The New London Group article provides a very valuable view and a starting point, when recognizing the complexities of current contexts of learning (those with a more globalized culture, different forms of text and information) that differs with what has been considered literacy education in schools, which needs to be reframed to align better with educational outcomes.
It is known that there is still “a gap between conceptual definitions and elaborations on the importance of digital literacy in our society… and what is actually happening in educational practice among teachers and students” (Voogt et al., 2013).
With the growth of digital information and media forms during the last years, there has been more interest to understand these challenges and to advance into appropriate implementations of Digital Literacy in schools. One outstanding characteristic of Digital Literacy is its focus on enabling students to “participate in digital media in wise, safe and ethical ways” while Media Literacy focuses “on teaching youth to be critically engaged consumers of media” (MediaSmart, 2018). These are fairly new concepts that are embedded with each other, forming what is an essential part of Media Literacy Education. Since we are still going through a transition in reading and writing modes, it is possible that these concepts are exposed to further modifications or to be extended.
In British Columbia, the Ministry of Education (2016) recognizes the importance of integrating Digital Literacy into the classroom. A framework has been developed to give a clear sense of what digitally literate students should learn and it has been gradually implemented across the curriculum.
However, in relation to actual outcomes, we do not know exactly how effective this implementation of Digital Literacy has been so far. Fully adding Digital Literacy into the existing curriculum is for sure not an easy task, especially when the reading and writing modes of the printed book are still dominant. But, this initiative is a further step and an improvement in broadening the definition of literacy that aligns better with the current usage of writing technologies, new media, pedagogy, and actual student learning.
The insights provided by The New London Group in relation to how people construct meaning-making from and through the multimodality of media messages are in part coalesced to other more recent articles about Digital Literacy, like paper of The Core Principles of Media Literacy. In a more pragmatical and specific way, it articulates a common ground around Media Literacy to guide educators in the implementation of digital literacy. In overall, these principles intend to help students to develop abilities to use, understand, critically analyze, and create media in a variety of forms from electronic structures that are also relevant to their own meanings (National Association for Media Literacy Education, 2007).
As we are experiencing a transition in writing and reading forms, where new modes of electronic writing are codependent to printed forms, it is important to be aware of the implications that both forms have in different contexts and learning environments. The insights from The New London Group and from Media Literacy research are definitely needed and very valuable to approach a proper inclusion of Digital Literacy in the curriculum, where students can feel engage and motivated to learn through these writing spaces as they drew real connections with the world they live in.
References
Ministry of Education of British Columbia. BC´s Digital Literacy Framework. (2016). Retrieved from
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf
MediaSmarts. The intersection of digital and media literacy. (2018, February 8). Retrieved from http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/intersection-digital-media-literacy
National Association for Media Literacy Education. Core principles of media literacy education in the United States. (2007). Retrieved from
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8j2T8jHrlgCYXVHSVJidWtmbmc/view
Voogt, J., Erstad, O., Dede, C., & Mishra, P. (2013). Challenges to learning and schooling in the Digital Networked World of the 21st century. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(5),403-413
natallia kuzmich
August 5, 2018 — 2:41 pm
Thanks for your post, Sara!
To be honest I don’t have a lot of experience in teaching illiterate students. I am teaching LINC program (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada here in Edmonton, AB) now and there are more and more students who require special assistance as some of them spent all their life in refugee camps and never went to school and have no idea of the whole ‘school’ concept. There are more and more students with such a background.
When I first started teaching here in Canada I felt totally helpless and useless and with all my experience of teaching ESL all over the world, I had (20+) experience in teaching literate adults. That was totally different area for me! As I felt lack of expertise in this area, I had to take the workshops and training to familiarize myself with their background.
No doubt, there are a lot of ways to support illiterate students I am teaching, and I am happy for them.
Unfortunately, and it is very sad, digital literacy is off the board… I do understand it as there are more ‘immediate’ goals to achieve with illiterate adults, but this seems to be the unexplored area that needs deep exploration. I think that digital literacy programs coming ahead of any other ones offered to refugees (for example) could have benefited their integration more in case they are developed properly, taking into consideration illiterate ESL students as well.
I feel like digital literacy is put behind because it is the way any novelty in any area (education included) is doubtful and worth putting in an effort. It can be definitely justified by the ‘immediate’ goals I previously mentioned, but I still do believe digital literacy might have become the ‘future’ of becoming a literate new Canadian (newcomer or refugee.
Natallia