Doing Online Relearning through Information Skills (DORIS): Contributions for information literacy programs Juan D. PhD student Institute of Information Studies Tallinn 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

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

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

 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

 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

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

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

The Concept(s) of Literacies Information Literacy 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,  New Literacies as in Lankshear and Knobel

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 ) Participatory Action Research

Participants  LIS Master  Divided in groups  Pilot Study (2011), Final Study

 Diagnostic Questionnaire  Blog  Social Learners’ Input  Class Discussions  Social Media Sites  Social Learners’ Reports  2nd Questionnaire  Interview Collection of

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

Example of Instructional

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,

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

Thank you!! @judamasmas