CIT 2012 Conference at Stony Brook; featured presentation. Based on metaliteracy research conducted with Trudi Jacobson

1. Connected Literacies:
Teaching with Social Media to Advance
Participatory Learning
Thomas P. Mackey, Ph.D.
Dean
Center for Distance Learning
http://www.slideshare.net/tmackey
INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTION: SUPPORTING ACADEMIC
Thursday, May 31, 2012 1
EXCELLENCE AND STUDENT SUCCESS

2. “The future is visible in the
increasing number of bikes
you see all over the urban
landscape. This simple form
of transportation is about to
make our city more
livable, more human and
better connected; New
Yorkers are going to love the
bike-share program;
culturally and physically, our
city is perfectly suited for it.”
-David Byrne 2012
“This is How We Ride”
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/opinion/
sunday/
this-is-how-we-ride.html?smid=pl-share
2
Stony Brook University Library 2012

3. In 1992 Henry Jenkins proposed “an
alternative conception of fans
as readers who appropriate popular
texts and reread them in a fashion
that serves different interests, as
spectators who transform the experience
of watching television into a rich and
complex participatory culture” (p. 23).
Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture
By Henry Jenkins
1992
3

4. “Consumption becomes production;
reading becomes writing; spectator culture
becomes participatory culture” (p. 60).
Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers:
Exploring Participatory Culture
By Henry Jenkins
2006
4

5. According to Jenkins: “convergence
represents a paradigm shift – a move from
medium specific content toward content that
flows across mutliple media channels, toward
multiple ways of accessing media content, and
toward ever more complex relations between
top-down corporate media and bottom up
participatory culture” ” (p. 243).
Convergence Culture:
Where Old and New Media Collide
Henry Jenkins
2006
5

6. “Participatory culture
shifts the focus of literacy
from one of individual
expression to community
involvement” (p. xiii).
Confronting the Challenges
of Participatory Culture
Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins
2009
6

7. “The new literacies almost
all involve social skills
developed through
collaboration and
networking.” (p. xiii).
Confronting the Challenges
of Participatory Culture
Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins
2009
7

8. “These skills build on the
foundation of traditional
literacy and
research, technical, and
critical analysis skills
learned in the classroom.”
(p. xiii).
Confronting the Challenges
of Participatory Culture
Media Education for the 21st Century
Henry Jenkins
2009
8

9. What is participatory learning?
• Active • Social
• Interactive • Convergent
• Networked • Emergent
• Connected • Adaptable
• Collaborative • Evolving
• Community-based • Transformative
• Global • Multi-modal
9

10. ACRL Standard Definition (1989)
• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and
efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge
base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific
purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues
surrounding the use of information, and access and use
information ethically and legally
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm
10

11. Connected Literacies
TRENDS IN SOCIAL MEDIA
11

12. “Half the adults and three-
quarters of the teenagers in
America use social networking
sites (SNS) and Facebook by
far is the most popular of these
sites” (2012).
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Facebook-users/Summary.aspx
12

13. “As the common saying goes, a friend of a
friend is a friend. But on Facebook this is
the exception rather than the rule. When we
explored the density of people’s friendship
networks, we found that people’s friends lists
are only modestly interconnected.” (2012).
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Facebook-users/Summary.aspx
13

14. “We expect that new Facebook users
typically start with a core group of
close, interconnected friends, but over time
their friends list becomes larger and less
intertwined.” (2012).
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Facebook-users/Summary.aspx
14

15. 15

16. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/55-interesting-social-media-infographics/ 16

17. “46% of American adults now
own a smartphone of some
kind, up from 35% in May 2011;
Smartphone owners now
outnumber users of more basic
phones” (2012).
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Smartphone-Update-2012/Findings.aspx
17

18. State of the Blogosphere 2011
http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-part3/
18

19. State of the Blogosphere 2011
http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-part3/
19

20. “13% of online adults use
Twitter, and half of Twitter users
access the service on a cell
phone” (2011).
8% increase since 2010
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011/Main-
Report.aspx 20

21. State of the Blogosphere 2011
http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-part3/
*”Among respondents who create assets, 48% of the multimedia they post is their
21
own creation. This is down significantly from 67% in 2010. .”

22. “Pinterest sets record for fastest site to
hit 10 million monthly visitors”
http://pinterest.com/pinterestbiz/pinterest-statistics/
22

23. Horizon Report 2012
1. Mobile Apps
2. Tablet Computing
3. Game based learning
4. Learning Analytics
5. Gesture Based
Computing
6. The Internet of Things
http://www.nmc.org/publications/horizon-report-2012-higher-ed-edition
23

24. Horizon Report 2012
“Open-ended, challenge-
based, truly collaborative games
are an emerging category of
games that seems especially
appropriate for higher
education. Games like
these, which occur in both
online and non-digital
forms, can draw on skills for
research, writing, collaboration,
problem solving, public
speaking, leadership, digital
literacy, and media-making” (p.
19).
http://www.nmc.org/publications/horizon-report-2012-higher-ed-edition
24

25. Connected Literacies
EMERGING LITERACY
FRAMEWORKS
25

26. http://nlabnetworks.typepad.com/transliteracy/
26

27. TRANSLITERACY
“mapping meaning across different
media and not with developing
particular literacies about various
media.”
“Introducing transliteracy
What does it mean to academic libraries?”
Tom Ipri
College & Research Libraries
http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/10/532.full
27

28. TRANSLITERACY
“It is not about learning text literacy
and visual literacy and digital literacy
in isolation from one another but
about the interaction among all
these literacies.”
“Introducing transliteracy
What does it mean to academic libraries?”
Tom Ipri
College & Research Libraries
http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/10/532.full 28

29. Information and Media Literacy (MIL)
“Information and media literacy enables
people to interpret and make informed
judgments as users of information and
media, as well as to become skillful
creators and producers of information
and media messages in their own right.”
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15886&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
29

30. 30

31. Mackey and Jacobson, 2012
Figure by Roger Lipera
31

32. METALITERACY
“promotes critical thinking and
collaboration in a digital age, providing
a comprehensive framework to
effectively participate in social media
and online communities. ”
Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson Reframing Information Literacy as a
Metaliteracy Coll. res. libr. January 2011 72:62-78
http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.abstract
32

33. METALITERACY
“Information literacy is central to this
redefinition because information takes
many forms online and is produced
and communicated through multiple
modalities. ”
Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson Reframing Information Literacy as a
Metaliteracy Coll. res. libr. January 2011 72:62-78
http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.abstract
33

34. “The ability to critically self-assess one’s
own competencies and to recognize the
need for integrated or expanded literacies
in today’s information environment is a
metaliteracy.”
Mackey and Jacobson (2012)
Metaliteracy: Reframing Information Literacy for a Social Media Age
manuscript
Metaliteracy is Metacognitive 34

35. “This metacognitive approach challenges a
reliance on skills-based information literacy
instruction only and shifts the focus to
knowledge acquisition in collaboration with
others.”
Mackey and Jacobson (2012)
Metaliteracy: Reframing Information Literacy for a Social Media Age
manuscript
Metaliteracy is Metacognitive 35

36. “This requires a high level of critical
thinking and analysis about how we
develop our self-conception of information
literacy as reflective learners in open and
social media environments.”
Mackey and Jacobson (2012)
Metaliteracy: Reframing Information Literacy for a Social Media Age
manuscript
Metaliteracy is Metacognitive 36

37. Connected Literacies
EMERGING LITERACIES SURVEY
37

38. Survey Instrument
• Survey Monkey
• 26 Questions
• Likert scale
• Some open-ended comments
• Library and Information Science faculty and
librarians (listservs, LinkedIn groups, colleagues)
• 85.5% librarians
• 551 started survey
• 361 completed survey (65.5%)
38

39. Do you teach information literacy as:
N=541 39

40. If you teach information literacy-specific
courses, how many credits are they?
N=253 40

41. How would you describe the format your
information literacy instruction takes?
N=534 41

42. Do you teach undergraduate students
or graduate students?
N=368 42

43. Which best describes your school?
N=367 43

44. Which of the following literacies are you
familiar with? (select all that apply)
N=413 44

45. Which of the following literacies are components of
information literacy? (select all that apply)
N=445 45

46. Which of the following literacy frameworks
are you familiar with? (select all that apply)
N=413 46

47. Which of the following literacy frameworks do you think are
related to information literacy? (select all that apply)
N=419 47

48. Which of the following literacies are important to include in
information literacy instruction? (select all that apply)
N=381 48

49. Which of the following are reasons for not including related
literacies in information literacy instruction?
(select all that apply)
N=377 49

50. Which of the following technologies do you require your
students to learn as part of your information literacy
instruction? (select all that apply)
N=251 50

51. Which of the following information literacy skills do you
include in your information literacy instruction?
(select all that apply)
N=391 51

52. Do you build student collaboration into
your information literacy instruction?
NO
YES
N=360 52

53. Initial Analysis of Findings
• Respondents identify connections between
related literacy types and information literacy
• Respondents are familiar with
Transliteracy, Metaliteracy, and other
emerging frameworks
• Librarians need more time to incorporate
emerging literacy frameworks in instruction
• Faculty-librarian collaboration advances
integration and adoption of related literacies
53

54. Initial Analysis of Findings
• Social media has been incorporated into
information literacy instruction but could be
developed further
• Focus on “presentation” technologies need to
be expanded to include interactive social
technologies
• Learning opportunities related to
collaboration and sharing should be expanded
54

55. Thomas P. Mackey, Ph.D.
Dean
Center for Distance Learning
Tom.Mackey@esc.edu