Information Literacy

Welcome!

Jacquelyn Whiting
Isn't it telling that we have adopted the word "viral" to describe the spread of media posts? It connotes infection, danger, and a need for inoculation while at the same time, many of us (including me on this site) hope that the content we disseminate will do just that—spread exponentially. The ongoing conversations that will take place on this page are intended to strengthen our information savvy and our capacities for nurturing information literacy in the members of our learning communities. I invite you to join the conversations and engage with me and each other to these ends.

Jacquelyn Whiting
Instructional Coach and Technology Integrator, Connecticut

My Bias Isn't the Only Obstacle to Comprehensive Research

by Jacquelyn Whiting
I first encountered the idea that bias can be coded into the algorithms that run the platforms I use on a daily basis when reading John Maeda's book How to Speak Machine. Maeda discusses disparities in hiring practices that result in a disproportionate number of what he calls "pale males" throughout the tech sector and considers the impact on corporate culture as well as on the computer code that these technicians write. More recently I discovered Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Noble, who picks up where Maeda left off and delivers a scathing examination of the ways in which the bias coded into Internet search engines returns stereotypical at best and downright offensive at worst search results. Think of the impact on information acquisition by us, our colleagues, our students! As search algorithms become increasingly responsive to search criteria that are phrased as questions, this issue deepens  Read More >>