Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey will co-facilitate a new eCourse for ALA starting on January 5, 2015. This 4-week course entitled Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners is based on their new co-authored book about Metaliteracy. Detailed information about the eCourse, including learning objectives and the course outline, is also available via the ALA Press Release. This asynchronous course will feature optional weekly sessions via synchronous web conferencing with both authors. The course includes video introductions recorded by Trudi and Tom at the TV Studio at SUNY Empire State College: Metaliteracy eCourse Introductory Video
Second SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant Supports Metaliteracy
A team from Empire State College, SUNY and the University at Albany was awarded a Tier 3 SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant (IITG) for 2014-2015. This $60,000 grant, Designing Innovative Online Learning: Integrating a Coursera MOOC with Open SUNY Badging, is funding several initiatives focused on metaliteracy and badging.
As described in the grant proposal, “This project merges two innovative and flexible learning models: a metaliteracy Coursera MOOC open to all SUNY students, and its integration with competency-based badging. This unified approach to learning appeals to students and employers alike, and serves as a robust model to advance Open SUNY.” In addition, the funding will provide the means to develop a community of support for SUNY faculty interested in developing Open SUNY badging initiatives.
The team, led by Trudi Jacobson, Distinguished Librarian at the University at Albany, and Tom Mackey, Interim Vice Provost for Academic Programs at Empire State College, is building upon strengths developed from their 2012-2013 IITG-funded projects. They and members of the Metaliteracy Collaborative developed a connectivist MOOC that was offered in the fall of 2013, and they have created a very rich digital badging system based on the metaliteracy learning objectives.
Additional members of the grant team are Kelsey O’Brien (project director), Jenna Hecker, and Allison Hosier from the University at Albany, and Michele Forte, Kathleen Stone, Amy McQuigge, and Dana Longley from Empire State College.Three graduate students at the University at Albany’s School of Education,, Andrea Beukema, Brandon West, and Carmita Sanchez-Fong, will assist. Samuel Abramovich from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Learning and Instruction will oversee a MOOC-related research study.
Speaking of MOOCs, the team will offer not just one MOOC during spring 2015, but rather two! This came about because Coursera is currently unable to offer the functionality the team needed to integrate the badges with the MOOC. However, due to their high profile in the MOOC arena, and their selection as the platform of choice for SUNY, the team is adapting its original intentions in order to proceed with the planned course.The Coursera MOOC will feature a longer (10-week) learning opportunity that utilizes the high-end videos common to many of the company’s offerings, and will address a range of the metaliteracy learning objectives. Kathleen Stone is overseeing the Coursera component of the grant. This MOOC will begin in February 2015.
The Canvas MOOC will vary in several ways. It will be shorter, probably 5 weeks, and will start in March. It will focus on one of the four main areas of metaliteracy, Digital Citizen. Those who enroll in this MOOC will be working their way through a shareable badge, one that they can display via Credly.There is great interest in determining what impact the badging will have on student motivation, and what can be learned comparing the two different platforms and courses.
More details about the MOOCs and other grant-funded projects will be posted soon.
Call for Chapter Proposals for Metaliteracy in Practice
We are soliciting chapter proposals for a book entitled Metaliteracy in Practice, to be published in late 2015 or early 2016 by the American Library Association. We would like to include chapters written by academic librarians, disciplinary faculty, administrators, instructional designers, and scholars of emerging literacies about successful educational initiatives and instruction that involve metaliteracy. The editors are particularly interested in ideas that are easily transferable, and that include strong components of student metacognition and empowerment. The book will include innovative case studies from different academic institutions in the U.S. and internationally. Given the relationship between metaliteracy and emerging technologies, we look forward to receiving proposals on a range of cutting edge endeavors surrounding social media and digital learning. We are also interested in the application of the expanded Metaliteracy Learning objectives featured in our current book Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners and available here on the Metaliteracy.org blog.
Metaliteracy, which reframes and reinvents traditional conceptions of information literacy, has become increasingly well known since its introduction in Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy in January 2011 in College & Research Libraries. In fall 2013, a connectivist MOOC on the topic was offered and a Coursera MOOC, which fully integrates with a metaliteracy badging initiative, will be offered in spring 2015. In 2014, Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information to Empower Learners was published by ALA Neal-Schuman, which expanded the model in both theory and practice and featured two chapters that examined specific case studies. This new compendium, Metaliteracy in Practice, will complement the first metaliteracy book with chapters from a wide range of institutional and instructional design settings to meet the needs of librarians and other educators who would like to examine a wide array of practical examples focused on student success and empowerment.
The ongoing ACRL process of developing the new information literacy framework has generated lively debates in the field about a number of the its proposed components, including metaliteracy, demonstrating the timeliness of a volume that is based on innovative case studies from the field.
For accepted chapters, please consider using the following sections and overall organizing structure, if this is appropriate for your content:
Introduction
Related Literature
Institutional or other Associated Context
Disciplinary/Programmatic/Other Perspective
Metaliteracy Case Study
Application of Metaliteracy Learning Objectives
Contribution/Innovation
Assessment of the Instruction/Endeavor
Conclusion
This book will be co-edited by Trudi E. Jacobson, Head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, and Thomas P. Mackey, Dean of the Center for Distance Learning, SUNY Empire State College.
Please send 1-2 page proposals to Trudi at tjacobson@albany.edu no later than November 3, 2014. We will make our decisions by late November. First drafts of the completed chapters (20-25 pages) will be due on February 16, 2015. Final drafts will be due by April 17, 2015.
If you have any questions about proposal ideas or about the book, please contact Trudi.
Metaliteracy Presentation Videos from CIT2014
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.
Metaliteracy Webinar for ALA eLearning Series
In June we presented a webinar on metaliteracy for the ALA Editions eLearning series. The slides are now available on Slideshare. This presentation features several new pieces in support of our new book Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners.
Video of 2014 CT IL Conference Keynote
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
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.
- Images from Metaliteracy keynote at the Connecticut Information Literacy Conference
Metaliteracy Keynote at Connecticut Information Literacy Conference
We enjoyed presenting this year’s keynote at the Connecticut Information Literacy Conference sponsored by the Connecticut Library Association. This year’s conference explored Our New Frontier: Metaliteracy, Threshold Concepts, New Standards, and Other Wild Ideas and our keynote addressed Crossing the Threshold: Envisioning Information Literacy through the Lens of Metaliteracy. We were thrilled that metaliteracy was a key part of this year’s theme and we appreciated all of the great conversations! Trudi Jacobson also presented an afternoon breakout session “Threshold Concepts: Exploring the Potential and the Challenges for Information Literacy Instruction” based on her work as co-chair of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education Task Force.
Metaliteracy MOOC Presented at SUNY CIT2014
Last week, we discussed our connectivist Metaliteracy MOOC at SUNY’s CIT2014 at Cornell University. The presentation entitled Metaliteracy in Practice: Strengthening Learning Through a Connectivist MOOC featured Tom Mackey, Michele Forte, Jenna Pitera, and Nicola Allain. Trudi Jacobson presented a keynote about her work with the ACRL Task Force during the same week at the Cornell University Library and contributed previously. This was a great opportunity to reflect on our Metaliteracy MOOC based on the unique features of the connectivist format, including our collaborative and participatory news feeds (powered by the gRSShopper programming developed by Stephen Downes) and interactive MOOC Talks using Blackboard Collaborate.
Video Recording of 2014 IL Summit Keynote
Thanks to Troy Swanson Department Chair and Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College for posting the video of our keynote Changing Models, Changing Emphases: The Evolution of Information Literacy at the 2014 IL Summit. We enjoyed our time at the summit and appreciate this opportunity to share the video.




