Lesson 21st Century and the Rise of New Literacies

It is almost universally acknowledged that in order to succeed in the 21st century,

students must learn much more than the “three Rs” and basic computer competency. The
term “21st century skills” is used often in educational circles to refer to a range of abilities
and competencies that go beyond what has traditionally been taught in the classroom,
including problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation.
Others define the term as “information literacy, media literacy, and information,
communication and technology literacy (Kursian, 2017).” This notion is supported with
what EG White presented: “Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s
ideal for His children. Godliness-Godlikeness-is the goal to be reached”. Before the
student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has the object to achieve, a
standard to attain, that includes everything good, pure, and noble. He will advance as far
as possible in every branch of true knowledge. (Education p. 18).
Twenty-first century skills are not a new concept, and despite the fact that students’
success in classrooms and in the workforce requires that their educational experiences both
reflect our current digital world and equip them to engage with it (and even setting aside
the debate about the precise definition of the term), too many students are falling short.
True, most can use Wikipedia or Google, and they can easily crowd-source information,
post photos and videos, and even correspond with people around the world using a variety
of mechanisms (Kursian, 2017).
In the 21st Century curricular landscape could be described in the context of the
Emerging Factors and conditions worldwide (Dayabil, et al, 2012).
1. Globalization of economies where power is centered in Asia and China
2. Dependents on international markets that need global perspectives from
entrepreneurs and workers
3. Increased concern and positive actions about environments degradation, water and
energy shortage, global warming, pandemics
 4. Nations Competing for Power blocks
5. Internationalization of employment due to increased globalization
6. Science and Technology edge as drivers of gaining economic edge
7. The knowledge economy as the generator of most wealth and jobs

Emerging Curricula for 21st Century Learners (Dayabil, et al, 2012).

1. Knowledge, skills, understanding and capabilities to face the future with confidence
2. Research driven (based on strong evidence)
3. Product of highly consultative, collaborative development process
4. Supports excellence and equity for all learners (multicultural)
5. Accessible and ready for schools, teachers, parents and broader community

21st Century Curriculum and Education

1. Integrated and Interdisciplinary
2. Global Classrooms/globalization
3. Student-centered
4. Research-driven
5. Make use of technologies and media
6. 21st Century Skills
7. Relevant and rigorous and real world
8. Adapting to and creating constant personal and social change and lifelong learning
What Are 21st Century Skills? (Mkandawire, S. B., 2015)
a. Critical thinking
b. Creativity
c. Collaboration
d. Communication
e. Information Literacy
f. Media Literacy
g. Technology literacy
h. Flexibility
i.
Dayagbil, et al, (2012) added several 21st century skills:
a. Literacy
b. Numeracy
c. ICT Competence
d. Ethical Behavior
e. Personal and Social Competence
f. Intercultural understanding

SKILLS FOR 21st CENTURY LEARNERS (Dayagbil, et al, 2012)

• Gather, analyze, and synthesize information

• Work independently to high standard with minimal supervision
• Lead others through influence
• Be creative and turn such activity into action
• Think critically and ask the right question
• Understand other’s perspective and the entirety of the issue
• Communicate effective using technology
• Work ethically, firmly based in both the society and the planet as a whole

Figure 2.1 21st Century Skills which turn Failure to Success (Google.com)
SURVIVAL SKILLS ACCORDING TO TONY WAGONER (2006)
1) Critical thinking and problem solving
2) Collaboration across networks and leading by influence.
3) Agility and adaptability
4) Initiative and entrepreneurship
5) Effective oral and written communication
6) Accessing and analyzing information
7) Curiosity and imagination

To become fully literate in today’s world, students must become proficient in the
new literacies of 21st-century technologies. As a result, literacy educators have a
responsibility to effectively integrate these new technologies into the curriculum, preparing
students for the literacy future they deserve.

Figure 2.2 Social Media Symbols (Google.com)

The Rise of the New Literacies

The Internet and other forms of information and communication technologies

(ICTs) are redefining the nature of reading, writing, and communication. These ICTs will
continue to change in the years ahead, requiring continuously new literacies to successfully
exploit their potentials. Although many new ICTs will emerge in the future, those that are
common in the lives of our students include search engines, webpages, e-mail, instant
messaging (IM), blogs, podcasts, e-books, wikis, YouTube, video, and many more. New
literacy skills and practices are required by each new ICT as it emerges and evolves.

Literacy educators have a responsibility to integrate these new literacies into

the curriculum to prepare students for successful civic participation in a global
environment. The International Reading Association believes that students have the right
to the following:
• Teachers who use ICTs skillfully for teaching and learning effectively
• Peers who use ICTs responsibly and actively share effective strategies applied
to a range of literacy purposes and settings
• A literacy curriculum that offers opportunities to collaboratively read, share, and
create content with peers from around the world
• Literacy instruction that embeds critical and culturally sensitive thinking into
print and digital literacy practices
• State reading and writing standards that include new literacies
• State reading and writing assessments that include new literacies
• School leaders and policymakers committed to advocating the use of ICTs for
teaching and learning
• Equal access to ICTs for all classrooms and all students

Figure 2.3 Online Media (Google.com)

The Internet Is Rapidly Entering Nearly Every Classroom in Developed

Nations Around the World. The Internet and other technologies have proven to be
powerful new tools in the classroom as nations seek to prepare children for their future in
an information age. Nations such as Australia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom, the United States, and others are developing public policies to ensure that
classrooms have a computer connected to the Internet, appropriate software, ICTs
integrated into the curriculum, and teachers prepared for the effective integration of these
new technologies into the classroom. Developments such as these demand from us a vision
that includes the integration of new literacies within the literacy curriculum.
Equity of Access to ICTs Will Ensure Literacy Opportunities for Children
Around the World. In many countries, classrooms in wealthier schools have better
technology resources than those in poorer schools. Continuation of this trend in societies
that profess egalitarian ideals presents an important threat to these societies’ long-term
political stability. The problem is even greater in developing nations, where classroom
Internet access is only a dream. Will this lead to a widening gulf between haves and have-
nots around access to information afforded different nations? It is essential that literacy
educators and others support equal access to information technologies for all students to
ensure that each student has equal access to life’s opportunities (New Literacies in the 21st
Century pdf).
“New literacies” that arise from new technologies include things like text-
messaging, blogging, social networking, podcasting, and video-making. These digital
technologies alter and extend our communication abilities, often blending text, sound, and
imagery. Although connected to older, “offline” practices, these technologies change what
it means to both “read” and “write” texts. (They change the meaning of “text,” as well.)
These rise of “new literacies” necessary to wield these new technologies
effectively place new demands on all of us – not just on students. We are all expected
to move much more quickly to identify problems, for example, to know where to find
information to help us address those problems – often on our own; to evaluate and
synthesize information from a number of sources in order to try to solve those problems;
to communicate with others about problems and potential solutions; and to monitor the
solutions we’ve found and stay up-to-date with new issues as they arise.
We are increasingly expected do these tasks via the Internet, of course, to address
elements of our professional and our personal lives. We do this as students, teachers,
workers, and citizens alike. Of course, it’s still useful to think about how many these new
literacies do dovetail with that UNESCO definition too: to identify and interpret materials.
But it’s important to consider how these practices, particularly when they’re online, shape
comprehension and interpretation in new ways. How do these new practices shape
community participation in the construction of knowledge?
For educators, this must involve a more sophisticated response than the Internet is
“good” or “bad.” Moreover, it isn’t just a matter of thinking about potentially different
cognitive experiences of reading digital versus print materials (although there is a growing
body of research to that end). It’s about thinking about how students “move through”
materials as they read and research and how digital materials make that a fundamentally
different process (Watters, 2012).
New Literacies and Multiliteracies are the theoretical innovations in response to the
rapid change in people’s economic, social, and cultural life. Facing the dramatic shift in
relationships among community members and languages, New Literacies and
Multiliteracies broaden the scope of literacy, create new territories in literacy and literacy
education that beyond paper-based reading and writing, and provide pedagogical
frameworks for teaching and learning. New Literacies and Multiliteracies both suggest
that literacy practices are no longer restricted to reading and writing printed and written
texts in one official and standard form, but include multiple modes of representation in
diverse cultural contexts and in various languages that are important in people’s lives,
Instead, it starts with the utilization and appreciation of the diversity, cherishes students’
agency in language learning, helps students develop the ability to critically select
resources derived from their own life experience and appropriately implement in
specific contexts, stimulates students’ metacognition, facilitates the understanding of
purposes and functions of the resources, and finally, enables students to generalize
the learned literacy knowledge in different contexts. References Bortree, D. S. (2005).
Gee, J. P. (2004).

Learners & New Literacies

University of Connecticut’s Donald Leu (PDF) has made several observations about
these new literacies:
 • Online research and comprehension is a self-directed process of text construction
and knowledge construction.
• Five practices appear to define online research and comprehension processing: (1)
identifying a problem and then (2) locating, (3) evaluating, (4) synthesizing, and
(5) communicating information.
• Online research and comprehension is not isomorphic with offline reading
comprehension; additional skills and strategies appear to be required.
• Online contexts may be especially supportive for some struggling readers.
• Adolescents are not always very skilled with online research and comprehension.
• Collaborative online reading and writing practices appear to increase
comprehension and learning.

It is true (according to research from the Pew Research Center) that many teens now
lead “tech-saturated lives”: 95% use the Internet. 78% have cell phones. 80% have a
desktop or laptop. 81% use social networking sites. But that doesn’t mean that they are
necessarily highly skilled when it comes to these new literacies. It has been noted, that
having “traditional” literacy skills isn’t an indicator of having these new proficiencies
either (Watters, 2012).

New Literacies and the Classroom

How will the role of educators change with the rise of new literacies? This is
particularly important as students (again, all of us) have to navigate more complex and
more rich media – online and not just in print. With a world of digital materials at students’
fingertips, traditional instructional materials like textbooks are no longer canonical. But
that doesn’t mean that the role of the educator is necessarily diminished. To the contrary,
educators could be even more important as they guide students through the contexts of
learning materials, not simply the content. Collaborative practices seem to help boost
learning (Watters, 2012).
This has profoundly important implications for educators’ professional
development, something that cannot be addressed by treating new technologies as new
instructional tools. Educators must develop these new literacies themselves – for
themselves – before they can support students in developing them for themselves.
Educators must learn to engage with new technologies and the literacy practices
surrounding them (by blogging, for example, or by gaming).
Watters (2012) added that new literacies will bring about new challenges for
schools, because in no small part, new technologies (and the cultural practices around
them) are changing incredibly quickly. All this in turn raises important questions about
how – indeed, whether – new literacies “fit” into current school practices, and how schools
will respond.

Types of Literacy (Mkandawire, S. B., 2015)

In today’s world, there are different forms and types of literacies that people in
different fields talk of in the society. By now, you must have heard or used some type of
these types of literacy in the society. Lets consider some of the most common discussed
types of literacies.

(a) Conventional Literacy is a type of literacy that deals with reading and writing skills of
letters in a particular language. It involves issues such as knowing the alphabet, phonetics,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics that govern the reading and
writing skills in a conventional manner. McGee and Richgels (1996:30) describe the use
of conventional literacy in terms of the behavior manifested by readers, “Conventional
readers and writers read and write in ways that most people in our literate society recognize
as ‘really’ reading and writing. For example, they use a variety of reading strategies, know
hundreds of sight words, read texts written in a variety of structures, are aware of audience,
monitor their own performances as writers and readers, and spell conventionally.”

(b) Emergent Literacy is a type of literacy that deals with the earliest behaviors that relate
to a kind of literacy in form of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are manifested
before the actual conventional level of literacy is attained. The term was first used in 1966
by a New Zealand researcher Marie Clay to describe the behaviors seen in young children
when they use books and writing materials to imitate reading and writing activities, even
though the children cannot actually read and write in the conventional sense (Ramsburg,
1998). Today the term has expanded in usage. Sulzby and Teale (1996: 728) “Emergent
literacy is concerned with the earliest phases of literacy development, the period between
birth and the time when children read and write conventionally. The term emergent literacy
signals a belief that, in a literate society, young children even one and two year olds, are in
the process of becoming literate”.

(c) Initial Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at the time or stage an individual learns
or is expected to learn the basics or the process of acquiring basic skills in a particular field
such as reading and writing in a particular language. It is a critical foundation of
conventional literacy as it has to do with knowing expected skills in a conventional manner.

(d) Basic Literacy – refer to a type of knowledge that is expected to be known by everyone
in a particular field. In the world today, people expects everyone to know basics of
conventional literacy that is to know how to read and write. For example, everyone is
expected to know how to read and write as a basic literacy skill.

(e) Functional Literacy – A type of literacy that deals with application of conventional
form of literacy such as reading and writing well enough to understand signs, read
newspaper headings, read labels on medicine bottles, make shopping lists, read Bible, write
letters, fill in forms, apply for jobs, practice the language skills verbally & in written form,
reading for pleasure and purposive writing. Functional Literacy – A type or type of literacy
that prepares an individual to engage in all those activities available in his or her group and
community and also for enabling him or her to continue to use reading, writing and
calculation for his or her own and the community’s development. Functional literacy as
noted by different scholars is used for different activities in the society. Gray (1956:21)
notes: Functional literacy is used for the training of adults to ‘meet independently the
reading and writing demands placed on them’. Currently, the phrase describes those
approaches to literacy which stresses the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive, and
computational skills to accomplish practical ends in culturally specific settings.
(f) Critical literacy – A type of literacy that involves interpreting a piece more than mere
piece of work such as determining what effect a writer is attempting to bring about in
readers, why he or she is making that effort and just who those readers are. According to
(Freire, 1970) Critical Literacy looks at the teaching of critical consciousness skills relating
to an individual’s ability to perceive social, political, and economic oppression and to take
action against the oppressive elements of society. The concept of critical consciousness
(conscientization) was developed by Paulo Freire primarily in his books: Pedagogy of the
Oppressed and Education for Critical Consciousness, Kirkendall (2004). The emphasis
here is in an individual’s ability to use reading, writing, and thinking, listening, speaking,
and evaluating skills in order to effectively interact, construct meaning, and communicate
for real-life situations. An active literate person is constantly thinking, learning, reflecting,
and is assuming the responsibility for continued growth in their own literacy development.
Critical literacy involves the analysis and critique of the relationships among texts,
language, power, social groups and social practices. It shows us ways of looking at written,
visual, spoken, multimedia and performance texts to question and challenge the attitudes,
values and beliefs that lie beneath the surface.

(g) Aliteracy – refer to a level of conventional literacy analysis that deals with literate
individuals who are lazy to apply reading and writing skills regularly. In other ways, an
alliterate person is he or she who knows how to read and write but cannot apply this skill
to read a book, an article, a newspaper and other written materials.

(h) Profession Literacy – A type of knowledge specialized in a particular field or

profession. It looks at individuals specialized in particular professions such as; Medical
profession, teaching profession, legal profession and others.

(I) Legal Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at law related knowledge, skills
andproficiency an individual may possess in executing legal related matters. The difference
between a lawyer and a client is the knowledge gap between them that the lawyer possess
which the client doesn’t have.
(J) Medical Literacy – A type of literacy that fall under profession literacy. Medical literacy
look at the knowledge, skills and proficiency in the medical field and health care in
particular.

(K) Financial literacy – A type of literacy that looks at accounting, auditing, and any other
profession relating to money or financial management issues.

(L) Statistical literacy – A type of literacy that looks at the ability to understand statistics
as presented in different forms of publications such as newspapers, television, and the
Internet. Numeracy is a prerequisite to being statistically literate. Being statistically literate
is sometimes taken to include having both the ability to critically evaluate statistical
material and to appreciate the relevance of statistically-based approaches to all aspects of
life in general.

(M) Film Literacy – skills and abilities possessed by an individual to practice the art and
craft of film making and its processes. Processing the messages packaged in films is also a
form of film literacy.

(N) Teaching literacy – A form of literacy that focuses on an individual’s abilities to teach
effectively in a particular subject matter. He or she understand the craft of teaching and the
necessities that can be applied for an effective teacher.

(O) Workforce literacy – A type of literacy that prepares an individual to know what
transpires at a workplace before they start work. It deals with a pre-service employment
preparation for an individual intending to be in a particular profession.

(P) Workplace literacy – A type of literacy that supports current workers already in
employment with regard to their rights, conditions of service and their plight.

(Q) Survival Literacy – A type of functional literacy that involves teaching survival skills
like income generating skills that empowers societies economically to be independent and
self-sustaining. Applying other forms of literacy such as reading to survive.
(R) Business Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at business oriented knowledge, skills
and proficiency. Failure to sale products an individual has harvested, made or accumulated
is an instance of business illiteracy. Business literacy refers to an individual’s ability to
posses business oriented skills by means of adapting to trade oriented environments in
meeting the market standards.

(S) Street Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at an individual’s ability to survive and
adapt to the life of the streets and maintain its standards as their immediate environment
for purposes of survival.

(T) Scientific Literacy – A type of literacy that categorically addresses the scientific know
how of popular science disciplines.

(U) Agricultural literacy – An individual’s ability to farm, establish and ascertain

agricultural related environments and practice the actual competencies in the field.
Knowledge of the soil that support good farming and what types of crops to grow, when
and where is all part of agriculture literacy.

(V) Computer Literacy – A type of literacy that look at an individual’s knowledge and
ability to use computers and technology efficiently. It includes the comfort level someone
has in using computer programs and other applications that are associated with computers.
Recently, the concept include an individual’s ability to play and manipulate computer
components, software, designing computer programs and use computers in a variety of
ways in meeting the age of technology efficiently. Computer Literacy – A type of literacy
that look at an individual’s knowledge and ability to use computers and technology
efficiently. It includes the comfort level someone has in using computer programs and other
applications that are associated with computers. Recently, the concept include an
individual’s ability to play and manipulate computer components, software, designing
computer programs and use computers in a variety of ways in meeting the age of
technology efficiently.
 Technological literacy – This form of literacy refer to an individual’s ability to use
technology tools to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate
information. It also extends to the knowledge possessed to create or develop technology
related products in a broad sense. This includes to that look at technological issues.

(X) Ecological literacy – refer to an individual’s ability to understand the natural systems
that makes life on earth possible. This include such things as nature (water, trees, glass,
animals and others) that suport human life.

(Y) Translitertacy – Refer to the ability to read, write and interact across a range of
platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio
and film, to digital social networks (http://firstmonday.org/article/view/2060/1908).

(Z) Magical Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at magic, witchcraft, and an
understanding of the operations of the dark forces, how they threaten people’s lives , how
they work, how to use and control them.

(AA) Cultural and Cross Cultural Literacy – A type of literacy that look at an individual’s
ability to understand and appreciate the similarities and differences in the customs, values,
and beliefs of one’s own culture and the cultures of others. There is no culture that can live,
if it attempts to be exclusive in its own. This emphasizes on the importance of cultural
literacy in its varying degrees in the global world. Therefore, as citizens of the global world,
it is particularly important that all nations be sensitive to the role that culture plays in the
behaviors, beliefs, and values of themselves and others. Understanding other cultures has
two notable benefits: It multiplies our access to practices, ideas, and people that can make
positive contributions to our own society; and secondly, it helps us understand ourselves
more deeply. By understanding a range of alternatives, we become aware of our own
implicit beliefs – beliefs so deeply imbedded that we routinely take them for granted
(Stigler, Gallimore and Hiebert, 2000).
“Cultural literacy is applied in a variety of ways. For instance, with regard to text
analysis, what a text means depends on what readers bring to the text and what they bring
will depend on the background, training, values, traditions, beliefs and norms they have
experienced. It also extends beyond text to mean understanding the cultural context and
practices an individual is found in”.

(BB) Family literacy – A type of literacy that looks at family related matters with regard
to how to keep a wife, a husband, children and other relatives happily and morally right. It
deals with knowledge on how to be in a family, relationships, resolve family conflicts
internally, keeping secretes under the roof and home economics.

(CC) Art(s) Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at an individual’s ability to manifest
art skills in exceptionally and relatively varying degrees by selecting or shaping materials
to convey an idea, emotion, or visually interesting form. Art literacy also refer to the film
and visual arts, including painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, decorative arts,
crafts, and other visual works that combine materials or forms.

In contemporary world, art literacy include forms of creative activity, such as

dance, drama (Drama literacy), and music (Musical literacy), or even having the ability to
use art to describe art other artistic skills. Art(s) Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at
an individual’s ability to manifest art skills in exceptionally and relatively varying degrees
by selecting or shaping materials to convey an idea, emotion, or visually interesting form.
Art literacy also refer to the film and visual arts, including painting, sculpture, architecture,
photography, decorative arts, crafts, and other visual works that combine materials or
forms. In contemporary world, art literacy include forms of creative activity, such as dance,
drama (Drama literacy), and music (Musical literacy), or even having the ability to use art
to describe art other artistic skills.

(DD) Civic Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at the plight of citizens, patriotism,
rights, the city, powers of leaders and how the nation is run and being governed. This type
of education is offered to the citizens on different issues concerning the affairs of the
country and the world. Civic Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at the plight of citizens,
patriotism, rights, the city, powers of leaders and how the nation is run and being governed.
This type of education is offered to the citizens on different issues concerning the affairs
of the country and the world.

(EE) Electoral Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at the knowledge, skills and abilities
associated with electoral matters; election strategies, conducting free and fair elections,
involving different stake holders in the elections and so on. Electoral Literacy – A type of
literacy that looks at the knowledge, skills and abilities associated with electoral matters;
election strategies, conducting free and fair elections, involving different stake holders in
the elections and so on.

(FF) Adult Literacy – A type of literacy that look at the type of education offered to the
adults in order for them to adapt to their respective environments with survivalistic skills.
It involves the teaching of income generating skills, civic education and other critical issues
within their own environment by making use of the available resources. It involves
understanding the way adults behave, how they learn and how to interact with them more
effectively. Adult Literacy – A type of literacy that look at the type of education offered to
the adults in order for them to adapt to their respective environments with survivalistic
skills. It involves the teaching of income generating skills, civic education and other critical
issues within their own environment by making use of the available resources. It involves
understanding the way adults behave, how they learn and how to interact with them more
effectively.

(GG) Information Literacy – A type or type of literacy that look at the ability to recognize
the extent and nature of the information needed, to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the
needed information in the manner that would befit it. It constitutes the abilities to recognize
when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use, and communicate
information in its various formats. A person is said to be information literate if he is able
to recognize when the information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and
use effectively the needed information. Producing such a citizenry will require that schools
and colleges appreciate and integrate the concept of information literacy into their learning
programs and that they play a leadership role in equipping individuals and institutions to
take advantage of the opportunities inherent within the information society.

Information literacy has to do with knowing when and why you need information,
where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner, implies
knowing several skills. We believe that the skills (or competencies) that are required to be
information literate require an understanding of a need for information; the resources
available; how to find information; the need to evaluate results; how to work with or exploit
results; ethics and responsibility of use; how to communicate or share your findings and
how to manage your findings, Information and Computer Literacy Task Force (2001).

(HH) Media Literacy – A type of literacy similar to information literacy that look at an
individual’s ability to understand information or read information from the different media
by filtering or sifting through and analyzing the messages that inform, edutain and sell to
us everyday. He further indicate that media literacy is having the ability to bring critical
thinking skills to bear on all media; from music videos and web environments to product
placement in films and virtual displays on billboards.

“Media literacy is about asking pertinent questions about what is there, and noticing
what is not there. And the instinct to questions about what lies behind media productions;
the motives, the money, the values and the ownership and to be aware of how these factors
influence content. Media literacy encourages a probing approach to the world of media:
Who is this message intended for? Who wants to reach the audience, and why? From whose
perspective is this story told? Whose voices are heard, and whose are absent? What
strategies does this message use to get my attention and make me feel included? In our
world of multi-tasking, commercialism, globalization and interactivity, media education is
not about having the right answers – it is about asking the right questions”, Bowen (1996).
The result is lifelong empowerment of the learner and the citizen.

Worsnop (1994) says Media literacy has three stages;

 The first stage is simply becoming aware of the importance of managing one’s
media diet that is, making choices and reducing the time spent with television, videos,
electronic games, films and various print media forms.
The second stage is learning specific skills of critical viewing— learning to
analyze and question what is in the frame, how it is constructed and what may have been
left out. Skills of critical viewing are best learned through inquiry-based classes or
interactive group activities, as well as from creating and producing one’s own media
messages.
The third stage goes behind the frame to explore deeper issues. Who produces
the media we experience—and for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who
decides? This stage of social, political and economic analysis looks at how everyone in
society makes meaning from our media experiences, and how the mass media drive our
global consumer economy. This inquiry can sometimes set the stage for various media
advocacy efforts to challenge or redress public policies or corporate practices. Media range
from television to T-shirts, from billboards to the Internet.

To be media literate today require that people must be able to decode, understand,
evaluate and write through, and with, all forms of media. People must be able to read,
evaluate and create text, images and sounds, or any combination of these elements. Media
literacy seeks to empower citizens and to transform their passive relationship to media into
an active, critical engagement, capable of challenging the traditions and structures of a
privatized, commercial media culture, and finding new avenues of citizen speech and
discourse.

(II) Political Literacy – A type of literacy that refers to the knowledge, skills and
information associated with the politics of the location, Mkandaŵile (2011). It is a set of
abilities possessed by citizens considered necessary to participate in a particular
government. It is a civic education skill that includes the different forces that shape the
economy and politics of the country with an understanding of how government works and
of the important issues facing society, as well as the critical thinking skills to evaluate
different points of view. Many organizations interested in participatory democracy are
concerned about political literacy, http://sitwe,wordpress.com.

(JJ) Popular Literacy – A type of literacy that looks at popular knowledge, speculations,
values that come from advertising, the entertainment industry, the media, and icons of style
and are targeted to the ordinary people in society. Popular literacy values are distinguished
from those espoused by more traditional political, educational, or religious institutions as
they are typically to do with popular knowledge.

(KK) Diaspora literacy - This is the ability to understand the traditions, beliefs, culture and
communication patterns from a scattered population with a common origin in a
geographical area. Diaspora folk stories, words, and other folk sayings within any given
community of a particular diaspora constitute diaspora literacy. All the knowledge and
experience of political, social, historical, and cultural climates of the various cultures of
the people in a particular diaspora constitutes diaspora literacy.

(LL) Electoral Literacy (Electracy) – Electracy is a form of literacy that looks at the
knowledge, skills and abilities associated with electoral matters; election strategies,
conducting free and fair elections, involving different stake holders in the election process.

(MM) Emotional literacy – Emotional literacy refer to one’s ability to manage and
understand their emotions as well as that of others. Emotionally literate people listen to
others and empathise with their emotions. They express their emotions productively.

(NN) oral literacy – Oral literacy (Oracy) refer to the ability to transfer norms, traditions,
customs, culture and language from one generation or person to another through the word
of mouth. It is the oldest communication and teaching method in the history of humanity.

(OO) Multiliteracies – The notion and acknowledgement that there are so much literacy
that exists in different fields associated with different domains of the society.
“Multiliteracies – a word we chose because it describes two important arguments we might
have with the emerging cultural, institutional and global order. The first argument engages
with the multiplicity of communications channels and media; the second is with the
increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity”. This quotation suggests that the
concept of Multiliteracies acknowledges the existence of many literacies as it supplements
traditional perception of literacy, Cope and Kalantzis (2000).

(PP) Visual literacy – A type of literacy that deal with an individual’s ability to interpret,
negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an images, graphic
designs and other visuals aspects. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be
“read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading. It is an
instance of Visual Memory: retaining a “picture” of what a word or object looks like and
how to make sense out of it.

Garcia, (2013) emphasized that as educators today, we have seen a significant shift
in what a “literate” student looks like. There are, in fact, many other types of literacy than
what we might traditionally think of. These words are seldom treated as equally important
to the traditional definition of literacy, yet they are just as important to our students in
today’s society as morphology and phonology.

(QQ) Affective Literacy – locates a broad range of somatic, emotive responses to reading
a text’ It seeks out a the life principle, messy and complex threading through activity and
gestures toward bodily economies of transacting and reading into text (Amsler, 2004
online).

Here’s a list of types of literacy with some brief definitions:

1. Digital Literacy- Cognitive skills that are used in executing tasks in digital
environments
2. Computer Literacy- Ability to use a computer and software
3. Media Literacy- Ability to think critically about different types of media
4. Information Literacy-Ability to evaluate, locate, identify, and effectively use
Info
 5. Technology Literacy- The ability to use technology effectively in several
different ways
6. Political Literacy- Knowledge and skills needed to actively participate in
political matters
7. Cultural Literacy- The knowledge of one’s own culture
8. Multicultural Literacy- The knowledge and appreciation of other cultures
9. Visual Literacy- The ability to critically read images

Sang (2017) exposed the New Literacies theory which emerged in the field of
education as a response to the changing world, which changes dramatically from old
capitalism (Fordism) to the new global capitalism (Gee, 2004; Hall, 1996).
Significantly different from the old form of industry that is characterized by
“centralized mass production, hierarchical management, and stable employment
structure”, the new form of industry is more about “rapidly changing information,
distributed management and regulations, and unpredictable, project-oriented
employment”, due to the innovation and development of technology (Tang, 2015). Facing
the dramatic change in economy, educators argue that the conventional literacy education
may not be able to fully prepare students for the challenges in the modern working and
social life (Gee, 2004; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Luke, 1998). Thus, as the world has
changed, the definition of literacy should be broadened accordingly.

The New Literacies theory is such an attempt to expand the definition of what
literacy consists of. The most important feature that distinguishes New Literacies from
other literacy perspectives is that New Literacies emphasizes on “the epochal change
in everyday technologies and its associated cultural practices” (Coiro et al., 2008). It
extends beyond the conventional view of literacy as printed and written texts, and includes
meaning-making practices using digital technologies (e.g., video games, weblogs, mobile
texts, etc.), and explores the changes of beliefs towards literacy in the process of practices.
Regarding the definition of New Literacies, there have been debates about what
constitutes the “new”. However, two constructs conceptualized in Lankshear and
Knobel (2007) are widely accepted by scholars to characterize the “new” in New
Literacies: the new “technical stuff” and the new “ethos stuff”. The new “technical stuff”
includes the technological innovations and development in the modern society.

Technology had been implemented in classroom teaching since the dawn of the
20th century, such as films, radio, televisions, and computers. However, comparing to
the “old technologies”, the “technical stuff” in New Literacies is “new” because of two
significantly distinctive characters. First, while the “old technologies” mostly consist
of simple forms of production, the new “technical stuff” is a “hybridization of multimodal
media” that includes texts, images, music, videos, etc., which altogether create
interactive and interconnected forms of production that can be retrieved conveniently
(Lankshear and Knobel, 2007). People nowadays are able to get access to the Internet
via mobile devices and gather information that consists of various forms of presentation.

Secondly, the new “technical stuff” allows distributed means of media production
(Lankshear and Knobel, 2007).
In the modern society, large amount of information online, such as YouTube
videos, is not produced by
monopolies but by ordinary people who only have cell phones or cameras that are connected to
the Internet.
On the other hand, the new “ethos stuff” constitutes of the beliefs and practices of
New Literacies. It
refers to a new belief (“mindset”) to see the world has changed
f u n d a m e n t a l l y d u e t o t h e u t i l i z a t i o n o f new
technologies, rather than using new tools to do the o l d w o r k o n l y i n m o r e
“ t e c h n o l o g i z e d w a y s ” ( L a n k s h ear &
Knobel, 2007). Based on the new belief in literacy, t h e N e w L i t e r a c i e s
a r e m o r e “ p a r t i c i p a t o r y , c o l l a b orative,
and distributed” in nature, comparing to the “published, individuated, author-centric,
and expert-dominated”
forms of conventional literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007). In summary, in the New
Literacies perspective,
literacies are viewed as participation in collaborative activities to acquire distributed
knowledge and skills.
Since the establishment and enrichment of the New Literacies theory, three research
themes derive
based on it. The first is the “New Literacy Studies”, which emphasizes on the importance
of recognizing cultural
diversity and the need to study literacy as multifaceted sociocultural practices in diverse
contexts (Gee, 1996).
The second is the “youth literacies” study that foc uses on diverse literacy practices
performed by the i n c r e a s i n g
number of “shape-shifting portfolio” youths who participate in out-of-school literacy
activities by using
ubiquitous multimedia devices (Bortree, 2005). The third theme is the realization of
expanded forms and
multiple modes of meaning-making systems beyond printed and written language. The
research of multimodality
and multiliteracies is based on this theme (Jewitt, 2 0 0 8 ; The New
L o n d o n G r o u p , 1 9 9 6 ) . T h e M u l t i l i t e r a cies
theory, emerged from the third theme, is specified in later discussion.
The New Literacy theory provides expanded insights into the ideas and scope of
literacy and literacy
education. From the New literacy perspective, literacy is not only about printed and
written texts but should also
take the new forms of representation of the target language portrayed by digital
technologies into consideration.
The language requirements and challenges in current w o r k p l a c e s a r e n o
longer restricted to reading and writing
paper-based texts in native and other foreign languages, but have extended into
recognition, interpretation,
comprehension, and appreciation of languages and cultures in different forms and in
diverse literacy practices.
Therefore, the literacy education should address the corresponding issues in order
to better prepare students to
participate in social and cultural activities in the modern society.
Secondly, the new “technical stuff” allows distributed means of media production
(Lankshear and Knobel, 2007). In the modern society, large amount of information
online, such as YouTube videos, is not produced by monopolies but by ordinary people
who only have cell phones or cameras that are connected to the Internet. On the other
hand, the new “ethos stuff” constitutes of the beliefs and practices of New Literacies.
It refers to a new belief (“mindset”) to see the world has changed fundamentally due
to the utilization of new technologies, rather than using new tools to do the old work
only in more “technologized ways” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007). Based on the new
belief in literacy, the New Literacies are more “participatory, collaborative, and
distributed” in nature, comparing to the “published, individuated, author-centric, and
expert-dominated” forms of conventional literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2007).

In summary, in the New Literacies perspective, literacies are viewed as

participation in collaborative activities to acquire distributed knowledge and skills. Since
the establishment and enrichment of the New Literacies theory, three research themes
derive based on it. The first is the “New Literacy Studies”, which emphasizes on the
importance of recognizing cultural diversity and the need to study literacy as multifaceted
sociocultural practices in diverse contexts (Gee, 1996). The second is the “youth
literacies” study that focuses on diverse literacy practices performed by the increasing
number of “shape-shifting portfolio” youths who participate in out-of-school literacy
activities by using ubiquitous multimedia devices (Bortree, 2005). The third theme
is the realization of expanded forms and multiple modes of meaning-making systems
beyond printed and written language. The research of multimodality and multiliteracies is
based on this theme (Jewitt, 2008; The New London Group, 1996).

The Multiliteracies theory, emerged from the third theme, is specified in later
discussion. The New Literacy theory provides expanded insights into the ideas and scope
of literacy and literacy education. From the New literacy perspective, literacy is not only
about printed and written texts but should also take the new forms of representation of the
target language portrayed by digital technologies into consideration. The language
requirements and challenges in current workplaces are no longer restricted to reading and
writing paper-based texts in native and other foreign languages, but have extended
into recognition, interpretation, comprehension, and appreciation of languages and
cultures in different forms and in diverse literacy practices. Therefore, the literacy
education should address the corresponding issues in order to better prepare students
to participate in social and cultural activities in the modern society.