Thing 18: Reflective Practice on Things 14 - 17 - Critical Thinker

Things 14-17 focused on developing our critical thinking skills. Thing 14 made me analyse how I manage my personal information and introduced me to new online management tools. There seems to be a tool or app for every need. Sometimes I do question whether this makes our lives more difficult rather than easier but it is good to know they exist and it was nice to try them out. I guess I am still a little old school preferring to make lists on paper and use a paper-based diary.

Thing 15 was all about evaluating information and used Wikipedia as a tool to teach critical assessment skills and how librarians can contribute to making Wikipedia a useful starting tool for research. I enjoyed this task using the Citation Hunt tool and applying the CRAAP test to my source.

Thing 16 made me reassess how much I engage online and how much is actually out of our control. I can see why people are closing down their social media accounts in particular Facebook. I think it is important for everyone to be aware of their digital footprint especially younger people and think this is an area that requires a lot more thought and caution.

Thing 17 also made me think about how I am not great at sharing my work with a wider audience and this is an area that I need to focus on.

Overall, I found these Things really made me assess things critically and question myself. Sometimes it is good to take a step back from things and this section allowed me to do so. For me, this was the section with the biggest takeaway and probably the area I need to work on the most for the future.