Webmaker/WebLiteracyMap/v2/research

Research from academic journals, blog posts, and elsewhere to inform v2.0 of Mozilla's Web Literacy Map.

2014

This article focuses on users of the web being able to assess the credibility of information:

"There seems to be a pressing need to develop a “web literacy” approach especially with the emergence of technologies like social software, wikis, blogs, open source systems and what is known as the Web 2.0 movement. Web literacy, a term first coined by Sorapure, Inglesby and Yatchisin (1998), has been defined as “an ability to recognize and assess a wide range of rhetorical situations and an attentiveness conveyed in a source’s non-textual features. Teaching such a literacy means supplementing the evaluative criteria traditionally applied to print sources with new strategies for making sense of diverse kinds of texts presented in hyper textual and multimedia formats” (Sorapure, Inglesby and Yatchisin, 1998)."

Keshavarz, H. (2014). How Credible is Information on the Web:
Reflections on Misinformation and Disinformation. Infopreneurship Journal, 1(2), 1-17.

2013

The 'specific skills' required for the web are discussed in this article, but the authors only focus upon navigation and credibility:

"Web literacy refers to the skills needed for successful web navigation Texas Journal of Literacy Education (November, 2008). Online reading requires specific skills, and these skills are often referred to by educators in K- 12 settings as web literacy skills. Classroom practices often involve research and “the rules of research have changed with society’s move from paper to digital information” (November, 2008, p. 6). Web literacy may fit under the umbrella of New Literacies in that it relates directly to skills needed to locate information accurately and effectively. Web literacy is also reflective of digital literacies, as it is a term used to explain knowledge an individual needs to find information, to examine content, to find out who published a Web site, and to see who is linked to a site (November, 2008)."

Pilgrim, J. & Martinez, E.E. (2013). Defining Literacy in the 21st Century:
A Guide to Terminology and Skills. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 1(1), 60-69.

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'Web literacy' in this article means effectively navigating the web:

"The two terms that seem most practitioner-friendly are web literacy and digital literacy. Web literacy, as the term implies, describes a user’s Internet navigation skills as well as critical thinking skills required to evaluate online information. This term is not as broad as digital literacy, but the skills provide teachers with concrete ways to help students search for accurate and reliable information in a safe Internet environment (November, 2008). This type of information and support for teachers has enabled educators to develop curriculum for teaching literacy skills."

Pilgrim, J. & Martinez, E.E. (2013). Defining Literacy in the 21st Century:
A Guide to Terminology and Skills. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 1(1), 60-69.

2012

Rafi Santo (involved in Mozilla's Hive networks) talks of 'hacker literacies' which seems to encapsulate more of what Mozilla means by 'web literacy' - but also goes beyond this:

"I define hacker literacies as empowered participatory practices, grounded in critical mindsets, that aim to resist, reconfigure, and/or reformulate the sociotech- nical digital spaces and tools that mediate social, cultural, and political participation. These “critical mindsets” include perceiving how values are at play in the design of these spaces and tools; understand- ing how those designs affect the behaviors of users of those spaces and tools; and developing empow- ered outlooks, ones that assume change is possible, in relation to those designs and rooted in an under- standing of their malleability. “Empowered participatory practices” include making transparent for others the effects of sociotechnical designs and the values at play therein, voicing alternative values for these designs, advocating and taking part in alternative designs when spaces and tools are misaligned with one’s values, and employing new media as a means to change those digital spaces and tools—whether on the social or technological level—via social or technological means (Santo, forthcoming)."

Santo, R. (2011). Hacker Literacies: Synthesizing Critical
and Participatory Media Literacy Frameworks. International Journal of Learning and Media, 3(3), 1-5.

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New literacy researchers are fond of claiming that their favoured term subsumes other terms. Here, information literacy is said to encapsulate web literacy:

"Information literacy is about accessing and analyzing information, and Web literacy is a subset of information literacy which involves applying those skills online and being able to recognize obscured intent and pay attention to non-textual features (Burke, 2002; Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2009; Sorapure, Inglesby & Yatchisin, 1998). In other words, Web users must sort through both textual and visual cues to determine the credibility of information online."

Pariera, K. L. (2012). Information Literacy on the Web: How College Students Use Visual
and Textual Cues to Assess Credibility on Health Websites. Communications in Information Literacy, 6(1), 34-48.

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This article, while referencing some critique, cites Prensky's widely-discredited 'digital natives/immigrants' approach'. It seems to argue that intensity of the use of the web can be correlated with 'literacy':

"Apart from social networks, one can discern another element of the transition to this new Web era; that of the increased level of digital literacy among people. One can at this stage distinguish between people who grew up using the Web, the ‘digital natives’(Prensky, 2001) on the one hand, and ‘digital immigrants’ with increased digital literacy, potentially honed by higher involvement in the Web activity, on the other hand. The differences between natives and immigrants are a topic of debate (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2008) but one could argue that, overall, there has been an increase in Web literacy levels, based on the high number of users and intensity of use."

Hall, W., & Tiropanis, T. (2012). Web evolution and Web science.
Computer Networks, 56(18), 3859-3865.

2011

This project for a M.Ed. dissertation focused on web literacy and discusses how difficult it is to teach the relevant skills in isolation:

"If we accept that literacy skills and practices are seen as social, cultural, political and economic, then Web literacy skills should be viewed in the same way."

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria).

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"According to Kuiper, Volman and Terwel (2009), Web literacy is a concept that is comprised of “a combination of various skills regarding the critical use of the Web for one‟s own purposes” (p. 669). Web literacy skills can be divided into three subcategories that including searching on the Web, reading on the Web, and evaluating on the Web (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwell, 2009)."

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p2.

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Reece (2009) defined Web literacy as “the ability to access, analyze, and evaluate online information” (p. 21); but Web literacy is a complex set of skills unique to its environment and requires a more nuanced definition. Kuiper, Volman, and Terwel (2009) propose that Web literacy is “the ability to handle the Web critically” (p. 669). They include three skills within their definition of Web literacy: Web searching skills, which includes using appropriate key words, locating relevant information, and knowing different ways to locate information; Web reading skills, which is the ability to interpret the results of search engines (such as Google), understanding and using hypertext, and knowing which information to choose and which to disregard; and Web evaluating skills such as assessing the reliability and validity of sources and relating text images to various sites (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2009, pp. 669-670).

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p4.

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Many scholars argue that within the study of Web literacy there is no single approach, but rather multiple perspectives (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, Leu, 2009; Kuiper & Volman, 2009).

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Gee (1992, 2002, 2003) argues that to understand learning as sociocultural one must know that the mind is social, learning is embedded in cultural practices, and meaning is always situated.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p5.

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Socio-cultural theorists view social practices as members participating within a particular community. Gee (1992) uses the term Discourse, with a capital „D‟ to identify social practices. Within each social practice or Discourse, there are ways of talking, reading, writing, thinking, valuing, and interacting. According to Gee (1992), each type of literacy practice within a Discourse has discourses. Therefore, to be literate in a Discourse one must be able to be competent in the various discourses of the practice. Further, to be a member within a Discourse one must participate in it, and learn from someone who is already considered an expert. These learnings must be scaffolded by more sophisticated others and the learner must be able to see when certain skills are useful and how to apply those skills (Gee, 1992; Vygotsky, 1978).

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p6.

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Gee (2003) claimed that “[l]iteracy in any domain is actually not worth much if one knows nothing about the social practices of which that literacy is but a part” (pp. 14-15). Lankshear and Knobel (2007) add that “[t]here is no practice without meaning, [j]ust as there is no meaning outside of practice” (p. 2). Hence, reading and writing will have no meaning if they are practiced outside of the social contexts in which people participate. Further, deeper meaning is given to a text when someone is a producer of a text within a social practice rather than just a consumer (Gee, 2003). By the same argument then, those who are producers within a social practice are also better consumers because they can read and understand the text of the social practice.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p7.

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According to Gee (2002), “[a]ny efficacious pedagogy must be a judicious mixture of immersion in a community of practice and overt focusing and scaffolding from „masters‟ or „more advanced peers‟” (pp. 125-126). Educators need to examine what students know and value in their specialist domains, and then build connections for learning. In terms of Web literacy, even if teachers are not experts in the function of technology, or technological devices, they are still the expert in helping students build critical habits of mind. Additionally, it is the role of the teacher to scaffold the learning of critical thinking skills and demonstrate how those skills can transfer across the various domains and Discourses in which learners participate.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p8.

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Lankshear and Knobel (2003, 2007) have expanded on the notion of „new‟ in new literacies. Originally, they defined new literacies simply as “literacies associated with new communications and information technologies” (2003, p. 25). However, the definition has continued to grow in order to separate „new‟ from traditional literacy practices. In a later article, Lankshear and Knobel (2007) submitted that new literacies do not include the ability to look up information online or write an essay on a word processor because those would be considered traditional literacy skills simply using a new tool to speed up the task. Rather, new literacies include both “new technical stuff” and “new ethos stuff” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007, p. 7). “New technical stuff” is considered to be tools that enable people to perform and participate in different kinds of literacies. Each type of tool can be associated with their own set of beliefs, values, norms, and procedures.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p9.

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"A 2009 article published in Career World discussed skills that students should not leave high school without and ranked “Web literacy” as number one (Reece, 2009). Reece (2009) defined Web literacy as “the ability to access, analyze, and evaluate online information” (p. 21); but Web literacy is a complex set of skills unique to its environment and requires a more nuanced definition. Kuiper, Volman, and Terwel (2009) propose that Web literacy is “the ability to handle the Web critically” (p. 669). They include three skills within their definition of Web literacy: Web searching skills, which includes using appropriate key words, locating relevant information, and knowing different ways to locate information; Web reading skills, which is the ability to interpret the results of search engines (such as Google), understanding and using hypertext, and knowing which information to choose and which to disregard; and Web evaluating skills such as assessing the reliability and validity of sources and relating text images to various sites (Kuiper, Volman, & Terwel, 2009, pp. 669-670)."

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p10.

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Lankshear and Knobel (2007) summarize their concept of “new literacies” by claiming that,

[t]he more a literacy practice privileges participation over publishing, distributed expertise over centralized expertise, collective intelligence over individual possessive intelligence, collaboration over individuated authorship, dispersion over scarcity, sharing over ownership, [...] the more we should regard it as a “new” literacy. (p. 21)

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p11.

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The Web is a vast resource of information that has evolved and changed from its original forms. Scholars have used the terms Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 to distinguish the difference in the function and purpose of the Web. Greenhow, Robelia and Hughes (2009) examine how the Web has changed over the previous 10 years and how those changes have affected teaching and learning. The term Web 1.0 has been used to classify the “first generation web” (Greenhow et al., 2009, p. 247). Web 1.0 was viewed as a classroom resource that paralleled traditional classroom practices. Web 1.0 contained authentic knowledge compiled by experts in their fields, where users were solely consumers of information.

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Over time, however, the Internet has continued to expand in function and purpose. With the increasing amount of information access and use, Web 2.0 became one of which users were not only reading, but were writing and composing as well (Greenhow et al., 2009, p. 247). Web 2.0 became a collaborative environment, one that was based on collective participation, and using the Web was more about producing than consuming. Greenhow et al. (2009) describe Web 2.0 as “knowledge [being] decentralized, accessible, and co-constructed by and among a broad base of users” (p. 247).

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p14-15.

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Fabos (2009) and Lankshear and Knobel (2003) argue that there is a need to understand how search engines work in order to better utilize them as information finding sources.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p16.

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An earlier article written by Coiro (2003) argued that online reading includes an expanded notion of offline literacies as well as new literacies, and stated that nonlinear hypertext, multiple-media texts, and interactive texts need their own set of skills for use. Sutherland and Smith (2002) similarly argued that the Web is non-linear, non-hierarchal, and non-sequential, therefore making literacy practices more complex.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p20.

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The first skill required for successful use of the Web is the ability to search and locate needed information. Henry (2006) argued that, “locating information is, perhaps, the most important function of reading on the Internet; [a]ll other decisions and reading functions on the Internet emanate from the decisions that are made during the search process” (p. 616).

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p21.

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Second, learning on the Web should be viewed as a new literacy, one that requires a more complex set of skills than traditional print text. The very nature of the Web does not demand that information be centred on one authoritative source. For educators it means that explicit instruction and structural support is needed to help students become more critically engaged when searching and locating information on the Web (Friedman & Heafner, 2007; Kuiper & Volman, 2009; Kuiper et al., 2009; MacGregor & Lou, 2006).

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p35.

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I spent much time trying to think of how I could scaffold Web literacy skills. After devoting considerable time to drafting ideas, I concluded that I could not break down each Web literacy skill individually.

Brown, A. (2011). Teaching web literacy in the age of new literacies (M.Ed. dissertation, University of Victoria). p65.

1996

Information and computer literacy, in the conventional sense, are functionally valuable technical skills. But information literacy should in fact be conceived more broadly as a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its social, cultural and even philosophical context and impact - as essential to the mental framework of the educated information-age citizen as the trivium of basic liberal arts (grammar, logic and rhetoric) was to the educated person in medieval society.

Shapiro, J. J., & Hughes, S. K. (1996). Information Literacy as a Liberal Art: Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum. Educom review, 31(2). p3.

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Recommendations from Shapiro & Hughes (1996) as to what an 'information literacy as a liberal art' curriculum should include:

• Tool literacy - "the ability to understand and use the practical and conceptual tools of current information technology, including software, hardware and multimedia, that are relevant to education and the areas of work and professional life that the individual expects to inhabit"
• Resource literacy - "the ability to understand the form, format, location and access methods of information resources, especially daily expanding networked information resources."
• Social-structural literacy - "knowing that and how information is socially situated and produced."
• Research literacy - "the ability to understand and use the IT-based tools relevant to the work of today's researcher and scholar."
• Publishing literacy - "the ability to format and publish research and ideas electronically, in textual and multimedia forms.".
• Emerging technology literacy - "the ability to ongoingly adapt to, understand, evaluate and make use of the continually emerging innovations in information technology so as not to be a prisoner of prior tools and resources, and to make intelligent decisions about the adoption of new ones."
• Critical literacy - "the ability to evaluate critically the intellectual, human and social strengths and weaknesses, potentials and limits, benefits and costs of information technologies."