“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” ~ Jer. 33:3
In our 21st century age of digital dominance, we are inundated daily with information of all types and stripes, through avenues unimagined even a decade ago. We can ask Siri or Alexa or Chat GPT and google almost anything instantly. In our tech-driven world, it’s tempting to rely on the information found most easily with dominant tech tools today. But is this the most reliable and trustworthy information? Is this the information you really need to answer the most important questions and give your research depth and truth?
True researchers must adopt a healthy skepticism of popular, media-driven, and commercial information sources, and learn to surf the oceans of information with skill. UNV-170 will cover the principles and best practices of information discovery, including the tools, strategies and critical thinking needed to cultivate and evaluate sources in the pursuit of truth. In a digital era dominated by unseen algorithms and selective “newsfeeds,” it is essential that we become information curators, not consumers.
This course will explore the evolution of government, corporate and technical censorship of valid information, scientific opinion, and valuable consumer/community/citizen resources in recent years. We’ll also examine the algorithmic infusion of heavily biased information into the marketplace through popular tools, media, and websites with the design of influencing public opinion and behavior. Incidences over the last decade abound in the U.S. and other countries, causing heavy damage to our public trust in media, government, institutions and even academia. The civic, cultural, and Christian responses to these informational challenges will also be discussed.
Amid this confusing milieu of our times, students will walk through the practical steps and struggles of information discovery, learning effective search strategies and tools to help sift through sources for answers to complex questions. The pros and cons of library and online search tools with be fully explored. As a class, we will workshop our search topics and share discoveries and methods with each other. Students can then apply their results toward another class project or paper or any personal interest project.
The operating principle of our semester together will be to follow information breadcrumbs along multiple paths (including AI) and evaluate those findings. Truth is not found blaring from a billboard on the information interstate but in the divergences, detours, and scenic byways we choose to explore. And truth is ultimately curated from a Biblical foundation, using the thinking minds and unique insights gifted to each individual, for specific circumstances, by our Creator God (Jeremiah 33:3).
Course Objectives:
Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Critically evaluate various types of information and its sources.
- Recognize the difference among information source types and understand their appropriate uses.
- Access needed information using diverse, stratified, and effective research strategies.
- Demonstrate proficiency in database searching: catalogs, library databases, and open-source databases.
- Understand the implications of using AI in information gathering and the research process.
- Understand the scope and history of Internet/media/search engine bias and censorship.
- Complete a research project cultivating and curating at least 12 varied source types using various databases─ both open source and library based.
