This presentation introduced metaliteracy and its critical role in today’s post-truth world. Trudi Jacobson and Tom Mackey presented Ideas for incorporating discipline-based teaching of metaliteracy, from the development of metaliteracy learning outcomes to the design of collaborative teaching and learning opportunities. Participants gained insights about how to promote metaliterate learning academically and through lifelong learning.

1. 1
Trudi Jacobson and Thomas Mackey
#metaliteracy
Teaching Metaliteracy to Empower
Learners in a Post-Truth World
The Quality of Life Lecture Series
LSU College of Human Sciences & Education
School of Library and Information Science
Center for Computation and Technology’s Theatre
April 13, 2018

2. What we’ll talk about
• The Post-Truth World
• Metaliteracy
• Teaching for Metaliteracy
• Information Literacy, Librarians &
Collaborations
• Q & A
2

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METALITERACY

4. THE POST-TRUTH WORLD
4

5. 5
post-truth – an adjective defined as
‘relating to or denoting circumstances in
which objective facts are less influential
in shaping public opinion than appeals
to emotion and personal belief’.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016

6. “In a very fundamental way we, as a free people,
have freely decided that we want to live in some
post-truth world” (Tesich, 1992, p. 13).
6
Tesich, Steve. 1992. The Watergate Syndrome: A Government of Lies.
The Nation. (January). 12-14.

7. “Post-truthfulness exists in an ethical twilight
zone. It allows us to dissemble without
considering ourselves dishonest” (Keyes, 2004, p. 13).
7
Keyes, Ralph. 2004. The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in
Contemporary Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

8. • “fake news website production and consumption was
overwhelmingly pro-Trump in its orientation” (Guess,
Nyhan, and Reifler, 2018, p. 10-11)
• “Facebook played an important role in directing
people to fake news websites” (Guess, Nyhan, and Reifler,
2018, p. 11)
• “fact-checking failed to effectively counter fake news”
(Guess, Nyhan, and Reifler, 2018, p. 11)
8
Guess, Andrew, Brendan Nyhan, and Jason Reifler. 2018. Selective Exposure to
Misinformation: Evidence from the consumption of fake news during the 2016 U.S.
presidential campaign. https://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/fake-news-2016.pdf

9. “Our “digital natives” may be able to flit
between Facebook and Twitter while
simultaneously uploading a selfie to Instagram
and texting a friend. But when it comes to
evaluating information that flows through social
media channels, they are easily duped” (p. 4).
9
Wineburg, Sam and McGrew, Sarah and Breakstone, Joel and Ortega, Teresa. (2016).
Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning.
Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934

10. “At present, we worry that democracy is
threatened by the ease at which disinformation
about civic issues is allowed to spread and
flourish” (p. 5).
10
Wineburg, Sam and McGrew, Sarah and Breakstone, Joel and Ortega, Teresa. (2016).
Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning.
Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/fv751yt5934

11. Actively evaluate content while also
evaluating one’s own biases
11NYTimes: https://nyti.ms/2Gs6iGC

12. “seeking out and interpreting
data in a way that strengthens
our preestablished opinions”
(Sharot, 2017, p. 22).
“Established beliefs can be
extremely resistant to change,
even when scientific evidence is
provided to undermine those
beliefs” (Sharot, 2017, p. 15).
12
Sharot, Tali. 2017. The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power
to Change Others. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

13. “We are post-truth because we already have and
possess our truths. This has only been amplified
by the postmodern condition, whose little
narratives serve as impenetrable bastions of
certainty” (Kirkpatrick, 2017, p. 331).
13
Kirkpatrick, Andrew. 2017. Understanding in a Post-truth World: Comprehension
and Co-Naissance as Emphatic Antidotes to Post-Truth Politics. Cosmos and
History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy. 312-335.

14. “Metaliterate learners are critically engaged
researchers who can contribute to discourse and
who can also successfully navigate the
information landscape that is riddled with fake
news, alternative facts, biases, and
counterknowledge.”
- Nicole Cooke, 2017, p. 219
14
Cooke, Nicole. A. (2017). Posttruth,
Truthiness, and Alternative Facts: Information
Behavior and Critical Information
Consumption for a New Age. Library
Quarterly, (3), 211.

15. 15
Engage with all intellectual property
ethically and responsibly
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/03/30/10/59/social-networking-2187996__480.jpg

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Produce and share information in collaborative
and participatory environments

17. Protect personal privacy and actively
secure your online information
17https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ap_facebook_dislike.jpg
87 Million Users Exposed to Cambridge Analytica

18. METALITERACY:
INFORMATION CREATION IS
COLLABORATIVE AND PARTICIPATORY
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19. • Promotes critical thinking and collaboration
• Provides a framework to effectively participate in
social media and online communities
• Supports acquiring, producing, and sharing
knowledge in collaborative online communities
19
Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson “Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy.”
College & Research Libraries. January 2011 72:62-78. http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.full.pdf

20. “…metaliteracy focuses on
adaptability as information
environments change, and
the critical reflection
necessary to recognize new
and evolving needs in order
to remain adept” (Preface,
p. xv-xvi).
Metaliteracy in Practice
(Jacobson and Mackey, 2016).

21. Metaliteracy in Practice
(Jacobson and Mackey, 2016).
“Metaliteracy applies to all
stages and facets of an
individual’s life. It is not
limited to the academic
realm, nor is it something
learned once and for all”
(Preface, p. xv).

22. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information
Literacy to Empower Learners
(Mackey and Jacobson, 2014).
“While literacy is focused on
reading and writing, and
information literacy has
strongly emphasized search
and retrieval, metaliteracy is
about what happens beyond
these abilities to promote the
collaborative production and
sharing of information” (p. 6).

23. Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information
Literacy to Empower Learners
(Mackey and Jacobson, 2014).
“The use of the term
metaliteracy suggests a way
of thinking about one’s own
literacy. To be metaliterate
requires individuals to
understand their existing
literacy strengths and areas
for improvement and make
decisions about their
learning” (p. 2).

24. Four Domains of Metaliteracy
Metacognitive:
what learners think
about their own
thinking—a reflective
understanding of
how and why they
learn, what they do
and do not know,
their preconceptions,
and how to continue
to learn).
Cognitive: what
students should
know upon
successful
completion of
learning activities—
comprehension,
organization,
application,
evaluation)
Affective:
changes in
learners’ emotions
or attitudes
through
engagement with
learning activities)
Behavioral: what
students should be
able to do upon
successful
completion of
learning activities—
skills,
competencies
Mackey and Jacobson (2014) Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners

25. Learner Roles
Mackey and Jacobson (2014) Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners

26. I’d love to
see my
students
take on the
role of…
Quick Reflection

27. TEACHING FOR METALITERACY
OPEN LEARNING
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28. • Foster lifelong learning competencies for self-regulation
and learner agency
• Require a supportive pedagogy for students to take on
active roles as participants, contributors and teachers
• Encourage reflective, student-centered learning, and
critical engagement
• Inspire students to take ownership of their learning
28
O’Brien, K., Forte, M., Mackey, T. P., Jacobson, T.E., “Metaliteracy as Pedagogical
Framework for Learner-Centered Design in Three MOOC Platforms: Connectivist, Coursera
and Canvas.” Vol. 9, No. 3. Open Praxis. 2017.
as Pedagogical Framework

29. https://metaliteracystudent.tumblr.com
Develop learning strategies to meet
lifelong personal and professional goals

30. Recognize that learners are also teachers
and teach what you know or learn
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https://www.vox.com/2018/3/19/17139654/march-for-our-lives-dc-march-24-protest

31. Metaliteracy as Pedagogical Framework for
Learner-Centered Design in Three MOOC
Platforms: Connectivist, Coursera and
Canvas
“Metacognition is a key learning
domain within metaliteracy.
Metaliteracy as a pedagogy can
therefore support the connectivist
focus on autonomous and self-
regulated learners, as learners who
do not reflect on their thinking and
learning are incapable of self-
regulation” (O’Brien, Forte, Mackey,
and Jacobson, 2017).

32. Open Pedagogy
• Open is a purposeful path towards connection and
community
• Open pedagogy is a blend of strategies, technologies,
and networked communities that make the process
and product of education more transparent,
understandable and available to all involved
• Increased adoption of open pedagogy would lead to
more cross-institutional collaborations
Mary Grush, Open Pedagogy: Connection, Community, and Transparency: A Q & A with Tom Woodward. 2014.
Https://campustachnology.com
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33. Open Learning
“The next step in the revolutionary
potential of the OER movement is
in using technology to make
instruction, as well as materials,
accessible to the widest possible
audience of learners and, at the
same time, improve teaching and
learning” (Thille, 165).
Opening Up Education
Edited by Iiyoshi and Kumar (2008)

34. The Metaliteracy Badges
metaliteracy.org/learning-objectives

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Information Literacy,
Role for Librarians
and
Collaborations

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U of SC, Aiken

37. Scholarship as Conversation
Communities of scholars, researchers or
professionals engage in sustained discourse with
new insights and discoveries occurring over time
as a result of varied perspectives and
interpretations.
Knowledge Practices
Dispositions
37

38. Role for Librarians
Librarians and libraries can contribute to their
institutions most significantly in the future by
fostering communities of inquiry that model a
discourse of trust, where:
• experts and authorities are questioned and
interrogated with respect and with informed
skepticism;
Gibson and Jacobson. Habits of Mind in an Uncertain World. RUSQ, 57(3): 191.
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39. Role for Librarians
• where those communities of inquiry include
colleagues within and beyond the library, as
well as community members and alumni; and
• where students themselves join those
communities and grapple with big challenges
and the confusing welter of the scholarly
information landscape in appropriately
calibrated ways
Gibson and Jacobson. Habits of Mind in an Uncertain World. RUSQ, 57(3): 191.
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40. Collaborations
Librarians and disciplinary faculty bring unique strengths to the:
– Teaching of metaliteracy and information literacy
– Analysis and evaluation of information
– Application of metaliteracy learning goals and objectives
– Integration of Open Educational Resources (OERs)
– Sharing ideas about instructional design and emerging
pedagogical technologies
– Development of open, innovative pedagogies
It is only by working closely together that an in-depth, sustained, and
effective educational effort will occur
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41. QUESTIONS?
41

42. Thomas Mackey, Ph.D.
Professor of Humanities and Arts
Department of Literature, Communication,
and Cultural Studies
SUNY Empire State College
Tom.Mackey@esc.edu
@TomMackey
Trudi Jacobson, M.L.S., M.A.
Distinguished Librarian
Head, Information Literacy Department
University Libraries
University at Albany, SUNY
Tjacobson@albany.edu
@PBKTrudi
42Follow us at Metaliteracy.org: https://metaliteracy.org/