Nature and Its Association with Metaliteracy

Sue Thomas and Michele Forte moderated MOOC Talk 7, which was based on Tech: Nature Literacy. Sue Thomas is a renowned Scholar in Transliteracy, which heavily influenced her research on this subject. In 1995, she created a trAce Online Writing Center at Nottingham Trent University, where she served as the Artistic Director before moving to De Montfort University in 2005. Her online writing community ran for ten years. Sue was a Professor for New Media at the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, where she researched in Biophilia, Social Media, Transliteracy, Transdisciplinarity and Future Foresight. Her latest book is Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace, which is centered on the study of the impact of the natural world on digital culture. She also published Hello World: Travels in Virtuality, a memoir of life online. Her first fiction, Correspodence was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1993. Sue was a keynote Speaker at last spring's Three T's- Trasliteracy, Technology and Teaching- Conference. Michele Forte is a Faculty Member at Center for Distance Learning at SUNY Empire State College. She is a Mentor, Assistant Professor and Community Human Services at the Center for Distance Learning. Her recent projects include Luminar Foundation Grant at Empire State College, and it provides credentials for Earthlings Education Resources. She was a leading member in the organization of the Three T's Conference

There is a need to to cultivate transliterate space, Technobiophilia. Individuals having the ability to map out their relationships with technology and nature is currently of the essence in this ever-changing world. Geography about interactions with the web and the deep web to be more precise includes hackers, wikileaks,government undetected, and illegal porn. Twitter's roof garden and Apple's space shuttle-like buildings provide a form of biophilc imagery as they comprise of greenery and fruit trees. Biophilic imagery is now being used in advertising and design than used to be the case. Biotechnophilia according to E. O. wilson is the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes, just as he did while he studied ants in a Suriname Forest. He experienced the powerful sense of how small he was in nature as he desired to be a part of the closely knit net natural environment. The love for nature according to research and experiments is genetically passed on from generation to generation. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) by Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, was based on The Experience of Nature, 1989 and how nature invariably improves our experiences. The central focus was on looking at regular people's preference of nature and the kind of environment that made people feel good without the aforementioned preferences. People feel better if the encounter an environment that suggests nearby nature- for example, a view from a window could show some greenery and a lot more to be seen. This could have positive and immeasurable benefits to one's health.

There are settings that fall within the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and they are restorative, extent, fascination and compatibility. Restorative setting is in reference to the environment (Being away) and it physically  or conceptually different from an individual's usual environment- for example, a five-minute walk in a garden while taking a break. Extent setting has to do with a sufficiently rich an coherent surroundings that engage the mind and increase one's yearning. Fascination setting is either soft or hard and it is based on content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly and allows one to rest the mind. Compatibility is a good fit between  one's inclinations and the kinds of activities supported by the setting. This is particularly useful in situations where people are stressed. The issue of attention has become very important than it has ever been. According to Sue's presentation, Dorset County Hospital in United Kingdom employed Nearby Nature- which was focused on housing patients in restricted wards with constant live feed of videos of the natural environment to aid quicker recovery. Controlled environment helps doctors and scientists to carry out the practice routines in a more relaxed and effective manner- for example, a doctor measuring a patient's blood pressure can do so more easily and effectively when the patients is being made to watch videos on the beauty of nature. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) work in our connected lives. The Daily Zen Smartphone Application helps users to be focused on reaching their goals. This falls under the being away category. The soft fascination staring at an aquarium and admiring the beauty of fish moving gracefully in water as well as the ripples created can help keep the heart rate and emotions like fear in check. It is critical to find space an individual feels comfortable in to carry out  a productive activity according to the well-known Howard Rheingold. Walking in nature improves one's attention span and cognitive functioning.

Technobiophilia is the tendency to focus on life and life processes as they appear in technologies. It is a known fact that natural environments positively impact emotions. While indoors, an individual can pay attention, use indoor plants advantageously, connect with animals, or even treat one's self to technobiophilic gadgets like computer mouses, etc. While outdoor, an individual can go outside, create an outside office, grow stuff (some greenery), or even use smartphones to enhance an individual's outdoor experience. In terms of being online, one can visit a virtual world, play a video game, sample some next nature, add biophilic designs to individual online spaces. Tech: nature literacy is the ability to interpret experiential information generated by a synthesis of nature and technology- for example, the landscape setting in Grand Theft Auto video game. This concept has a connection with metaliteracy. The organic dimension  to online life can:

• Combat digital dualism
• Inform reflective learning 
• Connect experiential learning and research
• Encourage strategies for well-being through tech:nature
• Support lifelong learning   

Biophilic design may be in the form of a building shaped into design with a turf roof or second life teaching space, outdoors in a beautiful garden. Teaching spaces can be very influential to the cause of metaliteracy and connect people within the environment.

The Relationship between Metaliteracy and Digital Storytelling

MOOC Talk 6 was delivered by Bryan Alexander and Nicola Marie Allain. Bryan Alexander is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Technology and Liberal Education. He researches, writes and speaks of emerging trends in the integration of inquiry, pedagogy and technology. In 2012, he was the keynote speaker  at the conference of instructional at SUNY IT. His current researchinterests  includes but is not limited to emerging pedagogical forms enabled by mobile technology, learning processes and outcomes associated with gaming and augmented reality, the rise of digital humanities, digital storytelling and futurist methodologies. Bryan published the book, The New Digital Storytelling-Creating a Narrative with New Media.

Bryan's presentation began with a look at a quote by Mark Weiser, a late computer scientist based on Architectures: Ubiquitous Computing, which states, "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." In this modern day and age there exists a multiplicity of technological tools and equipment that come together to form a platform for storytelling. Most stories from time immemorial follow Gustav Freitag's model on storytelling which follows the pattern- Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Denouement. Storytelling could take a personal form, which could be about someone important, an important event, about what one does, and even criticizing the characters involved. Joseph Campbell looks at storytelling as a form of personal art or kind of personal experience as seen in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," which is based on the phases a hero goes through. A problem ensues, the hero is called upon and this is described as call to action and then the hero saves the day amid some difficulties usually to give the story an interesting twist, or what is referred to as a sting in the tale.

Storytelling could also be based on mystery, which is not obvious and involved a component which is obscure and hidden. A good example can be drawn from Frederic Brown's "Knock" (1948). The first and second lines read:

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."

The element of mystery is what makes a reader continue reading the following lines in the story as well as the writer's twists and turns. This is what sparks reader or viewer interest depending on the kind of presentation used. Bryan Alexander's definition of storytelling states, "For a given audience, a story is a sequence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages the audience with emotion and meaning." Stories involve some for of difficulties or problems that must be solved by the end to give a meaningful ending to the followers. In the early 1990's digital storytelling was done in the form of Web 1.0, Hypertext, and Multimedia. It was browser-focused, connected with offline and analog content including textbooks and it was like a fad, short trend. By the late 1990's the Center for Digital Storytelling was founded in Berkeley. A curriculum was created and a three-day event was organized, where any individual had the opportunity to create a three-minute video on digital storytelling and in had a personal twist to it as it was based on personal stories. The pedagogy which came up through this event exists today and has inspired movements worldwide in countries like the United States, Britain, Italy and Australia to mention a few. Digital storytelling has enhanced the growth of educational project through platforms such as building critical facilities with technology and very effective brainstorming exercises within an area of study; this is how it has positively impacted the lives of students. This process has helped students discover their voice and identities as storytellers.

Social media and blogs are channels for storytelling and through creative writing and through Wiki a collaborative authored novel was created involving millions of writers. Documents have also been converted into narratives to fit into the storytelling framework. The comments that come at the end of articles and blog posts even tell a story. Podcasts are also a creative way to tell stories and engage listeners. Stories can also be told through picture-sharing websites or online communities like Flickr. Photos are arranged in a particular sequence to tell a story; remixing-taking other people's photos- can be used to tell stories. Gaming is also a means of telling a story so the better the story the more attractive the game becomes. In response to how authors can keep readers interested, there are three ways: make them [readers] worry, weep and wait; that way all of their attention is fully captured. Augmented reality helps put digital ideas to tell stories in the real world and good example of that is Yelp. Geocaching, and choosing your own form of adventure help to collaboratively tell stories.

Nicola Marae Allain is a Faculty Mentor and Area Coordinator for Digital Media for the Center for Distance Learning, a Core Faculty Member of the Master of Arts and Learning of Emerging Technology program in the School of Graduate Studies at Empire State College. She teaches Digital Storytelling and is the Area Coordinator for Media Art courses in the undergraduate program and Advanced Design and Research courses in the graduate program. Her recent scholarship articles are on Digital Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship. Her presentation was based on Digital Storytelling as a form of Metaliteracy. Digital Storytelling is taught through the Digital Media program by the Center for Distance Learning at the Empire State College. It is taught online in multiple sections, five terms every academic year. International programs also offer Digital Storytelling. All the faculties involved in the program collaborate to make it better every term. The Digital Story telling framework used at Empire State College involves creating media-text, audio, images and videos, having a storyline- writing, storyboarding, scripting and lastly projecting- involves importing, editing and exporting media. The faculty areas of expertise include but not limited to Digital Media Arts, Storytelling, Journalism, Public History, Global Studies, Political Science, Communication Design, Information Science, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Film-making and Photographic Arts. There's a global component to Digital Storytelling and that revolves around international, collaborative, inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. International Digital Storytelling was created by Dr. Sheila Aird, who focuses on Global Studies and Public History and Dr. Himanee Gupta-Carlson, whose areas of expertise are Political Science and Journalism. It is facilitated by the SUNY Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Students collaborate with their counterparts from all over the globe to share ideas and material based on storytelling.

In creating Metaliterate Learners, learning and activities under the Digital Story course require students to fully partake in the processes, knowledge building and skills creation that contribute to metaliterate learning. Digital Storytelling contributes to the Metaliteracy framework hence there is a difference between the two. Students are required to evaluate, understand, share, determine and access information related to the subject and understand the research process.Students find and share stories, analyze, reconstruct and deconstruct and peer review each other's stories and this has added to the high development of Information Literacy, Cyber Literacy, Critical Literacy skills and lastly the abilities to research, review, author, collaborate, participate, contribute, produce, publish, reflect and communicate. The literacies covered in the course include Digital Media Literacy, Media Literacy, Visual Literacy, Computer Literacy, Cyberliteracy, Information Fluency and Critical Literacy. In combining the knowledge, skills and literacies the pathways for student metaliterate learners is created. The pathways include Story Worlds- Wordle Story, Wordless Stories then creating Story Worlds; Story Types include Weaving Narrative, Sound, Images, Personal, Professional, Historical, Fictional. Under the Analysis, Evaluation and Reflection category there is research through field trips, peer review and metacognitive reflection. The inspiration behind digital stories, their importance, intended audience, emotions sparked, the creative process, technical considerations, hindrances, highlights of the writing experience are all essential to the development of future digital stories.

The Parallels between Media and News Literacy-MOOC Talk 5

The fifth MOOC Talk was delivered on Monday, October 28 by co-presenters, Greg Stapleton(on behalf of the original presenter Rex Smith) and Professor John Delano. Mr. Greg Stapleton is the Circulation Community Manager at the Times Union Center in New York's capital, Albany. He works as the overseer of the Richmond Program, which involves helping local teachers using  newspapers and related curriculum guides, lesson plans and social media to attain standards set by the New York State Department of education  and newly developed nationwide Common Course standards. Mr. Stapleton has served in various capacities as an adjunct faculty member at several capital region colleges teaching journalism, mass media theory and contemporary media issues . He is currently teaching technical writing and mass media at SUNY Cobleskill. He received his masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University and also pursued Public Communications at the College of Saint Rose.

Newspapers emerged to the main scenes in the mid 1800's during the revolutionary period for two main reasons: To get political views known and spread throughout the nation as well as promote local businesses. This is how the Times Union Center began operating in Albany in 1856 to disseminate information about businesses in the capital region. It gradually became a money-making venture. The old model of communication involved a gap between the creators of information and the consumers which was bridged by media. Between the 1950's and 1960's, the feedback loop was added which made it possible for consumers of information to write letters to the editors. The new model of communication is referred to as the social media age and it began between the 1980's and 1990's. It includes emails, feedback in the form of posts and comments, websites and less newspaper. It also involves a two-way mode of communication. Media goes directly to information consumers on a one-on-one basis meaning that the kind of messages sent to consumers is directly related with their various individual styles of living and therefore it suits their personal interests, wants and needs. The sharing of information has become a lot more complex as it involves the new multiple planetary model which means information is shared in a plethora of ways through multiple channels. For example, if I share information on a social media network such a facebook, my friends on the network can share it with the friends too if they like the content of the information.

The Society of Professional Journalists require that media literacy put out by the members of the media is nothing but the truth, must be unbiased, straightforward, abiding by their code of ethics, full of integrity. There is clearly a difference between journalism and a slanted piece of information and therefore there is a requirement for the Times Union Center journalists to check the truthfulness of the information they make available for consumers. Their journalists turn to useful websites like www.snope.com, which works as a definitive internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. The New York News Publishers have a curriculum for teachers to use in elementary and middle schools in teaching their students using the right approaches. Bloggers use social media to promote their works and get sources, share ideas to reach a larger audience. It has become more evident that our generation sees through a slanted viewpoint and therefore it has become necessary for bloggers and journalists alike to use mass social media which allows peer reviews, critiques and feedback to ensure quality material is provided for information consumers. The attainment of power requires even greater responsibility and therefore the education of the next generation on news media literacy through the use of social media is very critical.

The second part of the fifth MOOC Talk was moderated by Professor John Delano. He is a distinguished professor and associate dean at the University at Albany (SUNY Albany). He is a leading scientist in the entire nation and has conducted research on the origin of life and the composition of the planets. He earned his masters in geochemistry at  SUNY Stony Brook in 1977. He has also done research in the field of astrobiology  with NASA and the National Science Foundation. He had the honor of providing a testimony before a Presidential Commission  in 2004 where he addressed NASA's strategic goals for state flight. In 2011, he received an Excellence Award from the University at Albany Alumni Association. He has taught for nearly three decades at the University at Albany. His part of the MOOC Talk focused on science literacy which was based on the topic: Global Challenges of Climate Change-Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin (1968). The Science magazine, one of the leading science periodicals dedicated an entire issue to Hardin's work on environmental degradation and pollution. The word "commons" as used in the above mentioned topic refers to any situation of unregulated open access that is unsustainable.

Professor Delano branched off to take a look at the peculiar case of the Yosemite National Park, which encountered staggering noise and pollution caused by 88,000 ski-mobiles. This led to government regulations since the park was left in ruins. It has become imperative that regulations are put place to regulate capitalism, immigration, the use of low efficiency cars, the size of families and the population, military adventures to seize resources, universality of human rights and access to public lands to mention a few. Sustainable development has also become very necessary. The definition provided by Professor Delano is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In addition to that, according Hebert Stein, that which is not sustainable will end. According to a Native American proverb, we do not inherit the environment from our parents we borrow it from our children. Professor Delano went on to provide the population age structure for developing and developed countries. About 32% of people in developing countries are under 15 years old versus 17% in developed countries. The death mortality rate was likened to 35 crashes of 747 aircraft per day without survivors which is quite alarming. The reindeer population in St. Matthew Island prior to 1940 was negligible as only 29 were counted. The animal population soared to a high of 6,000 in the following years before dropping sharply to just 42 due to a very harsh winter!

Planet Earth could be considered as a life boat that sinks with continuous loading. Carbon dioxide emissions and municipal waste must be controlled in order to reduce environmental issues globally. According to the presentation, "humans are trapped in an endless 'Tragedy of the Commons,' unless governments impose solutions on them." "Injustice is preferable to total ruin." "Responsibility is a product of definite social arrangements" and finally ancient ethics are ill-suited in today's complex world. Science literacy involves multiple disciplines that fit within the metaliteracy framework from a social, legal and environmental standpoint to mention a few. It is very complex and therefore requires global action, which can be heavily promoted using the metaliteracy model to make consumers of information well informed on such important issues of concern. The field of science has many branches and therefore with the help of global action and education through the use of metaliteracy a major difference can be made to reduce all the environmental issues to the barest minimum as people become more aware of how important their individual roles are in achieving the collective goal.