With the rise of the internet as the main source of information for research, it is important that we foster students skills and understandings around information literacy. As Bettina Fabos points out, this includes the critical literacies that have been taught around traditional print media, such as making informed judgments concerning authorship, audiences, currency and so forth. If anything, these skills become even more important given the vast variability in quality of information online and the apparent ease of access through search engines. Information literacy also involves negotiating the inherent bias of search engines and the commercial nature of the internet. For example, Google's algorithms which are based on the number of links to a site means that the sites which top the search lists are the most popular, but not necessarily the most relevant. Typically many of the sites which top search lists are of a commercial nature and, therefore, the information contained in them is imbued with the values of the dominant ideology. Part of developing critical literacy will therefore involve understanding the commercial nature of the web.
Fabos suggests that in order to develop these information literacies, as educators we should move away from fact based assignments to ones which work with opinions. This, she believes, involves understanding the basis of ideas presented in terms of where they might sit on an ideological continuum. In principal, I agree with this - particularly at secondary and university levels. However, it raised some questions, particularly in a primary school context. Conservative commentators regularly criticise the shift in emphasis in education away from teaching facts to what they label post-modern or culturally relativist approaches which deny the existence of objective truth. I think these criticisms are overstated, but they are worth considering. I wonder that if at the primary school level, students are at a developmental stage whereby they can negotiate the sophisticated notions of truth and objectivity that Fabos' approach would seem to require. I think if we place too much emphasis on critical analysis of information and negotiation of truth there is a real danger of confusing children. Also, as was mentioned in today's tutorial, there is a need to provide students with a level of baseline knowledge in order to be able to assess the reliability of information they encounter. Ultimately this will require some passive acceptance by the students that what the teacher is saying, or the text that the teacher has selected is basically true or accurate. In the end, I guess, it is a question of balance.
I think one area where we can improve information literacy is by teaching students different methods for searching for information online. Having has a bit of play with a few different search engines today, I noticed that I got quite different results from different engines - and, therefore, it has opened up more of the web to me since I have relied almost entirely on Google up until now. Like with most things we teach, I'd imagine there is a developmental continuum with online searching. I would guess that search engines like Google which can be used to do simple key word searches would probably need to be understood before moving on to more sophisticated sites which allow a greater level of control. In the end, though, I think the more exposure children have to these the better.
Bee scientific
1 year ago
Interesting post Phil. I agree with the risk of confusing students and possibly making them dislike any form of text because of overanalysis. How to combat it? I think by explicitly making them aware of being critical, so that students can designate times when they are reading for enjoyment and times when they need to be critical. The same applies to surfing the web - sometimes this does just need to be an experience for kids, looking up things they want to look up, without the burden of specific research required (although this is likely to be done at home for a lot of students). Too many high school students drop reading outside of school and I wonder if it's because of the burden of overanalysis.
ReplyDeleteAs Matt has commented, this is a really interesting post. You're grappling with some very fundamental issues and, although there's no real solution here - except perhaps to say, as you do, that we need to aim for balance - I think it's esential to keep the issues in mind when we're designing learning activities, especially for younger kids. Matt's suggestion of explicitly dividing reading for enjoyment and critical reading is certainly one way we could approach this area.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we should assume that being critical isn't enjoyable and puts students off reading. I actually think students might find reading more engaging if they are enouraged to see how the text may relate to their own lives and world, which is part of critical literacy. I also think being allowed to have views about what they read, which are valued in the classroom, would be very empowering to students.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to teaching students about fact and opinion, I was required to do a lesson on this in my last prac with year twos and threes.
Having understood a little more how search engine works I also feel a little concerned about students being automatically fed with dominant ideology. How do students get exposed to the less popular, but nonetheless valid views on a subject?