Revista de Estudios Sociales

rev. estud. soc. | eISSN 1900-5180 | ISSN 0123-885X

Reconceptualizing Information Competency: A Case from Higher Education

No. 37 (2010-12-01)
  • Jorge Winston Barbosa Chacón
  • Juan Carlos Barbosa Herrera
  • Gloria Patricia Marciales Vivas
    Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá, Colombia.
  • Harold Andrés Castañeda Peña
    Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá, Colombia.
https://doi.org/10.7440/res37.2010.07

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study, started in 2006, on information competency in university students. The study was based on the idea that we should use a semiotic focus of discourse to rethink the traditional understanding of information competency. We argue that information competency is represented in already-existing conditions (cognitive, affective, and pragmatic modalities of understanding). These conditions make it possible to interact in a relative manner with the information. We also developed an in situ method to analyze understanding. This method was tested with a student studying Education at the Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colombia) at a distance. The results show that the dimensions of information competency can be understood based on the subject’s experience. The student showed examples of the clear relationship between the modalities (the semiotic perspective) and the experiences accrued over his or her life (the socio-cultural perspective). The strong relationships between the modalities that required careful analysis of the results were also evident.

Keywords: University Students, Sources of Information, Information Competency, Information Searches, Access to Information, Information Skills

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