Tag Archives: critical thinking

Advocacy, Communication, Training

Post-Truth: Fake News and a New Era of Information Literacy Webinar

PolitiFact logo
CMLE Members: this sounds like a very valuable webinar! Fake news is dominating the real news lately; and you want to be able to show your patrons the difference. Sign up to get the webinar emailed to you after it’s over!

Note: Due to high demand, this webinar is now full. The session will be recorded, and the recording will be available on this page after Feb. 22. Click “Get the Recording” (red button at left) to receive an email link to the recording.

A recent Stanford Graduate School of Education study found that most students, middle school through college, struggled to distinguish between credible and unreliable news articles. Many adults have the same challenge.

Can you spot fake news? Do you know how to help others differentiate between truth and fiction? Join us to learn how you can be a better ambassador for information literacy.

Continue reading Post-Truth: Fake News and a New Era of Information Literacy Webinar →

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Blogging Helps Reluctant Writers

Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

The best writers are able to adjust the style of writing to fit the intended audience. Blogging is a web-based, log of information generated by a user(s.) It is often reflective and a less formal medium for writers to share content and deliberate.

In an article by Edudemic,  talks about how blogging helps improve general writing and critical thinking skills at any age. Fioriello encourages this medium to engage reluctant writers stating, “Blogging helps students find their voice.” She further discusses the positive influences it has on writing in the article, How Blogging Can Help Reluctant Writers (August, 2013.)

Blogging facts according to Social Media Today;

  • John Barger coined the term “blog” in 1997
  • 12 million people blog via social media networks
  • 77% of internet users read blogs
  • The Blogger has over 46 million unique visitors each month

Tip: Check out this year’s top ranked blog for school libraries, Blue Skunk.

Don’t forget, about the 23 Mobile Things Program starting soon. Participants from the library profession will be asked to blog about their experiences testing new apps. Click here to learn more about this program.

Academic, Public, School Media Specialist

Taking Information Literacy on the Road

Bridging Information Literacy (IL) Across Libraries has become our CMLE tag line for work we have been doing with high school media specialists and college librarians. CMLE is in a unique position to convene important conversations across library types, and IL is the first bridging topic we have chosen. The group first met in April to get acquainted and get their draft assignments. By using a wiki and email, both groups finished  draft documents by the end of May. Then, a face-t0-face meeting in July really bonded this group in ways the wiki may not have been able to do.  Initially, we were uncertain how much the groups had in common. As we talked in July however, the group acknowledged the many commonalities, and that they want to do more around this subject. They did not want to end their work!

We wanted others to hear of our “bridging experiment” and laid plans for sharing what we had learned through MLA and MEMO Conference presentations. We believe it is useful to share the process we used, some outcomes, and some exciting plans for the future. We concluded that it is not helpful to “preach to the choir”  about IL….our colleagues already get it!  Somehow, the group felt it was worth a try to reach students. To that end, we recently developed a survey for college students asking them to offer advice to younger students. Specifically, we asked “Based on your experience, if you could tell a high school student three things to help them prepare for college-level research, what would it be?” We are hopeful that younger students will heed the advice of their older peers and engage more deeply in IL . We hope to produce a short video of college students sharing their message, with quiet  supported by a librarian message, and share it broadly through You Tube.

CMLE will continue this IL work, and hope to grow the circle of involvement and engagement. In the meantime, we are on the road sharing the message, and have opened the group wiki up so others can see the draft documents.  We hope to share a polished executive summary within the next couple of months. Visit the wiki to get the draft version of the  following:

  • Media/information literacy power standards (according to three high school media specialists)
  • Typical student profiles and research frameworks for high school freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior
  • Suggested skill sets for incoming college freshmen
  • The MLA conference handout which shares key points of the work of this group, and steps going forward.

Tip: Check out the New Insights documentation on the site, which captures shifts in thinking and understanding of IL and the work of  other librarians.

Would you be interested in participating in an event where we convene a larger group of high school media specialists, college librarians, and public librarians around the topic of information literacy? Let us know in the comments….or send email to papost@stcloudstate.edu