T17: Minding the gaps in Wikipedia: Applying Critical Information Literacies with Open Pedagogy
Session Description
Generously Sponsored By: UBC iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies)
The creation of the ACRL Information Literacy Frames has oriented library instruction towards building critical information literacies through the unpacking of social, political, and economic systems of power and exploring how this impacts the creation, accessibility and use of information. While working with library systems provides a space for critical discussion and evaluation, CIL often stops short of providing the opportunity to directly engage with these information systems. Open pedagogy is a teaching practice that empowers users to work collaboratively and transparently in the creation of knowledge in online open communities. Open pedagogy acts as a way to transform the dynamic of instruction in a way in which those with varying levels of knowledge can critically evaluate information and information systems while actively co-creating new open knowledge sources (e.g. blogs, wikis, videos, etc.).
As open education, open pedagogy, and open practice become mandates within our institutions, understanding how to draw this work into our teaching practice is essential. How does open pedagogy look inside of library instruction? What are the ways in which critical information literacy can be enacted within open practice and what is the role of the librarian in these education environments?
Using the case of a Wikipedia-based assignment in a UBC First Nations and Indigenous Studies (FNIS) course, this session will provide participants with an overview of how open pedagogy and critical information literacy are complementary practices and how open pedagogy assignments (through the lense of Wikipedia) can align critical information literacy with social justice and user-centred action. The presenters will root the session in their own experience of engaging in critical information literacy instruction for open assignments and also provide participants with further resources to develop open pedagogy into their own practice.
Speakers
Erin Fields, UBC Library
Biography
Erin Fields is a Liaison Librarian in the humanities and social sciences and the Flexible Learning Coordinator at the University of British Columbia. She received her Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario in 2006. During her ten-year library career Erin has worked in a number of roles focused on teaching and learning. Most recently she has engaged on partnerships across UBC on open badge credentials, Wikipedia-based assignments and edit-athons, open education practices, and content curation for open repositories.
Adair Harper, SLAIS
Biography
Adair Harper is currently working as a Public Services Student Librarian at UBC's X̱wi7x̱wa Library and has just completed her final term of the MLIS program at UBC where she focused on instruction, programming and critical information literacy. She has a Master of Arts in Public History and a professional background in museums and exhibition organizing. Adair is an active member of the British Columbia Academic Libraries Section and has previously collaborated on projects with the Vancouver Public Library and MOA’s Audrey and Harry Hawthorn Library and Archives.