The authors of all referenced literature for this post spoke of the importance of education in information literacy. Their research spanned age groups from pre-adolescence to adulthood.
One area that was brought into sharp focus for me, as a Mum to a nine year old, was the digital literacy needs of “tweens”. Hernández-Martín et al. (2021) found a disturbing lack of knowledge about online safety among Spanish pre-teens, which did not necessarily improve with more experience of using social media. They said that, while social media can help pre-adolescents to “develop their freedom … (and) shape their identity”, their safety needed to be protected while they were operating in the online sphere. (Hernández-Martín et al., 2021, p. 1044). Although “digital natives”, having grown up alongside social media, Hernández-Martín et al. (2021) found that young people were not any more information literate than any older generation. They actually found that “there is a substantial difference between what they do with technology and what they really know about it” (Hernández-Martín et al., 2021, p. 1044). This creates a crucial education role for families, schools, and information professionals. The authors concentrated mainly on schools, but also concluded that the pre-teens with the highest levels of digital literacy had more support from their parents.
For those that continue to a university education, their information literacy education can continue there. Professionally, my experience of information literacy is that of guiding university students towards credible academic information. The library’s information literacy efforts developed significantly during and after COVID-19 isolation. We were students’ main connection to credible academic information, and we were doing so over the phone and in our chat service. It became apparent that more useful help was needed on the library website, where it could be accessed any time.
The following information was developed:
- A more comprehensive Skills for Study page, including a video on digital literacy.
- A “Covid-19: Finding reliable information” Resource Guide.
- A “Misinformation” Resource Guide.
Komendantova et al. (2021) wrote that “increased social media use makes the spread of misinformation almost universal”, and agreed with the need for information literacy classes in the school curriculum (Komendantova et al., 2021, p. 1). Hernández-Martín et al. (2021) also found education programs to have been effective. Rampersad & Althiyabi (2020) concurred that “as education increases, the acceptance of fake news will be reduced”(Rampersad & Althiyabi, 2020, p. 6).
It seems clear that, in the pursuit of information and digital literacy, education is vital at every stage.
References
Hernández-Martín, A., Martín-del-Pozo, M., & , & Iglesias-Rodríguez, A. (2021). Pre-adolescents’ digital competences in the area of safety. Does frequency of social media use mean safer and more knowledgeable digital usage? Education and Information Technologies, 26(1), 1043-1067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10302-4
Komendantova, N., Ekenberg, L., Svahn, M., Larsson, A., Shah, S. I. H., Glinos, M., Koulolias, V., & Danielson, M. (2021). A value-driven approach to addressing misinformation in social media. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00702-9
Rampersad, G., &, & Althiyabi, T. (2020). Fake news: Acceptance by demographics and culture on social media. Journal of information technology & politics, 17(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1686676