Category Archives: Uncategorized

SUNY Incorporates Metaliteracy Module into Lumen Learning’s College Success Online Learning Resource

Posted on by
Reply

Metaliteracy has joined ten other learning modules in SUNY’s iSucceed version of Lumen Learning’s online College Success course: 

College Success provides new students with an orientation to the college environment. It works to build more capable lifelong learners by combining conceptual knowledge with practical strategies and skills. With engaging content and a focus on applying course concepts to real-world situations, College Success is particularly helpful for first-generation students and those entering college underprepared, academically or otherwise. This course was developed by Lumen Learning with contributing work from Linda Bruce of Goucher College, Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer and Zack Varpness of Chadron State College, and others. (https://oer.suny.edu/courses/college-success/)

SUNY OER Services provides a variety of ready-to-adopt open courses and modules. They recently announced a version of Lumen’s College Success featuring additional modules and videos that is free for all in the SUNY system (and a text version that is free to everyone). iSucceed is also available to SUNY students and instructors in two other enhanced formats: the Waymaker version (“User-friendly digital courseware with data-driven learning design, personalization, and messaging tools that can increase student engagement, persistence, and passing rates”) or Candela (“curated and outcome-aligned open educational resources (OER) in a convenient e-book format”).

The Metaliteracy module includes a number of small sections that lead learners through the metaliteracy framework while they have the opportunity to explore how it impacts their learning and the roles in which they see themselves in relation to information. Some of these sections address:

  • What metaliteracy is
  • The roles, goals, and characteristics
  • Being a metaliterate:
  • Researcher;
  • Producer and collaborator;
  • Digital citizen;
  • Lifelong learner

Interspersed throughout the content are videos, assignments (optional unless assigned by an instructor), and, in the Waymaker version, self-check quizzes.

The Metaliteracy content was created by Trudi Jacobson, Tom Mackey and Kelsey O’Brien as part of our work together in the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative. We thank Lisa Stephens of the University of Buffalo for inviting us to work on this project and Tony DeFranco of SUNY OER Services for working so closely with us. We also appreciate all the help that Diana Metcalf of Lumen Learning provided.

The other modules in the College Success course are:

  • Motivating Success
  • Goal Setting and Time Management
  • Career Exploration
  • Social Interaction and Diversity
  • Thinking and Analysis
  • Learning Styles and Strategies
  • Study Skills
  • Beyond the Classroom
  • Health Management
  • Financial Management

If you are new to open and online learning, or an experienced instructor, we encourage you to explore the Metaliteracy module and the course as a whole. These materials are adaptable to a range of settings and are also appropriate for lifelong learners seeking self-paced pathways for success!

BiblioVerifica Blog Response to Metaliteracy Post-Truth MOOC

Posted on by
Reply

We welcome this guest posting from Damiano Orrù, librarian at Vilfredo Pareto Library School of Economics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Italy. We met Damiano at the Conference on Learning Information Literacy across the Globe in Frankfurt, Germany in May 2019 and he has since completed our Metaliteracy MOOC Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World. He wrote this post in response to the Coursera MOOC as part of his own BiblioVerifica blog. Thanks to Damiano for completing our MOOC and providing these excellent resources!

BiblioVerifica Blog for Fact-checking by Citizens

Damiano Orrù, librarian at Vilfredo Pareto Library
School of Economics,  University of Rome “Tor Vergata”,  Italy

As a Coursera MOOC student, I completed the course “Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World” in 6 weeks, deepening the themes of disinformation and verification of facts and news.

All these contents and tools are useful to teach “how to spot fake news”[1] by the cognitive and behavioral domanins of Metaliteracy.  The cognitive domain of the Metaliterate Learner is important to understand information and news, analyzing sources and contexts. The behavioral domain is essential for a conscious sharing and production of content through chat, social media, e-mail, forums, blogs. Several Metaliteracy practices are excellent tools for empowering citizens to use critical thinking and to evaluate sources.

The BiblioVerifica[2] blog aims to support citizens (not just students) in the autonomous practice of fact-checking, based on open access and open data resources.  Currently, this idea embraces dissemination of open data and open access content for all fact-checkers citizens by eight librarians as editorial staff[3]. BiblioVerifica blog has developed a network of stakeholders in the library and school environment since 2017. For the future our intiative may involve teachers and librarians to develop and share open education oriented fact-chekcing practices and tools. This free digital reference activity will engage citizens and schools in Italy.  

The blog engaged citizenzs also by serious gamification app: BiblioVerifica Olympics[4] a contest based on 15 multiple choice quizzes, open to all citzens, for self assesment, available for free, without money prize or sponsor. In 2018 the first olympics quizzes covered the topics of reliable sources, verification strategies, research tools, etc…  The second edition covered the topics of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)[5] in the current year.  For the future may improve this tool for engage learners by Metaliteracy contents or debunking practices. 

Around European countries BiblioVerifica blog launched CrowdSearcher[6], an international platform supporting the European policy Tackling online disinformation[7] by open education resources, open contents, open data.

In the next weeks the BiblioVerifica bloggers will continue to support European citizens, also suggesting Metaliteracy’s tools, so useful, almost indispensable, to create tutorial and videos, serious games and infographics about media and information literacy.

This media and information literacy against misinformation is disseminated by librarians, without sponsor, without remuneration for posts or tutorial, by “BiblioVolontari“. As librarians the bloggers stick to IFLA Code of Ethics for Librarians and other Information Workers[8]:
a) access to information
b) open access and intellectual property
c) neutrality, personal integrity and professional skills

BiblioVerifica blog is open to all volunteer librarians around the world, fostering critical thinking, analysing personal BIAS, suggesting reliable sources, fighting propaganda and misinformation by empowering citizens in a Post-Truth World!

[1] https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11174

[2] http://biblioverifica.altervista.org/

[3] http://biblioverifica.altervista.org/bibliovolontari/

[4] http://biblioverifica.altervista.org/olympics/

[5] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

[6] http://crowdsearcher.altervista.org/

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/tackling-online-disinformation

[8] https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11092

post-metaliteracy-final-work-orru-damiano-2019-oct-28-2Download
orru@economia.uniroma2.it 
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7493-5648 
https://linkedin.com/in/orrudamiano
Rome, October 27th 2019

Open Pedagogy and Metaliteracy Topic of ICIL Keynote

Posted on by
Reply

bC19g0oxRyOYV6LZ+rTnmw

Trudi Jacobson keynoting at ICIL in South Africa

Trudi Jacobson gave the last international keynote address at the International Conference on Information Literacy (ICIL) at North-West University (NWU) in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa on September 26. Her topic was Creating Shareable Knowledge: Exploring the Synergy between Metaliteracy and Open Pedagogy. She spoke about the components of open educational practices, including open educational resources, open pedagogies, open learning, open sharing of teaching ideas, and open technologies. She then asked participants to put themselves in the role of a student and to consider what might be different about their learning experience if open played a role. (Their responses are here, please feel free to consider the question and add your own ideas.)

Trudi delved into how metaliteracy can both scaffold and add to student learning in open pedagogical settings, using Caroline Sinkinson’s open pedagogy model to make connections. Trudi concluded by exploring the connections in two case studies. One, which was analyzed in-depth, is an information literacy/metaliteracy course in which students contribute to Wikipedia. The second, discussed more briefly, is a political science course in which metaliteracy OER play a large role and encourage elements of open pedagogy. If interested in this latter course, look for an article next year in the International Journal of Open Educational Resources that explores this professor/librarian collaboration in more depth.

Metaliteracy/OEP Workshop at North-West University, South Africa

Posted on by
Reply

9f65612b-2238-4376-8f95-ee76b49fb0d1

Tom Mackey, Jako Olivier, and Trudi Jacobson

Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey facilitated an interactive workshop Applying Open Educational Practices to Develop Active Metaliterate Learners for faculty, librarians, and administrators on Thursday, September 19 2019 at the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University (NWU), South Africa.  Dr. Jako Olivier, UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER and Professor in Multimodal Learning at NWU invited Tom and Trudi to present this metaliteracy workshop in advance of the International Conference on Information Literacy (ICIL) in Vanderbijlpark.

Metaliteracy provides an integrated framework for student learning and growth when
implementing open educational practices (OEP). This session created an opportunity to gain familiarity with both open metaliteracy resources and sample open educational practice models that they support. Participants explored options to meet the needs of students and started to plan for possible implementation in courses and library collaborations. Teams brainstormed ways to apply metaliteracy open content to their own practices and left the session with ideas about OEP specific to their teaching, informed by feedback from colleagues.

Metaliteracy Keynotes Featured at ICIL in South Africa

Posted on by
Reply
North-West University, South Africa, host of the 2019 ICIL

Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson have been invited to South Africa as keynote speakers at the International Conference on Information Literacy (ICIL), being held this year at North-West University in Vanderbijlpark. The conference theme is Information Literacy in All Spheres of Life, and will take place September 23-26. 

Tom’s keynote, to take place on September 24, is titled Building Communities of Trust: Metaliterate Learning for a Post-Truth Society. Trudi is presenting on September 26 on Creating Shareable Knowledge: Exploring the Synergy between Metaliteracy and Open Pedagogy. The other international and national keynote speakers at the conference include Serap Kurbanoglu of the Department of Information Management at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, Irina Zhilavskaya, Chair of Media Education, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Bosire Onyancha of the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa, Karin de Jager, University of Cape Town, Ina Fourie, Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, and Jako Olivier, professor of Multimodal Learning in the School of Professional Studies in Education at North-West University.

Trudi and Tom have also been invited by Dr. Olivier to give a prestige lecture and two workshops at the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University the week prior to the conference. The collaborative lecture is Exploring the Foundation of Metaliteracy in Theory and Practice, and the workshops are Applying Open Educational Practices to Develop Active Metaliterate Learners and Integrating Metaliteracy and Information Literacy into Teaching and Learning.

Look to Metaliteracy.org for future posts that feature slides from both keynotes, the collaborative prestige lecture, and the shared workshops.

Two Revised Metaliteracy MOOCs Launch on Coursera

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Metaliteracy Featured in Educause Digital Literacies Document

Posted on by
Reply

2018MLCharacteristicsMetaliteracy is featured as part of the recently published 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Literacies document published by Educause. Trudi Jacobson contributed to this brief from the 7 Things You Should Know About… series developed by the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), along with Debra Gilchrist, Alison Head, and  Joan Lippincott. According to the abstract for this brief:

The concept of digital literacy encompasses a range of skills and knowledge necessary to evaluate, use, and create digital information in various forms. Digital literacies include data literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, and metaliteracy, as well as related capacities for assessing social and ethical issues in our digital world. Administrators, faculty members, librarians, instructional designers, and others have a pivotal role to play in helping students understand how information is shaped and shared today across the digital landscape (7 Things You Should Know About Digital Literacies).

The inclusion of metaliteracy in this series offers potential for the further analysis of this model as a comprehensive and unifying framework that emphasizes the importance of metacognitive reflection and associated metaliteracy learner characteristics in a digital world.

Video on Confirmation Bias Produced as Final Project for Metaliteracy MOOC

Posted on by
Reply

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.

 

Metaliteracy MOOC Inspired a Curated Site to Move Past Confirmation Bias

Posted on by
Reply

We welcome this guest posting from Patti Kingsmill, Pedagogical Counsellor:
Programs & Instructional Technologies and AQPC-College Liaison for Pedagogical Support and Innovation at Vanier College.

Curated Site on Moving Past Confirmation Bias

by Patti Kingsmill

As a final project for the MOOC Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World, I created a curated site on moving past confirmation bias. The site has two purposes: it serves as an example of a curated site for instructors wishing to teach curation, and it provides teachers with resources on confirmation bias—an important concept for curators to understand. The ability to select sources as objectively as possible is fundamental to curating in a responsible manner. As organizations rely on curators to manage information for them, curation is increasingly touted as a must-have 21st century skill. It is, therefore, important that we not only teach students how to curate, but to develop their metaliteracy skills in order to curate well and to avoid contributing to filter bubbles. This entails, among other things, recognizing the human tendency to fall prey to confirmation bias, learning how to move past it, and acknowledging one’s responsibility to do so as a producer of content and member of a digital, collaborative community.

The first section of the site, “Defining It,” presents different sources that define and offer examples of confirmation bias. The next section, “Mitigating It,” provides sources that offer strategies on lessening, or moving past, confirmation bias. The “CB & Filter Bubbles” section introduces the concept of filter bubbles and how they can result from confirmation bias. Finally, the “Lesson Plan” section includes a few classroom activities useful for teaching students about confirmation bias and filter bubbles and learning to get beyond them.

Metaliteracy Infographic Created for MOOC Final Project

Posted on by
Reply

We welcome this guest posting from Holly Wehmeyer, Communications & Marketing Coordinator and Educator from the Intensive English Language Program at the University at Albany, SUNY. Holly participated in the first session of our Open edX MOOC Empowering Yourself in a Post-Truth World and created a Metaliteracy Infographic as her final project. Our Post-Truth MOOC is now in a self-paced mode so feel free to join and create your own project!

Characteristics of a Metaliterate Social Media User

by Holly Wehmeyer

2018MLCharacteristics

Characteristics of the Metaliterate Learner (Mackey & Jacobson, 2019)

For my final project, I chose to create an infographic on the characteristics of a Metaliterate social media user. I have watched the social media space become polarized and partisan along with the nation’s politics and wondered about my role in developing online communities of trust. I have watched friends and strangers argue past one another, post inflammatory memes, and eventually unfollow each other. How are we to compromise on important issues if we can’t even talk to one another? Taking this course was one step I chose to take in becoming part of the solution to this problem.

The infographic attempts to draw on the concepts we’ve learned in the course to help social media users reflect on how they approach social media and what and how they share information. I wanted to create a simple guide to being a responsible online citizen. I created the graphic using Canva, an online design tool that I’ve used previously while working on newsletters and other publications. It allows the user to create simple designs and offers a number of free icons and other graphics. I also used quotations and information from Mackey and Jacobson’s book, Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World, which was not required reading for the course (other than the Introduction and first chapter), but which I read on my own.

Working on this final project certainly involved all four metaliteracy learning domains. In the behavioral realm, I was reminded of what I should be DOING – how I should be interacting with other people on social media – in responsible and civic-minded ways. My actions have consequences, so I should strive for the action that avoids harm and creates constructive dialog. In the cognitive realm, I’ve learned a lot about confirmation bias, inoculation theory, ideas about experts, and more. My background in Journalism had already given me a good grounding in the way media outlets choose photos, write captions, and construct headlines, but the course readings were an excellent reminder of how things have changed since I worked in publishing in the 1990s. In the affective domain, this course actually made me feel a lot better about my own behavior. I haven’t been doing such a terrible job online as I perhaps thought! However, there is always room for improvement. The course helped me recognize why I’m reacting strongly to certain posts or why I feel frustrated when my arguments don’t convince my opponent. Finally, in the metacognitive domain, I have reflected frequently on why I post certain stories and why I have certain reactions to other people’s posts. It has helped me ask questions of myself, many of which I’ve put into my final project.

In conclusion, by modeling the characteristics of a metaliterate social media user, both through this infographic and through my online behavior, I hope to teach others about the value of metaliteracy, to build those communities of trust, and to help return our online discourse to a place of civility and discovery.