Doing Online Relearning through Information Skills (DORIS): Contributions for information literacy programs

Doing Online Relearning through Information Skills (DORIS): Contributions for information literacy programs

Juan D. Machin-Mastromatteo

@judamasmasPhD studentInstitute of Information StudiesTallinn University

Snapshots

What is it about?

Integration of social media into higher education and the roles that information, digital and new literacies play

How?

Planning a series of learning activities for engaging participants

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Where does this come from?

Curiosity from MA thesis about the uses of social media for ‘serious’ purposes: education or organizational?

A return to my main area of interest: information literacy and learning.

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What is it for?

Librarians and related professionals mainly

To enrich information literacy programs, by providing:

A methodological/research framework

Insights for developing formal structures

Investigating pedagogical implications

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Constructivist learning (Piaget/Dewey/Vygotsky)

3 dimensions of learning: cognitive, social, emotional (Illeris, 2003)

Information skills: access, use, evaluation (Lau, 2006)

Affinity Spaces (Gee, 2009)

Participatory Action Research in Education (Freire, Fals-Borda, Whitehead & McNiff, McIntyre, Herr & Anderson)

Core Theories@judamasmas

The concepts of learning and knowledge are closely connected

Knowledge is created through socialization (Vygotsky, 1978; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) and can be discovered (Whitehead & McNiff, 2006) as people possess tacit knowledge within (Polanyi, 1958).

Teachers are capable of generating personal theories by systematically studying their practice (Whitehead, 1989)

Epistemological Assumptions

“We cannot teach people anything, we can only help them discover it within themselves” Galileo Galilei

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Research Questions

What significant issues, challenges and opportunities emerge when social media are integrated into learning environments in higher education?

a) How do students’ experience learning when they are engaged in a learning activity that integrates social media?

b) In what ways is students’ engagement dependent upon their literacies?

c) In what way do learning, literacy and social media mutually shape each other?

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The Issues of Social Media

Trust

Loss of identity

Crowdsourcing

Decision making

Quality control

Users’ satisfaction

Information overload

Permanence

Repackaging

Privacy

Negative consequences

Emerging issues Machin-Mastromatteo (2012)

Balance of identities/voices/roles

Fast changing features

Need for marketing SN tools

Users’ underestimation

Machin-Mastromatteo (2010, 2011, 2012), built upon Bawden & Robinson (2009)

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The Concept(s) of Literacies

Info

rmat

io

n L

iter

acy

Digital

Literacy

New Literacies

LITERACIES

Literacies Information Literacy as in Zurkowski (1974), Virkus (2003), Tuominen, et al.(2005), Lau (2006)…

Digital Literacy (computer, ICT…) as in Shapiro and Hughes, 1996; Lankshear y Knobel, 2006.

New Literacies as in Lankshear and Knobel (2007)

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Self and collective reflection on the subject of study

Researcher is part of and makes interventions on research

Cyclical process of exploration, knowledge construction and action through questioning, reflecting, investigating, developing plan implementing, refining, questioning… (McIntyre, 2008)

PAR is a philosophy of life as much as a method, a sentiment as much as a conviction (Fals-Borda, 1997)

PAR leads researchers into unfamiliar pathways… think in new ways… generating provocative new ideas. (Whyte, Greenwood, & Lazes, 1989)

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

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Participants

LIS Master

Divided in groups

Pilot Study (2011), Final Study (2012)

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Diagnostic Questionnaire

Blog

Social Learners’ Input

Class Discussions

Social Media Sites

Social Learners’ Reports

2nd Questionnaire

Interview

Collection of Data

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Stages of Research / Assignments

Assignments:

Individual reflection on own use of SM (2)

Create social site for an information service (3)

Evaluate an established social site (4), revisit (3)

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Example of Instructional Design@judamasmas

Data Analysis

The theory of affinity spaces:

On the function of its content

On the function of how people interact with the content and/or with one another

The three dimensions of learning: cognitive, social, emotional.

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Data Analysis (cont.) A look at some of the challenges and opportunities of

using SM in higher education instruction related to the social learners’ literacies

A look at the most useful activities for learning, within this study

The topics social learners learned about throughout the activities of this study.

Insights into the mutual shaping phenomenon between SM, the learning experience and social learners’ literacies.

Social learners’ reflections on their practice based on the learning dissonance created by the order of the assignments.

The researcher/practitioner’s reflections on his practices between the two studies conducted within this research.

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Thank you!! [email protected] [email protected] @judamasmas http://

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