Information Literacy

Before going through the activity set up in this weeks lesson I was semi-literate when it came to search engines.  I was aware that there was information that was not credible, and that you could search using the specific domains, that some are more credible than others,  and even that there was a way to track down who the information came from, though I couldn't remember how. I usually use Google, but occasionally use Yahoo or Bing.  I type in my key words and don't often go past the first page of options.  I did not know that google listed things based on how many hits it had previously, I am glad to know that now so I will look further for information that may not be the most popularly searched. 

After having gone through the activities I realize the importance to actually paying attention to these things.  A site can appear very credible and if you plan to use the information as fact, you need to make sure it really is.  I had no idea how many search engines there are, but I will likely stick with what I know.  I will start including the more credible domains in my searches so it will filter out the things that I don't want to bother with.  In the future when instructing my students to search for information I will be teaching them about how to avoid less credible information by narrowing the search. 

I was very amused that I was completely fooled by the hoax of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, I even showed the website to my fiance!!!  I didn't consider myself gullible at all, but I fell right into it.  I will be much more careful believing what I read from now on, and if the information is important I will be checking further into who put the information out there.  As aware of searching options as I was, I learned a lot of new information that will help me to search more productively.