Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information

I watched this series some time ago as I was starting to develop my patient advocacy services. Having a degree in information science I had to reflect on and appreciate how many skills and habits I developed that the average person does not have when navigating the information ecosystem. I feel like this series is well done and provides the essential skills for understanding the accuracy of the information people review online.

Crash Course worked with MediaWise (funded by Google) to develop this series of videos on how to navigate digital information. I say this because understanding who publishes content and who funded the production of content is a key factor in determining how accurate and/or biased a source is. From what I know of the producers of this content I feel comfortable recommending it for others to enhance their skills in navigating health and wellness information.

Some of the skills that are shared in the series (quoted from their learning objectives):

• Examine information using the same skills and questions as fact-checkers

• Read laterally to learn more about the authority and perspective of sources

• Evaluate different types of evidence, from videos to infographics

• Understand how search engines and social media feeds work

• Break bad internet habits like impatience and passivity, and build better ones

All these skills are directly applicable to health and wellness information. Contact me if you want to learn more about how I use these skills to help clients manage their health and prepare for working with clinicians.