Module 2, Blog 1

At its core, literacy skills are fundamental to our understanding and functioning in the world we live in. The years that we spend in school as students are supposed to provide us with the knowledge and skills we need to meet the demands of the world in our adult lives. The development of our literacy skills in school should facilitate that ability to interpret and understand information presented in all areas of our lives. Because we live in a world where there are always new and improving technologies to disseminate information, our  schools must evolve and adapt to include the teaching of literacy through these new modalities.

As stated by Sang in Expanded Territories of “Literacy”: New Literacies and Multiliteracies, “New Literacies and Multiliteracies both suggest that literacy practices are no longer restricted to reading and writing printed and written texts in one official and standard form”(Sang, 2017). While the old standard literacy skills through printed and written texts remain important, the change in social and professional demands on us marks the need for additional literacy skills. An example of this can be found in the way we send messages to friends, family, and coworkers/superiors. Sang makes this point in his example of how we compose emails to our friends versus those sent to a manager (Sang, 2017). In the traditional teaching of literacy skills, the focus is pretty much entirely on our composition of formal texts, whether that is through letters in the mail or emails. As an elementary student years ago, I remember learning the proper way to structure a letter sent by mail. My school organized the development of this skill by having an elementary school mail system through which we could send formal letters to students in other classes in the building. This was a valuable skill, however, it only developed our skills to communicate to each other through formal written means. Granted, the level of technology in schools and society 20 years ago was nowhere near what it is today. But since proper letter writing/emailing are really no longer ways in which the majority of people communicate informally with their peers or family, new modalities must also be taught. People in our society now have the need for new literacies that include even informal means of messaging communication. Students and adults alike need to be able to compose and derive meaning from text messages and even the emojis and memes that are often a part of this method of communication. While composition and use of formal messages through email remain in the professional spheres of our lives, informal messaging has become as relevant in our daily lives.

Another critical aspect of new literacy is the way in which people engage with and evaluate information that is communicated through these new modalities. Through the classical approaches of literacy, students are taught ways to evaluate written and printed texts. In this new age of literacy, people of all ages are bombarded with information from countless directions. My students and my peers often interact with information presented through TikToks, Tweets, Instagram posts, and Youtube videos. In the modern era it’s amazing that everyone has access to nearly any piece of information imaginable through a few clicks, taps, or swipes. With this sheer volume of information, we need to be able to evaluate the intent of the author/creator, determine the reliability, and consider multiple perspectives (Definition of literacy in a Digital age 2022). In these new formats and with this volume of information, it can be difficult to accomplish these tasks. Determining author/creator intent and source reliability can be tough through these new mediums. This is why students need to be taught not to accept, but rather question much of the information that they come across to fact check, research and confirm information from verifiable reliable sources. In this new literacy age, students must “consider multiple perspectives to broaden their understanding of the world” (Definition of literacy in a Digital age 2022). This can be especially tough because many of the multimedia platforms that students and adults receive their information from use software to generate a feed based on your interests, what you have previously liked, and what you have previously interacted with. Because of these types of software, we usually interact with information from a singular perspective that closely aligns to what we already think or believe. In the domain of politics, this is often described as an echo chamber. For this reason, students need to be taught to actively seek out information from varying perspectives.

All of these modalities that make up new literacy are important pieces to the puzzle of preparing students to successfully navigate through the world today. With the understanding of the importance of these new literacies, how school districts of greatly varying socioeconomic status equally address these new needs? Will school districts with greater funding and larger budgets better prepare their students in these new literacies? Will increased funding or grants be created to help districts with less funding and smaller budgets meet the increased literacy needs of their students? Will teachers that have been in our profession for a long while be provided additional training on how to teach these new literacies?

References:

Definition of literacy in a Digital age. National Council of Teachers of English. (2022, April 19).

https://ncte.org/statement/nctes-definition-literacy-digital-age/ 

Sang, Y. (2017). Expanded Territories of “Literacy”: New Literacies and Multiliteracies. Journal of

            Education and Practice, 8(8), 16–19. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1139059.pdf