Objectives

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:

• define key concepts pertaining to filtering literacy
• explain how to reduce information overload and develop strategies for filtering information
• select resources for the classroom and design filtering literacy tasks for your students

 

Definition

Dudeney, Hockly and Pegrum (2014: 25) define filtering literacy as “an inflection of network literacy, this is the ability to reduce information overload by using online social and professional networks as screening mechanisms”.

 

So what is Filtering Literacy?

A common adage, known as the Sturgeon’s law, or Sturgeon’s revelation, portrays that “ninety percent of everything is rubbish” and this, which might seem like a simplistic and concise view at first, matters to anyone who’s seeking, gathering or simply receiving information.

Learning how to filter the information is essential for any language learner. Technological and/or editorial strategies can be taught and adopted (see RSS and news feed below). Filtering literacy can be implemented with simple strategies, starting with setting up web feeds, creating filters on one’s email inbox, or identifying appropriate journalistic sources. Additionally, filtering literacy is closely linked to network literacy in the sense that students will have to learn how to build up their own trusted social and professional network (see PLNs below) to screen the vast amounts of information available.

 

Crap Detection 101, Howard Rheingold

 

About filtering literacy

RSS and news feed

A Rich Site Summary (RSS), often called Really Simple Syndication, is a format of web feed (or news feed). News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. You can get the latest headlines and video in one place, as soon as it is published, without having to visit the websites you have taken the feed from. The RSS feed is a regularly updated summary of web content, along with links to full versions of that content. When you subscribe to a given website’s feed by using a RSS feed reader, you receive a summary of new content from that website. Google News RSS Feeds is an easy tool to set up but news feed are available for most social or journalistic websites.

PLNs

Personal Learning Networks, or PLNs, consist of both living resources (experts, colleagues, peers) and material resources (websites, documents, artefacts, tools). A PLN can be built on any platform (such as Twitter, Facebook, or WordPress) as long as it provides the language learner with the capability of connecting with people and linking to resources. A class blog or social network is an excellent way to build a PLN for students, but ‘because these platforms will become lifelong informational filters, it is important that they are broad and diverse enough to ensure students don’t become trapped in narrow echo chambers’, Dudeney, Hockly and Pegrum (2014: 25).

Trusted environments such as PLNs can also serve as information filters, learning spaces and platforms for collaboration and dissemination.

 

Some useful links

• Using Google News RSS Feeds
• Facebook – How News Feed Works
• News feeds from the BBC
• Creating and Nurturing your Personal Learning Network #PLN, Radford University presentation

 

Activities for the classroom

Intercultural Communication: Comparing cultures and discovering if we are intercultural speakers

Information Literacy: Let’s search

Related activities

Context of use	ID	Title	Related themes	Languages
CPD materials
	DL-I-F-001-C	Filtering literacy, what is it?		EN FR GE IT
Activities for the classroom
	DL-I-F-003-A	Are you digitally distracted?		EN FR
Independent learning
	DL-I-F-002-S	Filtering literacy, what is it?		EN FR

 

What’s next?

• Tagging literacy
• Information literacy
• Search literacy 

 

Source/attribution: Digilanguages.           Author: Alexandre Jacquot