Metaliteracy
Metaliteracy is an overarching framework that builds upon information literacy, but adds new components, or places a greater emphasis on certain elements. Metaliteracy prepares "learners to engage in the information environment as active, self-reflective, and critical contributors to the collaborative spaces" that characterize our social media age (Metaliteracy 2014, p.14). Metaliteracy also emphasizes metacognition, or thinking about one's own thinking and learning. Metaliterate individuals continually reflect on their roles as learners and producers in today's information-rich, participatory, collaborative environment, spurring further learning and development.
There is an excellent article, published in September 2023, about the value of being metaliterate on the 55+ Life website. Caitlin Manner interviewed me for an article about the value of MOOCs for seniors, and metaliteracy soon came up. If you'd like to read it, click here.
Learn more about metaliteracy
Tom Mackey and I have written several articles and two books on the topic.
Metaliteracy in a Connected World: Developing Learners as Producers (ALA Neal-Schuman, 2022). The foreword is by Jako Olivier.
Reframing Information Literacy as a Metaliteracy, a 2011 article in College & Research Libraries, introduced metaliteracy that introduced metaliteracy.
Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners (Neal-Schuman, 2014) expands greatly upon the metaliteracy model, and provides practical examples of its use in courses. Available both in print and as an e-book.
Proposing a Metaliteracy Model to Redefine Information Literacy, a 2013 article in Communications in Information Literacy, provides expanded details about the seven elements that outlined metaliteracy in practice, from our 2011 article.
We co-edited:
Metaliteracy in Practice (ALA Neal-Schuman, 2016), which includes 9 chapters that provide a range of innovative ideas on how metaliteracy is being taught. Read an excerpt from the book.
Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World (ALA Neal-Schuman, 2019), with a foreword by Troy Swanson.
Metaliteracy chapters
Trudi E. Jacobson, Thomas P. Mackey and Jako Olivier. (2021). Aligning Metaliteracy with Self-directed Learning to Expand Assessment Opportunities. In Learning Through Assessment: An Approach Towards Self-directed Learning, ed. by Elsa Mentz & Anitia Lubbe. (NWU Self-Directed Learning Series Volume 7) AOSIS, Cape Town, pp. 71–98. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2021.BK280.04
Trudi E. Jacobson, Thomas P. Mackey, and Kelsey O’Brien. (2021). Visualizing the Convergence of Metaliteracy and the Information Literacy Framework. In Envisioning the Framework: A Graphic Guide to Information Literacy, ed. by Jannette L. Finch. ACRL, pp. 131-156.
Sally Friedman and Trudi E. Jacobson. (2021). Journeys Beyond Information Literacy: Applying a Metaliteracy Framework to Political Science. In The Palgrave Handbook of Political Research Pedagogy, ed. by Daniel J. Mallinson, Julia Marin Hellwege, and Eric D. Loepp. Springer, pp. 91-102.
Metaliteracy articles
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
Jacobson, T. E. (2021). Promoting Student Learning and Digital Age Literacy Through Metaliteracy. Article 42. Academia.edu.
O'Brien, K.L., M. Forte, T.P. Mackey, & T.E. Jacobson. (2017). Metaliteracy as Pedagogical Framework for Learner-Centered Design in Three MOOC Platforms: Connectivist, Coursera and Canvas. Open Praxis, 9 (3): 267-286.
Fulkerson, D., S. Ariew, & T. Jacobson. (2017). Revisiting Metacognition and Metaliteracy in the ACRL Framework. Communications in Information Literacy, 11 (1).
How Can We Learn to Reject Fake News in the Digital World (December 5, 2016)
Can't Seem to Stop Those Ads Following You Around? Why Not Become 'Metaliterate?' (August 7, 2015)
Explore metaliteracy open learning initiatives
As a part of the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative, I have been involved in several open education learning opportunities connected with metaliteracy.
Metaliteracy.org, where the metaliteracy learning goals and objectives reside. We updated them in 2018--both the 2014 and new versions can be seen here.
Metaliteracy Digital Badges (Currently available as web-based content.)
Canvas MOOC Empowering Yourself as a Digital Citizen
Coursera MOOC Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World
cMOOC (Connectivist MOOC) Metaliteracy MOOC (This is a link to the May 15, 2018 capture by the Web Archive's Way Back Machine. The site is no longer live.) We are very proud of this early initiative when there was so much more flexibility in how a MOOC might be structured. We documented our experiences and analysis of different MOOC formats in an article in Open Praxis--listed in the articles section above, with Kelsey O'Brien as first author.