Category Archives: digital citizen

Metaliteracy MOOCs Continue to Reach Learners Internationally

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Since the launch of our two Coursera MOOCs, Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World in 2016, and Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World in 2019, we have reached learners from around the world. So far, the first MOOC has enrolled 4,870 learners and the second has had 3,549 total learners worldwide. At times, we have been lucky enough to hear directly from the participants who successfully completed one or both of the MOOCs. Recently, Dr. Haleema Anwar from CMH Lahore Medical College and Institute of Dentistry in Lahore, Pakistan contacted us about her experience with the Coursera MOOC Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World. According to Haleema:

I am a final-year medical student, a researcher, and an author. I discovered the MOOC while going through the recommendation of courses for me on my app. This was a topic I wanted insight into. 

I learned that there is a diverse variety of roles that a person can take to create a community of trust in a Post truth world- leading to  prosperity.

Thank you!

Haleema Anwar

As part of the MOOC experience, participants apply the “learner as producer” role of metaliteracy to create a final digital media project. We share with permission, Haleema’s final project for the MOOC entitled “Metaliteracy in Action”:

Haleema describes this project in the following way:

This mind map is to walk us through the idea of meta-literacy and its practical implication.

The credit for the content is directed to a course by SUNY “Empowering yourself in a post-truth world”, a course I found on Coursera.

A central theme I learned is- “meta literacy is an integrated model for us to be a lifelong learner and to create a truthful community”

-Haleema Anwar

Thanks to Haleema for sharing such valuable insights about metaliteracy after completing our Coursera MOOC.

We always welcome this kind of feedback about our open metaliteracy projects! If you complete one of our MOOCs or any of our Metaliteracy Learning Resources, feel free to drop us a line and let us know if you would like to share your work via our blog.

To explore an analysis of the Post-Truth MOOC and how it was designed, read Embedding Metaliteracy in the Design of a Post-Truth MOOC: Building Communities of Trust (Mackey, 2020) in Communications in Information Literacy. 

Best,

Tom and Trudi

Metaliteracy in a Connected World Book Published by ALA Publishing!

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The new book co-authored by Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson entitled Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers has been published by ALA Neal Schuman! The idea of learner as producer is foundational to the metaliteracy framework and is explored in depth in this new publication.

The book’s Foreword is written by Jako Olivier, UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning, and OER Professor in Multimodal Learning, North-West University, South Africa.

According to the press release from ALA Publishing, the new metaliteracy book “offers an overview of the development of the metaliterate producer through metaliteracy’s goals, learning objectives, learning domains, active learner roles, and associated characteristics” and “explores the ways in which metaliteracy provides scaffolding for open pedagogical settings, encouraging students to understand and embrace their active roles,” among other highlights.

The new book examines metaliteracy in relation to such timely and relevant themes as self-directed learning, multimodality, open pedagogy, digital citizenship, and developing a growth mindset. Metaliteracy in a Connected World is organized into six related chapters:

Chapter 1: Metaliteracy for Empowering Learners as Producers

Chapter 2: Engaging Metaliterate Producers through Multimodal Learning

Chapter 3: Metaliteracy and Open Pedagogy

Chapter 4: Developing Metaliterate Producers Using Open Pedagogy

Chapter 5: Designing an Online Metaliteracy Course to Engage Informed Producers

Chapter 6: Developing Productive Metaliterate Citizens with Growth Mindsets

This is the fourth book about metaliteracy and presents a fully realized model that has developed considerably since we first introduced the concept in 2011. We look forward to your feedback and welcome the opportunity to engage with audiences about the themes examined in each chapter!

Tom and Trudi

Metaliteracy Discussed on The Academic Minute—Again!

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Trudi Jacobson is featured on a segment for NPR’s The Academic Minute that was first presented on December 15, 2021: Renewable Assignments, Wikipedia, and Metaliteracy.

In this new segment, Trudi discusses the value of renewable assignments, i.e., assignments in which students create content that is useful to others, not meant simply for their professors’ eyes alone. Such assignments help individuals to become metaliterate learners and responsible digital citizens. Her example involves editing content in Wikipedia and the important scaffolding that metaliteracy can provide. If you get a chance, listen (or read it, the text is provided). The Academic Minute is produced for NPR by our local WAMC public radio station.

This is the second time metaliteracy has been featured on the program. Tom Mackey’s segment, Metaliterate Learners, aired on May 18, 2020.

New Metaliteracy Article Published in C&RL News

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Are you embracing and advocating for metaliteracy?

Read the new article by Valerie J. Hill and Thomas P. Mackey published in College & Research Libraries News entitled Embracing Metaliteracy: Metamodern libraries and virtual learning communities to explore the benefits of engaging with metaliteracy in today’s fractured information environment. This essay explores the theory of metamodernism and virtual library communities through the lens of metaliteracy. According to Hill and Mackey:

As educators strive to deal with this information flood in a world of partisan politics and questionable content, critical and reflective thinking are required to better understand this philosophical moment and one’s role in it. Metaliteracy promotes the development of metaliterate digital citizens who are civic-minded and effectively produce content in a participatory networked culture (Hill & Mackey, 2021, p. 220).

As part of this article, the Community Virtual Library (CVL) in Second Life is analyzed through the four primary goals of metaliteracy. Valerie J. Hill is the director of the CVL and provides insights about related programming in this virtual library community such as the annual Dickens Project that features a reading of A Christmas Carol and historical simulations.

Thanks to Trudi E. Jacobson for reading a draft of the article and providing feedback!

Hill, V., & Mackey, T. (2021). Embracing metaliteracy: Metamodern libraries and virtual learning communities. College & Research Libraries News, 82(5), 219.