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Much has been written on the skills and capabilities of a new generation raised with social media, smartphones, and immediate access to data and information via the Internet. Today's college students grew up using the Internet, where they both generate and consume data. But do incoming college students have the skills necessary to thrive in a digital world that requires the ability to generate, analyze, and share insights from data? This paper presents a study, performed at two small New England institutions each with a business focus, which examines the digital skill sets of first-year college students in relation to the skills they have developed before entering college. The authors also consider whether there is a "digital divide" among first-year college students in relation to their previous technology skills. When applying the Databilities framework for evaluating data literacy competencies, results show that teaching data literacy skills to first-year college students will be critical to their academic success as future information technology workers.

The current study examined the actions and thought processes second grade students experience while reading online, implementing a research based teaching strategy for new literacies, and Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT). In particular, strategies for how to critically evaluate online text were introduced to second grade students. Through IRT, second graders were able to evaluate online texts for relevance and credibility. Participants used several different strategies in determining credibility of online texts. They sought out more information about the website or author, used background knowledge about a particular website, looked at the URL, identified the number of ads on a webpage, and used other miscellaneous criteria. The current study can contribute to existing literature by exploring evaluation strategies that young students may already possess and addressing any possible relationships between IRT and evaluation strategies used by students while reading on the internet.

Students' readiness to learn politics is an important thing to consider nowadays. By encouraging positive emotions and good intrinsic learning motivation, students can prepare themselves well to learn this discipline. This study examines how self-regulated learning, competence, autonomy, relatedness, positive emotion, and intrinsic learning motivation affect political learning preparation in students. Additionally, information literacy is explored as a moderating variable on the association between positive emotion and political learning readiness, as well as intrinsic learning motivation and political learning readiness. Data were collected from 422 university politics students. Researchers first utilized SPSS to see the distribution of good data, then the SEM model and SmartPLS version 4. The study found no correlation between autonomy and intrinsic learning readiness. Other hypotheses in this study were tested and shown to be beneficial. Testing the interaction model shows that information literacy boosts positive emotions and learning motivation on political learning readiness.

This study aims to develop an augmented reality (AR) board game for teaching atomic models and measure its effectiveness from the student's point of view. The Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation model was used to create the AR board game to help achieve the study objectives. The study collected data from three focus groups, each one consisting of 8 students, as well as a questionnaire distributed to a sample of 30 specialists. Qualitative analysis was used on the reflective writing of a sample of 20 female students from Kferit's Secondary Girls' school upon experiencing the educational product to measure the study's effectiveness. The study findings revealed the great credibility of the educational product and its effectiveness in promoting creativity, innovation, communication and collaboration skills, and information literacy; as well as improving student motivation in a more entertaining learning environment.

There is a growing interest in the research and use of automated feedback dashboards that display classroom analytics; yet little is known about the detailed processes instructors use to make sense of these tools, and to determine the impact on their teaching practices. This research was conducted at a public Midwestern university within the context of an automated classroom observation and feedback implementation project. Fifteen engineering instructors engaged in this research. The overarching goal was to investigate instructor teaching beliefs, pedagogical practices, and sensemaking processes regarding dashboard use. A grounded theory approach was used to identify categories related to instructor perceptions. Results revealed that instructor experiences inform both their present use of the dashboard and consequential future actions. A model is presented that illustrates categories included in instructor pre-use, use, and post-use of an automated feedback dashboard. An extension to this model is presented and accompanied by recommendations for a more effective future use of automated dashboards. The model's practical implications inform both instructors and designers on effective design and use of dashboards, ultimately paving a way to improve pedagogical practices and instruction.

The proliferation of digital information technologies has underscored the heightened necessity for online information search. This study is directed towards the analysis of the strategies adopted by prospective teachers in the selection of digital content employed for accessing information, their preferences concerning the use of digital and online tools, and the rationale that underpins these preferences. To achieve this aim, the case study method was used. Employing the purposive sampling method, the study involved a participant pool of 72 teacher candidates in the 3rd and 4th grades within the faculties of education. To collect data, a personal information form, an online interview form, a focus group interview form, and a word association test were employed. The data were analyzed using the content and descriptive analysis methods. At the end of the study, the prospective teachers expressed a common tendency that when it comes to scientific research, they often prefer to search for articles whereas for more general inquiries, they have a propensity for utilizing internet searches. Most of the prospective teachers follow a step-by-step research process when accessing information. In addition, they employ both goal-oriented and general-content resources while in pursuit of scientific information. They pay attention to data reliability, accurate information, speed, and access to the Internet in the process of obtaining information. They consider the tools they use adequate and reliable. Teacher candidates establish complex conceptual networks among the array of tools they employ to access information. A comprehensive discussion concerning the outcomes of the research is also presented.

This study aims to understand the views and attitudes of students in the Music Education department at Erzincan Binali Yildirim University Faculty of Education regarding informatics ethics. This research was conducted using a general survey model quantitative research design. The universe of the study comprised students in the Music Education department at Erzincan Binali Yildirim University Faculty of Education. The selected sample, consisting of 73 students who volunteered to participate during the 2023-2024 Academic Year, was used for data collection. An information form created by the researchers and the "Real-Life Situation Scenarios with Informatics Ethics" (RLSSIE) Scale were employed in the data collection process. Overall, the students were found to have moderate views and attitudes toward information ethics. Demographic factors such as gender, age, and class level were observed to have a significant impact on ethical evaluations. Additionally, evaluations based on different scenarios revealed that participants were generally sensitive to ethical values. The influence of factors like residence and income perception on ethical views and attitudes was limited. Notably, participants who connected to the internet via mobile phones had higher ethical views and attitude scores compared to those using computers and tablets. However, the study observed that internet usage quotas did not have a significant impact on general ethical attitudes. The findings indicate that information ethics topics play a crucial role in overall ethical evaluations and suggest that individuals have a broad perspective.

Although many Nigerian universities are making efforts to provide access to digital library resources, the level of utilization of these resources have not been encouraging due to several factors. Information literacy has been identified as a major factor when considering the factors that enhance use of digital resources. In view of this, this study was designed to investigate how "information literacy skills" predict the utilization of digital library resource by university teaching staff. The study was built around two theoretical models, that is, SCONUL's information literacy model, and the Technology Acceptance Model. A correlational research design guided the study. The population consisted of 6,653 teaching staff from six federal universities in Southern, Nigeria, and six hundred and sixty-five (665) persons comprised the sample, proportionately chosen via stratified random sampling. The test instruments designed for this study were: Test tool titled "Skill Test on Information Literacy" (STIL), and a questionnaire titled "Usage of Digital Library Resources" (UDLR). The study used the Kuder-Richardson technique to determine the items' reliability yielding results of 0.77, 0.78, 0.75, 0.64, 0.81, and 0.81 for digital library resources usage. The study used multiple regression analysis for the research question. The findings revealed that in terms of extent, a weak positive relationship exists between the skills of university teaching staff in information literacy and utilization of digital library resources. On the whole, the findings showed a significant correlation between university teaching staff skills in information literacy and utilization of digital resources. It implies that in improving the usage of digital resources by university teaching staff, attention must be focused on their abilities to utilize these resources. It was recommended that librarians should have a strategy for training lecturers on digital skills as part of the overall plan for promoting the usage of digital resources by lecturers.

Studies on digital rights in education have both gained attention and provided a framework for research, policy and practice in educational research within the field of educational technology. The potential benefits we appreciate in Internet use are inseparable from the maximum risks involved. Faced with this responsibility, individuals demand that their rights and freedoms be guaranteed in the digital environment according to their various roles as students, teachers, families or staff. This scoping review selects and analyses 54 theoretical and empirical studies from the last decade (2013-2023), identifying the main topics investigated as privacy protection in online environments, right to digital security or cybersecurity, and right to digital education. The review underscores the need to guide efforts towards digital education for citizens because the legal regulation of rights and responsibilities is necessary but insufficient. The paper also makes arguments about acceptance, limitations and implications for teacher training.

Digital and information literacy skills are necessary to succeed in today's knowledge economy but for the millions of people in the world without internet access, a frustratingCatch-22 exists: How can they develop digital literacy skills without internet access? When they get access, what good is the internet to them if they don't have the skills to use it productively? One answer is an offline digital library called SolarSPELL. This report from the field describes a series of instructional videos the author created to foster digital and information literacy skills among novice SolarSPELL users.

The task of verifying credible and original information is now more complicated, especially for undergraduate students. This study uses information literacy and discourse analysis to develop English as a foreign language learners' critical reading skills while verifying information on social media. A reading test including false news was used to assess the learners' awareness of the credibility of social media information. Then, they were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained in evaluating a set of false news using information literacy and discourse analysis skills. The control group did not receive any training. The experiment was conducted again on both groups. The results show a significant improvement among the experimental group compared to the control group. The findings of this study shed light on the growing need for creating a pedagogical space in English as a foreign language classroom that focuses on raising learners' awareness of information literacy and discourse analysis skills to read with critical perspectives.

Since the 1980s, the growing consumption of media by various segments of the population has been of concern to education experts, who have warned of the need for teacher training to integrate Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in their curricula. In this article we analyse the curricular plans and teaching guides for subjects related to MIL in Early Childhood Education and Primary Education degrees in Andalusia. Through these documents, we seek to identify the presence of AMI in initial teacher training, its characteristics, potential and limits, as well as the emerging methodologies arising from the relationship between technology and education. In methodological terms, we conducted a quantitative analysis, using simple descriptive statistics, combined with a qualitative analysis, using the principles of content analysis, according to Bardin (1991). The data indicate that training for AMI is very uneven across the universities and courses analysed. Moreover, most of the subjects related to AMI are optional and deal mainly with aspects related to the presence of technology as a support for teaching, with little presence of emerging methodologies, which leads to a marginalisation of aesthetic training and critical training of future teachers for and with the media.

The use of commercial digital platforms in public schools like Google and Microsoft, which was exacerbated during the pandemic, requires analysis to encourage a safer and more appropriate educational use. The research objective behind this article was to analyse the concerns of school students in obligatory primary and secondary education in public schools within the Autonomous Region of Catalonia (Spain) together with the opinions of their families regarding the use of digital platforms offered by large technology companies (BigTech) in schools. This is a mixed design study, consisting of eight discussion groups with pupils (n = 56) and a questionnaire issued to 2,330 family members. The results show that both students and families are concerned about the lack of knowledge surrounding the data they generate when using these digital platforms, and their effect on democratic school governance and the reproduction of gender stereotypes. In conclusion, the study suggests it is necessary to create greater critical awareness among children, adolescents and families at all socio-economic levels, particularly in those who are most vulnerable.

The study investigates students' ability to analyze visual literacy and digital literacy through open-ended inquiry activities with astronomical observations and Heaven View application. The investigation consists of assignments for students to carry out six different variations of observational activities. Supervision is given in introductory astronomy lectures before and after using open-ended inquiry as direct observation and indirect observation activities. We discuss the implicits for open-ended inquiry learning that encourage students to participate in observational activities. Students are expected to develop several 21st century skills through an open-ended inquiry process, including visual-digital literacy. A pretest-posttest control group design with an open-ended inquiry model was applied to the experimental group and a direct instruction model to the control group. This study uses inferential statistical parametric methods, using ANCOVA. Students' visual-digital literacy data were obtained using the pretest and posttest. The results showed that a statistically significant difference between open-ended inquiry through astronomical laboratory observations assisted by Heaven View application compared to direct model recognition. Students' visual-digital literacy has increased due to the application of this learning model. The implications of this research can encourage students' visual-digital science literacy. Other educators can adopt open-ended learning experiences through the Heaven View app-assisted astronomical observation labs to promote visual-digital literacy in science.

This article presents an exploratory study that examines how 11 first-year writing instructors' conceptualizations of information literacy evolved over the course of their participation in an inquiry group co-developed and co-facilitated by the Libraries' teaching faculty and the Director of Composition & Rhetoric at a public university in the United States. The authors developed a coding schema to identify the presence of information literacy-related themes and practices in pre- and post-program course syllabi and in reflective pieces submitted by instructors. The findings revealed that instructors' use and applications of the ACRL Framework increased after the program, showing greater personal engagement as evidenced by more preferential application of frames most relevant to their learning goals. Moreover, instructors integrated those frames more fully into their instructional practices. The authors' analysis of instructor-created artifacts provides a unique lens into disciplinary instructors' conceptualizations of and approaches to information literacy while examining the impact of one path for collaboration and scalability of information literacy integration within a curriculum.

The "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" posits that the practice of asking questions in order to deepen inquiry and understanding is a key element of information literacy. While the "Research as Inquiry" frame is teachable in library instruction, it can be difficult to scale. Popular instructional design software tends to present information in linear formats that can limit how students understand the iterative nature of research. This article presents an attempt at an asynchronous tutorial that overcomes this limitation of medium and that presents "Research as Inquiry" through an iterative and question-based online game. We discuss the development, implementation, and assessment of the tutorial, as well as issues of sustainability and scale.

Within the past decade, there has been a shift in how our guiding professional documents conceptualise information literacy (IL) - evolving from a skills-based conceptualisation to one emphasising ways of thinking and knowing. This has been both productive and disruptive. Our professional documentation does not provide a framework for making this shift or for scaffolding learning to develop complex and sophisticated ways of thinking and knowing. In this study, we apply Bloom's revised taxonomy for educational objectives to instructor descriptions of IL (n=51) to develop a draft taxonomy that attempts to build a bridge between these two conceptualisations. The data was drawn from a survey that was administered to instructors and instructional support staff immediately preceding their participation in a multi-day teaching professional development workshop related to IL. We believe that this model has implications for how we approach the development of learners' IL with intentionality, both in collaboration with faculty and for our own teaching practices as librarians.

This paper explores the self-tracking information literacy practices of LGBTQ+ students, how the practices connect to LGBTQ+ identities, and whether these practices are perceived as empowering. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who identified as LGBTQ+ self-trackers. Four previously discovered dimensions of IL in self-tracking framed the design. Collaborative thematic analysis revealed participants find it useful to monitor their physical health and tracking supports mental health, which is experienced as empowering. The heteronormative assumptions of apps influenced their perceived usefulness. There was some distrust about how apps used data, but this risk was accepted, typically because the convenience of the app outweighed privacy concerns. Data sharing took place--restricted due to self-consciousness or fear of judgement--and embraced when there was a feeling of working towards a shared goal. IL in this landscape is related to developing critical awareness of when and how self-tracking can support health goals; the limitations of apps and devices, particularly for those undergoing transition; privacy implications; and the nuances of social sharing.

The ACRL "Framework for Information Literacy" revolutionized information literacy instruction. It asks librarians to instill in students the higher-level skills to navigate the information landscape. Literature establishes the value of shared faculty ownership of information literacy threshold concepts, but it also documents the potential pitfalls of faculty involvement (Franklin, 2013; Julien & Given, 2002; Lechtenberg & Donovan, 2022; Perez-Stable et al., 2020). This article explores one successful partnership, concluding that instructor-librarian collaboration forged around shared histories and structured by codeveloped objectives positively influences students' receptivity to information literacy concepts. As demonstrated by surveys of those enrolled in the course, students' self-awareness of their own mastery increased as they applied threshold skills learned in class. Although data do not allow us to correlate academic achievement to students' survey responses, aggregate results in both academic work and survey responses suggest that these insights led to greater independence for many students.

Social work education prioritizes the use of research to inform practice. As university students, prospective social workers have a wealth of research available to them as well as librarians to help them find, evaluate, and use that information. However, access to much of this research ends once the student graduates - at a time when it is most needed to inform their professional practice. To address this challenge, a librarian and a social work faculty member worked with one class of students in their final semester of a bachelor's degree in social work program to promote awareness of information privilege and barriers to access, to expand their understanding of authority to include marginalized voices, and to utilize an open pedagogy assignment as a means of proactively addressing these challenges. This article describes what was learned from this effort, including the results of surveys conducted with students before and after instruction.

Although research has extensively documented international students' adjustment and acculturation challenges, the role of academic advising in assisting with such challenges has received scarce empirical attention. This phenomenological study explored how international students' communications with their academic advisors influenced their educational adjustment and growth in a university setting. Semi structured interviews with 15 international students revealed three overarching themes: advisor-advisee interactions, quality of information, and advising limits vis-à-vis international student issues. Using validation theory, this study's discussion and recommendations centered on advising practices that fostered or hindered international students' perceptions of academic advising.

Science data literacy (SDL) is an important literacy for college students in STEM majors to possess. However, the current understanding of SDL is incomplete and lacks effective cultivation strategies. This study integrates the core ideas of science literacy (SL) and data literacy (DL), while considering the characteristics of science data, and constructs a conceptual framework of SDL that contains three dimensions. The Delphi method was used to further optimize this framework. The WorldWide Telescope (WWT), as a visual exploration platform centered on astronomical data, integrates a large amount of astronomical science data, which provides the possibility of cultivating students' SDL. Based on the optimized SDL conceptual framework and WWT software, we designed a curriculum for college students majoring in STEM and practiced it for 4 weeks. The practical results show that the course is effective in developing students' SDL. This study helps to deepen the connotation of SDL and also provides new ideas for cultivating SDL for college students majoring in STEM.

Increasing student engagement and improving learning outcomes are ongoing issues in higher education worldwide. These issues were particularly pertinent during the COVID-19 pandemic when remote learning was selected as the primary instructional learning setting. This study aims to assess the impact of gamification-based quiz instruction in driving college students' learning in an online class during the COVID-19 pandemic at a remote institution of higher education in Indonesia (n = 68). The study employs an explanatory sequential mixed-method approach, including quasi-experimental research, quantitative surveys, and qualitative interviews. The findings indicate that the overall result of the four tests conducted during the intervention indicates a statistically significant difference among the three groups. The gamification-based quizzes increase student enthusiasm and improve learning outcomes. The study demonstrates the transformation induced by the ease of use and low cost of digital gaming platforms from mundane activities, such as listening to lectures on Zoom, to enjoyable educational gaming activities. The weekly gamification-based formative assessments using easy-to-use media significantly increase student engagement, critical and creative thinking, and information literacy during the learning process.

As a concept, technology, and method, information-based teaching precisely connects teachers and students at the two ends. In the context of Chinese vocational colleges, where there are differences between teachers' information-based teaching abilities and students' subjectivity, the paper examines the differences in the effects of information-based teaching on student learning achievements in vocational colleges. The study shows, first, that learning achievements are significantly improved after adopting an information-based teaching mode. Second, an analysis of the heterogeneity of students based on assessment levels found that information-based teaching has a relatively limited effect on the learning achievements of students with poor academic performance due to their low level of motivation. Third, an analysis of the heterogeneity of teachers' information-based teaching strengths found that stronger information-based teaching abilities significantly improved the performance of vocational college students. These findings provide useful insights for Chinese vocational colleges to improve the effectiveness of information-based teaching reform.

Students enrolled in American Library Association (ALA)-accredited graduate programs typically are on a specific track to work toward their individual career goals. While most degree programs require of all students a shared core curriculum, students also typically must take elective credits, which help narrow their focus toward their individual paths. Students interested in subfields within librarianship such as public, school, and academic librarianship will take courses that further specialize their knowledge in those areas. While a focused education in their chosen subfields is important, it also may be limiting in how students understand the profession more broadly. This study uses qualitative analysis to explore reflections from students on a school library track who completed an elective seminar about academic librarianship. Findings indicate that this coursework in a subfield outside of their own allowed them to reflect on their own roles and responsibilities as librarians, find common ground and collaboration possibilities, and envision expanded opportunities in their own career paths. Educators can take this information to support students' exploration beyond prescribed career tracks, whether through offering and promoting electives across the curricula or through non-credit-bearing opportunities.

In modern medical curricula, embryology is typically taught through lectures, with a few institutions providing tutorials. The use of 3-D videos or animations enables students to study these embryological structures and how they change with time. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of cardiac embryology videos available on YouTube. A systematic literature review regarding the use of YouTube in teaching or learning cardiac embryology identified no papers that examined this specific question, and next, a systematic search of YouTube was performed. A total of 1200 cardiac embryology videos were retrieved using 12 specific search terms, with 370 videos retrieved under two or more search terms and excluded. A further 511 videos were excluded under additional, specific criteria. The remaining 319 videos were evaluated with the YouTube Video Assessment Criteria (UTvAC), with 121 rated as "useful." Videos on YouTube are uploaded with a wide audience in mind, from children to cardiologists, and content control is imperfect. Multiple videos were identified as duplicates of videos from original channels, typically without attribution. While 49 videos showed operations or human material, none contained an ethical statement regarding consent, and only 10 of these included an age restriction or graphical advisory. While there are useful videos for medical students studying cardiac embryology on YouTube, intuitive search strategies will also identify many with irrelevant content and of variable quality. Digital competence and search strategies are not innate skills, so educators should teach students to assess information so as to avoid overload or "filter failure."

Background: The American Psychological Association has identified information literacy as a crucial component to undergraduate education. One major barrier to comprehensive information literacy instruction has been a lack of guidance integrating this into survey courses, particularly with reduced pedagogical resources available. Objective: This research evaluates the effectiveness of a scaffolded information literacy curriculum that may be integrated into psychology courses. Method: Students in introductory psychology courses were taught with either an information literacy curriculum or the typical science-focused curriculum. Information literacy knowledge was evaluated using a multiple-choice test. Results: Students who received the specialized curriculum demonstrated significant improvements on an objective information literacy test by the end of the course, while students in the control group did not. Conclusion: Evidence suggests that this easily adaptable information literacy curriculum is effective in meeting psychology information literacy goals, more so than the traditional science-focused curriculum taught in introductory psychology classes. Teaching Implications: Instructors and faculty should be encouraged to utilize this adaptive curriculum, available on Open Science Framework, as a way of improving information literacy. Other implications, including feasibility and content, are discussed.

This article reports results of a mixed-methods study following the development of undergraduates' information literacy over three years. Information literacy knowledge and skills in this sample (n = 116) increased with time, as did information literacy attitudes when measured by interest and information literacy's perceived usefulness and importance. Correlations among students' information literacy knowledge, skills, and attitudes also increased with time, implying a progressively stronger integration of the three. Complementary interviews with 13 students revealed that they became more interested in being information literate. Some experienced an identity change as a result of this development, indicating that transformative information literacy learning can occur.

Information literacy skills are an important part of research skills for undergraduate science students. This case study presents a novel approach to developing these types of research skills. By deconstructing the research process into separate steps, explicitly defining, and practicing the skills involved, students can progressively develop these skills and apply them. In this course, systematic reviews are used as exemplars for the research process. We align the Research Skills Development Framework with the steps of a systematic review and present specific skills and accompanying activities for each step. This workshop-based course emphasizes skill development and can help overcome assessments that rely solely on a final paper, with no record or evidence of the student research process, that could be created by a generative artificial intelligence tool.

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) education can combat online misinformation by enhancing users' fact-checking skills. This action research study designed and implemented a problem-based learning MIL project for journalism undergraduates. The objectives are (a) to design a MIL project by using a problem-based learning methodology; (b) to implement the MIL project and to assess its effectiveness in improving students' fact-checking skills; and (c) to identify the challenges and limitations of implementing the project. Analysis shows that the MIL project successfully improved students' MIL skills, including critical analysis, media production, and personal growth. Despite facing challenges like time constraint and limited generalizability, the study suggests that the MIL project could be replicated in other journalism programs to enhance MIL skills and cultivate critical thinking to fight misinformation.

Undergraduates' use of academic libraries is associated with academic achievement, but library research resources are underutilized, and little is known about what factors contribute to students' use of these resources. A random sample of undergraduate students from a historically women's college in the United States (N = 207; 59.2% white; 87.7% female or transfemale, 5.9% gender queer, 5.9% gender non-conforming, and 0.5% other gender) reported on their information literacy self-efficacy, attitudes toward research in undergraduate courses, and behavioral intentions to engage with library resources and services using an anonymous online questionnaire. Controlling for past library research and class year, results indicated that self-efficacy and positive research disposition were associated with greater library research intentions ([beta]s = 0.246, ps = 0.005), with positive disposition related to intentions most strongly among students of underrepresented racial and ethnic identities (b = 0.4817, p <0.0001). Surprisingly, greater research anxiety was associated with greater library research intentions ([beta] = 0.345, p =0.005), and no significant relation emerged for perceived usefulness (p =0.05). Self-efficacy is an important factor in library research intentions, and attitudes should be assessed multidimensionally as they relate to library research intentions in different ways. Future research should apply these findings to library instruction and research methods course design to enhance student self-efficacy, encourage library use, and promote success in undergraduate learning.

Instructors from K-16 incorporate current events and contemporary media in their courses in a variety of ways and with different educational objectives. Here, I present strategies for selecting and framing current events in high school and undergraduate biology courses and an example assignment, all explicitly tied to science practice skills and utilizing coursework to advance students' science literacy and participation in the discourse. In this way, current events activities become a core part of the course experience, rather than an "extra" investment of planning and course time requiring trade-offs of instructional time devoted to other topics.

Background: Higher vocational education is an essential part of the higher education system that complements conventional education. In the context of information and communication technology (ICT) development and academic competition, more and more literature has proved the importance of ICT use in educational development (academic achievement and mental health) and the relationship between information literacy and the educational development of higher vocational students. Objectives: Based on one of the most extensive surveys of higher vocational students, the study combined the Opportunity-Propensity (O-P) framework and ecological model to explore the direct effects of different types of ICT use on educational development and the indirect effects from psychological and social factors. Methods: The data involved 28,956 students from seven higher vocational colleges. The class fixed effect and causal mediation analysis models verified the results. Results and Conclusion: The results found differential effects of different types of ICT use on academic achievement and mental health. Information literacy ability can improve the academic achievement of higher vocational students, but at the cost of mental health. ICT use not only directly impacts the academic achievement and mental health, but also has an indirect impact through psychological factors represented by self-efficacy and technostress and social factors represented by social support. Implications: This study promotes integrating and expanding the O-P framework and ecological model, enriching the relevant research in ICT use and educational development. Meanwhile, it also provides practical suggestions for realizing rational interventions in ICT use and improving the educational development level of higher vocational students.

Given the inadequate empirical research on teachers' information literacy, this study examined Chinese university foreign language teachers' information literacy and explored factors that influence their information literacy. Analyses of data collected through questionnaires suggested university Chinese foreign language teachers perceived positively in their information literacy and among the five dimensions of information literacy, information ethics achieved the highest score, followed by information attitude, information awareness, information knowledge, and information competence. The results from the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that Chinese foreign language teachers' information literacy was significantly associated with their perceptions of digital nativity and technology training effectiveness, but the impact of fatigue on information literacy did not reach a significant level. Digital nativity significantly influenced teachers' perceptions of technology training effectiveness. The research model explained 63% of the variance of information literacy. This study highlighted the importance of digital nativity and effective technology training to improve teachers' information literacy and adoption of technology in foreign language teaching.

This research explores preservice classroom teachers' perceived importance, self-efficacy beliefs, participation frequencies and conceptions related to new literacies. The research is framed using a dual-level theory of new literacies. The participants of the study consisted of 364 preservice teachers studying in the department of primary education at two state universities in Turkey. The findings revealed that (i) while preservice teachers displayed high participation in new literacies requiring the consumption of information, they displayed low participation in information production activities; (ii) the importance preservice teachers attached to online or digital literacy activities and their self-efficacy beliefs significantly predicted their participation in these activities; (iii) preservice teachers' conceptual understandings with regard to new literacies were compatible with their participation frequencies and perceived importance with regard to online or digital literacy activities. Some suggestions for preservice teachers' skills, strategies, dispositions and practices related to new literacies are discussed.

This paper shares the results of semi-structured interviews with 30 community college librarians who have instruction duties. The interviews explored these librarians' perceptions of students' information literacy (IL) strengths and weaknesses as well as their views of students' self-perceptions. Participants believe that students are confident in their ability to find information and are proficient in using technology to find information. Participants consider students' overconfidence to be an IL weakness along with: not understanding the research process; being overwhelmed by information; and, in some cases, having poor reading comprehension skills. Views are mixed as to whether students' IL skills vary based on their program of study.

This study was designed to inform the renaming of a credit-bearing information literacy course. Researchers surveyed librarians to gather existing information literacy course titles. They also surveyed and held focus groups with students to learn what students consider when choosing electives, to understand how well the researchers' current information literacy course title fits the course content, and to procure suggestions for a new title. Findings indicate that course titles are one of many elements that students look at when selecting courses. Some librarian and student participants indicated that the term information literacy may not be familiar to most students, but that wording is often used in information literacy course titles. Librarians can use the results of this study to create course titles that are descriptive of course content and that appeal to students.

This study suggests the need for best practices, specialized tools and standards, and targeted outreach related to Web-based content cited in theses. It analyzes citation practices in a corpus of master's theses in performance studies published at Texas A&M University from 2012 to 2020. Finding that only a slim majority of Web-based material cited in the theses remains fully functional within a decade of citation, this study confirms that "Web at large" content poses the greatest risk of irretrievable loss. Additionally, it considers actions by student authors that make theses vulnerable to evidentiary loss or change. A deeper understanding of the fragility of Web-based content and the potential for mitigation can inform needed interventions by librarians and other partners in graduate research.

Librarians at a Midwestern, midsized state university studied the application of their flexible programmatic information literacy rubric to one-shot first-year writing library instruction. Ten librarians taught 23 sessions of first-year writing on information access skills and assessed each class using the flexible programmatic information literacy rubric. The results emphasize how a flexible rubric can both assess student learning and provide librarian instructors with autonomy to use methods and lessons that feel authentic to them.

Social media usage has become a daily habit for the younger generation. It can have positive effects on educational processes, but it also raises concerns about harmful content, such as fake news or hate speech. Fake news is often distributed with the intention to manipulate the public opinion by propagating disinformation. This includes the manipulation of images taken from reputable news resources. In response to these concerns and manipulations, we developed a web-based learning environment with a virtual learning companion (VLC). The VLC is designed to assist students in developing their critical thinking skills while interacting with social media content. The VLC is incorporated into a controlled learning environment that resembles Instagram and contains real and manipulated content. The "Courage" companion communicates with the students through chat dialogue and knowledge-activating questions. It also links additional images from web sources discovered through reverse image search based on image similarity. Learners are provided with various textual descriptions and keywords and are prompted to reflect on this information. The system's effectiveness and assistance in identifying real or manipulated images have been evaluated in an empirical classroom study in August 2022 with 22 high school students in Germany that generated 95 conversations around five images and their texts assisted by the companion. Users' interactions with the companion in a controlled Instagram-like social media environment have been recorded in xAPI format and then analyzed using a research dashboard. The results of this evaluation demonstrate that guidance through the VLC, along with the provision of additional content sources containing similar images and their explanation through the companion, improves the learners' judgment. This corroborates the claim that the tool can help enhance learners' critical thinking, resilience, and sensitivity facing social media issues.

The problem of propagating disinformation (a.k.a. "fake news") on social media has increased significantly in the last few years. There are several initiatives around the world to combat this serious problem. Maybe the most promising ones involve training people to identify "fake news." The use of digital educational games (DEG) to implement such initiatives has presented significant results. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, most of the existing DEG applied to this purpose are designed for English-written News articles, leaving an important gap for news written in other languages, such as Portuguese, for example. Faced with this scenario, this article presents JEDi, a DEG that trains students to identify "fake news" written in Portuguese. JEDi is a version of the known "Trail Game" where the players must traverse the board by correctly distinguishing real from false news. We raise the hypothesis that as the students play JEDi, they develop the ability to recognize disinformation. It is also important to highlight that JEDi collects detailed data from every match in order to provide longitudinal analyses of each player's performance. This paper reports the application of JEDi in three case studies. While the first study involved 43 students from high school, the second and the third were developed with 29 undergraduate and 33 graduate students, respectively. Quantitative and qualitative results obtained in the three studies point to JEDi's effectiveness as a "fake news" detection training instrument. Mining techniques such as association rule mining were employed in data analysis and revealed frequent information that occurred simultaneously in JEDi's database (e.g. some mined association rules showed that even students who considered themselves experts in identifying "fake news" could improve their skills by playing successive rounds of the game).

In an era of information explosion, improving information literacy for academical innovation is essential for postgraduate students. However, the majority of these students lack information literacy knowledge, and even a few lack access to related courses. To improve the ratio and level of the information literacy of postgraduate students, we design a novel framework for general information literacy. It consists of four parts, namely, teaching process, methods, abilities, and applications. The methods part of the framework includes questionnaire, intensive teaching, embedded pedagogy, and free sharing. They provide support for the teaching process and abilities improvement. Notably, postgraduate students' abilities are expected to be enhanced, namely, learning (using search engines to enhance search quotient), academic research (conducting literature search, analysis, and assessment), and innovation (evaluating innovation and managing information). These abilities are applicable to academic research, internship, and academic competitions, among others. Moreover, we design a questionnaire to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The statistical results demonstrate that the information literacy of postgraduate students maintained an upward trend, and the course was evaluated with a high level of satisfaction.

Students hold foundational assumptions that interact with information they are introduced to in college. By learning to identify, assess, and restructure these foundational ideas, students' ability to acquire topical knowledge improves. This article presents a format for teaching students how to evaluate their beliefs through four levels of critical thinking: (1) identifying assumptions, (2) assessing the origin and quality of assumptions, (3) seeking out alternative perspectives, and (4) weighing evidence and incorporating new information into thinking. A variety of skills are needed to accomplish each of these levels, such as identifying biases and developing intellectual humility. Self-assessments, assignments, and responses to early and late semester questionnaires suggest students see the value in learning about critical thinking and develop their ability to think critically over the course of the semester. Students become more open-minded, intellectually humble, and self-reflective, priming them to be more receptive to foundational learning.

In this article we connect critical librarianship and its practices of information literacy (IL) with working-class experiences of higher education (HE). Although the research literature and professional body of knowledge of critical information literacy (CIL), is one of the most theoretically-developed areas of wider critical librarianship (Critlib) movement, working-class knowledge and experiences remain underrepresented. One reason for this is that the values, behaviour and assumptions of library and HE workers are shaped by a HE system which inculcates middle-class values and cultural capitals within students, and stigmatises working-class students as lacking or in deficit. Hegemonic, or noncritical, IL proselytises middle-class values and assumptions about academic practices and skills development including the notion of an ideal student with behaviour and markers of identity which reflect those most privileged by wider society. In contrast CIL, framed as "the" socially-just practice of IL is theoretically well-placed to support working-class library workers in destabilising this alongside middle-class accomplices. Employing Yosso's (2005) concept of community and cultural wealth (CCW), we analyse how library workers can recognise working-class cultural wealth within the context of CIL and wider working practices. As such narrative accounts are lacking in the literature, we utilise collaborative autoethnography (CAE) (Chang et al., 2013) to consider and interpret our own experiences of libraries when we were university students ourselves, and more recently as HE workers of working-class heritage.

While significant progress has been made in broadening information literacy's (IL's) scope, its conception of the user and their relationship to information remains painfully limited. This is particularly evident when the affective or emotional factors of information seeking behaviour are considered. Thus far, IL's models and discourses have failed to acknowledge emotion's fundamentally disruptive nature and have either ignored, repressed, or misrepresented users' emotions. This has resulted in a deeply limited and inaccurate conception of the user's information needs, and this has a particularly harmful impact on marginalised users and users engaging with affectively fraught information. This article seeks to address this oversight, initially by outlining the origins of IL's repression of emotion and then examining the consequences of this repression in the standardised IL models; specifically in Carol C. Kuhlthau's Information Search Process and the ACRL's "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education." Subsequently, this essay will examine several critical models of librarianship and IL--including Holocaust librarianship and Indigenous conceptions of relationality--in order to illuminate models of IL that adopt a relational perspective that enables an engagement with the affective elements of the user's information needs. Finally, this essay will suggest that these relational perspectives facilitate the adoption of an ethics of care that helps address the insufficiencies inherent to our current conceptions of IL.

This case study describes how two librarians transformed an international information literacy course by creating a scaffolded open pedagogy experience for students to build transferable skills while exploring how information is produced, disseminated, and interpreted across the world. The authors discuss how we collaborated on the project to incorporate open pedagogy, tools, and strategies to enhance learning. The result was a scaffolded course using open pedagogy to help students engage with global information issues. Using Pressbooks, students published multimedia content exploring topics including global news media, censorship, misinformation, and digital divides. Then students chose to either openly license their work, share it publicly while retaining their copyright, or hide it from public view. Additionally, students used Hypothesis to socially annotate reading assignments outside of class. We reflect on our experience revising this course, what worked and what did not, and how we will adapt the course in the future.

Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM) is a discourseoriented learning environment that engages students from diverse cultural backgrounds to participate in collaborative knowledge construction. The objective is to evolve a thematic approach to course design that includes elements of open pedagogy, information literacy, and metaliteracy. IPILM invites participation from educators and learners from around the world and has witnessed an increase in participating countries. This paper describes the concept of IPILM and demonstrates the implementation of this approach in practice. The initiative was well received by students and is both feasible and sustainable as an intercultural learning endeavor. IPILM is an ongoing project and a work in progress that is an adaptable model which may be transferred to disparate fields of teaching and learning or adopted by international communities of instructors.

This case study describes how the authors incorporated the principles and practices of open pedagogy into a three-credit Honors College course focused on information literacy and undergraduate research. It included using literature review sources to help edit Wikipedia articles, registering a research project proposal with the Open Science Framework (OSF), and the creation of an openly licensed toolkit crowdsourced with students' tips and suggested resources for other students new to research. Students demonstrated improved understanding of several information literacy concepts, such as the role of copyright. The use and benefits of open pedagogy were, however, hindered by unrelated classroom issues, like low enrollment and, at times, a lack of student engagement. Nevertheless, the authors' general approach and the activities and assignments they developed could be adapted and used in other library instruction contexts.