Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World

This course prepares you to effectively participate in a connected world. Metaliteracy advances reflective and empowered learning in collaborative communities. You will learn how to creatively and ethically produce and share information. As a metaliterate learner, you will see yourself as an informed content creator and a responsible contributor to information environments. Metaliteracy is empowering because it encourages individuals to be reflective and to take charge of their learning. This approach is relevant to anyone who wants to be an informed consumer of information and responsible participant in a connected world. This requires an understanding of copyright and open licensing through the Creative Commons. It also involves Digital Storytelling as a creative form of information production. Metaliteracy supports learners in a variety of professional fields and academic disciplines to become effective contributors to collaborative communities. Being a metaliterate learner includes self-reflection and critical thinking while successfully adapting to new forms of technology.

• Your Role as a Metaliterate Learner
• This first week defines metaliteracy and explains what it means to be a metaliterate learner in today’s connected world. We describe the four learning domains of metaliteracy and explore the roles of the metaliterate learner. We also interview an expert who defines metacognition, one of the key aspects of metaliteracy.
• Becoming a Metaliterate Digital Citizen
• Metaliteracy promotes the production and distribution of digital information. This week explores intellectual property and information ethics. Since metaliteracy encourages the creation of new information and repurposing of open content, we need to examine the ethical dimension of this work. We will define copyright and then examine Creative Commons as a connected community that provides resources to support the ethical production and sharing of information.
• Creating and Sharing Information
• This week we will explore the different ways in which we create and share information. Metaliteracy supports the ethical and creative production of information in a connected world. Digital storytelling is one of the powerful forms of information creation. We introduce digital storytelling and provide a compelling example.
• Seeing Yourself as an Information Producer
• During this last week, we ask you to examine what you have learned about metaliteracy. Now you have a chance to share the knowledge you gained about metaliteracy with each other. You will create a digital artifact or story of your choosing that will address one key aspect of metaliteracy. Be creative and have fun with this project!