EDU800 – Week Ten

This week I read five articles on the topic of New Literacy Research. The first, by Mills (2010) was entitled, “A review of the ‘digital turn’ in the new literacy studies.” The second, by Leu & Forzani (2012) was entitled, “New literacies in a Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0… infinity world.” The third, by Knobel & Lankshear (2014) was entitled, “Studying new literacies.” The fourth, by Leander & Burriss (2020) was entitled, “Critical literacy for a posthuman world: When people read, and become, with machines.” The fifth was by O’Brien & Pitera (2019) and was entitled, “Gamifying instruction and engaging students with breakout EDU.” I will herein detail two of the writings.

The article by Leu & Forzani (2012) was most interesting to me because I connected with three points. For one, the authors write: “[students] are not always skilled with the information literacies of an online life including locating information,” a quote from Bilal (2000). I know this to be true because I see it every day at the library where I work. Young students are so attuned to their phone and texting they have no idea how to use a mouse and keyboard. I find this very frustrating. If I say, “Click in this box here,” they don’t know what I mean or how to execute the task. Likewise, they don’t understand that banging on the keyboard types letters and numbers that display on the monitor. It just makes them giggle. The second point I connected with was when the authors wrote of gaps in teacher knowledge affecting students and wrote, “A good tool could successfully bridge teachers’ own gaps between traditional and newer literacies. This article offers a picture of what might be possible for literacy educators who have access to effective and supportive Internet tools.” I again connected because of my library — students there can’t use computers at school because the state doesn’t have the funding to make it possible. The library is the frontline for them to do homework sometimes and I find that sad. The third quote by Leu & Forzani I connected with said, “In an online world literacy learning is continuous for every one of us. There is no escaping this fundamental aspect of our lives online.” This was a strong article and connected to the article by Knobel & Lankshear (2014).

In the article by Knobel & Lankshear (2014) there were three points I connected with; first, “literacies… involve bringing technology, knowledge, and skills together within contexts of social purpose.” This definition of literacy really rang true for me. When I went to graduate school the first time it was for a Masters of Arts in Teaching Reading (M.A.T.). At that time I was very familiar with a definition of reading, writing, and learning constituting literacy. I was glad to see social purpose has been added, in all that it includes. I also connected with the definition of new literacies as: “not some single, generic ‘thing.’ They vary according to the practice, the people involved in using them, and the ‘ways of speaking’ that have developed within a practice.” This connected well to the #Mills article as well. Finally, the last paragraph of Knobel & Lankshear (2014) resounded with me: “Studying new literacies offers useful footholds for thinking about how and why extant literacy practices are changing and new ones emerging in the present, why others are remaining constant, and what’s to be done about it.” This was a strong article and connected well to the #Mills (2010) article about New Literacies.

Overall I found all five articles to be strong, some more so than others, and all interesting. All of the articles were again seminal in some way and made for meaningful reading.

References

Knobel, M., & Lankshear, C. (2014). Studying new literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(9), 1-5.

Leander, K. M., & Burriss, S. K. (2020). Critical literacy for a posthuman world: When people read, and become, with machines. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(4), 1262-1276.

Leu, D. J., & Forzani, E. (2012). New literacies in a Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, …∞ world. Research in the Schools, 19(1), 75-81.

Mills, K. A. (2010). A review of the ”digital turn” in the new literacy studies. Review of Educational Research, 80(2), 246–271.

O’Brien, K., & Pitera, J. (2019). Gamifying Instruction and Engaging Students with Breakout EDU. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 48(2), 192-212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239519877165