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Nov

2010

Literacy 2.0

www.literacy20.com

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literacy web2.0

Jun

2010

Educational Leadership:Literacy 2.0:Orchestrating the Media Collage

www.ascd.org/...trating-the-Media-Collage.aspx

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educational literacy

Being able to read and write multiple forms of media and integrate them into a meaningful whole is the new hallmark of literacy.
Public narrative embraces a number of specialty literacies, including math literacy, research literacy, and even citizenship literacy
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- the word literacy rarely appears by itself anymore.
- regardless of the literacy under consideration, the illiterate get left out.
- digital literacy, the term du jour used to describe the skills, expectations, and perspectives involved in living in a technological society
- New media demand new literacies. Because of inexpensive, easy-to-use, widely distributed new media tools, being literate now means being able to read and write a number of new media forms, including sound, graphics, and moving images in addition to text.
- New media coalesce into a collage. Being literate also means being able to integrate emerging new media forms into a single narrative or "media collage," such as a Web page, blog, or digital story. That is, students need to be able to use new media collectively as well as individually.
- New media are largely participatory, social media. Digital literacy requires that students have command of the media collage within the context of a social Web, often referred to as Web 2.0. The social Web provides venues for individual and collaborative narrative construction and publication through blogs and such services as MySpace, Google Docs, and YouTube. As student participation goes public, the pressure to produce high-quality work increases.
- hands-on media creation plays an important role in the development of media literacy, which I define as the ability to recognize, evaluate, and apply the techniques of media persuasion.
- "Writing media" compels reflection about reading media, which is crucial in an era in which professional media makers view young people largely in terms of market share.
- The rest of us only evolve into writers once the new media tools become easy to use, affordable, and widely available, whether these tools are cheap pencils and paper or inexpensive digital tools and shareware.
- The most common media collage is the Web page, but a number of other media constructs also qualify, including videos, digital stories, mashups, stand-and-deliver PowerPoint presentations, and games and virtual environments
- "Experiment fearlessly."
- This struggle has always been a part of writing, but it is amplified within the context of the social Web, in which we must also become active readers and editors of one another's materials and mindful contributors to group expression. Effective writing has a new kind of importance for students in what can often be a digitally distracted world.
- Although essays are still of consequence, when we encounter them on a Web page they often appear as walls of text, unscalable to all but the few who are truly inspired by their content. In contrast, effective blog or Web page writing requires using visually differentiated text, which makes onscreen reading easier by using a number of formatting conventions, most notably the 6 Bs: bullets; boldface; breaks; boxes; beyond black and white (using different font colors); and "beginnings" (providing the first paragraph of a longer piece and a hyperlink to the rest, rather than forcing readers to scroll through what they may consider to be lengthy, irrelevant material).
- the pressure is on for students to think and write clearly and precisely if they are to be effective contributors to the collective narrative of the Web
- The second reason that writing is important in the era of the media collage is that it is almost always the pathway to effective media creation. Digital stories, movies, documentaries, and many new media narrative forms require clear, concise, and often highly creative writing as a foundation.
- I have witnessed more digital art taught by computer-savvy teachers than by art teachers. To understand how dire this situation is, imagine computer technicians rather than language arts instructors teaching writing because of the former's advanced understanding of word processing technology.
- many media collages are based on the four components of "the DAOW of literacy": Digital, Art, Oral, and Written. Being able to understand and blend the best of the old, recent, and emerging literacies will become a hallmark of the truly literate person.
- Of the four components of the DAOW, oracy—the ancient literacy of speaking and listening—deserves much more focus than it currently receives.
- The result is that stories engage us and communicate with us in ways that reports do not.
- students need to be able to understand and use both forms.
- combine the two, blending the critical thinking of the former with the engagement of the latter. The report–story continuum is rich with opportunity to blend research and storytelling in interesting, effective ways within the domain of new media.
- Marshall McLuhan
- To him, television was the first step in our "retribalization," providing a common social experience that could serve as the basis for dialogue in the global village
- television told someone else's story, not ours. It was not until Web 2.0 that we had the tools to come full circle and produce and consume social narrative in equal measure.
- What is key here is that these are now "normal" kinds of expression that carry over into the world of work and creative personal expression beyond school.
- Students need to be media literate to understand how media technique influences perception and thinking. They also need to understand larger social issues that are inextricably linked to digital citizenship, such as security, environmental degradation, digital equity, and living in a multicultural, networked world. We want our students to use technology not only effectively and creatively, but also wisely, to be concerned with not just how to use digital tools, but also when to use them and why.
- Having students research the personal, local, and global implications of these issues will help them place technology within the larger perspective of community and reevaluate their idea of what it means to be successful. Having them address these issues in school will show them that the goal of education is to produce not only capable workers, but also caring, involved, and informed neighbors and citizens.
- Fluency is the ability to practice literacy at the advanced levels required for sophisticated communication within social and workplace environments. Digital fluency facilitates the language of leadership and innovation that enables us to translate our ideas into compelling professional practice. The fluent will lead, the literate will follow, and the rest will get left behind.
- Digital fluency is much more of a perspective than a technical skill set. Teachers who are truly digitally fluent will blend creativity and innovation into lesson plans, assignments, and projects and understand the role that digital tools can play in creating academic expectations that are authentically connected, both locally and globally, to their students' lives.
- What is important is that teachers become advanced managers of their students' talents, time, and productivity. Teachers need to be able to articulate standards of quality and provide feedback that students can use to meet those standards. They need to be the guide on the side rather than the technician magician.
- My advice to teachers concerned with digital literacy? Focus on expression first and technology second—and everything will fall into place.