Getting Recognized

During this week's online MOOC discussion, I felt extremely special. At the end Professor Jacobson asked the guest speaker, Char Booth, to chose a question that she wanted to answer from student submissions. To my surprise, she chose mine. To be honest, when the stream got to that part, I was a little distracted but when I words that were familiar I became very interested.

Having my question chosen out of all of the submissions made me feel that I'm understanding the course properly. It showed that my mind is in the right place and I'm able to produce questions that required explanation. This comes after earlier in the week when Professor Jacobson told me I provided her with a new interpretation of something she was already extremely familiar with. I wasn't sure if I was understanding the coursework properly, but now I'm confident I'm understanding everything properly.

Padlet vs. Listhings

In our second physical class session we were introduced to an interactive posting board using the website Padlet. Padlet was very interesting because it updated in real time. As I was responding to the prompt, I watched as others put their responses in the board. I watched as the keystrokes were imputed to the computer. This was my first time being exposed to something of this nature and I was so intrigued. 

I became even more intrigued when we were told that there are other programs like this available on the Internet. One that I found interesting was Listhings. Listhings is practically the same as Padlet, just a little more aesthetically appealing. Listhings incorporated the visual, for imputed text, of stickie notes. Personally I am concerned about the aesthetic value of most things in my life. I am also a fan of stickie notes, so the fact that they used this amazing, real-time, updating post board and added to it by appeasing my aesthetic concerns make Listhings my preferred site for group sharing.

#HASHTAGS and MetaLiteracy

In the beginning of the first MetaLiteracy video we were asked to go onto social media outlets and 'get the conversation started' by posting and using '#metaliteracy'. The online social media hash tag got extremely popular with the rise of Twitter. Then other major social media outlets also bean to use it. After the request to use '#metaliterace' made me realize hash tag trend is metaliterate learning at its finest without most people realizing. 

The way hash tags work would just be labeling your post under one or numerous relatable topics. With the label someone who is interested in said topic can see all about that topic. Since the post will becoming form different sources and different methods of thinking the interested researcher will be exposed to various avenues and interpretation of that topic. Without realizing it anyone who uses a hash tag on their social media outlets are experimenting with Metaliterate learning. 

What am I in the MetaLiteracy Circle??

'The MetaLiterate Learner diagram'   

The MetaLiteracy circle, above, displays the different aspects of the MetaLiterate Learner. The 'learner' is the center of the circle, basically as the subject of the analysis. In the immediate sphere outside of that are the four types of learning domains that MetaLiteracy can fall under. The outermost sphere displays the different roles that the MetaLiterate learner might fill throughout their MetaLiterate learning. 

Personally, I feel that my natural role of the outermost MetaLiterate model is Collaborator. I feel that I am a Collaborator because thats how handle information, i combine and mesh all related topics. When I have my collaboration of different ideas I blend them together and spread them as one developed and detailed idea. I feel this is the most efficient way to learn period, because when you have different people coming together, they all have their own backgrounds and experiences that might have provided them with a different interpretation of the same idea that you have. Then when the two ideas are combined create a more detailed and developed idea. I also feel like its proximity to the 'affective' learning domain was perfect. The definition of affective learning is: changes in learners’ emotions or attitudes through engagement with learning activities. I feel that if you really want to change someone's opinion or influence their thinking you have to go through their emotions to make it stick. Affecting peoples' emotions is how you can best add to their thinking. 

Photo credit: http://metaliteracy.cdlprojects.com/what.htm

What MetaLiteracy mean to me...

To me MetaLiteracy has developed into the most effective and common way of learning, whether people realize it or not. My understanding of MetaLiteracy is the collaboration of several ideas and understandings as they pertain to a certain subject. Before this was effectively done within physical social circles, where all of the members backgrounds influenced all of their ideas. However with the way that technology currently can facilitate interactions across the world almost instantly has fostered the arena for MetaLiteracy, as we currently view it. The ideas can be shared amongst more diverse social circles which could allow for more complex and developed ideas to be produced amongst a larger population, thanks to the world wide web.