New literacies
Encyclopedia
New literacies generally refers to new forms of literacy made possible by digital technology developments, although new literacies do not necessarily have to involve use of digital technologies to be recognized as such. The term "new literacies" itself is relatively new within the field of literacy studies (the first documented mention of it in an academic article title dates to 1993 in a text by David Buckingham). Its definition remains open, with new literacies being conceptualized in different ways by different groups of scholars.
Accompanying the varying conceptualizations of new literacies, we find a range of terms used by different researchers when referring to new literacies, including 21st century literacies, internet literacies, digital literacies
, new media literacies, multiliteracies, information literacy
, ICT literacies, and computer literacy
. In the Handbook of New Literacies Research, Coiro, Knobel
, Lankshear
, and Leu (2008) note that all these terms “are used to refer to phenomena we would see as falling broadly under a new literacies umbrella” (pg. 10).
Commonly recognized examples of new literacies include such practices as instant messaging
, blog
ging, maintaining a website
, participating in online social networking
spaces, creating and sharing music video
s, podcast
ing and videocasting, photoshopping images and photo sharing
, emailing
, shopping online, digital storytelling
, participating in online discussion
lists, emailing and using online chat
, conducting and collating online searches, reading, writing and commenting on fan fiction
, processing and evaluating online information, creating and sharing digital mashups
, etc. (see: Black, 2008; Coiro, 2003; Gee, 2007; Jenkins, 2006; Kist, 2007; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Lessig, 2005; Leu, et al 2004; Prensky, 2006).
, psycholinguistics
, schema theory
, metacognition
, constructivism
, and other similar theories. This orientation includes a particular focus on examining the cognitive and social processes involved in comprehending online or digital texts (see for example: Leu, 2001; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; Coiro, 2003; Coiro & Dobler, 2007). Donald Leu, a prominent researcher in the field of new literacies, has outlined four defining characteristics of new literacies, according to a largely psycholinguistic orientation
(see: Leu et al, 2007). First, new technologies (such as the internet) and the novel literacy tasks that pertain to these new technologies require new skills and strategies to effectively use them. Second, new literacies are a critical component of full participation—civic, economic, and personal—in our increasingly global society. A third component to this approach is new literacies are deictic—that is, they change regularly as new technology emerges and older technologies fade away. With this in mind, “what may be important in reading instruction and literacy education is not to teach any single set of new literacies, but rather to teach students how to learn continuously new literacies that will appear during their lifetime.” Finally, new literacies are “multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted,” and as such, multiple points of view will be most beneficial in attempting to comprehensively analyze them.
The second approach to studying new literacies is overtly grounded in a focus on social practices. According to Colin Lankshear
and Michele Knobel
from this "social practice" perspectives, "new literacies" can refer to “new socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourse
s (or, as members of Discourses) ”. From this perspective “new” refers to the presence of two dominant features of contemporary literacy
practices. The first is the use of digital technologies as the means of producing, sharing, accessing and interacting with meaningful content. New literacies typically involve screens and pixels rather than paper and type, and digital code (that renders texts as image, sound, conventional text, and any combination of these within a single process) rather than material print. The second defining feature of new literacies is their highly collaborative, distributed, and participatory nature, as expressions of what Henry Jenkins
calls engagement in participatory culture
, and Lankshear and Knobel refer to as a distinctive ethos.
. Specifically, researchers are interested in finding the answers to questions such as how reading online differs from traditional print-based reading. In their research, Donald Leu and Julie Coiro attempt to understand how students become adept at online reading, and how students acquire the necessary skills, strategies, and dispositions to comprehend online texts. According to Leu and colleagues, the new literacies of online reading comprehension
are based around five defining functions: “These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICT to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others”
on the internet, especially those stories published online by adolescents (see for example: Black, 2008; Thomas, 2007; Jenkins, 2006). Online fan fiction websites, such as FanFiction.Net
, are spaces where fans of all ages, but especially adolescents and younger school-age fans, are able to use these new information and communication technologies
(ICTs) to write and craft fictional stories based on their favorite characters in popular media such as movies, television, and graphic novels. Adolescents are participating more and more on these kinds of sites, not only engaging with “pop culture and media, but also with a broad array of literate activities that are aligned with many school-based literacy practices”
Of course, adults are just as able to spend time in such online environments—and they do. However, it is interesting to consider that young people were born into a digitally rich world, and thus could be seen as “digital natives,” and therefore interact with the online environment in a fundamentally distinct way than an older generation of people, so-called “digital immigrants." As digital natives, adolescents “use the online world to share, evaluate, create, report and program with each other differently to digital immigrants,” and they engage easily and readily with new digital technologies such as instant messaging, file sharing songs and videos, and post all kinds of ‘texts,’ stories, photos, and videos among them. A central characteristic of digital natives is their “desire to create." Digital natives are engaged in “programming to some extent, whether it be by including a piece of HTML code that personalizes a MySpace page or creating a Flash animation. They are creating web pages, blogs, avatars and worlds; and, in stark contrast to digital immigrants, digital natives readily report and share their ideas.”
described video gaming as a new literacy “in virtue of the ways game design involves a multimodal code comprising images, actions, words, sounds, and movements that players interpret according to gaming conventions”. Gee notes that game players participate in their game’s world as a form of social practice, especially in real-time strategy games
in which players can compete with each other to build on land masses, for instance, and in which they can shape and convey their virtual identities as a certain kind of strategist. Video games continue to use new digital technologies to create the symbols players interpret to encode and decode the meanings that constitute the game.
Other researchers have expanded the body of knowledge about video games as a new literacy, particularly as they relate to classroom learning (see for example: Gerber, 2009; Lacasa, Martinez, & Mendez, 2008; Sanford & Madill, 2007). In one study, researchers examined how video games, supported by discussions and dramatic performances in the classroom, can contribute to the development of narrative thought as demonstrated in written compositions in various contexts. Namely, the researchers engaged primary school children in activities designed to teach them to tell, play out, and write stories based on the most popular video game in their classroom, Tomb Raider
. Although it was a challenging process at times, researchers discovered that the use of new digital media such as video games actually “complements the use of other written or audiovisual methods [in the classroom] and permits the development of multiple literacies in the classroom.”
Knobel and Lankshear (2006) argue that if educators and prospective teachers engage in blogging, or participate in “affinity spaces
” devoted to practices like fan fiction, video game-playing, music and video remixing, photosharing, and the like, they will better understand how new literacies can better be integrated into worthwhile classroom learning.
Leu, Coiro, Castek, Hartman, Henry, & Reinking (2008) have begun to explore the use of a modified instructional model of reciprocal teaching that reflects some of the differences between offline and online reading contexts. In an instructional model known as Internet Reciprocal Teaching, each student has his/her own laptop with access to the Internet and students work in small groups to facilitate interactive group work and discussions about strategy use. In addition, Internet Reciprocal Teaching with online informational resources (as opposed to narrative texts) and strategy instruction on both the common and unique processes by which students navigate through multiple and different texts, rather than the reading of one common text. Teachers and students model their choices about which links are most relevant to a group or individual question through think-alouds. They discuss how to efficiently locate information within different kinds of websites, how to synthesize ideas across multiple texts and media, how to make judgments about the quality of the information and the author's level of expertise, and how to best represent the answers to their questions. Responsibility for monitoring and effectively using these strategies to solve online information problems is gradually released to the students using an instructional scheme with three phases: Phase 1 includes direct, whole class instruction of basic skills and strategies of Internet use; Phase 2 includes group work and the reciprocal exchange of online reading comprehension strategies by students with their peers; and Phase 3 includes online individual inquiry units, sometimes with collaborative efforts involving other students in other classes, perhaps even in other parts of the world, and periodic strategy sessions with groups.
Accompanying the varying conceptualizations of new literacies, we find a range of terms used by different researchers when referring to new literacies, including 21st century literacies, internet literacies, digital literacies
Digital literacy
Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using digital technology. It involves a working knowledge of current high-technology, and an understanding of how it can be used. Further, digital literacy involves a consciousness of the...
, new media literacies, multiliteracies, information literacy
Information literacy
The National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as “...the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.” This is the most common definition; however,...
, ICT literacies, and computer literacy
Computer literacy
Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from elementary use to programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer to the comfort level someone has with using...
. In the Handbook of New Literacies Research, Coiro, Knobel
Michele Knobel
Michele Knobel is Professor of Education in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education at Montclair State University and an internationally recognized researcher and scholar in the area of literacy education, new literacies and digital technologies Michele Knobel is...
, Lankshear
Colin Lankshear
Colin Lankshear is Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and McGill University. He is an internationally acclaimed scholar in the study of new literacies and digital technologies Colin Lankshear is Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and McGill University. He is an internationally...
, and Leu (2008) note that all these terms “are used to refer to phenomena we would see as falling broadly under a new literacies umbrella” (pg. 10).
Commonly recognized examples of new literacies include such practices as instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ging, maintaining a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, participating in online social networking
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
spaces, creating and sharing music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s, podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
ing and videocasting, photoshopping images and photo sharing
Photo sharing
Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others . This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images...
, emailing
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, shopping online, digital storytelling
Digital storytelling
Digital storytelling refers to a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story."Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'...
, participating in online discussion
Online discussion
Online discussion is a relatively new form of communication, facilitated usually by computer networks. The first such communications were on mainframe-based systems such as the PLATO and CONFER systems in the early to mid 1970s. By the mid 1980's, dial-up bulletin board systems or "BBS's" run by...
lists, emailing and using online chat
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
, conducting and collating online searches, reading, writing and commenting on fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
, processing and evaluating online information, creating and sharing digital mashups
Mashup (digital)
A digital mashup usually is in reference to:1. Digital media content containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video and animation drawn from pre-existing sources, to create a new derivative work...
, etc. (see: Black, 2008; Coiro, 2003; Gee, 2007; Jenkins, 2006; Kist, 2007; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Lessig, 2005; Leu, et al 2004; Prensky, 2006).
Definitions: At Least Two 'Camps'
The field of new literacies is characterized by two theoretically distinct approaches that overlap to some extent. One is informed by cognitive and language processing theories such as cognitive psychologyCognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
, psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
, schema theory
Schema (psychology)
A schema , in psychology and cognitive science, describes any of several concepts including:* An organized pattern of thought or behavior.* A structured cluster of pre-conceived ideas....
, metacognition
Metacognition
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing." It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving...
, constructivism
Constructivism (learning theory)
Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it was an interaction between human experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of...
, and other similar theories. This orientation includes a particular focus on examining the cognitive and social processes involved in comprehending online or digital texts (see for example: Leu, 2001; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; Coiro, 2003; Coiro & Dobler, 2007). Donald Leu, a prominent researcher in the field of new literacies, has outlined four defining characteristics of new literacies, according to a largely psycholinguistic orientation
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
(see: Leu et al, 2007). First, new technologies (such as the internet) and the novel literacy tasks that pertain to these new technologies require new skills and strategies to effectively use them. Second, new literacies are a critical component of full participation—civic, economic, and personal—in our increasingly global society. A third component to this approach is new literacies are deictic—that is, they change regularly as new technology emerges and older technologies fade away. With this in mind, “what may be important in reading instruction and literacy education is not to teach any single set of new literacies, but rather to teach students how to learn continuously new literacies that will appear during their lifetime.” Finally, new literacies are “multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted,” and as such, multiple points of view will be most beneficial in attempting to comprehensively analyze them.
The second approach to studying new literacies is overtly grounded in a focus on social practices. According to Colin Lankshear
Colin Lankshear
Colin Lankshear is Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and McGill University. He is an internationally acclaimed scholar in the study of new literacies and digital technologies Colin Lankshear is Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and McGill University. He is an internationally...
and Michele Knobel
Michele Knobel
Michele Knobel is Professor of Education in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education at Montclair State University and an internationally recognized researcher and scholar in the area of literacy education, new literacies and digital technologies Michele Knobel is...
from this "social practice" perspectives, "new literacies" can refer to “new socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourse
Discourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
s (or, as members of Discourses) ”. From this perspective “new” refers to the presence of two dominant features of contemporary literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
practices. The first is the use of digital technologies as the means of producing, sharing, accessing and interacting with meaningful content. New literacies typically involve screens and pixels rather than paper and type, and digital code (that renders texts as image, sound, conventional text, and any combination of these within a single process) rather than material print. The second defining feature of new literacies is their highly collaborative, distributed, and participatory nature, as expressions of what Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins III is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts...
calls engagement in participatory culture
Participatory culture
Participatory culture is a neologism in reference of, but opposite to a Consumer culture — in other words a culture in which private persons do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers . The term is most often applied to the production or creation of some type of published...
, and Lankshear and Knobel refer to as a distinctive ethos.
Research in New Literacies
Research within the field of new literacies is also diverse. A wide range of topics and issues are focused upon, and a broad range of methodologies are used.Reading and online comprehension
One aspect of new literacies that has attracted researchers’ attention is school-age children's online reading comprehensionReading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....
. Specifically, researchers are interested in finding the answers to questions such as how reading online differs from traditional print-based reading. In their research, Donald Leu and Julie Coiro attempt to understand how students become adept at online reading, and how students acquire the necessary skills, strategies, and dispositions to comprehend online texts. According to Leu and colleagues, the new literacies of online reading comprehension
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....
are based around five defining functions: “These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICT to identify important questions, locate information, critically evaluate the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others”
Online fan fiction and adolescents
Recent research in the field of new literacies has focused on fan fictionFan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
on the internet, especially those stories published online by adolescents (see for example: Black, 2008; Thomas, 2007; Jenkins, 2006). Online fan fiction websites, such as FanFiction.Net
FanFiction.Net
FanFiction.Net is an automated fan fiction archive site. It was founded in late 1998 by Los Angeles computer programmer Xing Li, who also runs the site. The first fics to be posted were a few stories about Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
, are spaces where fans of all ages, but especially adolescents and younger school-age fans, are able to use these new information and communication technologies
Information and communication technologies
Information and communications technology or information and communication technology, usually abbreviated as ICT, is often used as an extended synonym for information technology , but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of...
(ICTs) to write and craft fictional stories based on their favorite characters in popular media such as movies, television, and graphic novels. Adolescents are participating more and more on these kinds of sites, not only engaging with “pop culture and media, but also with a broad array of literate activities that are aligned with many school-based literacy practices”
Of course, adults are just as able to spend time in such online environments—and they do. However, it is interesting to consider that young people were born into a digitally rich world, and thus could be seen as “digital natives,” and therefore interact with the online environment in a fundamentally distinct way than an older generation of people, so-called “digital immigrants." As digital natives, adolescents “use the online world to share, evaluate, create, report and program with each other differently to digital immigrants,” and they engage easily and readily with new digital technologies such as instant messaging, file sharing songs and videos, and post all kinds of ‘texts,’ stories, photos, and videos among them. A central characteristic of digital natives is their “desire to create." Digital natives are engaged in “programming to some extent, whether it be by including a piece of HTML code that personalizes a MySpace page or creating a Flash animation. They are creating web pages, blogs, avatars and worlds; and, in stark contrast to digital immigrants, digital natives readily report and share their ideas.”
Video games
James Paul GeeJames Paul Gee
James Gee is a researcher who has worked in psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, and literacy. Gee is currently the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University...
described video gaming as a new literacy “in virtue of the ways game design involves a multimodal code comprising images, actions, words, sounds, and movements that players interpret according to gaming conventions”. Gee notes that game players participate in their game’s world as a form of social practice, especially in real-time strategy games
Strategy video game
Strategy video games is a video game genre that emphasizes skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory. They emphasize strategic, tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. Many games also offer economic challenges and exploration...
in which players can compete with each other to build on land masses, for instance, and in which they can shape and convey their virtual identities as a certain kind of strategist. Video games continue to use new digital technologies to create the symbols players interpret to encode and decode the meanings that constitute the game.
Other researchers have expanded the body of knowledge about video games as a new literacy, particularly as they relate to classroom learning (see for example: Gerber, 2009; Lacasa, Martinez, & Mendez, 2008; Sanford & Madill, 2007). In one study, researchers examined how video games, supported by discussions and dramatic performances in the classroom, can contribute to the development of narrative thought as demonstrated in written compositions in various contexts. Namely, the researchers engaged primary school children in activities designed to teach them to tell, play out, and write stories based on the most popular video game in their classroom, Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
. Although it was a challenging process at times, researchers discovered that the use of new digital media such as video games actually “complements the use of other written or audiovisual methods [in the classroom] and permits the development of multiple literacies in the classroom.”
New literacies and the classroom
It has become clear to many researchers in the field that we need to better understand new literacies so that we can answer one critical question: How can educators best incorporate new literacies into the classroom? Kist (2007) observes that in the literature, there are examples of how new literacies can be used in classroom settings—from the use of rap music to anime to digital storytelling, there are already instances of teachers attempting to blend new literacies with traditional literacy practices in the classroom. Kist asks: “Can new literacies indeed ‘fit’ into how we currently ‘do’ school?” Kist notes that “the new literacies instruction that does exist often comes only out of the fortitude of lonely pioneers of new literacies.”Knobel and Lankshear (2006) argue that if educators and prospective teachers engage in blogging, or participate in “affinity spaces
Affinity spaces
An affinity space is a place where informal learning takes place. According to James Paul Gee, affinity spaces where locations where groups of people are drawn together because they share a particular common, strong interest or are engaged in a common activity...
” devoted to practices like fan fiction, video game-playing, music and video remixing, photosharing, and the like, they will better understand how new literacies can better be integrated into worthwhile classroom learning.
Leu, Coiro, Castek, Hartman, Henry, & Reinking (2008) have begun to explore the use of a modified instructional model of reciprocal teaching that reflects some of the differences between offline and online reading contexts. In an instructional model known as Internet Reciprocal Teaching, each student has his/her own laptop with access to the Internet and students work in small groups to facilitate interactive group work and discussions about strategy use. In addition, Internet Reciprocal Teaching with online informational resources (as opposed to narrative texts) and strategy instruction on both the common and unique processes by which students navigate through multiple and different texts, rather than the reading of one common text. Teachers and students model their choices about which links are most relevant to a group or individual question through think-alouds. They discuss how to efficiently locate information within different kinds of websites, how to synthesize ideas across multiple texts and media, how to make judgments about the quality of the information and the author's level of expertise, and how to best represent the answers to their questions. Responsibility for monitoring and effectively using these strategies to solve online information problems is gradually released to the students using an instructional scheme with three phases: Phase 1 includes direct, whole class instruction of basic skills and strategies of Internet use; Phase 2 includes group work and the reciprocal exchange of online reading comprehension strategies by students with their peers; and Phase 3 includes online individual inquiry units, sometimes with collaborative efforts involving other students in other classes, perhaps even in other parts of the world, and periodic strategy sessions with groups.