{"id":1850,"date":"2009-11-14T22:40:18","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T05:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/?p=1850"},"modified":"2009-11-14T22:43:01","modified_gmt":"2009-11-15T05:43:01","slug":"commentary-2-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/2009\/11\/14\/commentary-2-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary 2 – Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Literacy<\/strong> n.<\/em> 1<\/strong> the ability to read and write.\u00a0 2 <\/strong>competence is some field of knowledge, technology, etc.\u00a0 (computer literacy; economic literacy)<\/em>\u00a0 (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, 1998, pg. 836)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Literacy has been discussed and will continue to be a topic of discussion far into the human future.\u00a0\u00a0 The need to learn and to facilitate learning and the economic drivers that push technology changes will impact learning and how we view and define literacy.\u00a0\u00a0 Ong states that \u201cLiteracy began with writing but, at a later stage of course, also involves print\u201d.\u00a0 (1982, pg. 2)\u00a0 One would assume that literacy would and should develop to become multifaceted to include all information and communication techniques and the social factors that influence those modes. \u00a0As the identified by the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, literacy should imply an understanding, along with the ability to read and write.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the article A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures,<\/em> The New London Group presents the concept of multiliteracies \u2013 a redesigned \u2018literacy\u2019 with mutual consideration for \u201cthe multiplicity of communications channels and media, and the increasing saliency of cultural and linguistic diversity.\u201d (1996, pg. 4)\u00a0 The new globalization, with ever increasing diversity, has resulted in an encroaching on the workplace, in public spaces and in our personal lives.\u00a0 These influences are driving a demand for a language \u201cneeded to make meaning\u201d (1996, pg. 5) of our economic and cultural exchanges.\u00a0\u00a0 How we perceive and how others perceive us is a factor in success.\u00a0 This success impacts and affects all facts of our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 But in a global village, can we ensure that success is attained by all.\u00a0 It would appear to me that the requirement for multiliteracy is needed mostly in areas of economic disadvantage and disparity.\u00a0 Where access to even \u201cmere literacy\u201d (New London Group, pg. 4) is limited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cross-cultural communications and the negotiated dialogue of different languages and discourses can be a basis for worker participation, access, and creativity, for the formation of locally sensitive and globally extensive networks that closely relate organizations to their clients or suppliers, and structures of motivation in which people feel that there different backgrounds and experiences are genuinely valued.\u00a0 (New London Group, 1996, pg. 7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To increase cross-cultural experiences within the workers\u2019 education, the use of facilitated online study circles are excellent venues to create a dialogue for success and facilitate the \u201cmaking of meaning\u201d in workers\u2019 participation.\u00a0 The International Federation of Workers\u2019 Education Associations (IFWEA) employs study circles to attempt to close the gap in both worker education and multiliteracy in disadvantaged groups.\u00a0 These educational events provide an opportunity for Study Circle members to engage in the four elements of pedagogy as described including: Situated Practice; Overt Instruction; Critical Framing; and Transformed Practice.\u00a0 (New London Group, pg. 5)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The division of pedagogy into \u201cthe how\u201d, places a new role and responsibility on the teacher and the school.\u00a0 In the articles, the teacher is described as a facilitator of cultural differences, and a developer of critical thinkers.\u00a0 This individual must navigate not only the knowledge of required instructional content, but also the technical and the cultural.\u00a0\u00a0 The school, as the organization tasked to make differences out of homogeneity<\/em> (The New London Group, pg. 11) must now reconfigure the classroom to include both global and local content and relationships, flavoured by diverse cultural distinctions.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLocal diversity and global connectedness mean not only that there can be no standard; they also mean that the most important skill students need to learn is to negotiate regional, ethnic, or class-based dialects\u201d.\u00a0 (The New London Group, pg. 8<\/p>\n

While the New London Group article was written in 1996, it was bold to address some of the utopian ideals within education and literacy; individualized education at both a local and global level, with no standards and a high regard for cultural and linguistic differences in the classroom.\u00a0\u00a0 Sadly, literacy is influenced by the very diversity and globalization that is forcing most of our social changes.\u00a0 These changes can be best described using the very words of described by the authors; \u201cFast Capitalism\u201d (pg. 10); \u201crigorously exclusive\u201d (pg.6); and \u201cmarket driven\u201d (pg.6).\u00a0 As Dobson and Willinsky states \u201ca gender gap still persists in many parts of the world, being wider in some countries\u201d.\u00a0 (2009, pg. 12)\u00a0 This gap may be an indicator \u201cthat in certain respects there has been very little movement in the gender gap in the last two decades\u201d.\u00a0 (pg. 13)\u00a0 Perhaps with such disparities in our global context, the goal of our educational organizations and facilitators should be to ensure that a standard is met with regards to information literacy- \u201c the ability to locate, evaluate,\u00a0 and use effectively the needed information\u201d\u00a0 (Dobson & Willinsky, 2009, pg. 18)\u00a0 This would ensure that a \u201ccompetence is some field of knowledge, technology, etc.\u201d (Oxford Canadian Dictionary) is achieved.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dobson, T. & Willinsky, J.\u00a0 (2009).\u00a0 Digital Literacy.\u00a0 Submitted to The Cambridge Handbook on Literacy<\/p>\n

International Federation of Workers\u2019 Educational Association.\u00a0 (unknown).\u00a0 The international programs.\u00a0 Retreived online 10 Nov 2009 from the World Wide Web: http:\/\/www.wea.org.uk\/Education\/International\/<\/a><\/p>\n

New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies. Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.<\/p>\n

Ong, Walter (1982). Orality and literacy: The Technologizing of the Word<\/em>. London: Methuen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oxford Canadian Dictionary.\u00a0 (1998).\u00a0 Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Literacy n. 1 the ability to read and write.\u00a0 2 competence is some field of knowledge, technology, etc.\u00a0 (computer literacy; economic literacy)\u00a0 (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, 1998, pg. 836) Literacy has been discussed and will continue to be a topic of discussion far into the human future.\u00a0\u00a0 The need to learn and to facilitate learning and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":932,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4974],"tags":[1239,423,5822],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-2","tag-digital-literacy","tag-literacy","tag-multiliteracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec540sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}