Trudi and Jackson Grey, a student in her fall 2021 Information Literacy in the Humanities and Fine Arts course, presented at the virtual 2021 WikiConference North America in October. This course uses a combination of the Wiki Education program, metaliteracy, and frames from the ACRL Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education to encourage students to see themselves as ethical and responsible information producers.
The Wiki Education program provides excellent training for novice Wikipedia editors, but a conceptual understanding of the value of information, as well as scaffolding to recognize themselves as information producers, can provide a rich underpinning for this new set of skills, a background that will help them to see the value of their contributions, and encourage them to continue as metaliterate Wikipedia editors.
Jackson, a senior at the University at Albany majoring in philosophy, provided a student’s viewpoint in such a learning situation where It is possible to share growing knowledge in a field of study. He also explored the differing values of information, inherent vs. as a means to an end, and the disconnect between the availability of information and its importance.
The presentation is available on YouTube as part of a day of programs. It starts at 6:05, and this link is set to start at that point.
The full-text version of Metaletramento is presented as an open and fully online resource at: http://www.valentim.bsb.br/metaletramento/. This dynamic site features an interactive Table of Contents, annotation tools, QR code, and link to the virtual presentation entitled Metaliteracy and the Perspectives of Information Science in the Digital Age. This roundtable discussion celebrated the publication of book and took place at the XXI National Meeting of Research and Postgraduate Studies in Information Science (ENANCIB 2021) – Brazil This Portuguese translation of the first metaliteracy book by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson was supported by The Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), Research Unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) in partnership with UNESCO and ALA/Neal-Schuman Publishing. Thanks to Helda Pinheiro and Dr. Cecília Leite, Director of Ibict, and the Faculty of Information Science at the University of Brasília.
Thanks to Helda Pinheiro, Dr. Cecília Leite, Director of Ibict, and the Faculty of Information Science at the University of Brasília for the invitation to present.
The first metaliteracy book, Metaliteracy:Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners, written by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson (2014) has been translated into Portuguese. This is the first-ever translation of an entire metaliteracy book. The Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology (ibict), Research Unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), in partnership with UNESCO and ALA/Neal-Schuman Publishing has published this Portuguese translation. Special thanks to Helda Pinheiro and to Dr. Cecília Leite, Director of Ibict, for her enormous support in translating the book, as well as the Faculty of Information Science at the University of Brasília. Thanks to everyone at ALA/Neal-Schuman Publishing as well.
This paper describes several examples of how metaliteracy is embedded in teaching praxis through open educational resources (OER) that include interactive learning objects and digital badging content as well as fully developed Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Specifically, these metaliteracy OER have been applied by the authors in an information literacy course at the University at Albany, SUNY, as well as online courses in the Digital Arts at SUNY Empire State College (Mackey & Jacobson, 2021).
This presentation follows an interactive workshop entitled “Teaching with Metaliteracy: Developing Informed, Reflective, and Participatory Citizens” that was provided at the conference earlier in the week. All of these ideas and resources are transferrable to a wide range of teaching and learning environments. If you would like to talk with us about ways to apply metaliteracy OER to your setting, feel free to reach out to us.
In this interactive workshop, participants will explore metaliteracy, including the metaliterate learner model and characteristics, review the goals and learning objectives and their value, touch upon differences between metaliteracy and the ACRL (2015) and CILIP (2018) conceptions of information literacy, and consider both open metaliteracy resources and sample open educational practice models that they support. Participants will explore options that will meet the needs of their students, and start a plan for incorporating metaliteracy in their formal or informal teaching. They will be able to learn from one another and share ideas on an online, open platform for continuing consultation, reporting of results, and idea-sharing.
(Jacobson & Mackey, 2021)
The ideas and techniques applied in this workshop are flexible and transferrable to different pedagogical settings and situations. If you would like to talk with us about ways to adapt this workshop to your setting, feel free to contact us.
This is the seventh translation of the Metaliteracy goals and learning objectives. We appreciate the previous translations in French, Afrikaans, Italian, Setswana, Spanish, and Portuguese. This work demonstrates the international interest in Metaliteracy and the transferability of these ideas to different educational settings.
Are you interested in translating the Metaliteracy goals and objectives in a language that has not been completed yet? Feel free to reach out to us!
Tom Mackey, Professor of Arts and Media at SUNY Empire State College and Trudi Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian at The University at Albany were invited to represent “Team USA” from the State University of New York (SUNY). Trudi and Tom presented a Team USA Workshop that explored their contributions to the project from a metaliteracy perspective, including related open educational resources (OER) developed as part of their work with the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative.
As part of this week-long transnational online course, students collaborated on final projects that they presented to all participants on the last day of class. Each of the student projects provided a detailed analysis of an information literacy or metaliteracy online resource. The students conducted research and closely examined each platform based on content analysis, usability, and accessibility. Two of the teams analyzed specific metaliteracy OER including the open content associated with the Metaliteracy Digital Badging system and the Coursera MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World. Both presentations are exceptional and will inform the further development of each metaliteracy resource. The slides from each student group are shared with their permission:
“The Metaliteracy Badges”by Group 4: Ismail Börü, M E Jacob, Swara Bhatt, Meghana Manoj Warrier and Denise Schatte
Tom and Trudi were inspired by this exciting international online course and will continue their participation by developing related online courses as part of the next session in fall 2021.
If you have any questions or comments or would like to contribute your own feedback to these metaliteracy resources, feel free to reach out.
SUNY’s Virtual Conference on Instruction & Technology (CIT) 2021 featured presentations related to metaliteracy by Prof. Trudi Jacobson and Drs. Sheila Aird and Tom Mackey. Both talks are now available via the CIT YouTube channel along with all of the other video recordings from the conference. Sheila and Tom spoke about their international collaboration to teach Digital Storytelling online while embedding the metaliteracy framework throughout the course. Their joint presentation entitled Collaborating to Teach Global Digital Storytelling Online is available via their Global Digital Stories blog. Trudi’s presentation, Scaffolding Student Learning The Role of Metaliteracy in Open Pedagogy, explores the connection between metaliteracy and open pedagogy in teaching and learning and is embedded as part of this posting.
Scaffolding Student Learning The Role of Metaliteracy in Open Pedagogy
CNN and other news sources recently reported on a study of over 8000 Americans who were surveyed about their ability to discern fake news via “headlines presented in the format of how news articles would look if they appeared in a Facebook feed. They were also asked to rate their ability to determine whether stories were true.”
Trudi was asked to comment on the article by a member of her University’s Office of Communications and Marketing. That piece was published on June 2 in a shortened form. Here are her original comments with brief CNN quotes setting the stage:
From the CNN article: “In all, these results paint a worrying picture: The individuals who are least equipped to identify false news content are also the least aware of their own limitations and, therefore, more susceptible to believing it and spreading it further…”
Trudi: It can be eye-opening to realize your powers of discernment may not be what you think they are, regardless of your level of education, profession, or political leanings. I recommend that everyone take the Common Misconceptions test offered by the organization Clearer Thinking. While it focuses on common misconceptions rather than headlines, there is enough similarity to assess, as they put it, “How well can you tell reality from B.S.” Not only will you find out if your understanding of the 30 items they ask about is on target, but, more importantly, “this test will analyze your answer patterns and provide a custom report that tells you how often you should trust your gut and when it’s better to be suspicious of your intuitions.” I was speaking from personal experience when I said it was eye-opening!
From the CNN article: “If people incorrectly see themselves as highly skilled at identifying false news, they may unwittingly be more likely to consume, believe and share it, especially if it conforms to their worldview. Recognizing that one’s judgments on the truthfulness of headlines or content aren’t infallible will, hopefully, keep down the negligent sharing of false information.”
Trudi: There are other things that you can do besides take the Common Misconceptions test and triangulating news from sources with different perspectives. I recommend becoming familiar with the Metaliteracy Framework, which emphasizes the importance of becoming a responsible citizen and ethical consumer, sharer, and creator of information, both individually and collaboratively. The Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative has developed a number of free online tools, from short videos on YouTube to fun quests to more extensive Coursera MOOCs (massive open online courses), all of which provide a great introduction to the learning domains, roles, and characteristics of metaliterate learners—people who know to be skeptical about information until it is assessed. This list of resources was originally offered in the form of a blog post, but is now the first item under the Metaliteracy in Practice tab. Kudos to Kelsey O’Brien for the design of the resource list.
A second approach, related to metaliteracy, is to shift one’s thinking away from cognitive biases and towards open inquiry and curiosity. There are a number of new initiatives, such as the Open Mind non-profit which offers tools that “equip people with the mindset and skillset to communicate constructively across differences.”
Metaliteracy.org 