Reflection 2

The inquiry part of the course honestly made me reflect on how used I am to school being structured around pretending you already know what you are doing.

A lot of classes feel like they reward certainty, or at least the appearance of certainty. You are supposed to pick a topic, sound confident, and move forward like you had the whole thing figured out from the start. Jeff Hopkins’ perspective was interesting because it kind of pushes against that completely.

What I liked most from Jeff Hopkin’s talk was the idea that inquiry should start with curiosity, not with pretending you already have the answer. That sounds obvious, but I actually think it is harder than it seems. A lot of students, including me, are used to wanting the “right” topic or the “right” question immediately, because it feels safer that way. But Jeff Hopkins’ point was that a question does not need to come out perfect the first time. You start with curiosity, do some early research, and then refine the question once you understand the topic better. That makes way more sense to me than locking yourself into one version of the question right away and then forcing it to work even when it clearly does not.

That idea also made the course’s focus on digital literacy frameworks make more sense. At first, frameworks can sound kind of abstract, like just another chart of competencies. But I think the point is that they give you a broader picture of what digital literacy actually includes. It is not just being able to use digital tools or platforms. It includes how you evaluate information, communicate online, manage your presence, make decisions, collaborate, and learn in digital environments. Looking at the frameworks made it obvious that digital literacy is way broader than I first thought, and also that it is something you keep developing, not something you either have or do not have.

I also think inquiry and digital literacy connect really well. Being digitally literate is not just about being fast at finding information. In a world where you can search almost anything in seconds, the more important skill might actually be asking better questions. What am I trying to understand here? Is this question too broad? Am I just looking for an answer that confirms what I already think? What kind of source would actually help me with this? Those are the kinds of questions that slow things down in a good way.

I liked that the course did not frame inquiry as some perfect clean process, because real learning usually is not like that. It is messier. Sometimes you start with a weak question and it gets better. Sometimes you think you care about one topic and then realize the more interesting question is slightly different. That feels more honest to me than acting like good learning always looks neat from the beginning.

If anything, this part of the course made me realize that digital literacy and inquiry both depend a lot on judgment. Not just finding answers, but knowing what is worth asking, what needs more digging, and when your first assumption probably is not enough.