Exercise: Where can you check the \"truth\" of online materials?<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n
- \n \t
- Go to Snopes<\/em>\u2019 \u201cWhat\u2019s New\u201d page<\/a>\u2014a page that updates daily and includes the latest rumors<\/li>\n \t
- Scroll through the list until you find an interesting hot topic. Click and read, then write a quick paragraph that summarizes what you found. What did you learn? Were you surprised?<\/li>\n \t
- If this captured your interest, you may want to explore Snopes a little more. It\u2019s a fun place to poke around and a great place to fact-check information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n
- \n \t
- This chapter was adapted from \"Why is Information Literacy Important<\/a>\" in The Word on College Reading and Writing <\/em>by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence<\/a>. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","rendered":"
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/advancedenglish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/358\/2021\/08\/information_literacy.png\")
<\/p>\n\u201cInformation literacy<\/a>\u201d is a term you\u2019ll hear a lot during your academic career. It means that all students (and all people, really) should be able to find and use reliable information and source materials, and that they should be able to have the right material for whatever it is they\u2019re doing or whatever questions they have.<\/p>\n
As humans living in the digital age, we should know how to navigate the Web successfully, find the best materials, and evaluate and use them with confidence. Alas, in an age where a quick Google search nets millions of \u201chits\u201d in half a second, evaluating the sources we choose can be trickier than it sounds. There\u2019s a lot of great material on the Web, but there\u2019s a lot of garbage, too. Being able to tell which is which is a digital-age-important life skill.<\/p>\n
We also need to understand who \u201cowns\u201d information\u2014whether print or digital\u2014and how and when to give credit to the owner; this keeps us safe from accidentally committing plagiarism. Finding dependable information is especially important in the digital\/internet age, where millions of ideas can be discovered in half a second but where much of that information is outdated or worthless.<\/p>\n
Handling the materials correctly is important, too; this includes giving full credit when using materials created by others.<\/p>\n
\n\n\n Exercise: Where can you check the “truth” of online materials?<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
\nSnopes<\/em> is a widely respected, non-partisan site dedicated to investigating rumors, memes, social media statements, and news stories and then issuing decisions about whether the materials are correct or false.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Go to Snopes<\/em>\u2019 \u201cWhat\u2019s New\u201d page<\/a>\u2014a page that updates daily and includes the latest rumors<\/li>\n
- Scroll through the list until you find an interesting hot topic. Click and read, then write a quick paragraph that summarizes what you found. What did you learn? Were you surprised?<\/li>\n
- If this captured your interest, you may want to explore Snopes a little more. It\u2019s a fun place to poke around and a great place to fact-check information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Text Attributions<\/h3>\n
- \n
- This chapter was adapted from “Why is Information Literacy Important<\/a>” in The Word on College Reading and Writing <\/em>by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence<\/a>. Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\ndefinition<\/span>
refers to skill and competence in locating, examining, understanding, and working with all kinds of information.<\/p>\n<\/div>
- Go to Snopes<\/em>\u2019 \u201cWhat\u2019s New\u201d page<\/a>\u2014a page that updates daily and includes the latest rumors<\/li>\n