I had the pleasure of keynoting the 20th Annual Information Literacy Summit on April 29th. The symposium theme, “Expanding the Conversation: Digital, Media, and Civic Literacies In and Out of the Library” was really generative and drew out an amazing group of attendees (over 500 registrants) from all over the country. The abstract for my keynote, “Facing Your Computers: Algorithmic Literacy as Praxis” is below- I will post the link to the recorded talk when it is available for the organizers. The recorded talk and transcript are now available on the conference website.
Big thank you to the organizers for this event- they were some of the kindest folks I’ve worked with.
Facing Our Computers: Algorithmic Literacies as Praxis | Transcript
Miriam E. Sweeney, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama
“Facing Our Computers: Algorithmic Literacies as Praxis” is a call to turn our attention to the current technological environment, characterized by increased reliance on algorithmic technologies, and grapple with it as part and parcel of the broader social, political, and economic landscape. Borrowing from Paulo Freire’s (1972) definition of praxis as “reflection and action directed at the structure to be transformed”, I invite us to consider how ”facing our computers” (i.e. developing critical algorithmic literacies as a reflective tool) might help LIS “expand the conversation” around algorithmic culture in our professional roles in order to better formulate actions and responses that lead us to better collective futures.