Overview
Dr. Marilyn Arnone is a Research Associate Professor at Syracuse University in the School of Information Studies (IST). She is director of educational media for the Center for Digital Literacy (CDL) and serves as principal investigator for one of the Center's signature projects, S.O.S. for Information Literacy. This research and demonstration project was awarded National Leadership Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in both 2002 and 2005, and is a multimedia database of information literacy lesson plans, support materials and services for K-12 and now higher education. One of the innovative aspects of the project is an evaluation system for submissions to the database that assigns lesson plans to geographically distributed evaluation teams and allows them to review materials submitted based on specific criteria for individual lesson plan and media components.
Marilyn has authored several books including Motivational Design: The Secret to Producing Effective Children's Media in 2005. She is also the creator and author of the Curious Kids series of storybooks and guides for educators to use in stimulating curiosity for research and for introducing information literacy skills to children in the primary grades. The series is published by Libraries Unlimited, a division of Greenwood Publishing. She also co-authored Turning Kids On To Research: The Power of Motivation and several other books with Dr. Ruth Small.
As a former partner in Creative Media Solutions, Syracuse, NY for more than 12 years, she acquired a track record of producing quality children's and educational/informational media. In that role, she served as director of research and evaluation for a children's television program that promoted art and creativity and aired nationally in re-runs on The Learning Channel (TLC) from 1996 to 2003. She continues to design and produce media for numerous Syracuse University projects including most recently a DVD designed to promote school media as a career entitled TEN BEST REASONS to become a library media specialist in a high needs school.
Marilyn received her master's degree in education from Harvard University focusing on children's television research and human development. In 1992, she earned her Ph.D. in instructional design, development, and evaluation from Syracuse University's School of Education with a strong interest in interactive learning technologies, instructional strategies, and motivation.
Research Interests
Marilyn's research interests center on exploring children's learning and curiosity in interactive multimedia environments. She is also interested in the relationship between other variables such as the acquisition of information literacy skills and a child's curiosity (willingness to explore until uncertainty is resolved).
Teaching Interests
Marilyn taught an undergraduate course entitled Information Reporting and Presentation a number of times in the late 90s and in 2000. The course utilized an interdisciplinary perspective in reporting and presenting information, drawing on knowledge from fields of information science, management, communications, education, visual arts, and computer science. She currently team-teaches Motivation and Information Literacy (IST 504) with Dr. Ruth Small. This three-credit course has been taught by these professors in both distance education and face to face formats over the years. IST 504 covers designing, delivering, and evaluating instruction and instructional materials that motivate student learning. A variety of information skills models and national information literacy standards are addressed. They also team taught Motivation in Instructional Design, cross-listed with the School of Education in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. This course took a more theoretical approach to exploring motivation as it pertains to education and learning. Drs. Small and Arnone also taught Techniques for Motivating Learning and Performance in Organizations, a three credit course for IBM students in Toronto, Canada as part of a distance education program of study. A teaching interest as yet unfulfilled would be creating and delivering a course called Educators as Childrens Media Producers, with a focus on design, development and evaluation of educational/informational children's media for use in the library media center and classrooms.
Professional Interests
Dr. Arnone has served on the National Forum on Information Literacy since 2001. Professional memberships include the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, North Carolina Library Association, Association of Educational Communications and Technology, Society of Children's Book Writers; organizational affiliations include the National Telemedia Council and the Coalition for Quality Children's Media. She also consults with organizations on educational media through Creative Media Solutions in Oriental, NC. Marilyn developed the WebMAC Motivational Analysis Checklist for Children's Television Websites (WebMAC TV) and WebMAC Junior for teaching evaluation skills to children with co-developer, Dr. Ruth Small. She has presented at dozens of conferences nationwide, and published in journals and trade magazines.