Category Archives: Information Literacy Education

Theresa Neil at Smashing Magazine recently posted a brief article in which she summarizes search designs for mobile applications ( http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/10/ui-patterns-for-mobile-apps-search-sort-filter/ ) . Her work inspired me to wonder about how we teach young people to make the best use of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the interfaces they’re provided …

On January 6, 2012, National Public Radio’s This American Life broadcasted segments from Mike Daisey’s performance about Apple. The broadcast detailed gritty, tough work practices at Foxconn, Apple’s contractor for the iPad and other digital devices.  Among Daisey’s revelations: That Foxconn actively employed child labor; That Foxconn guards were armed; That …

Search engines provide us with incredible power to find content. Type a query, and in a tenth of a second, receive results. It seems simple, but it’s incredibly complex. Among the complexities are a series of algorithms used to determine the relevance and ranking of content. These algorithms are in …

This is an interesting morning read: “The personal analytics of my life“, a post by Steven Wolfram.  “One day I’m sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves. But because I’ve been interested in data for a very long time, I started doing this long ago. I …

On March 9, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a web search report.  Of their findings, I was most surpised to learn that: Income and education matter. 70% of college graduates used search engines daily, whereas only 36% of those with high school or less turned to search …