Ellisa DeFur

September 15, 2015

EDCI 270 Badge 3- Information Literacy Narrative

Information literacy has four objectives. The first objective is the knowledge of library.
Second is the knowledge of search methods. The third objective is the knowledge of plagiarism
checking and avoidance. Lastly, the fourth objective of information literacy is the knowledge of
APA formatting. All of the previously stated objectives are crucial for educators to teach their
students.
Key components of information literacy are quite basic. Determining the extent of
information needed and how to access the needed information efficiently and effectively is
important. Other essential components are learning how to evaluate, incorporate, and understand
information. A question we may ask our self would be Are we ready for what we may access?
Students need to learn what to be looking for when finding information. Some of it may be
overwhelming and unsettling. Other information might be biased or even false.
The value of being informationally literate is more powerful than it seems. Starting in
elementary school we begin to teach children how to develop research papers, explore
educational websites, and much more. Being that we already teach students this at an early age, it
goes to show that every level of society can benefit from being informationally literate.
Eventually, the youth will grow into the age of joining either the workforce or furthering their
education. Either way, it is going to be important for them to be knowledgeable on how to
efficiently access information and evaluate which parts of it are relevant. Understanding the
world in a virtual way is a value formed by knowing how to process information.
As a student and future teacher, I need to know how to access, evaluate, and use
information in the 21st century. During my time as a college student I need to learn how to
acquire the best and most trustworthy information to include in my labs, research, and reports.
Finding information that is not trustworthy could ruin a well-developed paper and cost me a bad
grade. As a teacher, I need to learn and teach the 21st century information literacy skills to my
students. They are going to be growing up in a generation that is even more technologically
advanced than mine. For them to learn good ways to collect information will make their research
more effective and efficient. As a teacher I can also incorporate learning how to access, evaluate,
and use information into my lessons plans. Making lessons that require the use of citing
resources or things along those lines would help the students become more informationally
literate.
The ISTE standards for teachers encourage teachers to teach, work, and learn in the
digital age. Information literacy is reflected in the standards because it demonstrates a way of
learning fluency in the digital world. Teachers are supposed to advocate the ethical use of digital
information and technology. The main reflection of informational literacy in the teacher
standards is that it is lifelong learning for both the students and teacher to know the rules and
etiquette of researching online.
Being informationally literate creates a respect for copyright, fair use, and Creative
Commons. Keeping work and ideas protected promotes people to continue creating new amazing
concepts. Following the rules of copyright and fair use may be hard to do if someone doesnt
know the rules. It would be easy to learn the rules if an educator taught students about
informational literacy and how to go about avoiding plagiarism. Copyright is relevant to
information literacy. Knowing how to make copyrights of your own could be an important skill

Ellisa DeFur
September 15, 2015
EDCI 270 Badge 3- Information Literacy Narrative

to teachers. A teacher can come up with a new creative program and claim it as their own. Being
literate in information, they would know that going to Creative Commons and making their own
copyright would protect their invention within the restrictions they desire. Teachers also need to
be literate enough to determine if the materials they use in class are within the fair use. As a
teacher, it is easy to find resources on the Internet. However, you have to be informationally
literate and know the boundaries of using that material correct and fairly.
Technology has grown very much in the present generation. The growth will in turn
create more information floating around in the digital world. Being informationally literate will
make it more efficient to sort through the information and find the extent of what is needed.