#aboerjc – Reinventing the critical and scholarly discussion

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Dr. Constance Blomgren - Athabasca University

connieb@athabascau.ca @DocBlom

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Erik Christiansen - Librarian, Mount Royal University

echristiansen@mtroyal.ca @eriksation

erikchristiansen.net

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Rosemarri Klamn - Athabasca University

rosemarriklamn@athabascau.ca @KlamnJam

Land acknowledgement

Tahnsi kinahnahskoom tinnowow (Cree)

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Athabasca University respectfully acknowledges that we are on and work on the traditional lands of the Indigenous peoples of Canada (Inuit, First Nations, Metis) of Canada. We honour the ancestry, heritage and gifts of the Indigenous peoples and give thanks to them.

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"Fichier:Alberta in Canada" by Fichier, Wikipedia Francophone is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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Background

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• The ABOER (http://albertaoer.com/) members wanted to sustain momentum generated from one-time OER funding from the Alberta government.
• Autumn 2018, a sub-group of ABOER Community of Practice met by phone.
• No budget, limited time, and limited resources...

Twitter chat Journal Club?

• Marry a Twitter chat with a journal club…
• Twitter chats used by K-12 educators (Tour, 2017) with one person organizing and sending out the questions (e.g. #k12artchat)
• A dedicated day and time, either weekly or monthly.
• Questions: current issues and professional practices.
• A facilitator tweets questions
• Use #aboerjc and associated hashtags (#oer) plus twitter handles (e.g. @opencontent = David Wiley)

Journal Club

• A long and scholarly history (Banderob, 2018).
• Doctors met & discussed published research (Deenadayalan et al 2008).
• One person would summarize a print article for a FtF meeting.
• Explored theoretical and professional topics and issues.

#aboerjc

• Launched in November, 2018
• Monthly - first Tuesday at 7 pm MST.
• Guest facilitator uses open access journal article
• Advance advertising so #aboerjc participants can read prepare
• Use #aboerjc and associated hashtags (#oer) plus twitter handles (e.g. @opencontent = David Wiley)

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Website and Documenting Best practices

aboerjournalclub.home.blog

• Simple (free) WordPress site with four sections�
• Setup, including logo design and choosing a template, took 45 min�
• Goal: Public archive of conversations and our documented best practices

Website and Documenting Best practices

Labeling of questions and answers

Journal club hashtag on every post

Website and Documenting Best practices

Other best practices to note (aboerjournalclub.home.blog/about/)

• Keep discussions 45 - 60 min
• Lead time for advertising (2 - 3 weeks)
• Use of images in advertising tweets
• Using key hashtags and tagging key Twitter accounts
• Speakers, BC Campus, Campus Manitoba, eCampus Ontario, etc.
• Having different facilitators
• Many of the best practices came from their unique approaches
• Proper archiving of conversations
• Use Wakelet to capture the discussion by searching #aboerjc
• PDF versions of the discussion uploaded to “Archive” page
• Best practices keep evolving and will be reflected on the site

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Organic Process & Critical Digital Literacies

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Organic Process

• Processes and best practices continue to evolve
• Built on each other’s research and lived experiences
• Shift in pre-, during-, and post-twitter chat marketing, questions, number of participants, post-twitter activity, and choice of articles/facilitators

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Relationship between Critical LIteracies, Critical Digital Literacies and Open Spaces

• Friere’s action-reflection cycle; social justice (Bishop, 2014)
• Socially constructed: identity, power, context
• Reflection - marginalized vs. oppressed/ personal experience

Critical Digital Literacies

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Media literacy: critically read and produce academic and professional communications in a range of media

Communications & collaboration: participate in digital networks for learning and research

Career & identity management: manage digital reputation and online identity

ICT literacy: adopt, adapt and use digital devices, applications and services

Learning skills: study and learn effectively in technology- rich environments, formal and informal

Digital scholarship: participate in emerging academic, professional and research practices that depend on digital systems

Information literacy: find, interpret, evaluate, manage and share information

Adapted image from “critical digital literacies in an open space” https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies

7 elements of digital literacies" by ©Jisc, JISC is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

The seven elements of digital literacies

Conclusion

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• No money, limited time, and no resources other than ABOER CoP
• Used twitter, wordpress, and the #oer community to build #aboerjc
• #aboerjc - small and insignificant
• Yet...

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#aboerjc questions

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Thank you to our Guest Facilitators

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Verena Roberts @verenanz

Michelle Brailley @TheMichMonster

Cari Merkeley @ CariLibrarian

Marc Singer @marcpsinger

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Financial Acknowledgements

Government of Alberta - ABOER funding

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Athabasca University A&PDF fund

References

Banderob, 2018. Journal club…with biscuits. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://education-forum.ca/2018/06/20/journal-clubswith-biscuits/.

Bishop, E. (2014). Critical Literacy: Bringing Theory to Praxis. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. 30 (1). 51-63. Retrieved from http://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/457

Deenadayalan, Y., Grimmer‐Somers, K., Prior, M., & Kumar, S. (2008). How to run an effective journal club: a systematic review. Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 14(5), 898-911. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.01050.x

Tour, E. (2017). Teachers’ personal learning networks (PLNs): exploring the nature of self-initiated professional learning online. Literacy, 51(1), 11–18. https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1111/lit.12101

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