30 years from now…?
I am really curious as to how literacy will change as our education system evolves over the next 30+ years. Multi-literacies are the new vogue. Rightfully so, yet, how to teach them, beckons lots of thoughts and many questions! The New London Group who were the first to define multi-literacy, also make it clear that our knowledge of literacy is evolving continually. “New communications media are reshaping the way we use language” (p. 64) and this is happening every day.
I cannot claim to have the answers and in doing the readings regarding mutli-literacies and new pedagogies, I get the impression we can only take a gander at what it will be like in 2050. I really wish we could fast forward and find out!
I absolutely love teaching language arts. I love giving my students a chance to explore the English language and be creative, take risks, and enjoy every moment with it. But before we can get to that stage, we have to know how to use it. This is what is changing around us. We are given so many more opportunities to use language in exciting and different ways and need to be literate in all these ways.
“The word ‘literacy,’ meaning the ability to read and write, has gradually extended its grasp in the digital age until it has come to mean the ability to understand information, however presented” (Lanham, 1995).
The New London Group was forward thinking and aware of how education would evolve due to new forms of communication appearing on the horizon. What they didn’t necessarily realize though, was that it had already been happening. As new technologies appear and new ways to communicate appear, education systems are naturally drawn to be involved and try them out. As much debate as their may be about fear of new technologies, I believe that there are enough curious teachers out there, testing out new ideas. Our students will learn about the Internet, they will learn about Shakespeare and hopefully they will leave our schools knowing how to write an essay, a speech, and a really captivating blog post! Mostly, I hope they will leave capable of being creative, original, resourceful and aware of their literary voice!
Project Gutenburg was inspired by “dreams of increased world literacy and education” (Dobson & Willinsky, p 18). This project, which put books onto an “online” database, began in 1971 and is on-going. We are now, nearly 50 years later, so fortunate for access to so many different forms of literacy, all at the click of a mouse! Hand in hand with teaching our students to be multi-literate, we need to prepare them to be digital citizens.
Digital technologies are associated with this movement both in terms of their facilitation of global intercultural exchange, which leads to the convergence of peoples languages in online communities, and in terms of the way in which they allow for the convergence of a range of media, thereby affording multiple modes of representation.” (Dobson & Willinsky, p15)
Our students will be literate in many more ways than we can foster in the classroom, but if we prepare them to be citizens online, then regardless of the culture they come from, they will know how to represent and take information from wherever they may need to!
References:
Dobson T. & Willinsky J. (2009). Digital Literacy. Retrieved from
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/Digital%20Literacy.pdf
Lanham, R. A. (1995, September). Digital Literacy. Scientific American, 198-199
The New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), pp. 60-92. Retrieved from http://wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.html
That’s a really interesting question ask Sarah. As educators, we really want to provide our students with the skills to adapt and thrive in a constantly changing world. Multiliteracies focuses on being literate in the visual, written and multimedia formats. However, my question is whether the framework they present is viable long-term.
The New London Group presents a framework where literacy is dependent on the media that is being created and interpreted right now. This makes a lot of sense because each medium has its own conventions and techniques that guide the design of content. It needs to be decoded to be understood effectively. For example, I might be tempted to teach my students how to write using Twitter or on a blog. It might really be helpful for them now to have a whole unit exploring these media and their conventions.
Does that really matter though? With a multiplicity of online forms of communication, it seems near impossible to be literate in all forms of communication technology based on the medium and the conventions of that medium. Likewise, who uses MySpace? When reading Boyd (2007), I found his references to MySpace difficult to follow because, like dactylic hexameter, no one writes in it anymore. So does teaching students to decode a specific form of social media (that is likely to fall into disuse) make that much sense for educators. I’m really am not sure.
Instead, I would suggest that we should focus more on critical literacy and asking the right questions of our texts as we move forward. Rather than teaching what the medium is, maybe we should be teaching the students how to ask questions about how the medium forms or conveys the message. We teach them to ask the purpose, audience, argumentation, style and tone of a text. By teaching students the right questions, they might be better able to go into the future with literacy skills not bound to certain medium or set of media, but rather the skills to understand every kind of media when they apply themselves to it.
Boyd, d. (2009), “Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life”
Dobson T. & Willinsky J. (2009). Digital Literacy. Retrieved from http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/Digital%20Literacy.pdf
The New London Group. (1996). A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), pp. 60-92. Retrieved from http://wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.html
I think you hit the nail on the head Bryan!
“Instead, I would suggest that we should focus more on critical literacy and asking the right questions of our texts as we move forward.”
I couldn’t agree with you more and I think you sum it up really nicely. I wonder if the new definition of multiliteracy should be “the ability to think critically about all types of literacy, in order to learn from them all” .. or something along those lines!
Being able to ask good questions is far more important than knowing how to use tumbler! Thank you for your response!
When I finished reading your post, so I was so energized! I was like “Yeah! I love teaching ELA too!” and “I can’t wait to get back to school to try some of these new ideas!”. And then I rethought that statement and realized I can wait until September to try those ideas! I will definitely be going back to read this post at the end of August.
I appreciate your mention of learning Shakespeare, writing essays, and blog posts. I am such a fence sitter when it comes to this of debate. As a literacy lover, whenever I hear or read an argument about students needing to read and experience the classics of literature I remember how important some of those books are to me and how influential they were on my journey. So I save a section of literacy instruction for them. Then I hear someone argue that they have been successful without reading Chaucer and that there are so many skills students need to be successful in a rapidly changing world that are more important to focus on. As a result, I start to question the share that all modalities should be given. There is no right answer so that makes it a real double edged sword for me.
I think Bryan really hit the nail on the head also. Teaching students to question the medium and message is truly the road to success. We know that we need to prepare students to use technology that doesn’t exist yet in jobs that do not exist yet. Students need to acquire the skills that are necessary for use in a variety of contexts. That is skills like critical thinking, communication, inter and intrapersonal skills, and the ability to seek and analyze information independently. Another piece to this puzzle is helping students transfer these skills in a variety of contexts. Therefore, I believe that it is crucial to teach these skills beyond ELA classes. They should be taught these skills in all discipline areas, not just in isolation.
I also wonder about the history of literacy. As we have seen in this course, understanding literacy of the past helps to understand how and why we got here. It also encourages us to value some of the more traditional values related to literacy, reading, and writing. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak. Truthfully though, I think the medium really is (part of) the message and that is why the skills need to applicable with any medium.
Thanks Sarah for your insight. I also enjoyed the readings this week. I love the Multi-Literacy idea and what it might mean to the future. During a staff meeting sometime last year I remember one of our language teachers trying to explain that the alphabet is just a tool for us to communicate with each other and looking back over time it hasn’t been around that long. Looking back at history don’t we love making different tools, whether it be a tool for transportation (different topic, if you ever get a chance to drive a tesla, do it, it is like no other car around. Basically you never need to use the brakes!!) or a tool for building a house, it makes sense that we create a tool that might make the alphabet obsolete. Think about how social media has changed our lives and we might be seeing this new tool in its early stages. Look at how fast emoji’s have come into our day to day lives, no without using letters of the alphabet we can communicate with our friends how we are feeling. Look at Instagram, Pinterest and the other visual tools that have gained popularity. More and more we are communicating with people through the use of pictures rather than words. I also liked your last comment when you said our students will be literate in more ways than we grew up with. That really hit home to me and made me realize I should keep up with the latest and greatest new “tools” that come out.
Allison – I completely understand your enthusiasm! I keep learning all these new things and wanting to apply them – but I’m also really excited about having a month to rest and enjoy summer before school/masters starts back up again! I really should write down all my ideas! (or come back and read through some posts again!)
Thank you to both you and Michael for your responses. I love how you paraphrased my last comment, Michael: “our students will be literate in more ways than we grew up with” – the only way we can prepare them is to let them explore in ways that are meaningful to them – and to produce or share their understanding in ways they deem best fit. I’m excited to see what this year has in store for my students – and what I’ll learn from them – because, even if we try to keep up with all the latest and greatest new tools – we’re bound to miss a few! But they won’t!