When I first heard about the Metaliteracy MOOC I was a bit hesitant about signing up (this semester is especially busy, and I had only made it halfway through the last MOOC I signed up for), but I'm happy to say that one of my coworker's enthusiasm about the course convinced me to give it a try.
So far, I'm enjoying the way the course has been designed including its connectivist format. I've been able to catch up thanks to the pace of the course, and the amount of suggested readings still allow enough time to read many of the blog posts being written by the course participants.
The course focuses on the idea of metaliteracy which according to Mackey and Jacobson (2011), "expands the scope of information literacy as more than a set of discrete skills, challenging us to rethink information literacy as active knowledge production and distribution in collaborative online environments" (p. 64).
I really like the idea of having students be active participants in knowledge creation through web 2.0 technologies rather than passive consumers, but as with most things I'm still struggling with how I can incorporate these sorts of activities into 45 minute one-shot instruction sessions. This might be a good time to finally try out a flipped classroom structure so that I have more time for activities during my sessions or since I teach education students who will eventually have to teach metaliteracy/information literacy skills to their own students, perhaps I could host an optional workshop about metaliteracy for them.
Just some reflections as I work through topic 1 : )
Resources for Topic 1 included two articles and a welcome plenary:
Mackey, T. P., and T. E. Jacobson. (2011). Reframing information literacy as a metaliteracy. College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78. Retrieved from http://crl.acrl.org/content/72/1/62.full.pdf+html
Mackey, T. P. (2011). Transparency as a catalyst for interaction and participation in open learning environments. First Monday, 16(10). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3333/3070
Prezi for Welcome Plenary
Additionally, professor Tor Loney shared the syllabus that will be used by the students taking UUNL 205x.
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Update: Some interesting blog posts have come up in the Metaliteracy Newsletter from other students participating in the course.
http://metaliteracy9000.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/notes-about-authority-and-reliability-in-evaluating-sources/
http://metaliteracy9000.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/notes-about-authority-and-evaluating-sources-2/
http://beyondinformationliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/08/so-much-time-and-so-little-to-do.html
