- and will continue to bring. Frameworks such as ‘media literacy’ and ‘digital literacy’ have been developed to try to address the specific concerns of the technological implications of information literacy. Newer, more wisely-crafted catch-alls have also been developed, including ‘metaliteracy’ and ‘transliteracy’ which don’t mention specific types of technology or devices but strive to address the new implications that technology has brought- notably the ease by which the average person can now participate in and contribute to the body of information that is out there. [For a couple of articles that nicely sum up the evolution of information literacy, see: Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy by Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson and Introducing transliteracy: What does it mean to academic libraries? by Tom Ipri.]
A quick web search for ‘web literacy’ will uncover the fact that it is a phrase that has been used in a couple of ways- 1) the ability of a person to evaluate the information that they find online and 2) the ability of a person to ‘read, write, and participate on the Web.’ I am using the second, more comprehensive definition which was developed by the Mozilla Webmaker community when they crafted their Web Literacy Map.
“Mozilla understands web literacy to be the skills and competencies required to read, write and participate effectively on the web.”
Web literacy, therefore, is applying the concepts of the other frameworks to the Web- not to specific platforms or devices, not to specific applications or companies, but to the entire Web. All of the various pieces that allow the Web to be the great resource for information that it is: the mechanics, infrastructure, coding, credibility, open practices, design, and more. Unlike other types of information literacy, this definition of web literacy comes with a set of competencies and skills that can help a teacher develop a lesson plan. The Web Literacy Map is a living document and is currently in the process of being re-evaluated to refine and update some of the skills that were set in early 2014. Like the Web itself, the map needs to evolve.
I have recently become involved in helping to craft the upcoming changes, which is exciting to me as an educator who was already using the map in my lesson planning. When I look at a typical library lesson that I am going to teach I wonder how I can teach to something bigger that will impart a deeper understanding of my basic concept- the way information is structured and used on the web.
A simple example is when I teach about developing search strategies in a library database vs a web search engine- Google and Bing have algorithms that try to guess what we mean when we type into the search box, whereas most databases take what we type quite literally. Bing is somewhat more forgiving with our errors, but has a bias in the results. A database won’t hazard a guess when I mispell something, but the results I see are 100% related to the search terms I use. Google Scholar will ignore my Boolean operators, and won’t filter out results, but instead will rank their relevance according to their algorithm’s interpretation of my search terms. Ebsco will follow the instructions that I supply with my Booleans and will filter the results accordingly. With databases, it is imperative that learn how to recognize when I make a mistake or else I may not be getting the most relevant results. Neither is perfect. Neither is ‘bad’ or ‘good.’
I could choose to simply tell the students something along the lines of “Google Scholar isn’t the way to conduct serious research.” Such a statement would be backed up by most of my colleagues and most of the faculty. But it is only part of the truth. And the truth of the Web is constantly changing. Three years ago I would have whole-heartedly agreed with the statement above. Today, I have trouble buying in. Students heading out into the job market will be facing such changes in the landscape of information that are fairly unknowable to us today. I wouldn’t tell someone today to start their research with a smartphone, but how long will that be true? One more year? Two?
How to begin teaching the Web
Web Literacy is so entwined in information literacy and knowledge that it can’t be ignored. It is overwhelming to think about the amount of effort we educators need to put forth to learn and teach this content. The Web is vast and mysterious. And this is exactly why the Web Literacy Map is so important. Take a look at the map- it’s interactive. Click on any of the competencies and view the underlying skills. Scroll down and see some examples of lessons and curricula that others have created to teach and explore the competency. You can re-use the resources to learn or teach the subject.
Another great tool is the Web Literacy Mapper, which is a searchable database of resources and tutorials with the skills and competencies listed in the description. Want to learn about determining an online source’s credibility? Search for the tag #Credibilty and explore some of the results. Some topics will fall under more than one competency- for example, finding out if content can be re-used without permission would fall under ‘credibility,’ ‘remixing,’ or ‘open practices.’
Right now, the Webmaker community is working on these competencies and if you want to give your input or get involved, you’re invited. Visit the Github repo and view the past meeting notes to get caught up. Subscribe to the Webmaker mailing list if you just want to dip your toe in the water.
You, too, are encouraged to participate in refining the Web Literacy Map.
Interested? See this short post by Doug Belshaw about what we’ve been doing recently and how you can get involved: http://literaci.es/redefining-weblitmap-skills.
