New Literacies of Online Research and Comprehension

Abstract

This entry explores the question of how to conceptualize literacy as a deictic concept, one that continually changes as new technologies for literacy and learning emerge. It suggests a dual‐level conceptualization of theory: a New Literacies theory as an overarching theory that encompasses perspectives and findings from the many studies of literacy, which are referred to as new literacies theories, using lower case. It then focuses special attention on an important lower‐case theory, the new literacies of online research and comprehension. This new literacies theory frames online reading as a process of problem‐based inquiry involving the new skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices that take place as we use the Internet to solve problems and answer questions. Current understanding of online reading to learn from a New Literacies perspective is informed by recent research using assessments that measure students' ability to conduct online research in science and comprehend what they read in a virtual online world. Findings suggest that online reading requires different skills than reading paper materials; that differences across modes of reading are important for school learning; and that the Internet is best conceived as a literacy issue rather than a technology issue.

Using National Data to Explore Online and Offline Reading Comprehension Processes

“…To date digital strategy instruction remains less charted (Coiro, 2020), in many ways because it is an area that is constantly evolving (Zawilinsi et al, 2019). Best practice for comprehension instruction online (Leu et al, 2014) is not widely adopted across schools, with few teachers able to teach fluidly and flexibly in digital environments (Bang and Luft, 2013; Gao et al, 2011) and technology pedagogy not covered in depth in teacher education programs (Admiraal et al, 2017). To move the field forward researchers and teachers alike must work together to identify digital‐specific processes and refine instruction accordingly on evolving and distinct digital comprehension skills.…”

lectura digital en la modalidad blended-learning. Una perspectiva educativa.

“…Por lo tanto, el lector digital necesita de habilidades y estrategias que le permitan avanzar con éxito en la comprensión de lo leído, independiente del formato. Leu et al (2014), citados por Hamdan et al (2017), plantean cinco prácticas de procesamiento de la lectura en línea que pueden favorecer la comprensión lectora: i) leer para construir preguntas útiles; ii) leer para ubicar información; iii) la comprensión de lectura en línea implica una evaluación crítica de la información, su nivel de precisión, confiabilidad y sesgo (Burbules y Callister, 2000); iv) el proceso de lectura también implica leer para sintetizar información de varias fuentes; y, en último lugar, v) la comprensión de lectura exitosa en línea implica la capacidad de comunicarse en diferentes espacios interactivos en Internet (Britt y Gabrys, 2002).…”

How do gender, Internet activity and learning beliefs predict sixth-grade students’ self-efficacy beliefs in and attitudes towards online inquiry?

“…Thus, we operationalise online inquiry in terms of subtasks needed to complete the assignments by applying the theory of task-based information interaction [15]. The concept of online inquiry overlaps with online research used by some scholars [16,17]. The main difference is that we excluded lower-level subtasks included in the latter construct, such as the operation of Web browsers or email systems.…”