Guided Search Challenges

Taking a lesson from my last post, I refreshed the Needle and Haystack Challenge series I created a couple years ago on the Information Fluency site. I realized that the "game" didn't teach much about search strategy. Instead, it was focused primarily on language skills. 

Over the weekend I refreshed my earlier work to embed search hints instead of having students try to figure out mystery clues that would guide them to the right information. In the process, I replaced the Identity Challenge with a new one that reinforces the keyword selection process instead of selecting the right database to search. The Identity Challenge, trying to find the unidentified author of an image, would be better as part of a series on knowing WHERE to search, not WHAT WORDS to use.

There are four search challenges in the current set:

• ACORN -- finding the name of an obscure part of an acorn
  
• INTRUDERS -- finding the first known instance of a wall that failed to keep out intruders
  
• HAUNTED-HIKE -- finding the location of a hike reputed to be one of the most haunted places
  
• RECLAMATION -- finding out the budget for a massive land reclamation project in Singapore

Each one is worth up to 5 points. The scoring follows the 1-in-5 Rule: on average, you have a 1 in 5 chance of using the same keywords on your first search as the person who wrote the information you are looking for. Find the answer to a challenge on the first try and you earn 5 points. If you take more than 5 tries, you earn nothing but we explain the answer. Along the way, search hints are provided that an expert researcher might use.

Curious? Give it a try. It's a free tool to help students test their ability to find better keywords. It also reinforces the practice of looking for better words in search results when the information there doesn't answer your question. 

Needle and Haystack Challenge

How I failed an Information Literacy Assessment

 I often "check out the competition" so to speak. This time it was NorthStar, a St. Paul, MN-based literacy company that offers assessments covering a range of topics from information literacy to operating systems, software packages and career search skills.

Their information literacy assessment consists of 32 performance-based and multiple choice items woven around the stories of three individuals involved in information literacy tasks. It's quite easy to take the assessment, assisted by audio storytelling. I thought I did pretty well and then I got a report at the end informing me I had failed with a 74% accuracy rate.

So I took the assessment again.

Not all the items seem specifically linked to what I'd call information literacy. Several depend on having lived circumstances similar to the case studies.  I did fine on these, having experienced financial deprivation, for example. Nonetheless, answers that might make sense are counted wrong if they violate an implicit principle such as 'don't go deeper into debt by taking out a loan if you are already in debt.' That lesson has to be learned by reading or listening to sage advice or the hard way, by accumulating debts. It's not an information literacy skill, yet it is assessed as one.

Another item resembles an information literacy skill, knowing for what to search. Provided with a list of criteria for finding a job, the task essentially is to click synonyms that match the criteria. Research demonstrates that this is one of the key failures that students make when searching: knowing what to search for. However, the assessment uses these as indicators to tell if and when one finds matching information. Knowing how to find answers in the first place is usually the real challenge and where students tend to stumble.

Among other items that seem removed from information literacy are project management, reading, a basic understanding of careers in healthcare.  Without a doubt information literacy depends on fundamental skills like knowing a language well enough to use it, thinking methodologically, being persistent, learning from failures and a host of others. But these are all primary skills and dispositions. Information literacy is a secondary skill that builds on them. If a student fails in such primary tasks, the solution is not information literacy training.

The assessment does contain some good examples of information literacy:

• identifying optimal keywords that match one's search criteria
• Distinguishing between ads and other content
• How to use search engine filters
• Knowing how to read results
• Knowing how to navigate a Web page
• Knowing where to search for relevant information
• Evaluating the "fit" of information found
  

The second time I took the assessment I was more careful and I passed. I still missed three items, though I don't consider them fundamental to information literacy.

Questions that remain:

• Is knowing how to create a spreadsheet or how to bookmark a page an information literacy skill?
• In what ways are information literacy or fluency skills distinct from computer or software proficiencies? One answer to this is the Digital Information Model found here.
• What is a passing score for information literacy? When I failed with a 74% the first time and passed the second time with 87% it reminds me that a numerical cutoff for this cluster of secondary skills is really hard to justify. No one performs at 100% all the time as an effective, efficient, accurate and ethical consumer of online information. We strive to be better than 50%, however. That's why the threshold is set low on our assessments and 75% is considered mastery. That number is borne out in search results from our studies. Being right 3 out of 4 times is a pretty decent accomplishment in the online Wild West.
  

In today's "Information Fluency/Literacy" search feed, I found this article:

Students create content to fight disinformation, revive media trust

I've always valued students creating content, not just curriculum writers. As a curriculum author, it's easy to create what one thinks will grab students' attention and result in learning. But experience has taught me that giving projects to students to complete is hard to beat in terms of attention-getting and self-directed learning. For that reason, I applaud the Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative for their efforts establishing a contest inviting students to answer pressing questions about disinformation, hate speech, and media distrust. 

 

To participate in the contest, students prepared 90-second original videos. Here are the guidelines:

• 1st Category: High school students
  How should a media and information literate individual address fellow citizens who are misinformed, hateful, or discriminatory?
• 2nd Category: College students
  How can media and information literacy help in reviving public trust lost in the media due to disinformation and hate speech?

The winning submission in the high school category emphasized "the duty to promote a culture of critical thinking combined with compassion. 'While you come across many who are ignorant, take a moment to not only remind them, but yourself of your intentions. Engage, not isolate. Encourage, not demoralize.'” (Allen Justin Mauleon, 2022)

Watch the video here

This contest took place in the Philippines as part of Global Media and Information Literacy Week in October, 2022.

 

 

Antidote to Disinformation

Did Lawmakers Finally Figure Out That Critical News Literacy is the Antidote to Disinformation?

Here's an insightful piece on critical news literacy and how education is a solution.  How do you teach critical news literacy? Feel free to share thoughts.

Read the full story here

Financial Fluency

Information fluency applies to a variety of topics including financial fluency. 

We've created a new category to our Annotated Links that currently has one listing by the University of Denver that covers a range of topics related to financial apps:

• Mobile Banking
• Mobile Payments
• Budgeting Apps
• Cybersecurity Tips for Fintech Apps
• Fintech Resources for Each Stage of Your Life 

Each section provides helpful step-by-step instructions to help reduce financial risk when using online resources. 

If you have similar resources to suggest, please send the links to our Help address.

https://21cif.com/resources/links/financial_fluency

Beyond Information Literacy?

 

The differences between illiteracy, literacy and fluency are fuzzy, at best, when it comes to digital information competencies.

The Spring 2022 Feature article in the Full Circle Kit examines the lines between incompetence and fluency using the results of a study conducted by 21cif at Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development. 

The data suggests that a minimum competency for someone to be identified as 'literate' is a 60% success rate on search and retrieval tasks. The point at which fluency starts is less clear.

Read the whole article here

Recommended reading: Why we need information literacy classes By VICTOR SHI Chicago Tribune

 

The following article by Victor Shi, an eloquent Gen Z'er appeared recently in the Chicago Tribune (May 2, 2022). He makes a good argument for the need for information literacy instruction.

Fifty years ago, the national networks CBS, ABC and NBC dominated television screens in America and were the primary way voters obtained information. Each network, along with newspapers and radio, told its audience facts first, and all agreed on what the facts were. That meant Americans had a shared understanding of the truth — which is what led to the erosion of both Democratic and Republican public support for then-President Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigation.

But the time of Democrats and Republicans agreeing on facts is no more. In the early 1980s, cable news networks emerged. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s brought the internet, and Six Degrees became the first social media platform later in the ‘90s. With each development, avenues for information grew more abundant. People weren’t confined to newspapers and the three news stations for information. Instead, we gained the ability to access information anywhere — and with less and less scrutiny.

Read the whole article here