Group items tagged

In February 2008, the National Council of Teachers of English began to develop a statement on 21st literacies. This is the product of these ongoing deliberations. As the discussion says, "Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies-from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms-are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups."

The Teach, Learn, Share database is a national platform where educators and systems can share their effective approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in Australia. Once established, the Teach, Learn, Share database will be the 'go-to' site for information about effective literacy and numeracy strategies for individual teachers, schools, systems and the wider education community. The database will include descriptions of successful literacy and numeracy initiatives in a diverse range of school settings, capacity for targeted searching and links to relevant and appropriate research in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

Aiming to help 1 million children learn to read by 2014, LitWorld supports literacy and educational programs in communities from Harlem to Baghdad. "LitWorld's mission is to cultivate literacy leaders worldwide through transformational literacy experiences that build connection, understanding, resilience and strength. We work with teachers, parents, community members, and children to support the development of literacy and the redemptive power of story in the world's most vulnerable communities."

"The simplest acquisition of literacy can have a profoundly empowering effect personally, socially and politically.  Literacy gives people tools with which to improve their livelihoods, participate in community decision-making, gain access to information about health care, and above all, it enables individuals to realize their rights as citizens and human beings. Literacy is not just about reading and writing; it is about respect, opportunity and development..."

"As educators look for new ways to teach digital literacy or the use of digital technology to find, organize, comprehend, evaluate, and create information, some are turning to social media to help advance the concept in the college classroom. BUT.....colleges leveraging social media to improve digital literacy must focus on students' current use of social media and then find ways to interface those activities with the curriculum."

"Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. Digital literacies encompasses a range of other capabilities represented here in a seven elements model"

reducing our aims just to types of skills risks boring everyone to death with short lived, tool specific training which doesn't address the social and political context of people's lives or their reasons for engaging with technology.

"Even today's students need support with some areas of digital practice, particularly in an academic context, so it's important to make sure that these needs are met. We define digital literacies as the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society. To help with thinking about this, we have outlined seven elements of digital literacy for consideration, which can be seen in the accompanying diagram"

An increasingly significant aspect of literacy is an awareness of the visual elements that fall beyond the traditional components of written text. Termed 'Visual Literacy' this is the ability to read and create communications that use visual elements. It combines the skills of traditional literacy with knowledge of design, art, graphic arts, media and human perception. It takes literacy further beyond a decoding of text to a decoding of the complete package around the communication.

While the field has grown over the past decade, the central concern of new literacies research remains the same; researchers scrutinize and analyze how the rapid development of new tools and technologies are shaping language and literacy practices. In this special themed issue of Digital Culture and Education (DCE), we begin a conversation that compliments how we think about conceptualizing, viewing and talking about "new" literacies.

A response to Marc Prensky's BLC'08 session on teaching programming

The aim of this survey was to illustrate effective approaches that might help others to improve their practice in literacy. Inspectors visited providers of childcare, education and post-16 learning. The providers were selected because previous inspection evidence and data on achievement and attainment showed that they were particularly successful in enabling children and learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to make better than average progress and to achieve good standards of literacy.

Post from Ed Tech and Mobile Learning. "Some of the great resources I learned from Howard Rheingold himself about how to detect crap information and the literacies we need to develop and teach to our students to make them better internet users "

Digital literacy is not only about knowing how to use technology but also when and why to use it.

Information literacy is a human right, according to the Australian Library and Information Association. I found this incredibly moving and inspirational fact out while researching the follwoing presentation on lifelong learning.

Looking at the New Directions for school leadership and the teaching profession discussion paper, the only evidence presented to support the assertion that Victoria's education outcomes are not improving is the report "Challenges in Australian Education: results from PISA 2009: the PISA 2009 assessment of students' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy" Specifically the New Directions paper focuses on reading literacy, where in 2009, 14,251 students were given a two-hour pen and paper comprehension test. To get an idea of what types of competencies the reading test is assessing we can look at the sample test , with questions range from comprehension about a letter in a newspaper, the ability to interpret a receipt, comprehension around a short story, an informational text, and interpreting a table. While it doesn't seem unreasonable to want our students to be able to accurately perform these kind of tasks, these tests are not a true or accurate representation of the skills and competencies our students need in today's technology driven world.

This is a really interesting annotated list of apps links from Greg O'Connor of Spectronics focused on literacy support. The apps come from the Australian app store.

The Digital Literacy in Canada discussion paper is a response to the Government of Canada's Digital Economy Consultation, launched in May 2010. The paper calls for federal leadership in the creation of a national digital literacy strategy to ensure all Canadians have the necessary skills to use digital technologies to their fullest potential. 

A resource for teachers, literacy organisations and anyone interested in reading and education, created in collaboration with LitCam, Google, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning.