Literacy is everywhere and constantly changing. Even
though everything eventually “entails some engagement with text” (Rich,
2008, para. 9), literacy is more than just printed text. Literacy is about
sending and receiving information in some form. Literacy includes: speaking,
writing, reading, and listening. I think what counts as literacy are various
forms of communication that encourage thinking, questioning, challenging, and
functioning.
The new media landscape has allowed people to receive
information through new and engaging venues like: zines, weblogs, and memes
(Lankshear and Knobel, 2011, p. 186-197). The concepts of the new media
landscape have “created a shift of power that changes in possibilities of
authorship and challenges notions of expertise” (Wilber, 2010, p. 2). The
empowering concepts of who can create and publish, along with the continuous
development of new forms of communication have created multiple opportunities
to experience literacy through a variety of platforms.
“Today, technological change happens so rapidly that the
changes to literacy are limited not to technology, but rather by our ability to
adapt and acquire the new literacies that emerge” (Leu et al. as cited in
Wilber, 2010, p. 1). We should be persistent in staying up to date with new
forms of communication in order to remain proficient with new literacies. Even
more so, teachers need to be current with new literacies that evolve,
particularly to make learning meaningful for their students “to better
understand their world and construct learning” (Wilber, 2010, p.4). Ideally the
ultimate goal is to maintain balance through exposure to a variety of
literacies.
“If we don’t change, we don’t
grow.” ~Gail Sheehy
Hi Alexis,
ReplyDeleteI really like your sentence: "The empowering concepts of who can create and publish, along with the continuous development of new forms of communication have created multiple opportunities to experience literacy through a variety of platforms."
Perfect!
Best,
Julie DeBold
As educators I completely agree that we need to be diligent in what is relevant and current to post-modern readers and students. To do this, we must embrace what each generation views as important and empowering. Today, this can be teaching students to utilize the internet (forums and blogs) to express their opinions on what they see around them, and to engage in debates for valid solutions.
ReplyDelete"The empowering concepts of who can create and publish, along with the continuous development of new forms of communication have created multiple opportunities to experience literacy through a variety of platforms." I can't agree more. It used to be the case where big publishing companies had all the control as to what and who was published. Now a days we see individuals writing and publishing what they want, on their own. True Freedom of speech. This has also extended to other industries like music and film.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people who do not have degrees and never had the chance to publish anything before the Internet came. But what they have is very valuable experience. Now people like them have the opportunity to share what they know.
DeleteI agree with you that teachers need to keep up with new forms of communication. We cannot stagnate as the world continues to change. We need to be updated and relevant in the present time.
ReplyDeleteIf for nothing else to be able to keep up with the students and the changing of what is cool, popular, in, teachers must stay up to date with technology and how to use it. When teaching it is important to find what will get the student's attention..
ReplyDeleteHuge point with teacher's staying on top of these new medias! Students depend on us for their learning. Not only should we be familiar with these new technologies for our own course of teaching but also to help students with their own facilitated learning. We should be incorporating these into our lessons as a lesson! Plus they are fun and interactive!
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