Beyond search: A skill set for online literacy Monica Bulger

1. Beyond search: A skill set for online literacy Monica Bulger

2. Questions • What is “online literacy”? Turn to the person next to you to discuss. • Preliminary understanding of online literacy. • Online literacy is: faster (content delivery, dynamic medium); more than a sub-set of general literacy…involves computer; navigation skills; beyond idea of browsing or surfing • Online literacy is not: traditional; simply reading

3. Preliminary definition • Online literacy is the process of gathering, evaluating, and integrating information from multiple online sources.

4. Approaches to study • Given your academic background, what are some questions you would ask about online literacy? Turn to another person next to you to discuss • Possible questions: • How are we defining online literacy? Is the online medium expanding what we consider literacy? • What are the cognitive processes involved? • How would you further improve the interface? • Dire cultural loss of literacy…has the experience of online literacy put traditional book reading at risk ? • Are other languages dying as a result of dominance of English language online?

5. Interdisciplinary approach • Media studies: What are the consequences of participation? How is reading online different? [focus on the medium] • Psychology: What are the cognitive processes involved in online literacy? [focus on how people learn] • Computer Science: How can interface be improved? [focus on the system/architecture]

6. Interdisciplinary approach • Education: How can we teach and assess these skills? [focus on pedagogy]

7. My approach • Gathered research from cognitive psychology, education, library science, media studies, and computer science. • Made table of cognitive and theoretical models. • Compared differences and similarities between models. • Developed preliminary model of online literacy process.

8. Next steps • Define key terms: literacy, reading, online literacy • Identify skill set: process information from multiple sources • gather • evaluate • integrate

9. Online literacy process Writing skills Set goals Reading skills Gather Computer literacy Integrate Document literacy Visual literacy Evaluate Multimedia literacy

10. Assess skill set • Develop study to assess skill set • Identify what classifies someone as highly proficient • Can these skills be taught? If so, how?