“He is wise who knows the sources of knowledge — where it is written and where it is to be found.”
-A.A. Hodge
In our grandparents’ time, intelligence was associated with memorization. In order to excel, one had to be well versed and able to recite formulas, historical dates, and concepts, because when the time came to apply it, it would take hours to travel to the library, find the necessary books, and then sort through them until you found the desired information.
But today that process has been simplified. Instead of traveling to the library, a user can access search engines and academic databases in an instant. And then, at the drop of a hat, the document can be searched through with a click. Knowledge by memorization has become a thing of the past. “The skills of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis will become the hallmarks of a good education, just as absorption of knowledge once was,” said the Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University. This new process is called information literacy and is the basis for what we now define as knowledge.
Information literacy has cultivated increasing awareness and backing since technology started to change the way we consume information. In 1989, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, Final Report states, “To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” These changes have also resulted in Governor Schwarzenneger establishing a California ICT Digital Literacy Leadership Council and an ICT Digital Advisory Committee by Executive Order in 2009, and President Obama designating October 2009 “National Information Literacy Awareness Month.”
The remarkable thing is that with such access to knowledge, education is now placing its focus on critical thinking. We are now teaching students to ask questions like, should I believe what I am reading? Is this reliable information? Is it accurate? What is its source? Without understanding and asking these questions, we educate people who are unable to separate good information from the bad.
One of today’s greatest intellectuals, Christopher Hitchens, said, “…it matters not what you think, anyone can have thoughts. Many people content themselves with feelings. It matters how you think.” These words ring no more true than today. While it may be a cool party trick to memorize that the Battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 B.C., I guarantee your friend’s iPhone finds the answer quicker than your brain. Because there is now such a wealth of information, matched with fast technology, what matters is not who can recall information the quickest, but who can critically evaluate and interpret the information they consume. The informationally literate.