Abstract:

Penetration and adaptation of ICT in the educational arena have provoked substantial changes in teaching-learning scenarios. These changes have generated, amongst other consequences, the materialization of new needs that relate the potential of resources linked to ICT with the way that users employ and adopt them; these needs have been conceptualized in recent literature with the concept "Multiple literacy" or "new literacy" (Coll & Rodriguez, 2008).
Amongst these new literacy, it emerges the information literacy that can be summarized by defining it as the competences required to understand a information need, locate the information needed, evaluate the information located, manage the information and use and communicate the information in a legal and ethical way (Morey, 2011).
In this paper we present the results of a study carried out at the Balearic Islands University in where a representative sample of undergraduate students enrolled in the degree of Social Education have responded a questionnaire regarding diverse aspects of the information competences that they posses and making special emphasis on the issue related to the communication of the information in a ethical and legal way while writing academic essays.

This paper was developed under the project "Elaboration of a manual of style and guide to presentation of academic essays for students of Social Education", funded by the vice-rector of teaching and quality of the Balearic Islands University under the program of “Innovation and improvement of the teaching quality”.

Keywords:

Information literacy, Academic essays, Social Education, Information Competences.