Online — Accessing Information in the 21st century
I’m sure many of us consider ourselves to be well acquainted with technology. But I’d argue that sometimes technology and online resources grow so rapidly that we forget to delve into deeper understanding of the processes behind the tools. There are many aspects of accessing information in the 21st century that may not be completely apparent to most. These are just some of the beneficial things I’ve learned through an online course on accessing information.
There are many information-researching skills that are advantageous in todays flooded market of online material. Take Google for example. Most of us have used it at least once in our lifetimes; most likely, many of us use it multiple times daily. But curiously, Google results are not universal. Meaning that searching for ‘endangered animals’ on Google will yield results for Tom that are different than results for Jill. This phenomenon is based on a multitude of factors including ones prior search strategies and search history. For obvious reasons non-universal results can be detrimental to the research process and so you’d want to refine your results to arrive at the most relevant data. Google has many built in ways of doing this, including limiting results by types of webpages, using images that are actually labeled for reuse, matching keywords exactly, etc.
Along with many other search databases, Google also allows you to use Boolean style search queries as well. Boolean search is beneficial if you want to match multiple ideas or exact terms in a specific source, or if you don’t want to show an idea or specific term in your results. You can also search for any terms with specific root words such as “whistleblow*”, which will show results for both whistleblowing and whistleblower. These search skills also apply to the navigation of academic databases like JSTOR and the Academic Search Premier, but unless you are part of an organization that subscribes to these services, they aren’t free.
Knowledge of information researching skills can lead to a better understanding of current events, like it did for me. Take the idea of Public Access to the Public Domain, not many of us would disagree with the concept, but did you know that corporations are constantly trying to regulate the internet? Trying to make themselves gatekeepers of information? It has already happened in many ways. The publishing industry has a sort of monopoly over academic information, charging obscene amounts money for access to it (Some academic journal subscription cost upwards of 40 grand a year). Digital media companies charge their members full price to “own” or rent books, movies, and tv shows, but once purchased by the user, they are never truly owned, and instead are presented with access to that media; if the platform ceases to exist, so would ones access to the information previously paid for. The real point is that the internet is free and should not be regulated. Knowledge and information should belong to all of mankind.
Another current event we should all be aware of are the problems associated in our current copyright system. When it was first implemented it worked well, the creator of an original work could claim the exclusive rights to it for 56 years, before it entered the Public Domain and could be “remixed” by anyone. However, in the late 90’s various companies including Disney lobbied congress to extend copyright legislation, and now most of us will never get to remix the popular works of our own lifetime.
This whole learning experience I’ve outlined above was made more engaging through discourse with my online class community. In fact after taking my first online course, I feel that I actually learned more that I would have in a classroom setting. Because it was my responsibility to learn, I spent a lot more time making sure I understood the course material, rather than making sure I could remember and regurgitate it. This allowed me to be thorough and gave me more power over my education; if I missed important information, I’d only have myself to blame as I had all the resources I needed online. Also, you’d think online discussions couldn’t possibly be more in depth than face-to-face conversation, but in my experience you would be wrong. Using ‘Voicethreads’ to portray our ideas and constantly commenting back and forth on each other’s class work allowed for much more meaningful discourse of information. In a physical classroom, we don’t always get to share original material, allowing us to learn from each other. Online we weren’t just being taught by our extremely helpful professor, but instead were learning just as much from our peers.
In general Accessing Information in the 21st century reminded me to think for myself. As simple of a concept as it sounds, in todays age of online information it can be difficult to differentiate opinion from fact, reliable from unreliable, and truth from selling point. Social media and other prevalent online mediums, although bringing people together, present a plethora of misinformation or at least “white lie” information. The skills I’ve learned have made me more confident in my informed ideas and decisions and proved to me that it pays to be an “investigator” in today’s information ridden society.
