Metaliteracy Featured at the Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Global program

The application of metaliteracy in a Digital Arts course at SUNY Empire State College about Ethics of Digital Art & Design was featured at the 2022 Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) Global program. IELOL Global is a leadership development program that is facilitated by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) and features narratives about collaborative work in relation to both local and global digital learning initiatives. Tom Mackey was invited to share a story about his teaching of metaliteracy in relation to one of the the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He presented Reflections on Quality Education: From Cyprus to Online to the 2022 cohort during the “Discovery Phase” of the program. The presentation explores the translation of a blended, international residency about Ethics of Digital Art and Design into a fully online course in the Digital Arts. He wrote about this course previously in an essay entitled “Translating a Blended Cyprus Residency Study in the Digital Arts to Online” for All About Mentoring, a SUNY Empire State college publication.

Mackey, T. P., “Translating a Blended Cyprus Residency Study in the Digital Arts to Online” All About Mentoring Issue 55 Autumn 2021, (pp. 37-42).

New Metaliteracy Book Reviewed in the Latest Journal of Information Literacy

Now that Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers has been published, what do the critics think? We were thrilled to read this review of our new book written by Jodie R Heap from Staffordshire University in the latest issue of Journal of Information Literacy, one of the premiere journals in the field!

According to Heap’s book review of Metaliteracy in a Connected World:

The flow of the text works well to introduce the reader to the concepts surrounding metaliteracy and then proceeds to provide evidence and a variety of examples of metaliteracy in action within Higher Education settings. The reader is supported in their understanding of how application of the metaliteracy framework and concepts could vary depending on the course. The activity section deserves particular appreciation —it provides various examples through which the framework could be applied, a useful scaffolding tool which not many texts offer.

(Heap, 2022, p. 131)

The reviewer provides an analysis of all six of the book’s chapters and argues that “It offers a useful jumping off point for both teachers and librarians in exploring the application of metaliteracy in the classroom” (Heap, 2022, p. 132).

We appreciate this review of our latest metaliteracy book published by ALA Neal-Schuman and look forward to seeing how it is received by authors and practitioners in the field and beyond. If you are aware of other reviews, feel free to send them our way!

Tom and Trudi

HEAP, Jodie R. Book review of Mackey, T., and Jacobson, T. 2022. Metaliteracy in a connected world: Developing learners as producers. Journal of Information Literacy, [S.l.], v. 16, n. 1, p. 131-132, june 2022. ISSN 1750-5968. Available at: <https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/BR-V16-11-1>. Date accessed: 20 june 2022. doi: https://doi.org/10.11645/16.1.3217.

Metaliteracy Essay Published in SUNY Empire’s All About Mentoring 50th Anniversary Edition

A new metaliteracy essay by Tom Mackey entitled “Translating a Blended Cyprus Residency Study in the Digital Arts to Online” is featured in the latest edition of All About Mentoring (Issue 55 Autumn 2021, pp. 37-42) published by SUNY Empire State College.

The article explores how metaliteracy informed the design of a course entitled Ethics of Digital Art and Design for the international Cyprus Residency offered in the summer of 2019 (see class photo). The development of the residency study as an online course for the Digital Arts curriculum at SUNY Empire State College is explored as well.

A discussion of Linkr Education and how it is incorporated in the online version is provided. Metaliterate learners develop professional profiles and produce multimedia publications about course themes in the Linkr Education learning environment.

The application of metaliteracy in both learning experiences is central to the course description, learning outcomes, and learning activities. The relationship between each course is examined and practical insights are provided about how to embed metaliteracy into learning design in multimodal settings.

Embedding Metaliteracy in Learning Design to Advance Metacognitive Thinking: From OER to MOOCs

As part of this year’s European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL 2021), Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson presented the paper “Embedding Metaliteracy in Learning Design to Advance Metacognitive Thinking: From OER to MOOCs.” The full-text version of the paper is available via ResearchGate. According to the abstract:

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.

Tom and Trudi

Videos of Metaliteracy Talks at SUNY CIT 2021 Now Available

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

The slideshows for each presentation are available via a previous blog posting entitled Metaliteracy Presentations at SUNY Virtual Conference on Instruction & Technology (CIT). If you have questions about either talk or would like to share your own experience applying these concepts just let us know.

Tom and Trudi

New Metaliteracy Book to be Published in Summer 2021

The new metaliteracy book written by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson will be published by ALA/Neal Schuman in summer 2021!

The fourth metaliteracy book in a series is entitled Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers and will focus specifically on the metaliterate learner as informed and ethical producer of information in collaborative social settings. The Foreword to this book will be written by Jako Olivier, UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning, and OER Professor in Multimodal Learning, North-West University, South Africa.

In this newest book in their series, the authors carefully examine the central role of learners as producers of information, a foundational idea for the metaliteracy framework and one that’s more important than ever in our current media and information environment. They emphasize the active role today’s learners play as individual and collaborative metaliterate producers of information in various forms, including writing, digital stories, digital artifacts, and multimedia productions. The authors explore a range of connected social settings from online courses to social media to open learning environments. 

(https://www.alastore.ala.org/mlitproducers)

We are excited to announce the forthcoming publication of our next book and will provide updates via Metaliteracy.org as we get closer to the publication date so stay tuned!

Best,

Tom and Trudi

Metaliteracy Keynote to be Featured at International Online Conference

Registration is now open for the online conference Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy that will feature a keynote presentation on metaliteracy by Profs. Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson on January 30, 2021. This first metaliteracy keynote of the new year will explore The Role of Metaliteracy in Designing Open Learning Initiatives.

This international conference is a part of the  “Intercultural perspectives on Information Literacy” project that “pursues the goal of establishing a common learning space in which students from different countries can learn together and thus fundamentally build up intercultural competence” (About the project). This project is a collaboration between the Department for Information Science and Natural Language Processing, Hildesheim University Germany and Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce Pune, India. The project team is led by project manager Prof. Dr. Joachim Griesbaum, Hildesheim University.

As noted in the keynote description:

The metaliteracy model supports the design of open learning initiatives by reinforcing the value of ethical and responsible information production and sharing, and by scaffolding learners as they step into new roles that accompany open learning opportunities. These scenarios often include the opportunity to design and contribute to the communal learning environment. This presentation will describe the metaliteracy model and its intersections with open learning, and conclude by showcasing two initiatives that embody this approach.

As part of this presentation, Profs. Mackey and Jacobson will discuss the metaliteracy model within the context of today’s complex information environment. The presentation will reference the two recently published articles in Communications in Information Literacy, including Analyzing Information Sources Through the Lens of the ACRL Framework: A Case Study of Wikipedia by Prof. Jacobson and Embedding Metaliteracy in the Design of a Post-Truth MOOC: Building Communities of Trust by Prof. Mackey.

The full conference program is available here: https://ipil.blog.uni-hildesheim.de/conference-programme/.

We look forward to seeing you bright and early at 5:30am EST on January 30, 2021!

Tom and Trudi

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.