In this issue, we bring you another edition of Aimee’s 11 Student Success Elements. This time, we delve into information literacyand how educators and mentors can help youth in understanding the importance of technology use for communication and productivity, showing them how to behave and operate ethically online, and how to best manage their digital online identity. So if you are a teacher, a coach, a supervisor, mentor, or a parent, this one’s for you.
Many youths today are hyper-communicators, multitaskers, and goal oriented. As they experience an overabundance of easily accessible information they are, undoubtedly, far more exposed to media information than their parents, and sometimes even their educators. Therein lies the challenge. When left to their own devices, most students are drawn to what is easy to access, and they don’t stop to compare the information they get from the web to other sources.
An educators’ challenge in addressing this issue lies in the very environment that youth live and learn in. Students must be taught how to understand and recognize the implications of the technology around them, starting with:
Information literacy is not only knowledge of online skills, but knowledge about and intuition in encountering new social situations. Students who lack the knowledge on how to use digital tools to construct and analyze knowledge will be at a disadvantage in college and their future workplace. Not only is it imperative that students know how to identify and build on these skills, but also how to implement them.
Have some time to spare? Here’s a quick quiz about information literacy that you can share with your students.
Forward to a friend or colleague.
Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our 7 Min Read and get power-charged, essential reads like these to your inbox every Monday morning.
