new media, new literacy
Yesterday I was driving my car while my seven year old daughter was driving the ipod. This is something she has been doing for a while now, even before she was fluently reading at school. As she was selecting her favourite song, it struck me that ipod operation has specific literacy demands. To locate a single item (such as a song or podcast) you must be able to negotiate your way through several layers of menus, or lists of words. Each layer of information can take you in a completely different direction. Yet my daughter could recognize the written symbol for music, artist, individual name of artist and the song she wanted long before she could fluently read the readers she brought home from school. Out of her determination to control the music played in the car, she independently worked out the written symbols and reading paths required to arrive at the music or podcast of her choice.
This is just one example of the way that technology and new media has impacted on the evolution of literacy . Websites too, demand the ability to identify groups of symbols, words and images in order to derive meaning. Both our children started surfing the internet at a young age. They quickly learnt that they could ‘click’ on different links to negotiate their way through the myriad of choices offered by the web page.
On the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s webpage abc kids, children navigate their way through the site by clicking on a series of different images that lead to various games based on popular television programs. This way of ‘reading’ seems to suit a child’s natural curiosity, and once they learn about the back button on the browser, they can amuse themselves for ages in an exploration on the text. With each click they determine where they go and after reviewing the link, how long they stay there.
These examples both show how new media communicates meaning in a non linear way, with the user having the agency to determine their own reading path. Choosing from menus, clicking on hyperlinks, making meaning from both images and text, constitutes a new form of literacy. Literacy is no longer simply the ability to simply read the pages of a book, it now involves making decisions, choosing reading paths, quickly reviewing words and images and skimming information quickly in order to an assessment on meaning and relevance.
This type of literacy demands different skills to reading a book. The sheer volume of information available online, means that today’s kids need to be able to construct meaning from words, images and sounds quickly. They must be able to link disparate bits of information together in order to construct a congruent view of the world. They need to understand that such texts are created in a deliberate way, in order to persuade and control readers and viewers. They also need to understand their own role as creators of texts and the impact that their choices have on the way in which they are viewed and they view the world.
New literacy is far more complicated than just reading a book from cover to cover. New technology makes us all potential creators and publishers of texts. In social networking sites such as Facebook, millions of people are engaged in constructing texts that convey messages about their identity to the world, or the group they wish to share their information with.
However, new media texts such as facebook are not without their problems:
This clip highlights the need for educators to teach responsible and careful use of new media. So now social responsibility also becomes part of literacy. With so much information and agency to create and publish texts, new media users must learn to be sensitive, thoughtful creators and users of such texts.
New media has created a new form of literacy, one which gives users the agency to control, choose and construct reading paths, emphasis and meanings. It is crucial that we, as educators teach our students to negotiate their way through new media critically, thoughtfully and above all, responsibly.
Rachael, I can completely relate to your post. My son (age 5) and daughter (age 3) has shown the same amazing tendencies to adopt tech-base literacy symbols and skills well before traditional concepts of reading. I think so much of this related to our discussions related to video games and learning. I believe the current young generation is growing and learning in such a visual age where computer/video/image-related applications, experiences, and symbols are so much more captivating to them than the traditional written word. On one hand this reality can be interpreted as a shame or disappointment, or on the other hand, embraced to make their later reading abilities and opportunities that much more captivating in multimodal ways. Your post lends so much insight to these discussions and observations. As always, thanks for sharing. –>Ryan
How did I miss the facebook song! I swear I read this! I love the song!!
[...] about who has a computer at home and who doesn’t. I think that our students (see Rachael post new media, new literacy as even more proof) have grown up immersed in a world where computers and new technologies are all [...]