A new definition of literacy

Remember when literacy was defined as the ability to read and write print-based materials? Well, if that’s all you are competent to do, then you are far removed from a world where people find, seek and make meaning from a technological mix of text, graphics, video and sound. You have never, for instance, participated in audio-visual conferences, used search-engines, responded to emails, visited virtual environments, websites and social networks, or created a personal website, blog or wiki (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2010). You don’t also have the literate skills to critique texts and comprehend information from multiple perspectives, or the ability to deal with complex interfaces, countless images, video clips, pop-ups, real-time texts, downloads, hyperlinked texts and icons.

Today’s students who have access to all that technology at their finger-tips so to speak will be required to use higher-order thinking skills to “distinguish fact from fiction, argument from documentation, real from fake, and marketing from enlightenment (Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel & Robison, 2006 p. 44). The impact of using highly honed thinking skills is that educators must be prepared for negotiated curriculums where students will approach a task using different strategies and diverse sources and arrive at various conclusions. Students will also be evaluated on how fast they locate, evaluate, use, communicate and disseminate information through a variety of technologies. In an education setting where learners may be more literate in new technologies than the instructor, the role of the educator is to be “ less sage on stage” and more a “guide from the side” where the former suggests the teacher as lecturer and the latter, teacher as facilitator (Gordon 2009, p. 61).

Yet, technology is not without its challenges. Mastering a software application will not be enough, for instance, to develop informed decision-making and critical thinking skills. Successful learners are creators of information rather than passive software users. Educators must also be vigilant about the lack of access of some learners to technology and its learning opportunities creating what educators call the participation gap. Those with computers are able, for example, to develop comprehension skills and the competency to quickly and easily find information online. Assessing technology skills is another challenge. How does one assess a student’s ability to locate and analyse the information on a webpage or grade them for their co-construction of content in a wiki or for their contributions to online discussions?

Defining literacy in today’s context could be perceived as an elusive task. As new technologies for information, communication and collaboration emerge literacy may be thought of as a moving target, continually changing its meaning depending on what society expects literate individuals to do. As Howard Gardner (2008) has so aptly put it, literacy – or an ensemble of literacies – will continue to thrive, but in forms and formats we can’t yet envision.

References
Gardner, H. (2008, 17 February). The end of literacy? Don’t stop reading. The Washington post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com

Gordon, C. (2009).An emerging theory for evidence based information literacy instruction in school libraries, Part 1: Building a foundation. Evidence-based library and information practice, Vol.4:2. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/5614/5320

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M. & Robison, A. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago. Retrieved from http://newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf

NSW Department of Education and Training (DET). (2010). Literacy Learning and Technology. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/literacy/assets/pdf/packages/tech_lit_learn.pdf