What are the 'literacies' of the 21st Century?
All learning is social. It was technology—the development and adoption of a symbolic alphabet—that ended an era of “orality” and began an era we call “literacy.” It was technology—the development of moveable type and printing presses—that ended an era of scholastic authority by a selected priesthood and created mass literacy in the vernacular of every culture. And it is dramatic new technology that once again is altering the landscape and redefining our notions of literacy.
p. 81, Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Heidi Hayes Jacobs (Stephen Wilmarth), ASCD 2010
source - website: Technology in the Middle: Teaching, Learning and TechnologyThe 5th Annual Speak Up survey of teachers and students revealed what many in K–12 education already knew: students come to school media savvy, but their teachers are ill prepared to put new media tools and technology to use, thus creating what the survey called a growing “digital disconnect” (PRWeb, 2008).
In the 21st century, these “digital natives”—a term attributed to education consultant Marc Prensky—already know how to do the following:
• Upload, download, and remix music, photos, videos, and movies • Text and instant message using mobile phones and other handheld devices
• Connect and communicate via social networking Web sites
• Operate digital still and video cameras
• Edit and post online videos
• Create blogs, podcasts, video games, digital productions, and graphic novels
• Participate in virtual reality games and forums
And where are students learning how to use these new media and technology tools? Certainly not in schools.
p. 134, Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World. Heidi Hayes Jacobs (Fred Baker), ASCD 2010
