Exploring information literacy with educators: Our recap

This June, we invited Ontario adult literacy instructors to join a community of practice to discuss information literacy and examine a set of curriculum resources on the topic. This was our most popular community of practice to date in terms of both registration and live participation, which tells us that the topic is timely, helpful and worth sharing a recap with those who could not attend — and those who did!

Here’s a high-level overview of what took place during our four sessions.

Community of practice topic: Information literacy

Throughout the sessions, we explored the pressing issues of information literacy, misinformation and disinformation in today’s information landscape.

We live in a time when reliable information often comes with a price tag, and individuals are bombarded with questionable free content. It has become increasingly challenging for adult literacy instructors to help learners distinguish between credible and misleading information sources. One of the critical areas we explored was how to develop foundational skills for evaluating information effectively.

Lively discussion, emerging themes

Participants were highly engaged in the conversations, sharing their thoughts and experiences and demonstrating a deep commitment to addressing the challenges posed by misinformation. As a group, we were very engaged in examining the curriculum materials, gaining a deeper understanding of the topic to feel more confident in our subject knowledge.

Several overarching themes emerged during our discussions, including the following:

• Anxiety about the information landscape: There’s a sense of worry among educators about the current state of information and the ease with which misinformation can infiltrate learners’ lives.
• Accessibility of good information: Credible information is often presented at a higher reading level, making it less accessible to some learners, whereas disinformation tends to be more accessible due to its use of short texts and engaging visuals, designed to be shared and spread widely.
• The challenge of slowing down: In a social media context, where information is disseminated rapidly, encouraging learners to take the time to analyze content critically is challenging.

Resources from the workshops

Tracey has repurposed the session slide decks, turning them into guides on the following topics:

• How can I verify information online?
• How do algorithms work?
• What are information zones?
• How does journalism work?

Read through the guides to learn about the essentials of what we talked about and how to use a particular curriculum resource, and to consider how you can integrate these resources into your curriculum. You can find the guides at the bottom of our Curriculum Resources page. 

 Questions we’re left grappling with

The sessions left us with several thought-provoking questions, such as:

• What foundational skills for evaluating information can we offer adult learners who are still at the beginning stages of learning to read?
• How can we equip learners with the tools they need to navigate the complex information environment?
• How can these curriculum resources be applied in the diverse range of contexts found in classrooms across Ontario, and from one learner’s reading level to another?
• We’re teaching people to read, but what are they reading? And what’s the result of it?

These questions underscore the complexities involved in teaching information literacy, and they highlight the work ahead.

Next steps

Teaching information literacy is challenging both conceptually and pedagogically. It’s not easy, but our consensus is that it’s worthwhile.

Although this round of sessions has concluded, we remain committed to this vital topic. We’re considering our next steps: how to support you in helping your learners develop their information literacy skills. In the meantime, please reach out directly to either Guylaine or Tracey to explore and talk through this topic together. We’re here to help.