Information Literacy Guide for Higher Education Students

This guide is meant to help higher education students navigate the information gathering process from a variety of platforms, mediums, and environments, as well as outline some tools that will help them to become active learners.  According to the Society of College, National and University Libraries in the United Kingdom, SCONUL, (2011) “Information literate people will demonstrate an awareness of how they gather, use, manage, synthesize  and create information in an ethical manner and will have the information skills to do so effectively” (p.3).  By accessing, utilizing and engaging in collaborative environments students will be encouraged to not only access information but produce and share information thereby empowering them to become literate citizens.  The SCONUL (2011) model for information literacy is developed around seven pillars:
Seven Pillars
• Identify
• Scope
• Plan
• Gather
• Evaluate
• Manage
• Present
For more detailed objectives, goals, skills and outcomes of the seven pillars please visit http://www.conul.ie/media/Complete-Guide.pdf

Traditional Information Gathering Tools
 Google- a search engine
Google Scholar- search engine comprised of academic papers and articles
Library website (Here I would insert the college library website)
Library
Web 2.0 Tools- the Web 2.0 is a collaborative online environment that encourages active participation through both the consuming and producing of information. Some examples of Web 2.0 tools are
• YouTube-site where one can upload and share any type of visual or audio file
• Blogs-personal weblog
• Wikis-site that allows for collaborative editing of information
• TED-powerful talk that spread ideas in Technology, Entertainment, and Design
• NPR-Public radio
• Podcasts-a digital audio file that one can download to a computer to portable device
• Facebook-a social networking site
• Twitter-a microblogging site that requires users to post in a  140 characters or less
• Flickr-a website for images and videos
Applications for Creating and Sharing Information
Google applications-signing up for a Gmail account will gain you access to a number of applications. A particularly nice feature of Google is that all changes are saved immediately. The applications include:
• Slides-an application for creating slide presentations
• Docs-an application that allows for real time collaboration when creating documents
• eBlogger- an application that enables you to build your own weblog
• Sites-an application that allows you to build your own website
• Hangouts- an application that allows you to work collaboratively with others in real time both visually and audibly. Hangouts can be used in combination with all of the other applications to create a collaborative environment
• Drive- online storage for all of you documents
Website and Blog Builders
• Wix
• Weebly
• Godaddy
• Edublogs
Presentation Tools
• Prezi
• Sparkol
• SlideDog
• PowToon Studio

While this list of applications and tools is not exhaustive, it is a good place to begin to locate, create, and share information. Becoming an active information gatherer and participator in the information world will help you to gain the skills needed to successfully reach your educational, personal, and professional goals.

References

About NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr

Mackey, T. P. & Jacobson, T. E. (2011). Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy.
College and Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78. Retrieved from
crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.full.pdf+html

O’Reilly, T. (2005). What is Web 2.0. Retrieved from www.oreilly.com

Podcast. (2016). Retrieved June 30, 2016 from the Wikipedia: https://en.wkipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

PowToon’s Awesome Blog (2015).  7 Best Awesome Presentation Tools for 2015. Retrieved from
https://www.powtoon.com/blog/7-presentation-tools-2015

The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy: Core Model For Higher Education. (2011).
Retrieved from https://www.sconul.ac.uk

TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com