Ch. 3—Understanding InfoSavvy and NetSavvy

Because of the new technologies found in today’s world, literacy is no longer being able to remember some information you read once. Instead, literacy today is being able to find, evaluate and apply information to a specific task. Unfortunately, many people are not prepared for this shift in literacy. Adults find themselves struggling to learn new skills in order to keep up with the rapid changes in the world. Teachers must take on the responsibility of preparing students for life in the Information Age so that when they leave school, they do not face the same technology struggles now encountered by their parents.

Teachers can help students become InfoSavvy by systematically providing information literacy experiences at all grade levels and in all subject areas (Jukes, Dosaj, & Macdonald, 2000, p. 11). There are five aspects (5As) of information literacy that are crucial to becoming InfoSavvy:
· Asking (questions to be answered)
· Accessing (relevant information)
· Analyzing (the acquired information)
· Applying (the information to a task)
· Assessing (the end result and process) (Jukes, Dosaj, & Macdonald, 2000, p. 11)

At first, educators will teach students to tackle each of the 5As separately, treating each as a separate entity. This is important because there are many subskills involved at each level, and many of those must be demonstrated and practiced before the larger process can be mastered. For example, in order to be proficient at the analyzing process, students must be able to organize and summarize information from a variety of sources, differentiate fact from opinion, examine information for bias, and determine whether any information needed to answer the original question is missing. Eventually, once students are comfortable with each of the 5As, they will be able to apply them to problems fluently. The individual steps will blend together into a single smooth process (Jukes, Dosaj, & Macdonald, 2000, p. 14).

Using the Internet to navigate through the 5As is the key to becoming NetSavvy. Being NetSavvy is more than just knowing the mechanics of using hardware or software. It is knowing how to use these tools, and especially the Internet, to gather information, analyze it, and apply it to solve a specific problem.

Currently in my classroom, I teach my third graders many of the subskills needed to become InfoSavvy. Unfortunately, because I did not understand the larger picture myself, I don’t think I’ve done a great job of tying all the pieces together in the 5As format. I think a 5As poster in the classroom would be a good tool for my students and me, to guide us through problems in a systematic way. I believe this approach will increase the depth of understanding (and the amount of learning), and will allow students to more successfully apply what they are currently learning to future situations.

Jukes, I., Dosaj, A., Macdonald, B. (2000). net.savvy: Building information literacy in the classroom (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.