Below is a (very, very preliminary) draft of a research problem that I might submit as part of a sabbatical proposal for 2009-10. If you have any ideas or feedback on this, I'd love to hear it!
Online content creation by college students continues to grow each year. (Pew, 2007) Student content creation can take the form of a blog or web page, original online creative content (including audio/video content), or remixed, original online content fashioned into an entirely new creation. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project (2007), nearly two-thirds of all teenagers are content creators, up from 57% of online teens in 2004. Locally, 42% of Penn State students report that their instructors required a multimedia project as a class assignment during the 2007-08 academic year. (FACAC, 2008)
The focus of this project is timely, as the Libraries begin collaborating with Penn State's Digital Commons and building a new Knowledge Commons at University Park, integrating multimedia content creation within Libraries facilities and services. Digital media creation will be at the center of the Libraries’ new Commons, physically and pedagogically. Yet where does information literacy embed within the content creation process? This project will explore student online content creation, analyzing how students acquire digital literacies, including information literacy, and how librarians can play an active role in educating and enabling students as they create new online content.
The role of librarians and information literacy in the content creation process is critical. How is the definition of information literacy changing and meshing with other integral digital literacies? In our online world, it is challenging for students to understand the central importance of effective library research and citing sources. When students create online media projects culled from (and often remixed with) a variety of electronic sources, the issue becomes even more blurred and imperative.
In “Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies”, Joan Lippincott (2007) discusses higher education’s need to prepare students to be effective content creators within their major or area of study. Lippincott notes, “faculty and professionals from a variety of areas could collaborate to develop experiences that can be embedded in the curriculum to assist graduates in becoming sophisticated digital-content producers in their professional lives. This is most certainly a twenty-first-century challenge for higher education.”
Ellysa - we're very excited to have Digital Commons working with the Libraries! I think there's some potential for DC to contribute to your research as well. Let me know if you would be interested in collaborating.