Chapter 19
Toward a Theory of New Literacies Emerging From
the Internet and Other Information and Communication Technology by Leu, Kinzer,
Coiro, & Cammack (2000)
“We have argued that the definition of literacy
has always changed over historical periods but that it is changing today at a
pace we have never before experienced as new technologies for information and
communication appeared rapidly and continuously. Literacy, therefore, may be
thought of as a moving target, continually changing its meaning depending on
what society expects literate individuals to do” (p. 332).
“Perhaps
more significant, changing definitions must acknowledge the expanded presence
of multimedia, which has led to a proliferation of new combinations of authoring
(e.g., voice-annotated websites, video clips with hypertextual analysis). Lemke
(1998), from a semiotic perspective, argues convincingly that a central problem
is that meanings are not fixed and
additive, but multiplicative. That is, in the electronic environment what
must be interpreted is not a complemantary relaton of separately developed
texts btu the expansive signification of an entire sign system. The literacies necessary
o understand multiple, interdependent meanings index the need for complex understandings
of literacy “toolkits” (Gee, 1990; Wertsch, 1991) for interpreting and producing
meaning in hypermedia that includes but extends traditional texts” (pg. 335).
“Despite
all these changes, our understanding of the new literacies required by ICTs is
not well advanced. No single theoretical perspective has yet to explain the
full range of the changes to literacy brought about by the Internet and other
ICTs” (p. 335).
New Literacies—The new literacies on the
Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions
necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and
communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and
influence all areas of our personal professional lives. These new literacies
allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions,
locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information,
synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others.
Literacy Within Social and Historical Context
The forms and functions of literacy, as well as
literacy instruction itself, are largely determined by the continuously
changing social forces at work within any society and the technologies theise
forces often produce (322) Some historical innovations in literacy are
v The
cuneiform tablets that are believed to record the first written language
v The
first novel written in the 11th century entitled The Tale of the Genji which was a
picture of life at court and was shred with other women at the Japanese court
v The
power of literacy in Medieval Europe
v The
belief that one was responsible for one’s salvation and the emergence of the
printing press
v Printing
was highly regulated in England and the colonies
v The
emergence of Democracies brought about a populous kind of literacy and public
education
The
social context of reading influenced the nature of literacy instruction
v 1607-1776
influenced by religion
v 1776-1840
nation building and morality
v 1880-1910
the education of an intelligent
citizenry
v 1910-1935
the scientific investigation of reading
v 1935-1950 international conflict
v 1950
to present expanding knowledge, access to information , and technological
revolution
v Today
the most important social forces are global economic completion, rapid
emergence of the internet, and public policy initiatives by governments to
achieve higher levels of literacy
As problem solving and collaborative work becomes
the norm schools will have to change what they do to accommodate this.
NCLB came out of this world wide emphasis on
reading, education, internet competencies, global competition, information
gathering and use, and work skills.
We live in the Post-typographic world
Does literacy presuppose print? Not anymore. What
is text?
HYPERTEXTUAL
AND MULTILITERACIES
With computers comes hypermedia—a nonlinear
medium of information that is created by an author’s use of a variety of text, hyperlinks,
and other graphic tools or representations;
hypertextual analysis—an avenue in which a reader can establish and create
meaning across a variety of texts
Multiliteracies is a method or procedure of
learning or discovery based on the use of inquiry to find a solution through
various avenues such as trial and error, experimentation, and evaluation
“Perhaps
more significant, changing definitions must acknowledge the expanded presence
of multimedia, which has led to a proliferation of new combinations of authoring
(e.g., voice-annotated websites, video clips with hypertextual analysis). Lemke
(1998), from a semiotic perspective, argues convincingly that a central problem
is that meanings are not fixed and
additive, but multiplicative. That is, in the electronic environment what
must be interpreted is not a complemantary relaton of separately developed
texts btu the expansive signification of an entire sign system. The literacies necessary
o understand multiple, interdependent meanings index the need for complex understandings
of literacy “toolkits” (Gee, 1990; Wertsch, 1991) for interpreting and producing
meaning in hypermedia that includes but extends traditional texts” (pg. 335).
“Despite
all these changes, our understanding of the new literacies required by ICTs is
not well advanced. No single theoretical perspective has yet to explain the
full range of the changes to literacy brought about by the Internet and other
ICTs” (p. 335).
Because
of the submersion into text and meaning some think that learners need to be
taught critical literacies so as to better navigate. In this critique is who is
using the information and who producing the message and for what purpose. (Is
it because I’m a history major but one must always look at who is producing
something, who it is geared at and why.)
Multiliteracies involve the many types of communication
combined with the multiple cultural contexts. Both the multiple communication
types and the multiple cultural contexts interact and are part of the meaning
making process. This stance too views the authors intent and analysis how the
technologies create the author’s messages.
Both hypertextual literacy and multiliteracies are limited
as they don’t place the internet at the center, but look at it through the eyes
of other specialties.
IDENTIFYING CENTRAL PRINCIPLES OF NEW
LITERACIES EMERGING FROM THE INTERNET AND OTHER ICTS or WE ARE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
v The internet
and other ICTs are central technologies for literacy within a global community
in an information age—learning how to search, interpret, synthesize make internet
reading different
v The internet
and other IXTs require new literacies to fully access their potential (see
above) new literacies will be built upon the old
v New literacies
are deictic –literacies are limited to the human capacity to learn and change
as technologies grow and change so rapidly—three sources of deictic nature of literacy
1 transformation because of technological changes, 2 envisonments of new
literacy potentials, 3 use of effiecent communication technologies that spread
new literacies
v The relationship
between literacy and technology is transactional
v New literacies
are multiple in nature—meaning is put forth using multiple technologies and the
whole is greater than the parts; multiple tools and user needs to know of them
and how to use them ( keywords, how to use multiple search engines, email,
discussion boards, and instant messaging); sharing multiple information with
multiple people from multiple cultures)
v Critical
literacies are central to the new literacies—users should be able to be
critical of author’s intentions and biases. This awareness should help learners
to navigate information to their best interests
v New forms
of strategic knowledge are central to the new literacies (know structure to
make predictions or as a foundational schema)
v Learning
is often socially constructed with in new literacies—it is impossible for
someone to know everything students will need to teach each other and teachers
will have to know how to make this
possible and attend to everyone’s needs –social knowledge in something new and is
being created every day on the internet. It creates likeminded communities of a
flat hierarchical structure –teaching collaboration skills is essential
v Speed counts
within important ways within new literacies (Yes it does, but creativity and
imagination need to be nurtured and peoples’ needs should not be ignored to accommodate
a quick but incomplete answer.)
v Teachers
become more important though their roles changes, within new literacy
classrooms –teachers will be orchestrators of new literacies and student and
teacher will decide what and how to learn
NEW
LITERACIES PERSPECTIVE: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Issues
v Using technology
does not assure students acquire the new literacies
v Hard to
hit a moving target when it comes to instruction, assessment, and research
v Need to
avoid inequities so as not to have a permanent
underclass—wait don’t we have that already? Or so as more may participate in the
technologies shaping as new communities come together online
Issues of what should be taught and learned
within a context of continuous change
by Grace Lee Boggs
"At this point in time it is
not about the left or right, it is about creating something entirely new. It is
about a solution-based {r}evolution made up of millions of voices and
neighborhoods, hands and feet and breath and dust, people old and young. The face
of this {r}evolution has no color, no name, and no form but that of a people
and a world crying out to survive during a time when this is no longer an
outcome that can be taken for granted."
There is a lot of fear in the last part of this
chapter which I wish to augment with the above statement and by saying this may
be blessed unrest.
Learning how to learn was a very practical and
sensible solution
Teaching collaborative learning in regards to learning how
to learn from others and how to collaboratively construct meaning
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