Week2 Discussions

Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning

In the 21st century, it is important to be able to research and make wise decisions based on reliable information. In fact, employers have high expectations regarding their employees’ abilities to research. As discussed in the Post Your Introduction forum, due to the overwhelming amount of information available, researching and locating reliable sources to guide decision-making can be very challenging. Let’s examine in this discussion the challenges of research and how developing information literacy skills can help.

Prepare: Read Module 1 of your textbook to learn more about information literacy. Next, read the At Sea in a Deluge of Data article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. This article details the research expectations employers have of new employees hired in the digital age.

Reflect: Consider your reaction to the information in the article, At Sea in a Deluge of Data, and Module 1 and identify areas that you connected with the most. Based on the article and Module 1 of your text, consider how information literacy skills can impact being a critical consumer of information.

Write: With Module 1 of the textbook and the article, you explored in mind, answer the following questions in your discussion post:

Based on the information you read in Chapter 1 of your textbook and the At Sea in a Deluge of Data article, how would you define information literacy?

How can improving your information literacy skills help you in being a critical consumer of information, in the ongoing pursuit of knowledge, and in your professional career ambitions?

Your initial post should contain a minimum of 350 words written in complete sentences. Correctly cite the source of any information that you use in your post.

This discussion is asking you to do six things.

Read Module 1 in your textbook and the At Sea in a Deluge of Data article.

Based on your textbook and the article, write a paragraph explaining how you would define information literacy.

Answer the question, “How can improving your information skills help you in being a critical consumer of information?”

Answer the question, “How can improving your information skills help you in the ongoing pursuit of knowledge?”

Answer the question, “How can improving your information skills help you in your career ambitions?

Discussion two

Prepare: Take a few minutes to think about the material that we’ve covered in this course so far.

Reflect: Reflect on what you found interesting, surprising, or confusing in this past week. What did you learn that caused you to understand an issue or an event differently? What habits or tips did you discover that helped you to complete your course work more effectively or efficiently?

Write: This discussion forum is an opportunity for you to explore topics that interest you, share critical insights and questions that you are working with, share your struggles and triumphs, and discuss difficulties that may have arisen this week, hopefully finding solutions. Your initial post should describe your experiences in the course this past week, prompting further discussion. You should address at least two of the following questions:

What struck you in particular as you explored the course materials this week?

What insights have you had? I had none

What have you been struggling with? Annotated bibliographies, plagiarism

What questions have come up for you at this point? How to pick topics and researching

Do you have any helpful tips that you’ve picked up in this course or in a past course?

Provide a full explanation of the issues that you discuss in your posts. For example, if you write that you had difficulty thinking of a topic for your annotated bibliography, explain where in the process of determining a topic you had difficulty. Could you not think of any topics? Could you think of too many topics? Did you have a hard time finding useful information when you did background research?