Discussion for April 2021 - Lizard People in the Library

As “research it yourself” becomes a rallying cry for promoters of outlandish conspiracy theories with real-world consequences, educators need to think hard about what’s missing from their information literacy efforts.

Please read this article in time for our April (moved from March) discussion. It can be found here.

This discussion is now open. See comments below.

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11 comments

11 Comments

Unknown member

Apr 01, 2021

There seems to be a real conflict between those who teach information literacy through inquiry and those who want to teach it as a specific tool. What interests me about this article is there is a lot of similarities and although it is talking about the importance of information literacy it has branched out far beyond the find, evaluate and use quality information of the past. Many schools already use inquiry as a way to teach content so school librarians supporting the curriculum this way seems to be the perfect opportunity to teach information literacy. As the number of school librarians dwindles I wonder if we would be better placed to work together to find a common ground through information literacy rather than be at odds with each other.

What did you think about this article. Is there more for us to do? What are your biggest takeaways?

Unknown member

Apr 16, 2021

Replying to

@Stephanie @dawnwoods2000 I think social media is a tricky one. It certainly involves the potential to stay in your bubble and takes real skill to not do this. I can't say that I have managed it myself and often steer clear of difficult conversations. I would rather keep my head below the parapet than engage in some of the edutwitter discussions. Many of whom seem to get very heated.

We do however as school librarians need to engage in how our students are finding information through social media. Just the other day I was hearing about students finding out from TikTok that the story of Helen Keller was a myth and the librarian was struggling to engage the students in the true story. It is things like this that we have to learn how to teach and engage with. We should not be frightened of new technology or tools we need to engage and become confident. We need to be one step ahead of our students. A big ask but important, I feel.