Online Information Literacy
For beginners learning about online information literacy, it is important to know that ways of navigating facts online can sometimes be challenging. There are many different website browsers where scholars, kids, and adults search to find facts and various information, but a question many ask is: which website is truly beneficial? Although there is truly never a true answer, going about sorting the correct versus the incorrect information can be very difficult as well as a long process itself. Here is why it is essential to know how to go about online information…
To begin, I want to start by naming three of the myths people state about gaining online information.
“Students are gullible about information on the internet, so educators need to cultivate more suspicion in them.”
In this case, it doesn’t just have to be students being gullible. This goes for any age range who is searching for something on the internet. Yes, it is easy to be gullible, when you want to believe everything, you see but that’s just what the internet wants you to do! Researching effectively is key to finding the correct information. Skepticism doesn’t always work as we need to put trust into something, at least sources that support our beliefs. A great resource to use when trying to find a source supporting whichever side you stand on is The Interactive Media Bias Chart. Another important factor to remember is that it is nearly impossible to be unaffected by information especially considering how many resources there are out in the digital world to explore.
“Critical thinking will save us. Look more deeply at things before believing them.”
While critical thinking is a very important aspect to have in everyday life, problem-solving, and discovering internet information, using critical thinking can often lead to negative effects. The ultimate goal of information on social media and the internet is to make you think so deeply about a certain subject that your mind begins to infiltrate your critical thinking skills. When this happens, you may begin to overthink and underestimate yourself with what is presented. Essentially, critical thinking may lead to a warping perspective.
“Anything on the web is not trustworthy, especially Wikipedia.”
The internet is so easily accessible today at our fingertips because of all the beneficial information it has to provide for us! Wikipedia is often frowned upon especially by professors and higher educators because people on the internet can edit the information presented. However, the sources at the bottom of each Wikipedia search go way beyond the article presented itself. The sources listed can tell you everything and more that you would need to know about a topic. It also goes to show that the article was written from a scholarly standpoint when those sources are presented.
In the end, the internet should be a great resource for scholars, kids, and adults as there are so many different ways of navigating through online sources. We are granted with technology today to be by our side and to be a helpful tool. Ultimately, it is about how you go about your research when finding the correct online information.
