Foundational or traditional literacy is about print on a page, or decoding and making sense of words,

images and other content that a reader can string together and then begin to comprehend. They are the
words and pictures students read and pore over that are contained in textbooks, in novels, on
standardized tests, and even in comic books.

The new literacies encompass much more. Their utility lies in online reading comprehension and
learning skills, or 21st century skills, required by the Internet and other information and communication
technologies (ICTs), including content found on wikis, blogs, video sites, audio sites, and in e-mail. They
require the ability not just to "read" but also to navigate the World Wide Web, locate information,
evaluate it critically, synthesize it and communicate it-all skills that are becoming vital to success in this
century's economy and workforce.

What complicates the situation is that there is a growing gap between what today's students do in
school and what they do at home. According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study,
"The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap between Internet-Savvy Students and Their Schools,"
students are spending 27 hours a week online at home, compared to an average of 15 minutes per week
at school. "It's hard to develop online skills in traditional classrooms when so little instructional time is
online," says Susan Patrick, president of the North American Council for Online Learning. "Online
learning is not this separate silo that we might need to use as a tool." Administrators should have such
learning weaved into classrooms, she adds.

Today's students, the "digital natives" as they are sometimes called, are practically inseparable from
their computers, video games and the Internet. Moreover, a recent study by the National School Boards
Association found that 96 percent of students who have online access use the technologies for social
networking such as blogging, sharing music, instant messaging, and posting their own movies. Not
exactly the first thing you think of when you imagine a classroom.

And although digital natives may be tech savvy, they don't use a lot of information, or at least they don't
know how to think critically about the information they use. They need guidance on how to find the best
information most efficiently and determine fact from fiction.

"Technology and knowledge in general are growing at an exponential rate," says Mary Colombo,
assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Hopkinton (Mass.) Public Schools. "Where do
you find it? How do you gather it? How should you use it?"
Reference: https://www.readingrockets.org

Digital: The New Literacy

Authors:

by Phil Ventimiglia and George Pullman

Published:

Monday, March 7, 2016

Collection:

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Both the 21st-century economy and the careers needed to fuel it are changing at an unprecedented
rate. Students must be prepared for nonlinear careers, pivoting to match the ever-changing work
landscape. We thus need to rethink not just how we teach our students but what we teach our students.

From Written to Digital: The New Literacy

The people who were comfortable at this humanities-technology intersection helped to create the
human-machine symbiosis that is at the core of this story.

Walter Isaacson, "The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the
Digital Revolution" (2014)

In his book about the history of the digital revolution, Walter Isaacson contends that the major
innovations of the digital revolution—from the first general-purpose computer to the transistor to the
iPhone—were all created by individuals who understood how to synthesize the humanities with
technology. Yet even though there is much focus in higher education on how we teach using technology
(e.g., e-texts, flipped classrooms, adaptive learning, personalized learning), what we teach about
technology is just as important. Because technology enables students to solve problems across a range
of disciplines, those of us at higher education institutions need to rethink not just how we teach our
students but what we teach our students.

Digital Literacy and 21st-Century Success

In today's world, college/university graduates come into contact with a quickly evolving range of
technologies and have access to a wealth of information. Students can be more successful after
graduation if they are digitally literate—having learned how to identify and create digital solutions,
adapt to new tools, and discover more effective and efficient ways of doing things in their fields. The use
of technology has transformed every discipline and career, from engineers to doctors to politicians. Yet
the traditional academic experience does not prepare many students for the challenges they'll face in
these professions today. For instance, young campaign managers must be versed in tasks such as writing
a blog and analyzing a social networking initiative, rather than just planning traditional stump speeches
and campaign rallies.

This gap between employers' expectations and students' skills is demonstrated by disparities in
perceptions of students' readiness to enter the workforce. In a recent study, when students were asked
if they felt digitally prepared for work, 44 percent responded that they felt "well-prepared" or "very
prepared." In contrast, only 18 percent of surveyed employers responded that students are prepared for
entry-level positions.1 Additionally, employers often find digital tools more valuable than traditional
tools in evaluating job applicants. In a Hart Research Associates study, employers found electronic
portfolios significantly more useful than a college transcript in assessing whether students had the skills
necessary to fill a position: 80 percent of employers found electronic portfolios fairly or very useful, but
only 45 percent of employers found traditional college transcripts helpful.2

We have heard the same feedback about the value of digital skills to graduates directly from some major
corporations. Jaime Casap, Google's Chief Educational Evangelist, told us: "Digital citizenship is the
minimum requirement for the new economy. We need strong digital leaders!" Victor Montgomery,
State Farm Business Analyst in charge of local recruitment in Atlanta, stated: "Digital literacy bridges the
opportunity divide for students. With that in mind, we are looking for students that display initiative,
innovation, and creativity while transforming the communities they live in."3

The need for students to learn digital literacy skills should not be surprising, given that this generation of
students has known technology only from a consumer perspective. Whereas older technologists first
experienced technology in the workplace and then found ways to merge technology into their personal
lives, the current generation of students first experienced technology as a means of entertainment and
social communication. Despite having grown up with access to an increasing amount of technology,
students now need to learn how to use technology to solve problems in academic and professional
settings. Historically, we in higher education have not readied students for this transition, even though
students are increasingly asked to use technology in their learning experiences. Many students enter
college having already used technology to complete academic assignments: 75 percent of high school
students have accessed class information through an online portal, 52 percent have taken tests online,
and 37 percent have used online textbooks.4

Learning to write, learning to think, and—these days—learning to form computational structures and to
think digitally are requisites not only for employment but also for intellectual independence.
Traditionally, the liberal arts have been about learning to think logically and to express ideas. The
"liberal" in the liberal arts is about freedom. Some people have argued that widespread literacy
(understood as reading at an eighth-grade level) was about making sure factory workers could read
manuals well enough to keep machines running, rather than about providing for an informed citizenry.
The equivalent for digital literacy would be to define it simply as being able to learn software quickly.
Instead, digital literacy should be defined as knowing the effective practices suited to the dominant
media. We should not teach students just the skills that will prepare them to follow instructions or
quickly comprehend a user interface; instead we should aim to help students develop the expertise that
will allow them to combine and create technologies to develop new and dynamic solutions. Just as
traditional literacy and the liberal arts have been the key to independence since the advent of public
schooling, digital literacy today is about intellectual freedom (see figure 1).

Figure 1

Many early digital literacy efforts in higher education focused on providing a single class that covered
base-level skills, such as creating a PowerPoint presentation or spreadsheet. But what is truly needed in
higher education today is integration of digital literacy throughout the curriculum, so that students are
able to do the following:

Find and vet information online. In the digital world, being able to not only find information online but
also determine its quality and validity is crucial.

See problems from digital perspectives. Students need to be able to analyze a problem and determine
how to use digital tools to solve it. For example, can a problem be solved more quickly by creating a
spreadsheet or by working the problem manually?

Become self-directed learners. The Internet has put all of the world's knowledge at our fingertips.
Students should know how to take advantage of that availability of information to become lifelong
learners.
Obtain digital solutions. Technology is constantly changing. Students must learn how to evaluate and
buy the right digital tools to solve the problem at hand, rather than just relying on the tools they have
used in the past.

Learn software quickly. Software is also always changing and improving, so students need to be able to
quickly teach themselves new tools. For example, whereas being an expert in spreadsheets was an
important quantitative skill set in the past, now it is increasingly important to be an expert in
visualization tools such as Tableau.

Design and create digital solutions. Ultimately students should build a skill set that allows them to
develop or customize their own digital tools. This does not necessarily mean that students need to be
able to write their own applications from scratch. Rather, they should be comfortable customizing and
combining tools to create a complete solution—for example, creating a web-form to automate the
collection of customer evaluations and then outputting the results to a spreadsheet for analysis.

To understand the fundamental impact that digital literacy can have, we can look to history. Whenever
the dominant medium of communication changes, controversy follows. When oral communication was
replaced by written literacy as the main means of recording and transferring knowledge—a
transformation that took place over decades and at different rates in different places—Socrates was
recorded to have complained: "No written discourse, whether in meter or in prose, deserves to be
treated very seriously."5 Socrates was concerned that transitioning from oral communication to written
literacy would degrade people's intellect. If people learned by reading books, rather than by debating
with their elders, they would replace a real education with a superficial likeness of one. They would have
the appearance of learning because they could talk about all the things they had read, but they would
be unable to think for themselves or even know they needed to, having become accustomed to simply
looking things up in books and accepting what they read.

From today's perspective, Socrates' rejection of literacy seems irrational, yet echoes of the same
argument are raised about information being found by searching the Internet rather than by combing
through printed source materials. As we transition again, this time from written literacy to digital
literacy, the fears that Socrates voiced are resurfacing. We know the transition will be profound and we
can't yet anticipate the consequences, so it's reasonable to be concerned. Resistance, however, is as
futile now as it was in Socrates' day.

Reference: https://www.er.educause.edu

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The Importance of New Literacy Skills in the 21st Century Classroom

Written by Gaby Shelow

June 20, 2016

NEW LITERACIES TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY

      As an English teacher, when I say the word literacy to my non-English teaching colleagues, their eyes
glaze over. They’re no doubt thinking about reading a textbook and answering questions, and they’re
bored by the thought of it. But in today’s world, the definition of literacy has changed. It is no longer
acceptable to only teach students what I’ll call classic literacy skills. Of course, these are important, but if
we as teachers focus solely on these, we are leaving out a large chunk of literacy skills that are necessary
in today’s society, the so-called new literacies. But, what are new literacies? The National Council of
Teachers of English (2013) defines 21st Century literacies as the ability to:

●      Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;

●      Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve
problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;

●      Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;

●      Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;

●      Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;

●      Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments. (NCTE, 2013)
With this definition in mind, it becomes clear that in today’s ever-evolving, technological society, having
new literacy skills is not an option – it’s a must. Thanks to technology, the world is getting smaller, and
we are communicating with people globally on a regular basis. In order to be successful in today’s
society, one must be prepared to learn, adapt to, and use new literacies. Since many of these new
literacies are tied to proper use of technology, regular instruction and practice in how to use technology
platforms is paramount. As such, teachers in all content areas must focus on teaching new literacy skills
in their classrooms. Not only does this prepare students for their life after high school, it helps to close
the digital divide that currently exists between students from high socioeconomic households and those
from low socioeconomic households.

            The argument I hear most often from teachers who do not want to use technology in their
classroom is that students don’t need it. They’re on their phones all the time, why should I give them
even more time to be distracted? Students love their phones. While this is certainly true, sending
snapchats all day long does not make a student literate in using technology productively. I was shocked
my first year teaching when I had to walk students through how to save a document in Microsoft Word. I
assumed that if they knew how to send a text message then surely they could save a Word document! I
was totally wrong. As Julie Nicholson (2013) discovered in her self-study on using Twitter in her college
course, many students struggled when asked to use technology to synthesize information and
collaborate with their peers – two essential new literacy skills. “Many of the struggles that the students
reported were a result of not having developed sufficient knowledge and skill related to these new
literacies” (Nicholson & Galguera, 2013, p. 21). While this study was conducted with college students, it
stands to further prove the need for the incorporation of new literacy skills into the K-12 classroom. We
can reasonably assume that the students in Nicholson’s college class were literate in reading printed
text, however, without having the skillset needed to effectively engage in new literacies, they were
unsuccessful in their use of a collaborative technology platform.

As educators, our job is to prepare our students for the future. Without teaching students new literacy
skills, we are not preparing our students for their futures. Nicholson and Galguera (2013) suggest five
skills that must be taught to address the gap in students’ new literacy skills. These skills include:

 (a) the ability to identify questions and frame problems to guide reading on the internet,

(b) the capacity to identify information that is relevant to one’s needs, (c) competence

with critically evaluating online information, (d) facility with reading and synthesizing

information from multiple multimedia sources, and (e) understanding how to

communicate with others in contexts where information is learned about and shared

collectively. (Nicholson & Galguera, 2013, p. 21)

Students can’t learn these skills on their own. Just as with any other skill, students need guidance from
their teacher and an opportunity to practice these skills in a safe and collaborative environment.

            Despite the importance of teaching new literacy skills to our students, schools have very little
incentive to focus on new literacies. With the focus on state-mandated testing and funding often being
tied to a school’s performance on these state tests, it’s hard to make the argument that a failing school
should focus on anything but improving test scores.

Economically challenged districts have little incentive to include online reading skills in

the instruction program because they face pressure to raise reading test scores on

assessments that have nothing to do with the online comprehension.

(Miners & Pascopella, 2007)

When states place so much emphasis on testing, it forces teachers to “teach to the test” especially when
their jobs are on the line. With this in mind, it’s no wonder new literacy skills get pushed to the back
burner. Instead of becoming the focus of instruction, they become something a teacher will try when
there is some extra time.

As teachers, time is one of our scarcest resources, and incorporating technology into a lesson can seem
like an overwhelming waste of time. What happens if something doesn’t work? What if students need to
be taught how to use the program? How am I going to monitor every single student’s computer screen?
Wouldn’t it just be easier to use a pen and paper activity for this? These are all legitimate questions – all
questions I’ve been asked before when I’ve suggested using an activity that would incorporate
technology and new literacy skills. But to these questions, I respond with this question posed by William
Kist (2013) in his article New Literacies and the Common Core, “How can we hope to prepare our young
people to thrive in today’s society – in which people are connected 24 hours a day by media… without
giving them some practice with new media at school?”  Kist raises a point that can not be ignored.
Students will need to know how to use new literacies in their lives beyond high school. How can we
prepare them without focusing on these new literacies?
            In his 2001 article, Education for the New Millennium, Douglas Kellner argues that educators need
to “restructure schooling to respond constructively and progressively to the technological and social
changes that we are now experiencing,” (p. 67). Unfortunately, fifteen years after the publication of
Kellner’s article, we still have not adequately restructured our educational approach to address the new
demands that technology has put on our students. Perhaps Kellner was ahead of his time, or, more
accurately, perhaps it’s well past time for a change in our educational approach. The skillset needed to
use, interpret, and communicate with technology can no longer fall under the term new literacies.
Rather, they have become literacy skills, and every student needs them.

Unfortunately, there is a digital divide that still exists today that puts certain students at a disadvantage,
and by not emphasizing these new literacies in schools, the divide only increases. In his article, The New
Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension: Expanding the Literacy and Learning Curriculum, Leu et. al.
(2011) argue that:

            Individuals, groups, and societies who can identify the most important problems, locate

useful information the fastest, critically evaluate information most effectively, synthesize

information most appropriately to develop the best solutions, and then communicate

these solutions to other most clearly will succeed in the challenging times that await us.

(p. 5)

In other words, the more skilled in new literacies one is, the more successful one will be. However, there
exists a real and significant gap between students who have access to and use technology regularly and
those who do not. According to Leu et. al. (2014), there is a significant disparity between the percentage
of students from low-income households that have access to internet versus students from high-income
households that have access to the internet at home, with significantly less students from low income
households having regular access to internet (p. 41). Additionally, “the poorest schools are also under
the greatest pressure to raise scores on state assessments that have nothing to do with online reading
comprehension,” (Leu et. al. 2011, p. 10-11). Therefore, these schools are forced to focus on preparing
their students for a state standardized test that does not test new literacy skills – leaving these kids at a
great disadvantage. In order to close this gap, students need to be taught in school the new literacy skills
that will be vital to their future success. Otherwise, we can not guarantee that students are being
adequately prepared for life post-high school. Public education is supposed to give all students an equal
opportunity in life, however, by not preparing students for the demands they will face after high school,
we are not giving them an equal playing field.

            It is no secret that new literacy skills are essential to success in a student’s life. Whether that
student attends college or immediately enters the workforce, they will need new literacy skills. They will
need to know how to communicate and collaborate with people who might work in the cubicle next
door, or in Hong Kong. They will need to interpret and synthesize a wealth of information, much of
which will come to them digitally. Most importantly, they will need to do this in an ethical and
professional manner – both in their personal and professional lives. To not teach these skills to students
puts them at a huge disadvantage. As a teacher, the regular incorporation of new literacies and
technology into my classroom is a must. The purpose of education is to prepare students for their
future. Without regularly incorporating new literacy skills into their daily instruction, we are failing our
students.

References

Cervetti, G., Damico, J., Pearson, P. D. (2006). Multiple literacies, new literacies, and teacher

education. Theory into Practice, 45(4), 378-386.

Kellner, D. (2001). New technologies/new literacies: Reconstructing education for the new

millennium. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 11, 67-81.

Kist, W. (2013). New literacies and the common core. Educational Leadership, 70(6). Retrieved                  
from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar13/vol70/num06/New-                    
Literacies-and-the-Common-Core.aspx

Leu, D. J., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C., Timbrell, N. (2014). The new                            
literacies of online research and comprehension: Rethinking the reading achievement                         gap.
Reading Research Quarterly, 50(1), 37-59.

Leu, D.J., McVerry, G., O’Byrne, W. I., Killi, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H. … Forzani,
E. (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy                         and
learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14.

Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/new-literacies

National Council of Teachers of English (2013). The NCTE definition of 21st century literacies.                    
Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition

Nicholson, J., & Galguera, T. (2013). Integrating new literacies in higher education: A self-study

of the use of twitter in an education course. Teacher Education Quarterly, summer, 7- 26.

Reference: https://www.thecurrent.educatorinnovator.org