Reflective Journal (Literacy Guide) Blog Post (Week 13)

I chose the ACRL standards because most college students (the group I designed my literacy guide for) are not that familiar with them (even though these standards are usually referred to on the library’s web page) and should know what these standards contain.  Most accrediting bodies (such as Middle States) expect that colleges and universities will adhere to and follow these standards in their curriculums.

I also chose the ACRL visual literacy competency standards for higher education because, as Kress and van Leeuwen's state: "Analysing visual communication is, or should be, an important part of the 'critical' disciplines (p. 14).  The reason is that, as Kress and van Leeuwen also say, "...images play an ever-increasing role, and not just in texts for children" (p. 16).  Kress and van Leeuwen point out that "most texts now involve a complex interplay of written text, images and other graphic or sound elements, designed as coherent (often at the first level visual rather than verbal) entities by means of layout" (p. 17)

I included some traditional literacy tools because students need to know how to use traditional reference and research sources for their papers.  As Jenkins (2006) points out, students still need to know how to access books and articles through a library (p. 19).  As Jenkins also points out: The new literacy skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom (p. 19).  More importantly, college student need to learn to use traditional library databases that contain peer reviewed articles and eBooks that are more appropriate sources for college research papers and projects than finding inappropriate and non-scholarly sources on Google.  I have also included scholarly literature tools that would be appropriate for students to read and cite in their term papers and reports.  These sites include Google Scholar, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Project Gutenberg, and Bartleby.com.

I have included a glossary to acquaint and familiarize students with information literacy terminology that they should know about to understand what is being referred to, in order to be able to decode text (and in context) (Green’s operational dimension of the 3D Literacy diagram).

I have included an information literacy skills list so students know what skills make up the overall information literacy skills.

I have included citation tools so that students cite sources correctly to avoid issues of plagiarism, and also because students have difficulties with the mechanics of citing sources.  It is also important for students to develop ethical behavior and uphold ethical norms.  Jenkins discussed the Ethics Challenge of young people (p. 16).

I have included a lot of digital and media literacy tools.  As Jenkins also points out: "Even traditional literacies must change to reflect the media change taking place" (p.19).

Students must be acquainted with the full range of digital and social media tools.  Mackey and Jacobson (2011) define this range of new digital and social media skills as metaliteracy.  I have, therefore, included some links to metaliteracy sites as well.  As Mackey and Jacobson point out, the student must have a new kind of literacy to understand what he/she encounters online – in terms of interpreting pieces ("snippets") of information, opinion text from a variety of sources, and knowing what weight to accord to each of these online opinions (p. 73).  

Students must develop the digital, media and social networking tools to function effectively with all these “new literacies.” As Wilber (2010) states: 

New literacies, in contrast with traditional literacies, are more participatory. They are more collaborative in allowing for the open sharing and creation of information on sites like wikis and blogs. New literacies also offer the opportunity for the design of texts that are fluid and can be added to, remixed and constantly re-shaped. They can be shared easily through less hierarchical forms of distribution (para 8).

As we are in a "new media environment" (Mackey and Jacobson, p. 62), it is essential for students to develop a deeper and fuller understanding of all the digital, media, and social media tools in order to be able to communicate, participate, collaborate, and produce content.  The sources I have selected provide the student with a variety of information about digital and media tools.  

I have also included links to a variety of tools that will help the 21^st century college student to function successfully in a college-learning environment.  The tools listed can help the student do a variety of things: creating mind maps (mindmeister), using knowledge management tools (Diigo), document collaboration tools (Google Docs), brain-storming tools, digital notetaking tools (Evernote), being able to watch educational videos and attend online courses.

The tools and sites listed reflect the “profound shift of digital literacies” Kress discussed in Digital Literacies (p. 6).  Yet we are going far beyond screens and multimodal text in terms of how students now work with more sophisticated digital content, in a technological environment -- now based on collaboration and personal production of digital and media content.

As Gillen and Barton (2010) mention, curriculums are changing because of digital technologies (p. 11) and college students must also adapt to these massive digital technological changes.

Mackey and Jacobson (2011) state that the movement beyond information literacy to metaliteracy is the result of “ongoing shifts in technology” (p. 62)  Metaliteracy is more encompassing than the find-and-retrieve methods of traditional information literacy (set out by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)) because metaliteracy is totally integrated with emerging technologies (Mackey & Jacobson, p. 62).

It is even more essential that college students can understand and use all these tools because our society has become culturally and technologically networked.  Individuals now connect through these networks in virtual place instead of communicating in physical place (Varnelis, 2008).  Ito (2008) describes society as one of "pervasive networked connectivity" (Networked Publics, p. 6) and states that "with an expanded network, individuals are able to reach out to a potentially larger and more varied pool of culture and information" (Networked Publics, p.10).  Everything is becoming "integrated into digital networks" (Ito, Networked Publics, p. 12) and the college student must be able to work with and in these digital networks.

References

Association of College & Research Libraries. (2000). Information Literacy Competency

       Standards for Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards

       /informationliteracycompetency

ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. (2011). Retrieved from

        http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy

Gillen, J., & Barton, D. (2010, January).  Digital literacies: A research briefing by the

        Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research

        Programme.  Retrieved from http://www.tlrp.org/docs/DigitalLiteracies.pdf

Graphical representation of Green's approach to literacy.  Retrieved from

        https://moodle.esc.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=821667 

Jenkins, H.J. Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media Education for the 

     21st Century.  Retrieved from: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/download/nwp_file/10932
     /Confronting_the_Challenges_of_Participatory_Culture.pdf?x-r=pcfile_d  

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006).  Reading images: The grammar of visual design.
      London and New York: Routledge.

Mackey, T.P., & Jacobson, T.E. (2011). Reframing information literacy as a metaliteracy. 

       College & Research Libraries, 72(1), 62-78.

Wilber, D.J. (2010). Special themed issue: Beyond ‘new’ literacies.  Digital Culture &

      Education, 2(1), 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-

      content/uploads/2010/05/dce_editorial_wilber_2010.pdf.

Varnelis, K.(Ed.).(2008). Networked Publics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.