We welcome this guest post from Heloisa Helena Lopes Rodrigues Galiza, Instructional Designer for the edtech company DOT Digital Group in Brazil, who recently completed our Cousera MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World.
During the Coursera MOOC, Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World I realized that I have been a metaliterate citizen for a very long time. All the knowledge I’ve gained through this MOOC makes sense not only in the digital world but also within collaborative communities, where sharing, creating, and evaluating information are essential for collective growth and learning.
As someone who produces, publishes, and holds the authorship of the shared content, I also take on the role of a researcher, seeking reliable sources to support my work while being mindful of copyrights and open licenses. At this moment, I reflect on the characteristics of a metaliterate learner, remaining open to new perspectives and seeking the origins of information to ensure that I am not perpetuating biases. I also consider the need to be adaptable to the digital world, taking care to protect data and respect copyrights when sharing digital content. For example, when publishing in collaborative communities, I am aware that people from all over the world may consume the information I share, so it is crucial to present accurate, unbiased content that adheres to legal and ethical standards.
As a communicator, translator, or even someone who is teaching something, it is important to maintain critical and active engagement, while ensuring that my participation in the process preserves the originality of the information. At this moment, it is important to recognize that we are always learning and teaching, being collaborative in this digital world, and assuming the role of a co-creator of the knowledge shared. As an instructional designer, when I translate or adapt educational content for different audiences, I make sure to retain the core message while adjusting the language and context to suit the target audience. This helps to preserve the integrity of the information while making it accessible and relevant to a broader range of learners.
As a participant and collaborator in the digital world, and aware that everything is constantly changing, I reflect on my civic minded and social responsibility by sharing information that contributes to important debates within my community, whether in a personal or professional context. I understand that the content I share can reach diverse audiences globally, so I strive to ensure that it is accurate, respectful, and fosters meaningful discussions.
Above all, I see myself as someone who thinks a lot about my own learning, always trying to satisfy my curiosity about different topics. I also want to learn new ways of learning and understand how important self-awareness is to stay true to what I learn and teach. This mindset was further strengthened by the insights I gained through the MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World, which emphasized the value of self-reflection, adaptability, and critical thinking in the learning process, both as a learner and an educator. It also helped me understand the importance of sharing information in the most accurate and responsible way, while being fully aware of my role as a metaliterate citizen.
References
O’Brien, K., Forte, M., Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. (2019). Metaliteracy: Empowering yourself in a connected world [Course]. Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/learn/metaliteracy
Color and texture. They beguile me. Lure me. Tease me. Color and texture can enhance or detract. I weave. Weaving can be all about color and texture in the emerging cloth. Done well, it sizzles and shimmers. Otherwise, you might have a veritable reproduction of mud.
Art embraces color and texture. I collected art-themed postage stamps when I was young, arranged them by artist, and did research into each artist. I still have that collection. I visited museums with my mother when young, then on my own, with friends or my husband. I was entranced by much of what I saw. I took a college art history course in London, visiting the National Gallery to see the works we studied in person. I wanted to know why there seemed to be so few women artists. In my quest, I received a study grant to travel to England to learn more about Lady Elizabeth Butler.
But art was for others to produce, me to admire. I couldn’t even draw a realistic stick figure. I never considered aspiring to try to create art myself. Until I did.
I started with a popular book Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings by Mark Daniel Nelson and some 6” x 6” canvases. I began reproducing images from the book. Some were better, some worse. Each one of them, even if mediocre, excited me. Maybe, just maybe, I could do this. Of course, it would take time and practice. Did I have the courage to go forward, though? One can’t claim beginner status forever–eventually one has to take responsibility for one’s progress, or lack of progress.
Where does metaliteracy fit into all of this? Its impact was subtle but substantive. I only started to think about this when Tom suggested I consider writing a blog post on this topic. When I was taking my first tentative forays in painting, I was heavily involved with shaping and sharing metaliteracy. Tom and I recognized and developed the metaliterate learner roles. At the time, Dr. Sally Friedman, a professor of political science and friend, was very interested in engaging her students with metaliteracy concepts. She asked them to consider their strengths and goals in connection with the metaliterate learner roles. Which role would they each like to become more comfortable with by the end of the course? We developed similar learning activities for our first global Coursera MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World.
I realized I should be asking myself the same question. I’d always produced content, but mostly as an author dealing with the written word. But could I be brave and follow the path of a producer of art? Would the affective components of learning something so new and discomforting to me steer me away from this pursuit? Might I engage the metacognitive component to sort myself out?
It seemed I could. I sought online and in-person learning opportunities to help with my steep learning curve. I had to consider the metaliterate learner characteristics that would help me on my journey. The participatory characteristic is vital, closely aligned with being adaptable, reflective, collaborative, and civic-minded. These attributes were all critical when I was invited to join a group of women who met weekly to practice art and support one another’s efforts. At first, I felt like a fraud, masquerading as an artist but really just an artist wannabe. But I continued to participate. I brought my medium of choice at the time, watercolor. But when a group member suggested I try pastels and lent me the materials, I had to grapple with a medium that threw me back to being a beginner all over again. I focused on adaptability, reflecting that this established artist had her reasons for encouraging me to take this step in my learning process. As it turned out, she steered my artistic efforts in a crucial way. I love the immediacy and vibrant color of pastels.
As for the collaborative characteristic, group members work together to mount exhibits several times a year at local public libraries. Showing one’s work can be a bit scary, but the support of the group members makes it much easier. And civic-minded? I developed and maintain a website for the group as another means of sharing our work with a wide community.
In the interest of length, I’ve just skimmed the surface of metaliteracy’s impact on me as a learner creating art. But perhaps it might prompt reflection on your part as you consider metaliteracy’s role in something new you are learning.
Let me share some works that document my continuing evolution as a painter. Other than the first two which are very early works, I am particularly happy with these paintings that just a few years ago I would never, ever have thought I could produce! And if you are engaged on your own development as an artist of any type, I highly recommend Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland.
Teaching information literacy and metaliteracy in a world of generative artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed among a global team of educators at the University of Hildesheim from August 5 to 9, 2024, The grant-funded meeting of the Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM) facilitators further strengthened cooperation in teaching and research related to these themes. This was the first time the entire IPILM team was brought together in person for research and planning about the IPILM virtual exchange and related research agenda. Participants of the workshop included: Tessy Thadathil (Symbiosis College of Arts & Commerce Pune, India), Tom Mackey (Empire State University, USA), Emina Adilović (University of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina), Stefan Dreisiebner (Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria), Joachim Griesbaum (University of Hildesheim, Germany), Justyna Berniak-Woźny (Tischner European University, Poland), and Subarna Bhattacharya (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, India). The meetings were supported by Ms. Magdalena Dresler, a student from the University of Hildesheim.
Funding for this in-person workshop was provided by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture through the INTENSIV funding format, which supports European and international cooperation in science and research. During the meetings, the teaching collaboration among this global team was assessed and opportunities for sustainable improvement, scalability, and institutional anchoring was discussed. The team evaluated the most recent IPILM virtual exchange in the summer of 2024 and developed plans for the 2024-25 academic year. Additionally, the team developed a research agenda for the next two years to advance cooperative research among the partner institutions.
The grant-funded workshop provided participants with a platform to discuss the challenges and opportunities of teaching topics related to generative artificial intelligence (AI) through the lens of information literacy and metaliteracy. Information literacy, understood as the ability to effectively identify, evaluate, and use information, is of great importance in the face of increasing digitization and the spread of misinformation. Metaliteracy emphasizes the learner as an active producer and ethical participant in social information environments (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaliteracy).
The IPILM workshop is part of the ongoing commitment at the University of Hildesheim to promote international education and research in these critical competency areas. It supports the innovative virtual exchange initiated by Prof. Griesbaum and Professor Thadathil and developed by this international team. The IPILM team members and participating institutions are similarly committed to this global partnership and support the further development of this innovative collaboration.
To learn more about this initiative, read the peer-reviewed article by members of the IPILM team:
Griesbaum, J., Dreisiebner, S., Mackey, T. P., Jacobson, T. E., Thadathil, T., Bhattacharya, S., & Adilović, E. (2023). Teaching Internationally, Learning Collaboratively: Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy and Metaliteracy (IPILM). Communications in Information Literacy, 17 (1), 260–278. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.1.4
Keynote Welcome to the XI INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CURRICULUM AND EDUCATIONAL POLICIES
The international symposium is presented by the The Universidad del Magdalena and the Vice-Rectorate for Research, through the Faculty of Education Sciences. According to the conference organizers:
Our main objective is to disseminate the results and advances of educational research and innovations in the fields of theory and curricular development, as well as in educational policies. We seek to foster collaboration between academic communities at national and international level and contribute to the ongoing debate and reflection in the constant search for high-quality education.
Registration for the symposium is now open and call for proposals is available until 08/20/2024. Both in person and virtual participation options are available.
Register today for the upcoming virtual event Developing Metaliteracy to Teach and Learn with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presented by Tom Mackey on April 24 (1pm CDT and 2pm EDT) at the Alabama Association of College & Research Libraries (AACRL) Annual Meeting. Registration is free and open so sign up today for this engaging and interactive conversation about metaliteracy in a world of GenAI.
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforms higher education, how do we prepare learners for this rapidly evolving technology? How do librarians, faculty, and learners analyze the ethical dimension of GenAI? What does it mean to be an active producer and participant in these dynamic information environments? How does metaliteracy prepare reflective metaliterate learners to address such revolutionary changes to our learning communities?
Thanks to Jennifer Long, Vice-President of the Alabama Association of College & Research Libraries (AACRL) and the Executive Board of the Alabama ACRL Chapter for the invitation to present!
The newest book by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers was recognized as part of this year’s Divergent Lecture Series for the 2024 divergent honorees. A recording of the “Divergent Conversation” is now available via YouTube. According to Shelbie Witte, Ph.D., from The Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age: “Our desire for this new type of lecture event is to provide an opportunity for us all to come together and discuss the current state of digital literacies and where the field can go from here.” Tom Mackey participated in this open-ended dialogue with the awardees and explored a wide range of issues from the impact of generative artificial intelligence on literacy frameworks to teaching literacies in the K-12 and higher education environments.
There is an article about metaliteracy on Wikipedia. Actually, there are four. But let’s start at the beginning, with the one that was never officially published. While there are millions of articles on Wikipedia, there are also guidelines about what might appropriately be added to the site.
First, the subject must be notable. In other words, it must have gained sufficiently significant attention by the world at large and over time, and secondly, it must fall within Wikipedia’s scope. Notability involves these elements:
Significant coverage in reliable sources suggests it would merit its own Wikipedia article
This significant coverage directly addresses the topic, in some detail, so no original research is needed
Reliable sources “means that sources need editorial integrity to allow verifiable evaluation of notability”
Sources must be secondary sources, which might be either online or in print, in English or not
Being “independent of the subject” means that “works produced by the article’s subject or someone affiliated with it” cannot be the reliable secondary sources that justify the Wikipedia article.
While there is the perception that anyone can add anything to Wikipedia, this clearly is not the case. It can be an uphill struggle to get new articles approved. Two earlier blog posts document the struggle to get a metaliteracy article added to Wikipedia, one from December 2019 and the second from April 2021. There was also a celebratory post from May 2022 when the Metaliteracy Wikipedia article was accepted. Taking a look at the page that documents the history of edits to the article, there have been a modest number of changes since its publication. It took a while, but the resulting metaliteracy article is excellent.
Let’s return to the title of this blog post. The exciting news is that there are now translations of the metaliteracy article appearing on three additional language versions of Wikipedia: Spanish, Igbo (native to Nigeria), and Čeština (native to the Czech Republic). The revision history page for each of these indicates that the English version was translated as is, rather than new metaliteracy articles being created from scratch. However, a small number of edits have since been made in each article--they have taken on lives of their own.
Wikipedia has a resource page for translating English-language articles into other languages. There are automated tools to help create these translations. But machine translations can’t be relied on without some additional work. As mentioned on the resource page, “Mere machine translations, without substantial modification are highly undesirable. For that reason, you must have a reasonable level of fluency so that you can make appropriate changes to the tool’s automated output.” We would love to see translations appear in additional Wikipedia language versions to make information about metaliteracy available to all who are interested. Would you be able to help, if you are a speaker of languages beyond English? The metaliteracy learning goals and objectives are currently available in 15 different languages. It would be great if the number of metaliteracy Wikipedia articles reached that level!
The new book edited by Dr. Sheila Marie Aird and Dr. Thomas P. Mackey Teaching Digital Storytelling: Inspiring Voices Through Online Narratives has been published by Rowman & Littlefield. The editors worked with an exceptional team of authors from SUNY schools, Temple University, and universities in South Africa to share their narratives about teaching with digital storytelling through the lens of information literacy and metaliteracy. The new book features a Foreword written by futurist and digital storytelling pioneer Dr. Bryan Alexander. This is the newest book to be included in Trudi Jacobson’sInnovations in Information Literacy Series at Rowman & Littlefield.
This book project emerged from the collaborative teaching by the Drs. Aird and Mackey to design a fully online course in Digital Storytelling to unite Empire State University students studying in Prague, Czech Republic and the United States. This course fully integrates the metaliteracy framework and features learning objects available at the metaliteracy.org blog. The editors wrote the framing chapter about this case study Metaliteracy and Global Digital Storytelling: Building Shared Learning Communities.
As noted in the book overview and description:
This book presents the stories of educators who through digital storytelling inspire students from diverse communities to construct their empowering digital narratives. Educators from a wide range of disciplines present innovative case studies of teaching digital storytelling through the lens of personal narratives, metaliteracy, and information literacy. They describe how teaching students to tell their personal digital stories prepares them as learners who are reflective while playing active learner roles such as producer, publisher, and collaborator.
We welcome this guest essay by Dr. Melissa Atkinson, Director of Distance & Online Library Services at Abilene Christian University (ACU) Brown Library.
Metaliteracy, as introduced by Mackey and Jacobson in 2011, has been instrumental in developing metaliterate learners in a variety of contexts. The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, published in 2016, transformed the previous InformationLiteracy Competency Standards for Higher Education (ACRL, 2000) into frames that build upon each other and were not prescriptive in how to assess students’ learning. Many librarians turn to the Framework as a guideline for developing information literacy courses, tutorials, guided studies, and assessments. Libraries and librarians create assessments of the Framework that are varied and individualized.
Using the Framework in conjunction with metaliteracy goals and learning objectives can enhance the student experience as well as give librarians a standard to follow that ensures development of skills needed in a participatory, connected environment (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011). Notes that reference metaliteracy and metacognition can be found in the Framework (2016). The Framework does have its strengths, but incorporating metaliteracy goals and learning objectives into the frames can aid in assessment and add to the knowledge and skills students should develop throughout their lifetime, not just when they are participating in higher education.
Using the original set of metaliteracy goals and learning objectives found on metaliteracy.org (Forte, et al, 2014), a metaliteracy course was developed in the Learning Management System (LMS) Canvas, specifically for fully online Ed.D. students, preparing them for research-related content encountered in their courses (Atkinson, 2019). The original course by Atkinson (2019) compared pretest, posttest, and metacognitive skills, using the Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale (MS-LRSS) developed by Catalano (2017).
The course was designed using backward design methods (Wiggins & McTighe, 2006) to introduce online doctoral students to common library terminology, metaliteracy, and metacognitive concepts. The metaliteracy course was not intended to take the place of library tutorials, individualized instruction, or research consultations–all of which are critical to meet the needs of doctoral students in an online environment.
The metaliteracy course consists of five modules, four of which are directly related to the metaliteracy goals and learning objectives from 2014 (Forte, et. al., 2014). The fifth module relates to specific skills students need to be successful, particularly in the Ed.D. program such as requesting materials through InterLibrary Loan, identifying research methods, and recognizing specific library databases. Each module consists of a pretest, an overview and videos (most of which are three minutes or less), and a posttest. Each module name, the video titles, and learning objectives are listed below.
Objective: Metaliterate learners evaluate information critically by determining authority, relevancy, accuracy, and validity of each source regardless of the information’s delivery method.
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
1) Recognize the criteria for evaluating authority, relevancy, accuracy, and validity of information sources
2) Determine context of an information source by considering purpose and format
3) Distinguish between scholarly and non-scholarly sources
4) Understand the process of peer review and its purpose in scholarly research
Module 2: Information Ethics
Two Videos: Academic Integrity, Copyright, and Plagiarism; APA Style
Objective: Metaliterate learners understand and differentiate between their own intellectual property and others’ intellectual property, and give credit to others’ work using proper citation style methods.
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
1) Understand the concepts of academic integrity, copyright, and plagiarism
2) Differentiate between various forms of attribution
3) Identify parts of a citation in APA style
4) Recognize elements of APA style in context
Module 3: Information Creation, Sharing, and Collaboration
Three videos: Social Media; Digital and Visual Literacy; Creating Original Content
Objective: Metaliterate learners are aware of their online environments, participate collaboratively, transfer information from one format to another, and produce and share original content.
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
1) Understand the various ways of sharing original content
2) Consciously participate in social media environments
3) Describe digital and visual literacy and their importance to metaliterate learning
4) Identify digital and media formats and the uses and purposes of each
Module 4: Lifelong Learning Research Strategies
Two videos: Information Needs; Metacognition
Objective: Metaliterate learners connect learning with personal, professional, and lifelong goals using their experiences. Metaliterate learners recognize metacognitive principles of learning by acknowledging that learning is a process and can reflect on research difficulties to improve strategies.
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
1) Know which search strategies are appropriate for the information needs
2) Determine tasks involved to develop research questions
3) Reflect on one’s own knowledge and determine ways to increase metacognition skills
4) Recognize the process of critical thinking that leads to metaliterate learning
Module 5: Research Skills Proficiency
Three videos: Types of Sources; Requesting Materials and ILL; Research Methods
Objective: Metaliterate learners are proficient in distinguishing between types of sources, describing research methods, and understanding how to request materials to find relevant, scholarly, and authoritative information sources.
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
1) Describe research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
2) Distinguish between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources
3) Recognize ACU library’s databases, authentication process, and InterLibrary Loan procedures
4) Understand how to request physical materials
The original course has been modified to reach other fully online student audiences such as undergraduate students and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students. The undergraduate metaliteracy course is embedded in a critical thinking course that is taken by all online undergraduates. The program directors for the Ed.D. and DNP programs encourage students to self-enroll in the Canvas metaliteracy course specifically designed for those students in each program. Currently, a LibGuide is being developed to bring the metaliteracy course to a wider audience than is currently reached in Canvas. The full metaliteracy course will be available at this link (forthcoming), https://guides.acu.edu/metaliteracy, and currently includes all of the learning objectives and videos for each module.
A mapping of the ACRL Framework to the metaliteracy course objectives can help expand the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in their courses and beyond. The concept of metaliteracy is important for either an introduction for undergraduate students to library and research terminology or for graduate and doctoral students who already have these concepts developed as well as students who have not been to school for a long time and need a refresher on these concepts. Future plans include updating the metaliteracy course to incorporate the updated metaliteracy goals and learning objectives from 2018 (Jacobson, et al, 2018) as well as an update to the mapping of the Framework.
References
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://alair.ala.org/handle/11213/7668
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Atkinson, M. D. (2019). The relationship between metaliteracy pretest, posttest, and Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale: Creating a metaliteracy course for online Ed.D. students [Doctoral dissertation, Regent University]. https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/library_pub/32
Catalano, A. A. (2017). Development and validation of the Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale (MS-LRSS). Journal of Academic Librarianship, 43(3), 178–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2017.02.017
Fulkerson, D. M., Ariew, S. A., & Jacobson, T. E. (2017). Revisiting metacognition and metaliteracy in the ACRL Framework. Communications in Information Literacy, 11(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2017.11.1.45
Mackey, T. P., & Jacobson, T. E. (2011). Reframing information literacy as a metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62–78. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-76r1
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Pearson.
Dr. Melissa Atkinson is the Director of Distance & Online Library Services at Abilene Christian University (ACU) Brown Library. In her 23-year career as a librarian at ACU, she has served as Online Learning Librarian, E-Collections & Web Services Librarian, Serials & Assessment Librarian, Electronic Services & Serials Librarian, and Reference Librarian. She is currently a dissertation chair for five dissertation students, one of whom recently successfully defended their prospectus. She earned a Ph.D. from Regent University in Education (Distance Education concentration) in May 2019. Her research interests include metaliteracy, information literacy, online pedagogy, andragogy, and instructional design methods for library instruction. Her dissertation titled, “The Relationship Between Metaliteracy Pretest, Posttest, and Metacognitive Strategies for Library Research Skills Scale: Creating a Metaliteracy Course for Online Ed.D. Students,” is available in Proquest and ACU’s institutional repository (Digital Commons). In 2020, an article based on her dissertation was published called, “To Frame or Not to Frame: Creating a Metaliteracy Course for Online Ed.D. Students” in Library Hi Tech News (https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/library_pub/41/).
Metaliteracy.org 
