This week’s podcast talks about a subject most commonly associated with technology and general research: Information Literacy, a discipline developed in the library sciences field which can help you understand how to find, analyze and use information.
The reason this topic is being given such prominence in this critical thinking course has to do with the importance of background knowledge. For as powerful as logic, rhetoric and the other critical thinking skills we’ve been studying can be, they are useless if you do not possess an understanding of the subjects you are talking and thinking about.
And in today’s Internet age, the easiest path to obtaining this background knowledge will likely involve using search engines, web pages and other online tools to perform foundational research.
But your research should not begin and end in front of the screen. In fact, the library (which today provides access to both powerful online research tools and materials that are not yet available in digital format) is more important than ever in helping people become information literate critical thinkers.
This week’s resources include:
Critical Voter – Information Literacy – Quiz
Critical Voter – Information Literacy – Lesson Plan
Critical Thinker Academy on what critical thinkers can learn from actors
Critical Thinking Foundation – List of valuable intellectual traits for critical thinkers
Resources on Information Literacy from the American Library Association
Links to subject-specific search engines and other Internet search recommendations
Reviews of different meta-search engines
FactCheck.org – A site dedicated to journalistic fact-checking of campaign statements and claims
ProCon.org – A site dedicated to presenting both sides of contraversial issues
Advanced Search Options: Google Yahoo Bing (instructions)
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