What Counts as Literacy?
Literacy used to be seen as simply being able to read and write. Being able to comprehend what you had read and being able to engage with others about what you had read was the standard of being literate. The media in which our form of communication has transitioned from pen and paper, otherwise known as hardcopy, to online media such as blogs like you are reading now, newsgroups, chat rooms, online journals, and other publications. As new medias become social norm so does the necessity for new literacy.
How literacy changes in response to the new media landscape
The use of technology in industry has become an accepted use of practice and therefore today's students need to learn to become literate in computers, online reading, and technology itself. They need to obtain these skills, such as credibility of online material, how to perform searches, and how to practice safety on the Internet.
What value should be applied to the new forms of communication that emerge?
It is my opinion that we should apply full value to the efforts of transitioning to considering a new way of communication or media to a technology that is only a current fad. There needs to be socialized standard use or common practice of using a certain technology for us to actually place a value to it. What do you all think?
Good Evening Dale,
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you had to say about having certain standards in regards to technology. I feel that in the text message era in which we live standards and proper etiquette need to be established. For example it may be the norm to say wat r u up 2 in a text message but when it comes to the professional world that will not work. More and more I am noticing that grammar is becoming scarce. I would really like to know your thoughts on this.
-Rolando
Dale,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point about skills necessary to determine credibility of online material. I think that a large number of adults lack this skill. In theory, I agree with your comment about having a socialized standard use or common practice of using a certain technology. But how that can happen when people have different beliefs and personal practices, I'm not sure everyone would be on board with it.
Anita
OH this tangled web of the expansive world of literacy. Good thoughts all of you.
ReplyDeleteDale,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note that as Rolando mentions that text messaging takes on many new unaccepted abbreviations in the professional world; however, we also have to look how language evolves. There have been many transgressions from old English to our current accepted English with words being considered out of date and new words to describe many of the new technologies etc.
I wonder how our standard English will look in a few years? Will "u" become the accepted form of you? Is this bad or is it just different if it becomes the accepted form. Interesting questions? The role of communication is always to create understanding between two or more people -- is it important how this is achieved? This leads us to wonder what constitutes literacy!
Lydia
Now that is an interesting concept, the evolution of language. It's scary to think that some day U will be the standard and Y O U will be considered "old english." What is important to note is that evolution takes a long time. So, between now and the time when U becomes acceptable, there will be major conflicts between those who are trying to push the evolution and those who resist it, or other words students vs. employers. We, as educators, will need to be the moderators in this conflict. I suppose that is one of the reasons why we are taking this class.
ReplyDeleteNow that is an interesting concept, the evolution of language. It's scary to think that some day U will be the standard and Y O U will be considered "old english." What is important to note is that evolution takes a long time. So, between now and the time when U becomes acceptable, there will be major conflicts between those who are trying to push the evolution and those who resist it, or other words students vs. employers. We, as educators, will need to be the moderators in this conflict. I suppose that is one of the reasons why we are taking this class.
ReplyDeleteMatthew moderators...... great thought. I hope that you all moderate each other as well in the blogsphere of your deliberations.
Delete