Information Fallout

Information Fallout is a narrative-based learning tool designed to introduce information literacy skills to students. It is based around attaining and using six “Info Tactics:”

• Consider the context of a source when evaluating it.
• Consider the creation process when looking at a source.
• Give credit to other people’s ideas.
• Ask questions for better research.
• Appreciate that research evolves over time through the contribution of many researchers.
• Seek out different sources and types of sources.

 

Those Info Tactics align to the six concepts outlined in the ACRL “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.” Here are those concepts with related Info Tactics in parentheses:  

 

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual (Consider the context of a source when evaluating it.)
• Information Creation as a Process (Consider the creation process when looking at a source.)
• Information Has Value (Give credit to other people’s ideas.)
• Research as Inquiry (Ask questions for better research.)
• Scholarship as Conversation (Appreciate that research evolves over time through the contribution of many researchers.)
• Searching as Strategic Exploration (Seek out different sources and types of sources.)

 

Information Fallout is meant to introduce these information literacy concepts to students. Librarians, teachers, instructors, and other educators should pair the game with further discussion or lessons or assignments to more fully articulate the details of the framework skills.

 

Learning Objectives

 

Information Fallout sets out six learning objectives for students. These are assessed by a series of multiple choice questions embedded within the narrative. To proceed through the narrative, students must answer those questions correctly.

• The student will be able to demonstrate that context influences authority.
• The student will be able to identify an element of the creation process that may be an indicator of quality for school work.
• The student will be able to assert the importance of citing sources.
• The student will be able to rank a research topic based on a question as being more effective than one that provides an overview.
• The student will be able to articulate that scholarship evolves over time.
• The student will be able to identify one or more reasons why it is important to consult more than one source when conducting research. 

Lesson Plans

 

Information Fallout is very introductory in nature. The concepts within ACRL’s framework are highly nuanced and multifaceted; attaining proficiency in them is a challenging, long-term undertaking for students. The lesson plans in the document "Information Fallout: Lesson Plans" may serve as examples to help educators use Information Fallout as a springboard to discussions around these challenging concepts. 

 

Handout and Instructional Graphics

 

A handout detailing the six Info Tactics is featured within the game and available for printing and saving here: z.umn.edu/fallouthandout.

Comic-style instructional graphics can be found on each page:

• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/sourcecontext
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/creationprocess
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/creditingsources
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/askingquestions
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/evolvingresearch
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/variedsources
• https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/fallout/review

 

Feel free to re-use these graphics under a cc-by license. 

 

Please Re-use

All work on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which means you can use, share, and edit it for any purpose so long as you provide appropriate credit.  

 

Contact

Information Fallout was created by librarians at Minitex, an information and resource sharing program of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Contact us at mtxref@umn.edu.

Thank You

Thank you to the librarians and student workers who provided testing and feedback during the creation of Information Fallout!