New Literacies Social Contributions
"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9)."
The shift in society to share and interact with literature through digital platforms, presents a great opportunity in education. From our ability to develop lessons utilizing technology to presenting classes on a completely digital platform, we now have the power to expand our practice. Through these new literacies students can find or publish new text, whether it be three or 300 words, and others can read. Then the dialog begins, comments, messages and threads allow students to interact with the text and the author. Engaging in these exchanges over text, as the author appreciating feedback or the writer offering it, hones a students literacy skills through practice.(Rich, 2008)
Another form of literacy employed by all people today more than ever is visual literacy. We live in a visual age, where visual consumption is on everyone's daily schedule. The social aspect is at the focal point of this new media, with images and videos dominating the social media culture. Analyzing, interpreting and discussing this form of media is important to understanding its intent. (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 6)
Hi Julia! This is a great post and very relatable since we are all taking this online class. Literacy in digital ways should be counted as reading. Technology and social media provides us with even more opportunities to engage with literature than before. I am currently working on a research project for one of my other courses, and I have been engaged with more literature than I ever have in my life. Technology allows us quick and easy access to many sources. If it wasn't for these new technologies we would not have as many opportunities to engage with so many diverse texts, sources, and social medias.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cassie! We really do have a lot of information at our fingertips. I think this is a new shift in education, not retaining knowledge but obtaining knowledge and how to do it.
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