Your responses to your classmates must be substantive. Share ideas, explore differences, and think critically about your classmates’ posts. Bring in information from your textbook, classroom resources or other credible sources that you find to contribute to the discussion. You are invited to share relevant audio, video, or images in your responses. You must cite and reference any sources you use, even in your responses to your classmates. PEER RESPONSE:   Before this class, I was not familiar with the term “information literacy”. I did previously take a class called “Digital Literacy” which was based on how to use digital media in order to be able to gain information and complete tasks. I look at this class as somewhat similar, but more relating to finding information that may not be digital or available online. The textbook defines digital literacy as “the ability to identify a need for information and successfully locate, evaluate, and use that information ethically and legally for a determined purpose.” (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). The first module of the textbook helped me to better understand exactly what information literacy is, and how to utilize the concepts.             The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), developed an information literacy framework that identifies six threshold concepts meant to guide students in the process of becoming lifelong learners through the acquisition of information literacy skills (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). The ACRL’s six threshold concepts are Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation, Information Creation as a Process, Searching as Strategic Exploration, Authority is Constructed and Contextual, and Information has Value (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1).  The concept of research as inquiry is that the research process is all about asking and answering questions. Scholarship as conversation means that “Experts within a field communicate to share information, debate their ideas, and gain understanding. They often contest each other’s ideas and seek out the opinions of other scholars within their fields to test these ideas (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). Information creation as a process is the idea that research and gathering information is fluid and may change based on the needs of the writer and what questions they need to answer. Searching as strategic exploration recognizes that most research questions or topics may require information and data from several sources and that searching for accurate information can be a process. Authority is constructed and conventional reminds people that not all information and sources are created equal, and the validity of sources must be investigated. Lastly, the concept that information has value means that research findings and conclusions need to be properly represented through citations and copyrights.             In addition to the 6 concepts presented in section 1.1, the textbo.

1. Your responses to your classmates must be substantive. Share
ideas, explore differences, and think critically about your
classmates’ posts. Bring in information from your textbook,
classroom resources or other credible sources that you find to
contribute to the discussion. You are invited to share relevant
audio, video, or images in your responses. You must cite and
reference any sources you use, even in your responses to your
classmates.
PEER RESPONSE:
Before this class, I was not familiar with the term “information
literacy”. I did previously take a class called “Digital Literacy”
which was based on how to use digital media in order to be able
to gain information and complete tasks. I look at this class as
somewhat similar, but more relating to finding information that
may not be digital or available online. The textbook defines
digital literacy as “the ability to identify a need for information
and successfully locate, evaluate, and use that information
ethically and legally for a determined purpose.” (von
Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). The first module of the textbook
helped me to better understand exactly what information
literacy is, and how to utilize the concepts.
The Association of College and Research Libraries
(ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA),
developed an information literacy framework that identifies six
threshold concepts meant to guide students in the process of
becoming lifelong learners through the acquisition of
information literacy skills (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). The

2. ACRL’s six threshold concepts are Research as Inquiry,
Scholarship as Conversation, Information Creation as a Process,
Searching as Strategic Exploration, Authority is Constructed
and Contextual, and Information has Value (von Winckelmann,
2015, 1.1). The concept of research as inquiry is that the
research process is all about asking and answering questions.
Scholarship as conversation means that “Experts within a field
communicate to share information, debate their ideas, and gain
understanding. They often contest each other’s ideas and seek
out the opinions of other scholars within their fields to test
these ideas (von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). Information creation
as a process is the idea that research and gathering information
is fluid and may change based on the needs of the writer and
what questions they need to answer. Searching as strategic
exploration recognizes that most research questions or topics
may require information and data from several sources and that
searching for accurate information can be a process. Authority
is constructed and conventional reminds people that not all
information and sources are created equal, and the validity of
sources must be investigated. Lastly, the concept that
information has value means that research findings and
conclusions need to be properly represented through citations
and copyrights.
In addition to the 6 concepts presented in section 1.1,
the textbook also explored several skills that one must possess
in order to be truly information literate. The first skills
discussed was inference. “Inference is the process of using facts
to determine an accurate conclusion or hypothesis from the
information available. Given what we know so far, what
conclusions can we draw? What can be ruled out? What
additional information do we need to resolve this question?”
(von Winckelmann, 2015, 1.1). This is a skill that I could
benefit from improving, especially to help with my college-
level writing. I find that at times I struggle interpreting material
that I read in order to find the most important points and not

3. have an excess of information or wordiness in my writing.
Evaluation is another important skill for college students who
are interpreting information. It is critical to make sure that
information is credible, trustworthy, and useful for the point
that one is trying to convey. Lastly, explanation of information
is a very important skill. Once information and research is
gathered it is important to explain the information and not rely
on quotes of others, but to explain how and why the information
is relative.
All of the concepts and skills I can see being important
and helpful in my college work as well as my personal and
professional life. As previously mentioned, I can see how many
of these skills will help me in college-level writing to make
sure that my information is accurate, trustworthy, cited
correctly, and understandable to readers. In my personal life I
plan to use these concepts and skills to gather information and
answer questions that I am curious about. I think that using
these specific skills will help me to find more reliable
information and make sure that my information is accurate so I
can be more confident in my answers and reasoning when
conversing with others in friendly and professional settings.
Von Winckelmann, S. (2015).
Information literacy in the digital age
[Electronic version]. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/Links to an external site.