Category Archives: open learning

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.

http://video214.com/play/Lt0WHewZ6wgih3CbJDquwg/s/dark

Metaliteracy Presentation Videos from CIT2014

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The SUNY wide Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT 2014) recently published the presentation videos from this year’s event at Cornell University. We developed a presentation with colleagues from the University at Albany and Empire State College based on last year’s Metaliteracy MOOC. This video features Michele Forte, Nicola Allain, Jenna Pitera and Tom Mackey (Trudi Jacobson was presenting a keynote at the Cornell University Library the same week).  Here’s the link to the video now available via the CIT2014 site: Metaliteracy in Practice: Strengthening Learning Through a Connectivist MOOC.  Tom Mackey was also part of a featured panel presentation about MOOCs with SUNY colleagues from Stony Brook who developed a Coursera MOOC.  This was an excellent chance to discuss our connectivist MOOC in comparison with a Coursera MOOC.  The video for this panel presentation is also available:  Beyond the Front Row Experience: Blending a University Course with a MOOC.  The keynote speaker for the conference was Daphe Koller from Coursera: The Online Revolution: Learning without Limits.  Toward the end of Daphne Koller’s keynote, look for questions from Betty Hurley and Nicola Allain from Empire State College and Jenna Pitera from the University at Albany.

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 Discussed at Westchester Library Association Mid-Winter Conference 2014

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Tom Mackey presented on the topic Promoting Access for All with Open and Online Learning at the Westchester Library Association Mid-Winter Conference at The Gateway Center at Westchester Community College.  The theme of this year’s conference explored distance education and also featured Linda Braun, youth services Manager for Seattle Public Library, and keynote speaker Joe Nocera, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and commentator for NPR’s Weekend Edition.  The one-day conference featured Linda Braun’s use of Google Hangouts, Tom Mackey’s discussion about open and online learning, MOOCs, OERs, and Metaliteracy and Joe Nocera’s keynote about digital privacy.   This is the complete PowerPoint presentation by Tom Mackey:

Metaliteracy MOOC about to launch!

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Registration is now open for a new Metaliteracy MOOC offered by SUNY Empire State College and the University Libraries at the University at Albany. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will launch this Wednesday, September 4. It is based on the metaliteracy framework developed by Dean Tom Mackey from the Center for Distance Learning (CDL) at Empire State College and Distinguished Librarian Trudi E. Jacobson from the University Libraries at UAlbany.  Mackey and Jacobson introduced the metaliteracy model, a reinvention of information literacy for open learning and social media environments in their article “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy” published in College & Research Libraries.  They are currently finishing a book on the topic entitled Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacies to Empower Learners for ALA Books. The Metaliteracy MOOC will be co facilitated by Mackey and Jacobson, as well as Jenna Hecker and Tor Loney from UAlbany, and Nicola Marae Allain and Carol Yeager from Empire State College.

Live webinars presented by scholars from around the world will be featured in Metaliteracy “MOOC Talks” that promote interaction and dialogue about related topics such as metacognition, open learning, visual literacy, news literacy, scientific literacy, transliteracy, global perspectives on literacy, digital storytelling, and STEMx.

Presenters include: Char Booth, Instruction Services Manager & E-Learning Librarian at the Claremont Colleges Library, R. Brian Stone, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University, Alton Grizzle, Programme Officer in Communication and Information at UNESCO, Paul Prinsloo, Education Consultant and Editor of Progressio: South African Journal for Open and Distance Learning Practice at University of South Africa, Rex Smith, Editor of the Albany Times Union, Bryan Alexander, researcher and publisher of Future Trends in Technology and Education at BryanAlexander.org and Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), Sue Thomas, author of Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace, and HP Catalyst Fellows Anthony Maddox, Holly Ludgate, and Samantha Adams Becker.

Several sessions will be co-presented by SUNY colleagues including: John Delano, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University at Albany, Mark McBride, Director of Library Services, Monroe Community College, Nicola Marae Allain, Faculty Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator for Humanities/Digital Media at CDL, Michele Forte, Faculty Mentor in Community and Human Services at CDL, and Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator in Science Math and Technology at CDL and HP Catalyst Fellow.

In addition to being an entirely free format that is open to participants worldwide, Metaliteracy MOOC will connect courses for credit at the University at Albany with undergraduate and graduate independent studies at Empire State College.  At UAlbany, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, and Jenna Hecker will teach with the MOOC as part of UUNL300x (2 credit) and UUNL205x (1 credit).  At Empire State College, Tom Mackey and Carol Yeager will co-facilitate undergraduate guided independent studies based on the MOOC.  CDL Faculty Mentor and Academic Area Coordinator Nicola Marae Allain will offer a research-based guided independent study entitled “MOOC Metacognitive Analysis” (3 credit) for graduate students in the Master of Arts in Learning and Emerging Technologies (MALET) in the School for Graduate Studies.

 Metaliteracy MOOC is designed and co-facilitated by Carol Yeager, who developed the first two MOOCs for Empire State College and the SUNY system with Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, Creativity and Multicultural Communication and VizMath.    The new Metaliteracy MOOC was built on the same gRSShopper programming developed by Stephen Downes, one of the originators of the MOOC movement and previous keynote speaker at the CDL Conference.  Technical support for the MOOC is provided by Retsam Zhang, Guangdong Province, China.

Meta or MEGA literacy!

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Metaliteracy has been featured recently in two new publications.  A new UNESCO document entitled Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies (2013) provides a brief definition of metaliteracy and makes it central to the conclusion.  According to this new publication:

As an umbrella term, it covers many of the other literacies. It also seems to overlap with new literacies such as multiliteracies and global literacy. It is a metaliteracy. It is transversal in its nature and can be seen as an iceberg concept which is much bigger than what it is seen at first sight. Information literacy can be easily called a megaliteracy which is composed of many other skills and literacies (p. 85).

As a comprehensive and unifying metaliteracy, the idea of a megaliteracy is not needed, since the the meta already encompasses this idea.  But this is an intriguing way to look at it and certainly addresses the interconnected nature of emerging literacies.  Great to see metaliteracy brought into the conversation.

We also note another new publication from Betty Hurley-Dasgupta, Carol Yeager, and Catherine Bliss from SUNY Empire State College about the first MOOC they offered in the SUNY System entitled Creativity and Multicultural Communication.  The authors make several references to metaliteracy in their article cMOOC and Global Learning: An Authentic Alternative in The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN).  According to the authors,

Clearly, we need to scaffold the development of metaliteracy skills for learning through cMOOCs. Some scaffolding could be accomplished by incorporating more self-assessment into the MOOC. For future MOOCs, we plan to incorporate shared rubrics to help participants assess their own metaliteracy skills, (Yeager, et.al, 2013, p. 144).

This is an important point that demonstrates the potential impact of a metaliteracy perspective on the cMOOC learning experience, and how learners could gain new insights and knowledge in these open and collaborative spaces.  We definitely need metaliteracy rubrics for MOOCs to enhance the experience for independent and collaborative learners.

Designing Learning Activities to Promote Metaliteracy

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As part of Tom Mackey’s workshop at NELIG 2013, this short :30 video was created on the fly using the Animoto app on a smartphone. This was a quick and easy demo that showed the possibility of producing and sharing information in creative ways, either in the classroom or online. It is based on one of the tools used in the course Digital Storytelling at Empire State College. Workshop participants explored several questions in teams related to the challenges applying technology in Designing Learning Activities to Promote Metaliteracy.

Metaliteracy Presentation at Dartmouth College

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Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey presented Reimagining Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy: Empowering Learners for Participation, Collaboration, and Reflection at the New England Library Instruction Group Annual Program at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.  Both presenters also conducted workshops: Trudi engaged participants in team-based learning with “What a Wonderful World: What Team-based Learning Brings to Metaliteracy Instruction” and Tom led a discussion on “Designing Learning Activities to Promote Metaliteracy” in blended and online learning environments.

Keynote address at SOCHE in Dayton, Ohio

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We are presenting the keynote address at this year’s Southwestern Ohio Conference for Higher Education (SOCHE) Library Conference.  The theme of the conference is  Transitions in Learning: Preparing Engaged Students for the E-Learning Environment.  Our collaborative keynote will examine  Reinventing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy for E-Learning. We are also presenting two workshops: Trudi will conduct a workshop on team-based learning and Tom will facilitate a conversation about using emerging technologies in E-Learning.  The keynote address shows metaliteracy as an evolving concept.  We expand on previous talks with material from the new book we are working on and examples of student work that embody the metaliteracy concept of learner-centered production of information in participatory environments.