Dailey Vanderkolk

Narrative: Information Literacy

The overall value of being informationally literate is that tasks can easily be done in an
efficient way. It is also valuable to save time. Being informationally literate helps to access
information quickly because one who is informationally literate can access the correct material
quickly and evaluate. In a teaching perspective, the value of being informationally literate is
essential for the 21st century and teaching those skills needed to the students
As a student I will need to know how to access, evaluate, and use information in the 21st
Century because in many of my classes I will be challenged to use information on the internet
and knowing how to access it easily and efficiently. However, when I become a teacher, being
able to evaluate information quickly will help me make my lesson plans faster and make them be
more effective for my students. I will also use my knowledge of using information in the 21st
Century to develop my students skills in using technology effectively.
Information literacy is hitting the ISTE standard of designing and developing digital age
learning experiences and assessments. When a teacher is informationally literate it allows them
to use technology in a way that can develop students knowledge of digital learning. For
example, when doing a research paper a student who is digitally literate will be able to access an
appropriate cite that is related to their topic and quickly evaluate it for its validity. Another
standard that applies to information literacy is the standard of promoting and modeling digital
citizenship and responsibility. If a teacher is literate they should be able to know what types of
works are copyright, Creative Commons, and fair-use. They should also be able to teach digital
citizenship to their students effectively.
Copyright, fair use, and Creative Commons are related to information literacy because it
includes knowing what works are available to them to use and which need permission to be used.
Copyright is very important to know about because if a document that is protected under
copyright law it is not allowed to be used without permission from the creator. Fair-use allows
educators to use certain things for educational purposes as long as they are not breaking any
copyright rules. Creative Commons is important to know about because it allows free use as long
as the credit is given to the creator in most cases. Someone who is informationally literate would
be able to find which one of these applies to a work and use it correctly.
Technology plays a very important role for the increased need for information literacy
because it technology can sometimes be over whelming, especially when trying to search the
internet for specific topics. Many people who are informationally illiterate would have difficulty
comparing similar sites that had similar information. Someone who is informationally literate
would be able to evaluate each work and determine each ones validity quickly.