The evolution of digital literacies

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The evolution of digital literacies
Heather Lotherington Faculty of
Education hlotherington_at_edu.yorku.ca Big ideas
TV Ontario February 6, 2006
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What is literacy?

• LITERATE see -ACY. (Formed as an antithesis to
  illiteracy.)
•     The quality or state of being literate
  knowledge of letters condition in respect to
  education, esp. ability to read and write.
• 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
• 1883 New Eng. Jrnl. Educ. XVII. 54 Massachusetts
  is the first state in the Union in literacy in
  its native population. 1888 New Princeton Rev.
  Dec. 336 Education is more general, our literacy
  greatly increased, our habits and tastes more
  refined. 1893 Athenæum 19 Aug. 255/3 It was for
  Mr. Edgar to trace the gradual progress in
  Scotland from illiteracy to literacy.

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LITERATE see -ACY. (Formed as an antithesis to
illiteracy.)

• metaphors for illiteracy sickness, handicap,
  ignorance, incapacity, oppression, deprivation
  and deviance (Barton 1994, p. 13.)
• Talking about a disease which has to be
  eradicated is also a common way in which the
  media discuss literacy as a social issue.
  Powerful images can be built up with this
  metaphor. Further links are suggested by a
  cursory glance at newspaper headlines in Canada
  illiteracy is often linked with criminality. In
  the united States the illiterate is a drain on
  the economy in Britain an illiterate individual
  cannot get a job and is held back (Barton 1994,
  p. 11.).

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The quality or state of being literate knowledge
of letters condition in respect to education,
esp. ability to read and write.

• ad. L. litter tus, f. littera letter. 
• A. adj.
• 1. Acquainted with letters or literature
  educated, instructed, learned.
• 1432-50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 81 The kynge toke
  to the childe a m. talentes whiche boughte anoon
  a c. childer litterate.
• 2. a. Of or pertaining to letters, literary men,
  or literature literary.
•     b. LITERAL 4. Obs.
•  3. Marked with short, angulated lines
  resembling letters applied to the surfaces of
  shells and insect

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The quality or state of being literate knowledge
of letters condition in respect to education,
esp. ability to read and write.

• B. n.   
•  1. A liberally educated or learned person.
•  2. spec. In the Church of England, one who is
  admitted to holy orders without having obtained a
  university degree.
•  3. One who can read and write. Opposed to
  illiterate.
•  4. (Lady) Literate in Arts, the title conferred
  on the holder of a higher certificate for women
  issued at St. Andrews University.

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Acquainted with letters or literature educated,
instructed, learned.

•  1. Acquaintance with letters or books polite
  or humane learning literary culture.(1375.)
•  2. Literary work or production the activity or
  profession of a man of letters the realm of
  letters.
•  3.a. Literary productions as a whole.
•   b. The body of books and writings that treat
  of a particular subject.
•   c. colloq. Printed matter of any kind.

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The quality or state of being literate knowledge
of letters condition in respect to education,
esp. ability to read and write.

• Sorry, literacy is not in the dictionary!!
• alphabétisation alfabetización instrucción
• Connecting language, literacy and education
• The prioritizing of alphabetic encoding in the
  reading process

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Prioritizing alphabetic languages
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Processing of syllabic and logographic languages?
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The quality or state of being literate
knowledge of letters condition in respect to
education, esp. ability to read and write
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The quality or state of being literate knowledge
of letters condition in respect to education,
esp. ability to read and write.

• What is the link between education and society?
• Dangers of The saber-toothed tiger curriculum
  (Elliot Eisner)
• Literacy as a goal or as a means?

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Denotational literacy deconstructed

• The quality or state of being literate
• How have social, communicative, informational,
  transactional, heuristic, critical, interpretive,
  aesthetic and mnemonic dimensions of literate
  engagement changed over the past century?
• knowledge of letters
• unworkably biased and narrow alphabetic
  definition
• static and dated what do you do with this
  knowledge?
• Where is agency in literacy? (Paulo Freire)
• condition in respect to education
• acquisition of educationally approved, socially
  privileged, culturally sanctioned knowledge
• Who judges and how up-to-date is this assessment?
• ability to read and write
• cognitive processing of the encoded world
• What is to be written and read?

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Writing technologies

• What does it mean to be able to use a writing
  technology?
• Narrative 1
• Khans thank-you gift from the Queen
• Narrative 2
• Mayas pen license

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Literacy as modernist ideology

• when literacy was defined as reading and writing
  on paper

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Modernist conceptions of literacy

• modernism
• Industrial Revolution ? mass production, mass
  education
• literacy
• reading and writing
• dominant language culture
• texts
• artifacts of modern technology
• printing press, movable type
• a world on paper (Olson, 1994)
• linearity
• process ? publishing hierarchy bottlenecks of
  power
• product ? patterned, print-centred texts

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Literacy as postmodern ideology

• new literacies

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Postmodern conceptions of literacy

• postmodernism
• Information Revolution ? knowledge economy
• multiliteracies
• multimodal, multilingual, multicultural
  communication
• texts
• artifacts of digital technologies
• information architectures (Cope Kalantzis,
  2004)
• a virtual world through screens
• nonlinearity multilinearity
• process ? mediated by technology democratized
• http//www.wikipedia.org/
• product ? interactive, image-centred texts

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age

• 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
• Literacy in the 21st century inscribes and
  describes multiple, intersecting and interacting
  cultures, languages, modes and media
  multiliteracies (NLG, 1996)

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
print-centred vs. image-centred communication

• the screen more than the page is now the
  dominant site of representation (Kress, 2003, p.
  65)
• the screen is the site of the image (Kress,
  2003, p. 65)

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
environmental screen interfaces
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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
changing social contexts

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
adolescents social literacies

• Digital natives (Prensky, 2001)

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
adolescents social literacies

• New learning

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
digital natives texts

• dont mess with me 2day or ill ghetto u up says
• i gtg real soon cuz my ma is buggin me to clean
  up ?
• HeAtH says kk
• dont mess with me 2day or ill ghetto u up says
• 2day has been a real bad day
• HeAtH says
• jus xplain 2 her wat we r doin n wat it is 4
  kk?
• dont mess with me 2day or ill ghetto u up says
• i did xcept shes bein bitchy when i didnt do
  anythin 2 upset her

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Reconceptualizing literacy in the digital age
school literacies

• How integrated are school literacies and
  technology?
• What is technology in the school?
• What technology is available?

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Multiple modes and media school texts
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Multiple modes and media THE NEW REVISED
LITERACY TEST (Deanna Neville-Verardi)

• Part A General Technology Knowledge.
• Written responses.
• 1. List 4 major search engines.__________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________
• 2. What is a blog?_______________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ____________
• 3. Why might you use quotation marks when
  conducting a search? ____________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _______________
• 4. What does the following emoticon mean?
  -P______________________________________________
  _______________________________________________
• 5. What does the following say and where would
  you normally see it?
• __________________________________________________
  ___________________________________________

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Multiple modes and media THE NEW REVISED
LITERACY TEST (Deanna Neville-Verardi)

• Part B Reading
• The Legend of Zelda
• Multiple Choice
• 1. What is the best meaning for devious as used
  in paragraph 1.a) tricky b) Machiavellian c)
  stupid d) ugly
• 2. Who is the hero they are talking about in this
  reading?a) Pikachu b) Zelda c) Link d) Epona
• Written Answers
• 3. Why would the hero be caught in yet another
  adventure of grand proportions?_________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _____
• 4. What is the usefulness of the Tip that is
  offered in this reading?_________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ___________
• 5. Based on your reading of this selection, do
  you think the hero will be successful yet again?
  Explain._________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _____________________________________________

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Developing multiliteracies Rewriting Goldilocks
and the three bears

• Grade 2 childrens individualized retellings on
  HyperStudio (Lotherington, 2005 Lotherington
  Chow, in press)
• http//schools.tdsb.on.ca/joyce/main/goldilocks/in
  dex.htm

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Exploring digital literacies literacy with agency
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Exploring digital literacies literacy with agency
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Exploring digital literacies literacy with agency
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Exploring digital literacies experimental
narratives

• ebooks
• HyperStudio, Storyweaver, kidpix
• drama and videotaping
• iMovie
• interactive genres
• ezines, blogs
• websites, blogging technologies
• videogames
• generic game shells for simulations and branching
  stories

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Exploring digital literacies todays literate
kids
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What about an LDA?

• literate in digital arts?
• Contemporary literacy is a processing facility
  for accessing, expressing and archiving
  communication not limited to alphabetic scripts,
  particular languages, print, prestige norms or
  paper-based orthographic conventions literacy is
  socialization into a continually evolving
  processing facility needed for navigating
  contemporary society.

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References

• Agnello, M. F. (2001). A postmodern literacy
  policy analysis. New York Peter Lang.
• Barton, D. (1994). Literacy An introduction to
  the ecology of written language. Oxford
  Blackwell.
• Bellis, M. (2004). A Brief History of Writing
  Instruments Part 3 The Battle of the Ballpoint
  Pens. About, Inc. Retrieved February 4, 2006,
  from http//inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa1
  01697.htm
• Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the network
  society (2nd edition). Malden, MA Blackwell.
• Cope, B. Kalantzis, M. (2004). Text-made text.
  E-learning 1 (2), 198-282.
• Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the Internet.
  Cambridge, U.K. New York, Cambridge University
  Press.
• Gee, J.P. (2003). What video games have to teach
  us about learning and literacy. NY Palgrave
  Macmillan.
• Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age.
  London Routledge.
• Lankshear, C. Knobel, M. (2003). New
  literacies Changing knowledge and classroom
  learning. Buckingham Open University Press.
• Lotherington, H. (2005). Writing postmodern fairy
  tales at Main Street School Digital narratives
  and evolving transliteracies. McGill Journal of
  Education, 40 (1), 109-119.
• Lotherington, H. (2004). Emergent
  metaliteracies What the Xbox has to offer the
  EQAO. Linguistics and Education, 14 (3-4),
  305-319.
• Lotherington, H. Chow, S. (in press). Rewriting
  Goldilocks in the urban, multicultural elementary
  school. The Reading Teacher.
• Lotherington, H. Xu, Y, (2004) How to chat in
  English and Chinese Emerging digital language
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• Olson, D. (1994). The world on paper The
  conceptual and cognitive implications of writing
  and reading. Cambridge Cambridge University
  Press.
• Prensky, M. (2001).  Digital Natives, Digital
  Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9 (5). Retrieved
  February 5, 2006, from http//www.marcprensky.com/
  writing/Prensky20-20Digital20Natives,20Digital
  20Immigrants20-20Part1.pdf
• The New London Group (1996) A pedagogy of
  multiliteracies Designing social factors.
  Harvard Educational Review, 66 (1), 60-92.