Information Literacy: A Neglected Core Competency

We are busy equipping our classrooms, libraries, schools and homes with a variety of electronic gadgets, that sometimes, we overlook preparing our students for the influx of information provided by these technologies. With the availability of so much information and misinformation both at an equal rate, every student should not only have reading and computer skills but information skills as well.

Information competency is the ability to identify the amount and nature of information need, then to evaluate, organize and use information from a variety of sources and turn this information to knowledge that is highly useful in the real world. To ensure that we graduate information literate students, it is the task of every educator to provide deeper understanding of how and where to find information and train students to have effective critical thinking skills on which information is credible or not.

While students are expected to be active learners, they should also be able to give careful evaluations of their work by becoming self-critical and reflective. The goal of every educator should be to prepare students early on to be information constructors, by constructing new information from previous ones already known to the learner. By taking time to question and test new information acquired, students become expert learners and carry on this skill into different areas of their lives, allowing them to become independent seekers and consumer of information all throughout their lives.