EXPANDED VIEWS

OF
LITERACY
As reading and writing skills develop,
students spend more time reading on
their own for education and pleasure.
Reading provides a way to gather
information and learn about the
thoughts, opinions, and feelings of
others. Writing allows students to show
what they know and feel and to be
creative.
Reading and writing are the foundation of
learning, and being able to read and write
are skills that help students prepare for
employment and adulthood. Becoming
and independent reader and developing
the ability to express oneself in writing
are critical to success in today’s society.
When viewed from the perspective of
conventional/traditional literacy the concept
of "new" literacies is a bit of a misnomer, as
even these new literacies of the 21st century
make generous use of being able to read and
write, rather than supplant them as skills
necessary for survival.
However, when viewed from the
perspective of literacy as knowledge, the
new literacies begin to make sense as they
are the "skills and bodies of knowledge"
that are necessary for survival and
productivity in the information age.
Case in point: Throughout history, humans
have communicated on levels apart from
the spoken and written word, for example,
visually, using the long-distance
communication system of smoke signals
used by the ancient Chinese, the ancient
Greeks, and the indigenous peoples of
North America
In the Victorian era, there was such a thing
as the "Language of Flowers," where the
kind, color, and arrangement of a bouquet
of flowers were used to communicate
messages that could not otherwise be
spoken aloud in Victorian society
(Greenaway. 1884).
For example, a bouquet of oak leaves
(representing strength). purple roses
(sorrow), white lilies (resurrection), and pale
yellow tulips and rosemary (memory or
remembrance) would altogether
communicate a message of sympathy,
usually over the death of a loved one.
Successfully interpreting these "visual
languages" required a kind of "visual
literacy to understand the message being
presented and to manage the information
encoded therein--skills which, as following
chapters will further reveal, are coming into
use again in the 21st century literacies.
The difference is that now we are not
analyzing smoke signals or bouquets, but
rather sounds, texts, and images from a
hundred different sources at a nearly non-stop
rate to the point where accuracy, validity, and
reliability of the messages we interpret form
the basis for some very important personal
and collective decision-making.
 REPORTER:
MR. JOSEPH C. LASAP
BPED-3A
These so-called "new" literacies arose from the
increasing availability of communication
technologies that were once unavailable to the
average individual. Technologies like blogging
and vlogging, social networking. And even text-
messaging change and expand both the extent
and the form of our communication-blending
text, sound, and images in ways unforeseen
and unprecedented (Richardson, 2014).
Never before have the opinions of a twelve
year-old child in an unheard-of town in an
unheard-of country been available for everyone
on earth to read and hear, and while adults
might scoff at a child's opinions that child might
have more than a thousand online subscribers
who certainly think his or her opinions are
important, maybe even more so than the
opinions of adults.
Simply put, three things have been critical in the
rise of the new literacies:
1. Increased Reach - We are communicating with
more people, from more diverse cultures across
vaster distances than ever before.
2. Increased Means of Communication -We are
communicating in more ways and at faster speeds
than ever before.
3. Increased Breadth of Content - We are
communicating about more things than ever before
How do we work together with people of
different cultures who might have vastly
different perspectives on communication,
work ethics, values, religious beliefs, and
world views? What do we do when some
of these might be mutually exclusive to our
own?
 In an age where information is power-where
knowing more and knowing first can spell
the difference between success and failure-
how do we leverage both current and
emergent technologies so that our
endeavours are both productive and
profitable?
 Moreover, how do we navigate and
manage the veritable minefield of
information that was once considered
taboo and private and is now online, for all
the world to see and judge whether we
like it or not?
Answering such complex questions requires new sets of
skills and knowledge – ones that our school system have
never had to teach before. With these changes in with
whom, now, and why we communicate, new literacies are
required not only to make sense of the changes, but also
to use these technologies and paradigms in meaningful
and productive ways- something required not only of
students, but of teachers as well.
To better address the need for teachers to be literate in
these new literacies
 REPORTER:

DIANNE BARROGO