Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners

Thomas P. Mackey · Trudi E. Jacobson

Apr 2014 · American Library Association

About this ebook

 Today’s learners communicate, create, and share information using a range of information technologies such as social media, blogs, microblogs, wikis, mobile devices and apps, virtual worlds, and MOOCs. In Metaliteracy, respected information literacy experts Mackey and Jacobson present a comprehensive structure for information literacy theory that builds on decades of practice while recognizing the knowledge required for an expansive and interactive information environment. The concept of metaliteracy expands the scope of traditional information skills (determine, access, locate, understand, produce, and use information) to include the collaborative production and sharing of information in participatory digital environments (collaborate, produce, and share) prevalent in today’s world. Combining theory and case studies, the authorsShow why media literacy, visual literacy, digital literacy, and a host of other specific literacies are critical for informed citizens in the twenty-first centuryOffer a framework for engaging in today’s information environments as active, selfreflective, and critical contributors to these collaborative spacesConnect metaliteracy to such topics as metadata, the Semantic Web, metacognition, open education, distance learning, and digital storytellingThis cutting-edge approach to information literacy will help your students grasp an understanding of the critical thinking and reflection required to engage in technology spaces as savvy producers, collaborators, and sharers.

About the author

 Thomas P. Mackey, PhD, is Interim Vice Provost at SUNY Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, New York. His teaching and research interests include metaliteracy, information literacy, blended, open, and online learning, and social media. He has co-developed a Metaliteracy MOOC with Trudi E. Jacobson and others, is a member of the editorial team for Open Praxis, the international scholarly journal about research and innovation in open, distance, and flexible education, and is a member of the SUNY Faculty Advisory Council on Teaching and Technology and the SUNY Learning Network Advisory Council. He is the co-editor, with Trudi E. Jacobson, of five books about faculty-librarian collaboration and the author of numerous research articles.

Trudi E. Jacobson, MLS, MA, is distinguished librarian and head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, SUNY, where she teaches undergraduate information literacy courses. Her interests include the use of critical thinking and active learning activities in the classroom, and she was the principal investigator for a recent SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant that created the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative. She is the co-author, with Lijuan Xu, of Motivating Students in Information Literacy Classes; co-editor, with Thomas P. Mackey, of five volumes that explore information literacy–related collaborations between faculty and librarians; and author of many published articles. She won the 2009 Association of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section’s Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award.