The Importance of Information Fluency

Today we feature a guest post from freelance author Anna Medina. She contacted us recently with this article about Information Fluency and its importance in writing and researching.

Why Information Fluency is Necessary to Be Efficient Today

By Anna Medina

Information fluency is a skill that not many people know of. And yet, it is by far one of the most important things you should know to be able to succeed today professionally and even more so as a researcher.

Information fluent individuals are able to consume information in a more critical and efficient way which allows them to become better learners, researchers, and professionals in their respective fields. Hence, here’s everything you should know about information fluency and how you can develop it in yourself.

What is information fluency?

To put it simply, information fluency (or information literacy) is a skill that allows you to evaluate and filter digital information before consuming it. In a way, information fluency is actually a set of skills. Once you have developed all of them, you become information fluent and can be more efficient when working with all kinds of information.

When it comes to the process itself, information fluency is applied at every stage of your research. It helps you locate and identify useful information, then retrieve and assess it, and finally use it to solve problems. Moreover, information fluent individuals are better learners are able to be more independent and critical while consuming information.

In some cases, information fluency is separated from information literacy. In this sense, information fluency is seen as a symbiosis of critical thinking, information literacy, and computer skills. Nevertheless, the essence of information fluency stays the same as it helps you achieve a particular set of goals.

What are the biggest benefits of information fluency?

Natasha Rooney, an expert in paper writing, says, “I do a lot of research on a daily basis. Every review of essay writing services I proofread has to be accurate and reliable. This is why I consider information fluency one of the most important skills in my arsenal. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to do my job right and to consume information while actually filtering it rather than doing so absent-mindedly.”

Indeed, information fluency is extremely useful for doing research. But besides that, there are some other benefits to having this skill, namely:

• Learning in class and training to increase qualifications
• Better decision-making and problem-solving capabilities
• More productivity and efficiency at work

What are the most important information fluency skills?

George McConaughey, an expert from an essay editing service reviews site, explains, “Information fluency can’t really be simplified to a single skill. It’s a set of different skills you need to develop to truly understand how to work with information effectively. It’s valuable both for researchers and for professionals in all kinds of fields.”

The most common information fluency skills include:

• Digital citizenship (safety and ethics when using information)
• Researching and locating information (offline and online)
• Critical thinking (at every stage of research)
• Navigating digital information online
• Evaluating sources (relevant, reliable, and credible)
• Summarizing, paraphrasing, and note-taking
• Creating and presenting information products
• Avoiding plagiarism, referencing, and citing
• Reflecting on the learning process

If you build and develop these skills enough, you will be able to determine your information needs and set appropriate goals. Then, you will be able to find and evaluate information. Once you have the information, you will be able to use it to solve problems. Lastly, you will be able to analyze your learning process and correctly reference the information you used.

How can I develop information fluency?

Whether you work for an essay writing service as a writer or you are currently doing research as part of your Ph.D., there are several main ways for you to develop your information fluency skills:

• Higher Education: Your first option is higher education of almost any kind. In most higher education institutions such as universities and institutes, you will be developing critical thinking skills, referencing and citing skills, researching skills, and others. All of these will help you eventually become more information fluent.
• Online Courses: Another option for you is to enroll in online courses. In this case, you will probably need to choose several different courses to help you develop different skills relevant to information fluency. For example, you can look for courses that focus on cybersecurity to learn more about digital citizenship. At the same time, if your courses require you to complete assignments (such as essays or presentations), you will naturally develop skills relevant to information fluency.
• Self-Learning: If you are on a tight budget or prefer to self-study, then self-learning might be the best choice for you. In this case, you will need to look for relevant offline and online resources to learn more about information fluency. These resources can be anything from books to articles to videos.
• Practice: Practicing your information fluency skills is crucial for you to perfect them. No matter which of the three routes you choose (higher education, online courses, self-learning), you will definitely need to practice as much as possible. Always consume information with a critical approach rather than doing so passively.

Some sources you can use to get started with information fluency include:

• 21CIF: One of the best websites to start from when learning about information fluency. This is your definitive starting point to find out as much about the topic as possible.
• Google Scholar: Throughout your research, you will need a reliable tool to find as many relevant sources as possible. Google Scholar is one of the most popular choices when it comes to such tools.
• Encyclopedia Britannica: While Wikipedia might have a lot of information on all kinds of topics, it’s better to rely on more academic-based websites such as Encyclopedia Britannica.

General tips to follow when developing your information fluency skill set:

• Use the 5As Strategy: The 5As of information fluency are Ask, Acquire, Analyze, Apply, and Assess. Ask meaningful questions that are relevant to the information you want to find. Acquire relevant, reliable, and credible information from offline and online sources. Analyze the information you have acquired to filter and organize it. Apply the knowledge you have from your information to answer the questions you had or to solve the problem you were working on. Assess your research process and decide what could have been done more efficiently.
• Read Relevant Literature: Practicing your information fluency skills is important, but you can’t do it right unless you have seen previous examples of it. This is why reading relevant literature will be so useful. The academic texts you find will have reference lists that you can check to better understand how citing and referencing works. Likewise, the wording the authors use can be a great example for you to understand how summarizing and paraphrasing can be done right.
• Never Stop Learning: Just like with any other skill, improving your information fluency requires you to engage in a continuous learning process. Once you have mastered the basics of information fluency, you will need to move on to more advanced skills while working to improve the level of your current skills.

Final Thoughts

All in all, information fluency is definitely a much-needed skill set for many researchers and professionals. By developing the skills associated with information fluency, you will be able to consume information more critically and efficiently. Use the tips in this article to help you get started and begin working on your own information fluency.

About the Author

Anna Medina has enjoyed writing ever since her university years. Upon graduating from the Interpreters Department, she realized that translation was not as interesting as freelance writing. She practices her skills writing on a variety of topics.

 

Source: https://21cif.com/fullcircle/winter2022/feature2

Sixth Bad Apple Case

 

Just added: a new Bad Apple evaluation challenge: Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

For years, we've used the endangered Pacific Tree Octopus as a test case to teach investigative searching skills:

• URL truncation
• Site browsing
  
• Fact Checking
• Ownership
• Purpose

Now you can test your investigative savvy using six criteria: Author, Publisher, Bias, Freshness, Backlinks and Fact Checking.

Give it a try. If you've never read about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus before, you really owe it to yourself. 

Start here

Solution to Plagiarism Dropbox Example (Smart Fabrics)

 

There are a couple of ways to avoid plagiarism in this example.

First, is to paraphrase the content and cite the source in the text. Then add the source to the Works Cited (aka references) section at the end of the paper.

Merely quoting the entire section and citing the source is not a good solution. There's nothing original and citing so much makes for a poor paper. Adding new content would solve this problem.

Once again, here's the original source:

Fabrics have become an arena for competition for scientists all around the world. The race is on to be the first to develop new fabrics that will not only keep you warm but also cool, dry, moisturised and free of bacteria, odour and stains while measuring your heart rate. Welcome to the world of smart fabrics.

The fundamental job of clothes is to keep us warm or cool, so it's no surprise that many of the smart textiles entering the market look to regulate body temperature.

Source: Hile, J. (2004). Smart Fabrics. http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1435357.htm

And here's the plagiarized example:

Fabrics have become an arena for competition for scientists all around the world. The race is on to be the first to develop new fabrics that will not only keep you warm but also cool, dry, moisturised and free of bacteria, odour and stains while measuring your heart rate. Welcome to the world of smart fabrics.

The fundamental job of clothes is to keep us warm or cool, so it's no surprise that many of the smart textiles entering the market look to regulate body temperature.

A combination of quoting/citing and paraphrasing/citing would solve the problem. Adding new content would enhance the paper.

For more about Plagiarism Dropbox, see our site.

 

Fix this Plagiarism

Can your students recognize plagiarism? Do they know how to avoid it?

Here's a sample page from Plagiarism Dropbox to get students thinking about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

First, read the passage below:

Original Source

Fabrics have become an arena for competition for scientists all around the world. The race is on to be the first to develop new fabrics that will not only keep you warm but also cool, dry, moisturised and free of bacteria, odour and stains while measuring your heart rate. Welcome to the world of smart fabrics.

The fundamental job of clothes is to keep us warm or cool, so it's no surprise that many of the smart textiles entering the market look to regulate body temperature.

Source: Hile, J. (2004). Smart Fabrics. http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1435357.htm

Then read this passage that someone wrote based on the original:

Fabrics have become an arena for competition for scientists all around the world. The race is on to be the first to develop new fabrics that will not only keep you warm but also cool, dry, moisturised and free of bacteria, odour and stains while measuring your heart rate. Welcome to the world of smart fabrics.

The fundamental job of clothes is to keep us warm or cool, so it's no surprise that many of the smart textiles entering the market look to regulate body temperature.

The task is to "fix" the plagiarism by taking one or more of these actions:

1. Put " " around copied sections 
2. Paraphrase the existing content 
3. Add new content 
4. Cite quoted sections in text 
5. Cite the paraphrased text 
6. Add Works Cited 
7. Do Nothing (it's not plagiarized)

Feel free to share your solution(s) in the comments section.

For more of a Preview of Plagiarism Dropbox, click here.

We'll reveal the solution in an upcoming post.

Fifth BadApple Challenge and Scoring

 

Just added: a fifth Challenge to our new Bad Apple investigation game. This one tests individual skills using a current controversy in the news: The Thomas Jefferson Statue in New York City.

Also new is a scoring feature that assesses investigative skills. Demonstrate Information Fluency by earning a score of 80% accuracy or higher. Pick up valuable investigative tips and tools along the way. Tutorials are suggested if you want to improve your score.

Play today or with your students:  https://21cif.com/tutorials/evaluation/badapple/

Hard-to-find Citation formats

 
A question came to our Help line from one of our Citation Wizard users: 

How do I use APA to cite case law?

Citing legal information isn't one of the pre-formatted options available on our site. It raises a larger question: How do I figure out the proper format for citing unusual information?

When in doubt, each style manual addresses all the possibilities. Libraries have this information in their reference sections.

But for more immediate help, a good online source for citation styles information with examples is maintained by Purdue University's Online Writing Lab, also known as OWL. A Google search for APA citation case law retrieves this page from retrieves this results from OWL: Legal References (APA). It details a large range of legal reference types.

When in doubt, search for help!

A Fourth BAD APPLE Challenge

Just added, another BAD APPLE Challenge:

• Challenge 4: North Shore Whale Watching
  

 

Here's a trustworthy tourism site with a section on whales in Lake Superior.

All four challenges are available without a subscription. Try them out today!

https://21cif.com///tutorials

Do you have a page or site you'd like to nominate for this evaluation tutorial? We're going to add a fifth challenge soon. Let us know if you have one to recommend.