A Home for Converging Literacies: the Center for Digital Fluency at George Mason University Craig Gibson Associate University Librarian for Research, Instructional, and Outreach Services George Mason University Sharon Pitt Executive Director, Division of Instructional Technology George Mason University This session will address the idea of "convergence" among information literacy, technology fluency, and media literacy. Conversations among librarians, computing professionals, and others reveal the convergences among these "literacies," with much potential for collaborative program planning and development, and facilities planning, focused on student learning. Expanding the range of stakeholders in these converging literacies in an experimental environment offers even greater potential for positioning these abilities throughout the formal curriculum and in the co-curriculum as well. This session will discuss a practical experimental environment showcasing "convergence." The Division of Information Technology at George Mason University, along with the University Libraries, University Life, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Program, are redesigning space previously occupied by a media production center (Mason Media Lab) to create a collaborative research and development test bed that will address the University's priorities for infusing information and technology literacy in the learning process. The Center for Digital Fluency will: Enhance students' engagement with technology by providing flexible access to collaborative learning spaces and tools Enable testing of new technologies and learning environments for faculty who want to improve students' learning experiences Provide space for cohorts of faculty and students to work together to explore collaborative projects using instructional technologies Facilitate collaboration among instructional designers, faculty development professionals, information technology staff, and instruction and e-learning librarians focused on infusing research information and technology-enhanced information literacy into Mason's curriculum Enrich conversations across the institution about the value of technology and research skills to support learning   Handout (MS Word) PowerPoint Presentation   Fall 2007 Meeting Home Page     Fall 2007 Project Briefings     Fall 2007 Schedule