Academic librarians, technologists, and higher education faculty have been actively experimenting with new forms of digital learning during the global pandemic. In the process, they have discovered some valuable strategies and practices that will continue to fuel innovation in teaching, learning, and scholarship for years to come. In this session, we’ll discuss why it’s more important than ever before to have complicated conversations about all the literacies - information, media, news, digital, critical, and those that are yet to be named. How do these competencies get integrated into all programs and courses across the liberal arts and sciences? In this session, we’ll take time to experiment, working in small groups, using create-to-learn pedagogies that can provoke intellectual curiosity by combining play and learning. Then, we’ll reflect on how creative collaboration can offer a liberating way to open up spaces of possibility and adaptation for the stakeholders in our own institutions and communities. Renee Hobbs is an expert in digital and media literacy education and she is the author of Mind Over Media: Propaganda Education for a Digital Age, which was awarded the 2021 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Sciences from the Association of American Publishers. As professor of communication studies and director of the Media Education Lab, she co-directs the Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy at the University of Rhode Island. She has published 12 books and over 150 scholarly and professional articles and developed multimedia learning resources for elementary, secondary and college teachers.

1. Create to Learn
Advancing Collaboration and Creativity with
Digital Texts, Tools and Technologies
ACCESS SLIDES
Renee Hobbs
University of Rhode Island USA
Media Education Lab
www.mediaeducationlab.com
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs

2. We share meaning through symbols
that come in many forms

3. Consumers
Creators

4. RACIAL JUSTICE

5. “FAKE NEWS”

6. PROPAGANDA

7. CONSPIRACY CULTURE

8. INSURRECTION

9. DISINFORMATION

10. A NEW GENERATION

11. COM 250
Digital
and
Media Literacy
Replace with your own text
Explore how life,
work and citizenship
have been impacted
by digital media and
culture & learn how
to critically analyze
and create media in
a variety of forms
1 in 3 college students have had
some exposure to media literacy in
elementary or secondary grades

12. REAL TIME
LEARNING

13. REAL TIME
LEARNING
ANY TIME
LEARNING

14. Information literacy - digital literacy - media competence - critical media literacy – computational literacy
news literacy – visual literacy – digital humanities - media & information literacy – media education

15. Information literacy - digital literacy - media competence - critical media literacy – computational literacy
news literacy – visual literacy – digital humanities - media & information literacy – media education

17. What You Call It
information literacy
digital literacy
news literacy
algorithm literacy
media literacy
What You Need to Know
ACRL framework
participatory culture
verification
surveillance capitalism
semiotics

18. ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

19. Digital Citizenship Resource Platform
Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society

20. Inclusive. I am open to hearing and respectfully
recognizing multiple viewpoints and I engage with
others online with respect and empathy.
Informed. I evaluate the accuracy, perspective, and
validity of digital media and social posts.
Engaged. I use technology and digital channels for civic
engagement, to solve problems and be a force for good
in both physical and virtual communities.
Balanced. I make informed decisions about how to
prioritize my time and activities online and off.
Alert. I am aware of my online actions, and know how
to be safe and create safe spaces for others online.
ISTE Digital Citizenship (2020)

21. DQ Institute

23. WHATEVER
YOU CALL IT
ANALYZE
ACCESS
ACT
REFLECT
CREATE
Inquiry
Reading
Search
Curation
Credibility
Analysis
Creativity
Multimodal
Writing
Digital
Skills
Dialogue
Collaboration
Emotional Response
Ethical Reasoning
Knowledge of Cultural,
Political, Economic
& Social Context
Citizenship
Activism
Renee Hobbs

24. LEARNING
PROCESS
ANALYZE
ACCESS
ACT
REFLECT
CREATE
Inquiry
Reading
Search
Curation
Credibility
Analysis
Creativity
Multimodal
Writing
Digital
Skills
Dialogue
Collaboration
Emotional Response
Ethical Reasoning
Knowledge of Cultural,
Political, Economic
& Social Context
Citizenship
Activism
Renee Hobbs

25. EXPLICIT
CURRICULUM
The subjects that are
taught, and the knowledge
and skills that students are
expected to learn
IMPLICIT
CURRICULUM
The lessons that arise from
the culture and the
behaviors, attitudes, and
expectations that
characterize the culture
NULL
CURRICULUM
The knowledge and
options that learners are
not afforded and the skills
that are not valued as part
of the intellectual
repertoire
Eisner, EW (1985). The educational imagination.
What Is Taught & What is Learned
in Higher Education

27. RELEVANCE
AWARENESS OF
CONSTRUCTEDNESS
What’s Your Why?

28. Education should
be relevant to
people’s lived
experience with
digital media, mass
media & popular
culture
RELEVANCE

29. Language, Media & Technology Can Create Unreal Realities
AWARENESS OF
CONSTRUCTEDNESS

30. www.mindovermedia.us

32. Representation
Media Effects
Interpretation & Meaning
Semiotics
Political
Economy

33. INQUIRY
CREATIVITY
COLLABORATION
METACOGNITION
AUTONOMY
LIFELONG LEARNER

34. www.mediaeducationlab.com

35. What’s Your Why?
Reflect on Your
Motivations for Digital Learning
Hobbs, R., & Tuzel, S. (2017). Teacher motivations for digital and media literacy: An examination of Turkish
educators. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(1), 7-22.

36. You develop learners’ knowledge, creative
competencies & practical skills as future authors,
artists, experts, and professionals.
You appreciate how digital media platforms, tools
and technologies enable students to engage deeply
in authentic learning.
TOOL-GENRE-FORMAT FOCUS

37. You support civic engagement by using media &
technology to address real-world issues.
You help learners use media & technology to connect
with an learn from others.
COMMUNITY FOCUS

38. You want learners to appreciate culturally-important
media in history, the arts, literature, & sciences.
You help learners gain knowledge and skills by using
media & technology to advance learning.
CONTENT FOCUS

39. You challenge learners with alternative ways of
finding, using, thinking about & creative media that’s
off the beaten path.
You meet students ”where they live” by connecting
the classroom with the media & technology they use
every day .
TEXTS & AUDIENCE FOCUS

40. You help learners think about the economic &
political contexts of media & technology as systems
that shape our lives.
You pull back the curtain on how media & technology
are constructed by asking “how” and “why”
questions.
SYSTEMS FOCUS

41. You help learners use media & technology in ways
that support their social and emotional well-being.
You cultivate students’ autonomy as independent
learners who go where their creativity takes them.
LEARNER FOCUS

43. What’s Your Why?
How Do Your Motivations
Shape Your Instructional Practices and Choices?

44. As you watch, consider:
What is the underlying
motivation behind this
instructional practice?
@reneehobbs

47. As you watch, consider:
What is the underlying
motivation behind this
instructional practice?
@reneehobbs

50. As you watch, consider:
What is the underlying
motivation behind this
instructional practice?
@reneehobbs

52. As you watch, consider:
What is the underlying
motivation for asking students
to create media like this?
@reneehobbs

56. CRITICAL QUESTIONS
1. Who is the author and what is the
purpose?
2. What techniques are used to attract
and hold attention?
3. How does the message depict people,
events and values?
4. How might the message be interpreted
differently?
5. What’s omitted or left out?

58. What’s Your Why?

60. Motivations for Digital Learning
Respect for diverse motivations increases collegiality
Respect for diverse motivations increases intellectual curiosity

61. Risk of Failure
Chaos
When teachers or students create digital media,
it involves a process of messy engagement

62. Risk of Failure
Chaos
When teachers or students create digital media,
it involves a process of messy engagement
Play & Pleasure
Trust & Respect

63. CREATIVE ACTIVITY
MAKE MEMES FOR “WHATEVER YOU CALL IT”
For the Motivations that Matter Most to You Now

65. MAKE MEMES FOR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT
For the Motivations that Matter Most to You
Activity: Work in a small group to create 3 or more memes about why you value ”insert
your preferred term here.” Be school-appropriate and be creative. Try to express the
motivations that matter most to you in a playful or humorous way.
Meme-Making Tools to Explore
• https://makeameme.org/
• https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
Share Your Best Meme on the Padlet Wall:
https://padlet.com/hobbs/AMICAL2021

68. Renee Hobbs
Director, Media Education Lab
Co-Director, Graduate Certificate Program in Digital Literacy
Harrington School of Communication & Media
University of Rhode Island
Email: hobbs@uri.edu
Twitter: @reneehobbs
LEARN MORE
Web: www.mediaeducationlab.com