Metaliteracy: Reinventing Information Literacy to Empower Learners

Book excerpt: 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 authors Show 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.