Developing Metaliteracy to Teach and Learn with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

This year’s Annual Meeting of the Alabama Association of College & Research Libraries (AACRL) featured a presentation by Tom Mackey entitled Developing Metaliteracy to Teach and Learn with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). The talk explores the challenges of GenAI including issues related to authoring, accuracy, and attribution and reviews two models for AI Literacy. In addition, the metaliteracy framework is discussed as a comprehensive approach to support teaching and learning with GenAI. As examples of metaliteracy in practice, student images that applied GenAI are introduced from the course Ethics of Digital Art and Design in the Digital Media Arts Program at Empire State University.

Here’s the complete slide deck for the presentation:

Translation of Metaliteracy Interview for RSG Radio

An English translation of the metaliteracy interview for the RSG Radio Program has been prepared by Jako Olivier, UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER at North West University (NWU), South Africa.

Trudi Jacobson Tom Mackey and Jako Olivier (pictured to the right in 2019 at NWU in South Africa) discuss metaliteracy on Sunday August 2, 2020 at 9:30am EST (15:30 South African time).

Download the English translation of the interview here:

The discussion is moderated by Johannes Van Lill, for the RSG radio show, Ons en die onderwys (‘We and Education’). While Tom’s and Trudi’s responses are in English, the program is in Afrikaans. Jako’s translation of the program will allow you to read along with the initial interview on Sunday at http://www.rsg.co.za/ or if you download the podcast after the event at https://lnkd.in/d-hCeDN.

Our first blog post about the interview featured two audio previews, and here are two additional responses from Tom and Trudi based on the questions posed by Johannes Van Lill:

Which characteristics should a metaliterate learner have?

“Metaliterate learners start to see themselves as producers of information as they strive toward the productive characteristic for creating content in a variety of media formats.” – Tom Mackey

What implications does metaliteracy have for teachers and parents in the school context?

“Promoting metaliteracy in students has the potential to empower them in their interactions with information and their engagement with others.” -Trudi Jacobson

We hope that you join us for this opportunity to engage with an international audience about metaliteracy and welcome any feedback and insights you have based on the conversation!

Metaliteracy Interview on RSG International Radio Program

Jako Olivier, UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER invited Trudi Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian and Head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, SUNY and Tom Mackey, Professor of Arts and Media at SUNY Empire State College to participate in a discussion about metaliteracy on the RSG radio show, Ons en die onderwys (‘We and Education’) on Sunday August 2, 2020 at 9:30am EST (15:30 South African time). Johannes Van Lill, Director of Wordwise Media & VJC, RSG Presenter, journalist and communication specialist will lead the discussion and interview Jako, Trudi, and Tom as part of the program. While Tom and Trudi’s portions will be in English, the rest of the discussion will be in Afrikaans.

Listen live to the interview with Tom, Jako, and Trudi (pictured to the left at last year’s ICIL conference in South Africa) at http://www.rsg.co.za/ (click on the red button marked ‘LUISTER NOU’) or download the podcast afterwards at https://lnkd.in/d-hCeDN.

RSG has over 1.3 million listeners who might tune into their radios, and the Sunday afternoon programs in particular are the most widely listened and together with the online listeners and podcast downloads the total listener number might be closer to 2 million people. RSG is broadcast all over South Africa and because it is the most popular and main national Afrikaans-speaking radio station it covers a very wide demographic. RSG also has many listeners from the country of Namibia (where Afrikaans is also spoken widely) as well as online with local and Afrikaans-speaking expatriates. 

Here’s an audio preview of two of the responses from Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson as part of the interview:

What is Metaliteracy?

“Metaliteracy is an approach to teaching and learning that places individuals at the center of a reflective and active process for producing new knowledge.” – Tom Mackey

Why is metaliteracy relevant for education today?

“Metaliteracy is ultimately about a multi-faceted discovery process that leads to learning and self-knowledge.” – Trudi Jacobson

Listen in on Sunday, August 2 at 9:30am EST for the full interview with Jako Olivier and Johannes Van Lill!

After the broadcast, the full recording will be available as a downloadable podcast here:
http://www.rsg.co.za/Program-Vorige/60/Ons-en-die-onderwys. The program is available via the link ‘Laai die mp3 af’ or check the Google Translate English version of the same page.

Metaliteracy Recording from LIT Virtual Conference Now Online

Image of Webex recording of metaliteracy presentation.

The Webex recording of the metaliteracy presentation at the Learning with Innovative Technology (LIT) Conference Virtual Conference is now available online. The session recording entitled Preparing Metaliterate Learners for the College Environment with SUNY’s iSucceed College Success Course by Trudi Jacobson, Kelsey O’Brien and Tom Mackey examines the metaliteracy module designed for the Lumen Learning iSucceed College Success course.

This fully open and flexible resource was developed for SUNY OER Services and is adaptable to both K-12 and higher education settings.The presentation explores the current learning environment, including the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, provides an overview of the iSucceed College Success Course, and takes a deep dive into the metaliteracy module based on the metaliteracy framework. Several suggestions for adapting the metaliteracy module to your setting are discussed. This talk also refers to openly available resources for teaching with metaliteracy, including videos, interactive learning objects, and specific segments from the iSucceed module.

All of the slides from the presentation Preparing Metaliterate Learners for the College Environment with SUNY’s iSucceed College Success Course are available as well. The LIT conference web site at SUNY Empire State College includes this presentation, along with all of the recorded presentations from this event.

Metaliteracy Keynote Features Open Resources for Teaching and Learning at a Distance

Tom and Trudi at Virtual Keynote

Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey keynoted on Teaching Metaliteracy as a Vital Literacy for Today’s Digital World at the Edge consortium’s Annual Teaching with Technology Showcase: Excellence in Action on April 24. This conference was transitioned to a virtual format as a result of the COVID-19 crisis and the presentation includes open resources that are available to faculty and librarians who have transitioned to online and remote teaching during this crisis. The keynote also features adaptable reflective questions about the information we consume, produce, and share at a time when accurate and reliable information is more important than ever. Trudi and Tom were invited to keynote by Nancy Zimmerman, Executive Director for EdgeEvents and Print Communications. Edge is the regional technology partner for colleges and universities in New Jersey. If you have any questions about the slides or would like to continue the conversation let us know!

Metaliteracy Resources for Online or Remote Teaching & Learning

As educators respond to the COVID-19 crisis and transition to online and remote learning, or expand what they are doing at a distance, consider several metaliteracy resources that are adaptable for these purposes. We’ve seen an increase in the use of our MOOCs during these unprecedented times and would like to highlight those resources and other OER that were designed for teaching and learning with metaliteracy:

iSucceed College Success – SUNY OER Services recently launched this expanded College Success course with a new metaliteracy module to prepare students for the college environment. The Metaliteracy Module is adaptable to K-12 and college environments and provides open content, learning objects, videos, and assignments that are adaptable to your educational setting.

Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World – This was our first Coursera MOOC that introduces metaliteracy and was recently revised with updated content and streamlined to a four-module format.

Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World – This Coursera MOOC addresses the challenges of the post-truth world and is especially relevant now that accurate and reliable information is paramount during this global pandemic.

Metaliteracy Digital Badging – All of the content developed for our Metaliteracy Digital Badging system is openly available to apply online and through remote learning.

Metaliteracy Learning Goals and Objectives – This resource is at the heart of metaliteracy and has undergone revisions to address post-truth issues while expanding to include several new translations to address the international interest in metalieracy.

Metaliterate Learner Roles – This diagram features the essential metaliterate learner roles and associated questions that spark reflection and online discussion in multiple disciplines.

Metaliteracy and Your Role as a Metaliterate Learner – This resource also features the learner roles and the four domains of metaliteracy and features reflective questions written and shared by Professor Sally Friedman, University at Albany.

Metaliterate Learner Characteristics – This interactive learning object highlights the characteristics that individuals strive toward as they develop as metaliterate learners.

Metaliterate Learner Characteristics Aligned with the ACRL Framework Dispositions – This open model is ideal for faculty and librarians teaching information literacy with the ACRL Framework while incorporating key elements of metaliteracy.

Metaliteracy YouTube Channel– All of the videos we’ve created for our MOOC projects are openly available in one location via the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative YouTube Channel.

Additional resources are available through this blog and if you would like to share any open metaliteracy resources that you have developed be sure to let us know.

Take care and be well during this challenging time.

Tom, Trudi, and Kelsey

Two Revised Metaliteracy MOOCs Launch on Coursera

AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept. 3D illustration.Two Metaliteracy MOOCs are now available for registration via the Coursera platform. First, our original Coursera MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World has been streamlined and enhanced with new video content, resources, and learning activities. Learners will be introduced to the metaliteracy model, learn about copyright, intellectual property, and open-licensing through the Creative Commons, and explore digital storytelling as a creative form of information production. By the end of this MOOC, learners will see themselves as content creators and develop a digital artifact or story of their own. Registration for this MOOC is open now for launch on October 14, 2019.

Second, the recently revised Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World MOOC is being offered on Coursera for the first time. Registration is open now for immediate launch. This course explores a wide range of issues related to the post-truth world and empowers learners to think about the role of experts in society, examine false representations in constructed media, reflect on their own biases, and explore ways to build collaborative communities of trust and reinvent a truthful world. Learners will be empowered to raise and share their own voice by creating a digital response to the post-truth world.

Both MOOCs provide dynamic video content, updated links to open readings and resources, discussions, and interactive learning activities. The MOOCs can be explored independently, or in sequence (if new to both MOOCs, you may want to start with the Connected World and move to Post-Truth World, but either sequence is fine). These updated resources are available to teachers, students, librarians, administrators, and lifelong learners interested in applying metaliteracy to a variety of teaching and learning situations and/or everyday life. Metaliteracy supports reflective learning and the active production of new knowledge in collaborative communities.

Video on Confirmation Bias Produced as Final Project for Metaliteracy MOOC

We welcome this guest post by Christina Pratt who completed our Metaliteracy MOOC, Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World, and developed a video presentation about confirmation bias for her own YouTube series How Do you Like Your Coffee?

Getting to Know and Getting Beyond Confirmation Bias

by Christina Pratt

CoffeeVideo

Confirmation Bias Video Presentation

My final project for the Metaliteracy MOOC, Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World, focused on confirmation bias. I decided that using a visual presentation of my thoughts and ideas would give the audience a face and personality behind the presentation Getting to Know and Getting Beyond Confirmation Bias (Please do be aware that I am quite new to the video creating scene). I chose confirmation bias because everyone has beliefs, some with such strong beliefs that they tend to become “truth” or “fact.” By sharing some information about cognitive biases and ideological/filter bubbles, I felt that the audience may become more aware of their own biases and how biases are developed. I even used an example of my own confirmation bias when it comes to Apple iOS and Android smartphones to help the audience see how common confirmation bias is, and how easy it is to develop biases even with something as simple as choosing products and services.

Thinking about the course now, I think I might have focused on post-truth as well. In our busy lives, we can become oblivious to what is going on around us. We read and watch news from many sources, research for school, work, and personal needs such as  shopping and more, and we seem to ignore the misleading information at times. We also know that technology has a huge impact on our lives, but we seem to forget that it can be hurtful and damaging as well. A good example of this is the recent circulation of doctored videos of Nancy Pelosi on various social media platforms. Having taken this course, I was able to share some of the content learned in this course with the home schooled high school-aged children in the family, especially what we learned about the effects of visual aids on how we perceive a story. This is a big help with how the children will research and collect information in hopes that they will now carefully choose more reliable sources.

In closing, I am fifty years old. At my age, sometimes you feel that you have learned all you need to know. This course has definitely proved me wrong. Touché. Even more, the course, Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World was the most influential and inspiring course that I have taken throughout my four-year academic journey. The information that I learned from the course will be most helpful not only with helping the home schooled children in the family become more aware of biases and the less than reliable information that exists, but also with passing information onto viewers of my videos. I think one of the best things about this course is the interaction between peers. This interaction adds energy, ideas, and useful information to an already well constructed course. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who does a lot of research, provides information, and teaches in any field, but even more so, I believe that anyone, child to adult, could benefit greatly from this course.