Is Meaningless Media Mandatory?

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How Mandated Use of Social Media Began

I was a school librarian when the information hierarchy toppled and print was no longer at the top! Suddenly, my school principal and colleagues looked to me to answer the question “What is happening to information?” And, I became the voice of the school on social media. It was simply dropped in my lap. What kind of information professional would I be if I was not aware of the information channels being used as digital culture emerged?

Often, I have told people how it felt at the turn of the 21st century, when it seemed the floor beneath my feet in the library was shaking! I knew there was no going back and that digital culture would change everything. But, I embraced it and said “Bring it on!” even though I had a distaste for social media and the narcissism of everyone yelling “Look at me!” Much of the content we scroll through is self-serving, unimportant, and rather meaningless. User-generated content sometimes makes me long for the gatekeepers who made authors jump through hoops to get published. Entering a library with stacks of high quality materials gave me a sense of trust in authority and quality that one never finds online. (Sure, there may never have been a “perfect 100% truth” of information, but at least we didn’t have to dig through a pile of nonsense to find a truthful nugget.)

Once Facebook took off, every field seemed to adopt social media as a way to connect us all: business people, educators, long-lost family and special interest groups, for example. And take off it did! Within a decade, Facebook and Twitter impacted the fabric of society and others began to join me in the feeling that it is inherently wrong. Yet, everyone seemed to justify using it because… well, everybody was doing it. Yes, it feels mandated.

A colleague recently told me she deleted all her social media except for LinkedIn and that it feels great. I felt a pang of envy at her bravery to cut it off. But the libraries and groups I work with insist on using social media as the best way to reach out to patrons and provide information easily. Again, it feels mandated.

We’re in a Dilemma

The ME! ME! ME! oversharing of personal information is not the only problem with social media. Data mining uses our information to manipulate our behavior, as pointed out in the Nexflix documentary THE SOCIAL DILEMMA. Our incoming dashboards, unique to each of us, compel us toward personalized ads and a tendency for confirmation bias (following those whose ideas align to our own).

Rather than live in fear, for the past 20 years I have been researching information literacy (and the term metaliteracy which I feel describes it perfectly) with the goal of helping the next generation remain human. I joke that we are all cyborgs and it may be pretty close to the truth. Many young people are aware of the problems encountered on social media and organizations like the Center for Humane Technology are striving to find ways to tackle them. For me, my faith keeps fear away and, without faith, my view of the future would appear dark and dismal. Awareness of the social dilemma which has swept across our planet awakens us to our personal responsibility for metaliteracy.

Meta-Death: Not Facebook Metaverse (Please)

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Literacy in digital culture has been my passion for decades now. And the prefix META has played a big role in my research as I adopted the terms metaliteracy in our metamodern era. In addition, my colleagues have spent years learning best practices for teaching in the metaverse, yet Facebook is just now spotlighting that word and changing the company’s name to META!


Meta! Meta! Meta!

Suddenly the world is criticizing this prefix, probably because many people dislike Facebook but feel compelled to use it. Apparently, META means “dead” in Hebrew! Yet, Meta has Greek roots that often translate as “after, beyond, about or among”. For instance, metacognition concerns thinking about thinking. But let’s consider this idea of meta = death.

Metaliteracy and the Death of Print

I witnessed the close of the Gutenberg Parenthesis (the period when the book was king format of the information hierarchy for 500 years from about the 1500-2000 AD) during my career as a librarian. What a fascinating journey it was! It felt like the library floor was shifting beneath my feet and I jumped into digital culture to figure out how information could be navigated after the death of fixed media. Yes…the word death may fit with metaliteracy! Death of print as king (yet long live print) as well as “beyond print” or thinking “about literacy” after the impact of the Internet.

Of course, a book in print is still a viable format and many people still prefer print books to digital formats or ebooks. Perhaps print will survive long into our future (of course a librarian would hope). But most content today is born digital, creating the need to investigate archival of changing formats as they evolve and the hardware used to access them becomes obsolete.

Metamodernism and the Death of Dystopia

Postmodernism ushered in a period of irony and cynicism as grand narratives were broken down and truth became illusive. A new period is arising beyond postmodernism which may allow room for sincerity, hope, and a balance of tradition and innovation. Postmodern literature brought volumes of dystopian fiction which many found bleak and desolate (even though much of it was quite good and who doesn’t like a good zombie story?).

The name of our current philosophical moment is not yet set in stone, but many, like myself, are proponents of the term metamodernism. In my recent book, Metamodernism and Changing Literacy, I investigate the intersection of our era in time with the need to revisit literacy as it has been revolutionized.

The Metaverse and the Death of a Single Reality

The hype over Facebook’s name change may bring the term “the metaverse” into popular culture, but it has been around since Neal Stephenson coined it way back in 1992 when he wrote Snow Crash. Facebook proports to give everyone a voice and connect them across the globe, which suggests that the company’s vision of virtual reality will build upon those connections. Jaron Lanier (often touted as the Father of Virtual Reality) opposes social media in his book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now and the idea of Facebook creating a VR world seems the antithesis of his philosophical view of a metaverse.

The Metaverse (with a capital M as an interoperable space connecting all virtual worlds) has not evolved, but the many metaverse-esque virtual worlds that I have visited for education are a far cry from what I imagine FB is developing. Space for cartoonish avatars playing social games and dancing around has little educational value and there are many high quality virtual spaces in which one can share a sense of presence for high quality immersive learning. No doubt, multiple realities are on the horizon and my passion for digital citizenship expands alongside them.

What does this jump into metamodernism mean for us? Much of our way of life is different now, perhaps dead to us! Some people say privacy is dead. A “shared culture” of music and media with our own generation may be dead as we each create and curate our own personal dashboard. A new way of living has emerged and we are personally responsible to make it healthy, happy and ethical.

Death is a part of the circle of life and plays a role in the cycle of information and libraries. If META means dead in Hebrew, we are given yet another connotation for our philosophical time, our evolving communication tools, and the way we will live in the future. As winter brings the death to our natural world, spring burst forth anew and we oscillate among the opposites we encounter on this planet. That’s about as metamodern as it gets.

Grammar Cops Blow Their Lexical Whistles

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Is grammar dead now that we use emojis, autocorrected texts and fast-paced instant messages? The Grammar Cops at the Community Virtual Library advocate for good grammar in digital culture through understanding of registers of language.

Understanding when to use formal grammar and when to let it go is a 21st century metaliteracy skill. The Grammar Cops believe that grammar is simply good manners to your reader or listener and is essential to good communication. Language is a living thing and is constantly changing. So, the rules are changing and sometimes they can be broken. Only a good writer can successfully break the rules!

What a lively discussion was had on the virtual beach outside the Community Virtual Library. Come inside CVL to schedule a visit with the Grammar Cops and bring the discussion to your own virtual community or class.

Introducing Enchanting Virtual Reality Soon at Your Local Library

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Is #VR coming to libraries? Yes! But how and why? Librarians have always been in the forefront of innovative technology and have fearlessly adopted changing information formats for centuries. Virtual reality is simply another information format and certainly librarians are exploring uses.

Circulating VR Experiences as Resources

While the Covid 19 Pandemic may have closed many library buildings and slowed the use of VR headsets within them, many libraries plan to provide VR experiences to patrons in the near future including educational simulations such as going inside the human body, exploring space, viewing art museums or encountering historical events. Most librarians and educators agree that VR headsets should not be used by persons under the age of 13 or by those with health problems. Virtual reality on a desktop includes environments like Minecraft which has been widely recognized as an educational space for young people. Researchers currently seek to identify the best practices and purposes for virtual reality for various age groups and perhaps the library is a good place for this exploration.

Libraries Built Inside Virtual Spaces

Putting on a headset to “go inside a book” such as The Diary of Anne Frank might provide a powerful experience, particularly for visual learners. Yet sharing VR as “library resources” is not the only way to utilize virtual environments. The library itself can be built in a virtual space so that patrons can enter together and talk with real people in the same way one might in a physical space. Library programs such as exhibits, storytelling, book discussions, special events, workshops, anything we think of doing in a physical library, can take place in a virtual library. In fact, some things that cannot possibly be experienced in the physical world can happen virtually, such as falling down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland or walking on Mars.

The Community Virtual Library is an example of a “real library in a virtual world” with a main branch in Second Life and outpost branches in numerous other virtual spaces including both desktop and headset VR. Librarians, educators, and lifelong learners can collaborate and learn best practices for virtual environments at CVL and the partnering educational institutions of the Virtual World Education Consortium hosted in sky pavilion above the virtual library.

Community Virtual Library in Second Life
CVL Reference Desk

Yikes! Metaliteracy Needed Now: Young, Old and In-Between!

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My recent article in College and Research Libraries News shares the importance of embedding metaliteracy in higher education but, if you really think about it, metaliteracy is for all of us from tiny tots to the elderly. Have you seen little ones accessing fun games and videos (hopefully somewhat educational) on their parents mobile devices? My four year old grandson recently picked up a wrapper from a kids’ treat and said, “Look there’s a QR code. Let’s see what it does on your phone!” His parents are aware of the importance of limiting screen time and provide him with lots of outdoor activities, but there is no escaping digital culture. Yes, literacy has changed and even the youngest among us juggles multiple formats of information as he becomes a prosumer– both consuming and producing digital content.

Augmented Reality apps are available now for toddlers!

ApplyDu for kids

Elderly Folks have Metaliteracy Needs

Working with elderly people in the library, I am reminded that we all have personal literacy needs. An 85 year old grandmother may want to learn ZOOM or Facetime to connect with family. Choosing which application and which device for communication is part of metaliteracy and the apps keep changing. One elderly woman asked for help setting up her new smart phone and it was her first time using a touch screen device. “Is it me or is this phone really confusing and difficult?” she asked. Learning to swipe up, down and side to side or to gently tap instead of push the screen frustrated her but her phone company told her that the flip phone she had was obsolete and sent her a new model. We have met several times in the library to help her get more comfortable. Metaliteracy includes constant changes in the way we communicate and adapting to changes in digital tools can be uniquely personal for each of us.

Metamodern Students “walk through” Instructional Design

Metaliteracy can be taught in any setting including a virtual world! To help a class of students in Dublin understand their own need for metaliteracy, I “sat on top” of my slides as the students walked through them (which is way less boring than listening to a lecture). Utilizing new digital tools may be fascinating but it requires understanding that metaliteracy is a personal responsibility. Parents, educators, and people of all ages need to think about their changing literacy skills and having conversations about it makes for a good start on becoming metaliterate.

Tech Geeks Help with Constant Changes in Digital Tools

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For 14 years now, I’ve been working with machinima in Second Life and other virtual worlds. I have always been disappointed in my video quality because getting those screen settings set up correctly has been troublesome! First, the viewer has to record with a good graphics card. Then, you have to capture the video in the highest possible quality. And, finally, you have to have the correct settings in the video editor.

Here is my very first machinima recorded at ISTE Island back in 2007. My daughter met me inworld and I took a shot of her crossing a bridge before heading over to the library (what became the Community Virtual Library). Okay- I know it is unwatchable quality! But the memory of that first capture is so vivid and real to me, I just want to keep it in the archives!

Learning to work and help learners in virtual environments requires juggling multiple programs. It is difficult to keep up with the format changes, especially as video has improved with HD and formats (mp4, etc). Having a PLC (professional learning community) is essential and a colleague just took the time to share screens with me and go through all my settings! Thanks so much, Sitearm.

Juggling Multiple Applications and Screens

Sitearm working in Virbela and sharing tools

Searching for Help Online

During our screensharing session, Sitearm and I looked up free open source editing software (Shotcut) on Selby Evan’s blog because we found the problem with my poor quality machinima. I was using an old outdated version of Adobe Premiere that is incompatible with the higher quality video available now. Free open source software tools may not have all the “bells and whistles” of professional software, but hey- the price is right!

Machimima Quality Comparison

Take a look at these two versions (raw footage) of our recent CVL tour to 3rdRock at the immersive storybook Alice in Wonderland.
First, the video exported using Adobe Premiere (720×480) at 30 fps. Scroll to minute 2:14 or so to get a good comparison.

Wonderland Version 1

Now- compare with this higher quality version of Wonderland from Shotcut (1920×1080) at 60 fps. Scroll to minute 1:19 to see the same scene as the one above.

Wonderland Version 2

Shooting, editing, and sharing machinima can be time-consuming and I do not consider myself a professional. However, archiving educational experiences in virtual environments is important in order to document the potential they hold for learning in the future. Digital archival has become essential for us all- both professionally and personally- as much of life is spent online.

We can share tips and tricks on youtube as tutorials are plentiful. There is no way we can individually keep up with all the changing technology tools available but developing a PLC (or a PLN if you prefer to call it a professional/personal learning network) is sure a big help. Visit the Community Virtual Library if finding colleagues in virtual learning environments would benefit your teaching, learning or life.

Through the #VR Looking-Glass to Wonderland

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A group of us (librarians and educators at the Community Virtual Library) visited the virtual world of 3rdRock to experience Alice in Wonderland in a 3D immersive environment. Wow! This was not only reading but entering the book!

A librarian at the University of Hawaii created this immersive storybook complete with various scenes from the story with passages of text. Thinking about how children (as well as readers/learners of all ages) will experience literature in the future was a fascinating topic during our tour. Talk about metaliteracy! We enjoyed conversing at the Mad Hatter’s tea party!

While we were fully immersed in the 3D storytelling, we were not wearing virtual reality headsets. Virtual worlds are viewed on a desktop and we believe they are part of virtual reality. Desktop VR allows for many productive tools built into the interface and is less uncomfortable than the “trapped feeling” I get with my VR headset. Of course, as VR evolves, it may become more comfortable. Who knows what the future holds for VR but it may not be ready for young people since research has not been done on how it impacts developing minds. In a virtual world, students could create their own storybook content or develop 3D objects on various subjects. Building in VR currently requires additional programs like Unity or Unreal Engine.

Watching a machinima of our Wonderland virtual field trip does not do is justice! You really need to “be there” inside the story, but this video is meant to archive the event. The group started out in Kitely at the CVL Hypergrid Resource Library and then jumped over to 3rdRock to visit Wonderland as part of the ACRL Virtual World Interest Group which is part of the American Library Association.

Digital Natives Stand Down! Digital Elderly Lead the Way

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Enough already with the “young people know everything about technology” conversation! For years we have heard that young people growing up online find technology so easy and intuitive. Perhaps they were “born digital” as natives in Internet culture and adjust easily to constant upgrades and new apps; but most of the tools they master quickly are for personal entertainment. Older adults, with a lifetime of experience and knowledge, are willing to persevere toward critical thinking and I find them inspirational. Learning should be fun–true! But it also takes hard work sometimes.

Anyone who has explored virtual worlds has probably bumped into Selby “Thinkerer” Evans who is a virtual world champion for learning and building professional learning communities.

After a lifetime of school (teaching, serving as a librarian, and earning a PhD because I love school so much!), I am still learning from Selby who is turning 91 years of age today. What an amazing teacher! Happy 91st Birthday, Selby!

Personal Symbolic Models of Metaliteracy Built in 3D

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Recently, the Virtual World MOOC 2020 shared presentations on numerous educational programs including one on Metaliteracy Symbolic Modeling, a creative process developed by Niela Miller. Niela provides training on facilitating symbolic modeling for various topics, subjects or purposes and I chose to utilize this creative process for understanding our personal responsibility for metaliteracy.

A session on Metaliteracy Symbolic Modeling was held in October 2020 with individuals creating models of how it feels to become metaliterate as literacy has changed. (Note: You may want to fast forward past the first 30 minutes as it is the Nonprofit Commons Meeting with introductions).

Watch as three participants share the 3D model they create and then discuss how they feel about metaliteracy. The process leads the individual to a personal reflection.

Understanding how literacy has changed in digital culture requires critical thinking. The concept of metaliteracy means we think about how we both produce and consume information. The impact of the internet and networked culture has dramatically changed the way we communicate and often we are faced with an overwhelming amount of information each day.

A Metaliteracy Symbolic Modeling Exhibit is scheduled to open soon at InfoLit Island for the Virtual World Education Round Table. Sheila Webber, information literacy expert in the UK shares regularly on the Information Literacy Weblog. Digital citizens around the world unite virtually!

Plunge into My VR Office – One Mind-bending Click Away!

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Virtual reality apps have exploded.  Frame.io is a web-based VR platform created by Virbela which is currently in Beta and will be released next year. In addition, augmented reality (AR) has been around for years but is staged to take off in mainstream media for many uses.  We live and work in multiple realities and we juggle multiple communication tools which certainly require metaliteracy.  Click here to visit my VR office Frame.io/valibrarian or (if you have a device nearby) just use a smart camera to access with this QR code.

Note: the default setting is an open microphone.  I need to tell the Frame.io creators that this might be a privacy issue.  I had the tab open on my browser and then left to do work on other tabs.  A couple hours later, I heard a colleague saying, “Hi Val!  Are you there?”  I could not figure out where the voice was coming from until I clicked over to the Frame.io tab. Yikes! That felt weird.

The images in the VR office have links to resources about metaliteracy in metamodern culture, so click away as you wander through both 2D and 3D objects. Metaliteracy is a term, coined by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson, that encompasses the way we juggle many communication tools every day including social media, email, text messages, app notifications, evaluation of online information and much more. If you come visit, you will create an avatar and be able to chat in voice. 

One wall shares a link to the Community Virtual Library Frame.io space, which also is just one click away! My office hours in Second Life at the Community Virtual Library are currently 1-2pm Pacific Time. I will “plunge” into FrameVR and be around if anyone wants to visit. Of course, if you are reading this ten years from now, we may meet elsewhere. Perhaps on Mars!