New Literacies

"Contextualizing the New Literacies

of Information and Communication Technologies

in Theory, Research, and Practice"

by Donald J. Leu, Jr., Maria H. Mallette,

Rachel A. Karchmer and Julia Kara-Soteriou

Today's world is far different than the one in which I grew up. Once upon a time, in a world not too long ago, we had toot-a-loop radios and listened to records. Today's children are far more advanced with their music capabilities and, fortunately, don’t ever have to deal with vinyl skips!

The technology revolution has changed life as we know it. Today’s youth are reared on a multitude of various digital media and probably couldn't imagine life without many of their basic necessities: the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, text messaging, Xbox, MySpace, etcetera. We live in a digitally-saturated world. Do you know any family that doesn’t own an iPod? Probably not, but if you do, I bet at least one child in the family knows how to work it. Most of my students own one; moreover, they are well-versed in acquiring songs, videos, and photos from friends and from the Internet to add to their collections. Why are they so motivated to learn how to use this technoogy? Quite frankly, because it’s amazing, fun and very easily personalized. You can program your iPod to show a slideshow of your summer vacation; upload videos of your favorite bands; watch episodes of your favorite shows; and program it with enough songs that you’ll never repeat a tune all week! The potential and customization features are as alluring as Lorelei herself. Yes, today’s youth are drawn to technology like mice to the Pied Piper.

Technology is everywhere and its power and potential are truly beyond our comprehension at this point in time; even as I write, new forms of technology and information are emerging and expanding. "New technologies for information and communication will repeatedly appear and new envisionments for exploiting these technologies will be crafted continuously by users. Thus, it is not just that new modalities of communication forms have generated multiple literacies; even more important is the fact that new technologies for information and communication will appear repeatedly in our future, generating even newer literacies on a regular basis." (p 2)

The digital age is clearly changing the way we use language and communicate. It is transforming how we do things and how we find meaning. Literacy is no longer just about understanding language on paper, it is far more. Ubiquitous technology and “Jetsonian”* multimedia pathways are profoundly impacting how we represent knowledge and how we create it. Living in today's world clearly requires a new look and a new approach to this rapidly-changing landscape: it requires learning new literacies.

"How do we best prepare students for the new literacies that will define their future?" (p 1) This thought is certainly foremost in many educators' minds these days, including my own. We all seek to enhance our students' learning opportunities and experiences and recognize the potential of information and communication technologies, ICTs, to do just that. So, faced with the obvious, we must embrace the obvious. We must transform our classrooms to incorporate these new literacies so that they are commonplace via Internet Workshops, WebQuests, Internet Projects and other evolving pathways. (p 7) We must immerse our students in media- and technology-rich environments that foster literacy skills and strengthen students' critical thinking. We must prepare them to face the challenges of the 21st century and prepare them to be civilly-minded participants of a globally-diverse community. To not do so is to be remiss in our duty to serve our students' highest and most essential needs.

* “Jetsonian”- referring to the futuristic cartoon, “The Jetsons.”