Info-tagging

This activity is suggested for an information literacy integration project for courses in Education, Social Sciences, or Humanities, especially those based on critical theory or critical pedagogy. In social media such as TikTok and Instagram, hashtags are used in virtual community settings to identify images, videos, texts, etc., with terms easily recognizable by those who are aware of specific trends. 

This activity consists of reading a brief news story on a topic and then "tagging" or labeling it with one or two main themes, just like applying a social media hashtag. Students will compare the tags with the indexing terms in a bibliographic record. The activity concludes with a reflection on the indexing process, on the importance of choosing the right terms and also on the implications of searching for academic information.