Edit 2019/Developing Ethical, Responsible, and Reliable Information Producers: 2024/Main Page

This submission has been accepted for WikiConference North America 2019.

The university course that I teach addresses information literacy and metaliteracy, derived from both the Association of College & Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and metaliteracy's roles (https://metaliteracy.org/ml-in-practice/metaliterate-learner-roles/) and learning domains, respectively. The course uses Wikipedia editing to bring home a number of important concepts and practices to students, These include the frames Information Has Value (in particular, we consider gender issues connected to Wikipedia editing and content), Searching as Strategic Exploration, and Information Creation as a Process. The metacognitive and affective learning domains are highlighted, and two metaliteracy themes, Engage with Intellectual Property Ethically and Responsibly and Produce and Share Information in Collaborative and Participatory Environments are also a focus.

Students’ use of the Wiki Education program’s dashboard and training materials while learning to become Wikipedia editors provide an immediate and vivid context in which to consider core components of information literacy and metaliteracy. Writing for Wikipedia unsettles students because of the very different norms and rules that differ from their academic writing.

I will show how the combination of information literacy, metaliteracy, and Wikipedia editing can be a powerful teaching tool that encourages students to see themselves as ethical and responsible (i.e., reliable) information producers and participants in an online community that works for the common good. Metaliteracy will probably be new to most attendees, but I would like to encourage them to consider how it might be valuable in their teaching generally, and in connection with Wikimedia project engagement.

I have presented on both metaliteracy and the ACRL Framework (I co-chaired the Task Force that developed it) many times, but have only included the Wikipedia and Wiki Education components this past year. There is additional information about the course and student learning in the piece I wrote for the Wiki Education blog: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2019/05/06/developing-metaliterate-and-information-literate-wikipedians-in-the-classroom/

The slides I used in a longer but very informal session for a small number of people at Wikimania2019 are here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pP91GU7sV7hyvQtkilnTfDzBLz4wPOMYFzyX9knfs9A/edit?usp=sharing)