New Literacy for New Times

Chapter 1

New Literacies perspectives consider the Internet as important to literacy as a book, paper or pencil. It is considered a literacy issue not just a technology issue. New Literacies encourages teachers to identify, navigate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicate the important information found on the internet in order to help students be successful with this tool. Since these literacies are ever changing, it is important for teachers to keep up-to-date with them.

The example of the 8th grade team shows how the curriculum has updated standards, modified the most frustrating aspects of The NCLBA (or in the process of…), among others adding more expectations for the teacher. The problem is that the time in the classroom certainly has not been increased, nor has the curriculum changed to include the use of the Internet in state assessments or other ICT (information and communication technologies), such as word processors. Two of the teachers from the team who attended an academy, learned the use of the new literacies and wanted to put them into practice. They quickly discovered how none of the established curriculum had taken into account the use of the internet or other ICT. Their task was to bring the administration of their school up to speed with this new concept. They found out that the Internet offers resources that provide easy-to-use teaching tools to help meet state curriculum standards and better prepare the students. Moreover, they saw an increase in students’ motivation when they used technologies, and the statistics proved this. They were able to convince the school and began implementing their strategy. The result was a very productive first year. The enthusiasm was noticed by all, even the parents. Even though the state assessments still did not measure their new use of these technologies, there had been a great increase in learning. It gave the whole team a new energy to continue making the necessary changes.

The biggest change seen around the world is that through the use of the internet, students are finding more excitement in the learning process and the challenge that comes with it. It helps students and teachers collaborate better and work together globally. The challenge remains to understand the new literacies that we need in order to get the best use of the internet; to effectively use it as a teaching tool. Most important is to not think of this as an add-on, but integration into our curriculum.

Something to keep in mind is that the internet has been adopted into every aspect of our lives faster than any other technology before. We need to understand why it has become so important so fast. This is the age of information and communication and the internet has become just as important as reading a book and writing a letter. But, of course, it requires new skills, such as being proficient at reading, thinking critically, and communicating with the internet. These are the literacies that are discussed in this book. And of course being able to navigate the different web sites is a critical skill necessary as well.

The “New Literacies Perspective” is an integrated theoretical perspective that helps us understand what students need in order to learn about the internet and how we can best use it in the classrooms. There are five functions that include the following:

New forms of strategic knowledge are central to the new literacies: New technology for networked information is complex. We must use new strategies for its effective use.

Learning is Often Socially Constructed Within the New Literacies: Students learn best when they work together, building off of one another. They collaborate and teach each other new skills and strategies, enhancing one another. In fact, it is noted that many of the students have a better level of knowledge of technology than their teachers. Each person in the classroom can bring something to the table to increase the knowledge of all, even the teacher.

The Critical Nature of New Literacies: These new literacies demand that we increase our critical thinking and evaluating skills. We have to realize that with the internet it is possible for anyone at anytime to publish anything they want. This is an opportunity, but at the same time, it is also a limitation. So much of this information is unedited and it comes from people with many strong biases that influence what is published. So our job is to help students to be critical of what they encounter as to what its nature is.

New Literacies Regularly Change: New technologies appear and the literacies have to change as well, requiring new skills. In fact, learning how to learn new literacies is more important than learning the literacies themselves. This makes assessment a challenge, since it is already far behind in this respect.

Teachers Become More Important, Though Their Role Changes Within New Literacy Classrooms: Both the teacher and the student will continually be learning new skills in this area. Left on their own on the internet, students will eventually be led away from instructional material. This is a risk, however the role of the educator is to keep them engaged and on task, guiding them, but letting them direct themselves through the strategies you have taught.
The many changes that the internet has also brought to the work place is what continues to prompt changes to the way the internet is used and the new literacies that are needed in order to keep up. We see so much more productivity from lower level workers in a company because of the technology they have before them. In fact, workers are now able to compete in a more level playing field, that is, with the use of internet. They have the same opportunity as those in the higher levels of the company to use the resources of this technology. When communicating what each has learned, by collaborating, it is mutually beneficial and results in a successful performance for the good of all. This should stress the need for teaching these literacies in our classrooms. In this way, we prepare our students to use them and lead more productive, successful lives.