From Print to Critical Multimedia Literacy: One Teacher's Foray Into New Literacies Practices

Abstract

The literacy landscape of today demands that teachers understand what language is and that they develop with their students the metalanguage to negotiate multimodal texts.Wi thin the field of literacy research, there is an increasing recognition that the advent of information and communication technology (ICT) necessitates a broader conception of literacy. A new definition of literacy is required to encompass not just the traditional literacy, such as the ability to read and write, but also multiple literacies related to multimedia technology. Citing Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and Cammack (2004), the new literacies for the 21st century can be succinctly defined as follows:The new literacies of the Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and inf luence all areas of our personal and professional lives. These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others. (p. 1572) Research in new literacies-such as that funded by MacArthur Foundation in the United States, Futurelab in the United Kingdom, and many international research centers-is keeping researchers and practitioners abreast of new understandings of literacies and how they take shape in different contexts. However, not all of the research findings have been translated from prototype studies into everyday classroom practices (

Examining Student Digital Artifacts During a Year-Long Technology Integration Initiative

“…Math teachers in Florida are also under pressure to ensure high student performance on the state standardized tests. Standardized tests arguably reward more traditional drill-and-practice activities than novel uses of technology (Street, 2008;Tan & Guo, 2010).…”

“Seeing It From a Different Light”

“…This allows students to “design and carry out, in a reflective manner, new practices embedded in their own goals and values” (p. 87). Through this process, students develop metalanguages for design (Dalton et al., ; Tan & Guo, ). This type of reflection is often accomplished within a digital writers' workshop, where students share work in progress and discuss design decisions in relation to their rhetorical goals, audience, and available modes and tools (Dalton, ).…”

Hybrid Literacy and Its Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Therefore, new literacy practices demand that the teachers as the tip of lance in the literacy practices should become proficient at operating technology. The use of multimedia, according to Tan and Guo (2009), (also see, Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and Cammack, 2004), is necessarily needed in order that the students can "adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in their world and influence all areas of their personal and professional lives"…”