{"id":102,"date":"2008-12-22T21:29:18","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T05:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/?page_id=102"},"modified":"2009-01-01T22:40:32","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T06:40:32","slug":"information-literacy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/?page_id=102","title":{"rendered":"Information Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a thread running through these pages about learning to use new digital<br \/>\ntools and techniques which assumes that tools and techniques will continue to<br \/>\nchange. <em>Information literacy<\/em> is a concept that can prepare us to learn<br \/>\nabout using new technology. I believe that understanding the process for learning<br \/>\nto use new technology provides us with some conscious ability to see how this<br \/>\ntechnology fits into our digital environment and how we might change that fit<br \/>\nto make better use of it. Making this learning process a conscious one is useful<br \/>\nwhen we approach new technology as more than just new tools. But even at the<br \/>\nlevel of tools, our changing technology presents with new items and gadgets<br \/>\nwhose use and properties are not immediately apparent and for which we can not<br \/>\nnecessarily rely upon existing knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Here&#8217;s an example:<\/em> think of the microwave oven. How many times have<br \/>\nyou heard a discussion about which vessels are safe to use in a microwave and<br \/>\nwhich are not.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A Generation ago we would have learned about ovens, stoves, and cooking vessels<br \/>\nfrom our parents (or grandparents) and that information would be good enough<br \/>\nto keep us going for the rest of our lives. But when a new tool like the microwave<br \/>\ncomes along, we don&#8217;t have this deep body of understanding, taught to us by<br \/>\nolder generations, of the microwave and how to use it. The result is confusion<br \/>\nand the need to search for information about the tool. Sometimes the information<br \/>\nis presented with the tool (the owners manual) and sometimes it comes with the<br \/>\ncooking vessel. I recently used a flimsy plastic disposable food container of<br \/>\nthe kind that we have heard should not be used in a microwave but this vessel<br \/>\nhad a short set of instructions printed on the bottom about how long it could<br \/>\nbe in the microwave and how often it should be used. The producers of this vessel<br \/>\nrealized that their intended users would not necessarily know how to use their<br \/>\nnew container. More and more we need to know to look for this kind of information<br \/>\nand we need to know how to assess the information itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Next: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/?page_id=104\">The History of Technology<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a thread running through these pages about learning to use new digital tools and techniques which assumes that tools and techniques will continue to change. Information literacy is a concept that can prepare us to learn about using new technology. I believe that understanding the process for learning to use new technology provides [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":27,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"withoutbars.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-102","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/102\/revisions\/178"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}