Are we critically literate enough?

Critical Literacy is "the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to understand power, inequality and injustice in human relationships." (Coffey, 2011)

I found this definition of critical literacy valuable as it explains that students must be active and evaluate all information that they encounter. This definition also suggests that students are vulnerable and easy targets for manipulation, when biased information is presented to them. This concept is increasingly relevant when students are dealing with technology and possible threats from predators.

Critical Literacy skills have always been important in schools, as students need to be actively aware of what they are accessing, where it originated from and any biases that underpin it. The development of critical literacy skills is even more integral now with continual advancements in technology. Information providers have changed from the once 'reliable' big companies (such as Msn and Fox), to individual users, who are reporting on everyday events, inevitably incorporating their own biases. This can be very confusing for students and they need to learn skills to differentiate between what is 'reliable' and 'unreliable' information.

How about search engines? Can they be trusted to retrieve the most up to date and credible information?
Simply put, no. Search engines, such as google and yahoo function with an algorithm, which determines which information will be of most relevance to the user, based upon past searches and the popularity of particular websites. Students need to develop critical literacy skills, so that they are able to critically evaluate information, based upon their origins and examine possible biases existing in the texts. Students need to be educated on how to be critical aware of the information they are accessing via search engines.

So how about us, are we critically literate enough? Do we know enough about evaluating the information we are presented with in order to make informed decisions and judgements? I think that most people have received an email from a Prince in Africa, explaining how we must help him because he is stuck in a difficult situation. The story continues on and we are asked to send him our bank details and when he has escaped his situation, he will then send us a financial reward. Those kind of emails are the obvious examples. What if it was a friend who was asking for money? How can we be absolutely critical and clear in this situation? If those thoughts are occurring in my head, they would almost certainly occur to a child, who is more likely to be trusting of others. I think that it is important that we become more critically literate and in turn educate students to also be critically literate.