New Media & New Literacies

  “What counts as literacy, how literacy changes in response to the new media landscape, and what value we should ascribe to the new forms of communication that continue to emerge and evolve online (Jenkins, 2009)." I thought this was a great article to read. I passed it on to my boss and co-workers at my job. This article really makes you rethink what we should consider as literacy. I personally feel that schools should still being utilizing print-based medias and incorporate aspects of digital media as needed to practice skills or help struggling students. I don't think the literacy curriculum should solely be focused on having the Internet can teach our kids. Technology in schools is not going to be going away anytime soon. Hopefully, as educators research and start to find new ways of using digital media in the classroom, test scores will be increasing and students will be more confident in their literacy skills. What counts as literacy depends on your own personal views. ...

  "The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen & Barton, 2010, p. 9). This quote makes me think of the different ways literacy is used. For example, blogs or websites can use their words to spread information or opinions to many people. Then, people are able to comment and share their own thoughts. When I think of literacy it makes me think of print media such as books, magazines, and the newspaper. But literacy is everywhere. Literacy is a part of our everyday lives in other ways: tv, video games, cereal boxes, going to the grocery store, and reading road signs while driving. I enjoy reading and it feels really good to be able to hold a book and flip through the pages. When it comes to college textbooks, I always select the print optio...