Thursday, July 19, 2012

What is the role of "search" in the definition of literacy?

The ability to search and search well is needed with our access to so much information; reading/literacy is needed to interpret and use it. So...what is the definition of literacy and search?

Google defines them: (LOL! Yes I did a Google search [define literacy] [define search])

lit·er·a·cy/ˈlitə)rəsē/
The ability to read and write.

search/sərCH/
Try to find something by looking or otherwise seeking carefully and thoroughly.



What does it mean to me?

To do anything you need to be able to read and write. The better you are at reading the better you are at everything else. We use our writing skills to communicate. The better you can communicate the better you get along with others. For us to be successful, survive in the world, we need to be able to read and write -- to be literate.

How does search fit into it? To answer our questions, to be able to make decisions we need to be able to find (search) for information. It could be something as simple as "what time is the movie" or more complicated like "how do I afford college". All that information will do us no good if we can’t read it. All that information could be too much information -- we need to be able to filter the information -- filter the search. All that requires reading.

One thing Google didn’t mention in their literacy definition is the ability to understand what we read. All our lives we will need to read, search for our answers, understand what we find, decide what we want to do. We need to be literate on all levels: reading, writing, searching, and understanding.


1 comment:

  1. Excellent point about understanding what you read as an important part of literacy.
    Google offers a lot of different ways to help people who gain understanding via different modalities, but they need help learning about the process of accessing these processes. Our role as educators as changed to help learners gain fluency with those processes.

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