Category Archives: badging

New Metaliteracy Keynotes in June 2016!

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Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson both presented on metaliteracy in June at two separate keynote presentations during the same week! Tom presented Developing Metaliteracy to Engage Citizens in a Connected World at the University of Delaware Summer Faculty Institute 2016 and Trudi presented Envisioning the Possibilities: Educational Trends and Information Literacy in Academic Libraries at the 3er Congreso de Bibliotecas Universitarias y Especializadas in Santiago, Chile! Trudi’s presentation also considered new modes and methods of teaching (including digital badges and MOOCs) and the ACRL Framework. Trudi’s slides are available via SlideShare. Tom’s keynote is available online at the SFI 2016 Sessions Recording Page and his slides are available via SlideShare and this blog posting.

Metaliteracy featured at Cedar Crest College Summer Workshop

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We are looking forward to presenting at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Wednesday August 19.  The topic of our collaborative workshop will be: Expanding Metaliteracy Across the Curriculum to Advance Lifelong Civic Engagement.  Here’s the description for what we plan to do:

Metaliteracy is a reinvention of information literacy to promote reflective learning, active and critical participation in social settings, including social media, and the ability to adapt to emerging technologies. This is a dynamic reframing of information literacy with an expanded set of learning goals and objectives that could be applied across the curriculum to support metacognitive reflection, and learners as informed consumers and collaborative producers of information. Metaliteracy has influenced the development of the new Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, signaling wider support for this model and increasing adoption in diverse educational settings. Metaliteracy has sparked the development of several collaborative projects initiated by Mackey and Jacobson and their colleagues in the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative, including a digital badging system and three Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Metaliterate learners, who apply integrated competencies related to evaluating, consuming, and producing information in participatory environments, will be better prepared for college level learning and lifelong civic engagement. This workshop will define metaliteracy, discuss the four domains of metaliteracy and related learning goals and objectives, and examine how this approach has been applied in the curricular design of several innovative projects such as competency based digital badging and three MOOCs. Participants will have a chance during the workshop to envisage opportunities to enhance students’ metaliteracy abilities, and to share these ideas with other attendees.

One of the presenters for this workshop, Trudi E. Jacobson, was co-chair of the ACRL Task Force with Craig Gibson (The Ohio State University). She will describe the new metaliteracy-informed ACRL Framework and its definition of information literacy. This interactive portion of the workshop will be an opportunity to engage with the Framework and consider how it might inform collaborations between disciplinary faculty members and librarians. We will provide an opportunity for participants to grapple with more easily implemented changes and the metaliteracy underpinnings of the frame content to really build upon the content examined throughout the day.

Presentation on MOOCs and Badges at SUNY CIT

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The Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative presented on the culmination of their work over the past year for an Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) at SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology on May 28th. A panel composed of all eight members of the grant team, including PIs Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson and co-PIs Kathleen Stone, Michele Forte, Amy McQuigge, Kelsey O’Brien, Allison Hosier and Jenna Pitera, discussed the development of two MOOCs on two different platforms, both of which were supported by the metaliteracy learning objectives. Designing Innovative Online Learning: An Investigation of Digital Badges Integration with Two MOOC Platforms offered insights about the collaborative development and facilitation of both the Coursera and Canvas MOOCs and the extent to which we were able to integrate the Metaliteracy Badges.

Registration Now Open for New MOOC, Empowering Yourself as a Digital Citizen

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Our Canvas MOOC, Empowering Yourself as a Digital Citizen, is set to begin on March 23.  This MOOC is based on the Digital Citizen badge in the Metaliteracy Badging System. The course lasts 6 weeks, and at the end of it, participants who have completed their work will earn the Digital Citizen Badge. Registration is limited to 500 in this MOOC, so sign up soon if you are interested. Here’s a video to get a sneak peek.

Second SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant Supports Metaliteracy

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A team from Empire State College, SUNY and the University at Albany was awarded a Tier 3 SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) for 2014-2015. This $60,000 grant, Designing Innovative Online Learning: Integrating a Coursera MOOC with Open SUNY Badging, is funding several initiatives focused on metaliteracy and badging.

As described in the grant proposal, “This project merges two innovative and flexible learning models: a metaliteracy Coursera MOOC open to all SUNY students, and its integration with competency-based badging. This unified approach to learning appeals to students and employers alike, and serves as a robust model to advance Open SUNY.” In addition, the funding will provide the means to develop a community of support for SUNY faculty interested in developing Open SUNY badging initiatives.

The team, led by Trudi Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian at the University at Albany, and Tom Mackey, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Programs at Empire State College, is building upon strengths developed from their 2012-2013 IITG-funded projects. They and members of the Metaliteracy Collaborative developed a connectivist MOOC that was offered in the fall of 2013, and they have created a very rich digital badging system based on the metaliteracy learning objectives.

Additional members of the grant team are Kelsey O’Brien (project director), Jenna Hecker, and Allison Hosier from the University at Albany, and Michele Forte, Kathleen Stone, Amy McQuigge, and Dana Longley from Empire State College.Three graduate students at the University at Albany’s School of Education,, Andrea Beukema, Brandon West, and Carmita Sanchez-Fong, will assist. Samuel Abramovich from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Learning and Instruction will oversee a MOOC-related research study.

Speaking of MOOCs, the team will offer not just one MOOC during spring 2015, but rather two! This came about because Coursera is currently unable to offer the functionality the team needed to integrate the badges with the MOOC. However, due to their high profile in the MOOC arena, and their selection as the platform of choice for SUNY, the team is adapting its original intentions in order to proceed with the planned course.The Coursera MOOC will feature a longer (10-week) learning opportunity that utilizes the high-end videos common to many of the company’s offerings, and will address a range of the metaliteracy learning objectives. Kathleen Stone is overseeing the Coursera component of the grant. This MOOC will begin in February 2015.

The Canvas MOOC will vary in several ways.  It will be shorter, probably 5 weeks, and will start in March. It will focus on one of the four main areas of metaliteracy, Digital Citizen. Those who enroll in this MOOC will be working their way through a shareable badge, one that they can display via Credly.There is great interest in determining what impact the badging will have on student motivation, and what can be learned comparing the two different platforms and courses.

More details about the MOOCs and other grant-funded projects will be posted soon.

 

Metaliteracy Webinar for ALA eLearning Series

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In June we presented a webinar on metaliteracy for the ALA Editions eLearning series.  The slides are now available on Slideshare.  This presentation features several new pieces in support of our new book Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners.

Video of 2014 CT IL Conference Keynote

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This is the YouTube video of our metaliteracy keynote at the 2014 Connecticut Information Literacy Conference. All of the presentation videos are available via the conference web site. The metaliteracy keynote slides are also available on slideshare.

Photo Gallery from Recent Metaliteracy Keynote

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In June we presented the keynote address at the Connecticut Information Literacy Conference sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association.  Thanks to the conference organizers for sending us several pictures from that event!  We really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with everyone at the conference.  Click on any image to see the full gallery.

Metaliteracy Keynote at Connecticut Information Literacy Conference

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We enjoyed presenting this year’s keynote at the Connecticut Information Literacy Conference sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association. This year’s conference explored Our New Frontier: Metaliteracy, Threshold Concepts, New Standards, and Other Wild Ideas and our keynote addressed Crossing the Threshold: Envisioning Information Literacy through the Lens of Metaliteracy.  We were thrilled that metaliteracy was a key part of this year’s theme and we appreciated all of the great conversations! Trudi Jacobson also presented an afternoon breakout session “Threshold Concepts: Exploring the Potential and the Challenges for Information Literacy Instruction” based on her work as co-chair of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force.

Video Recording of 2014 IL Summit Keynote

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Thanks to Troy Swanson Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College for posting the video of our keynote Changing Models, Changing Emphases: The Evolution of Information Literacy at the 2014 IL Summit.  We enjoyed our time at the summit and appreciate this opportunity to share the video.