What does it mean to be literate?
Traditionally, the definition of a literate person is the ability to read and write. Before technologies came into our lives teaching a person, or a child how to read and write is enough because knowing how to read and write is the only thing what a man needs to live and survive in life. Presently, our society is growing and the necessity of everyone is rapidly growing.
Greek Philosopher Plato had said, “Necessity is the mother of all inventions.” As our world grow, the demands and needs of people increase, new skills and literacies must be develop to create or invent tools that can help and aid to the human necessity. Our world in the present time define literacy not only by the ability of person knowing how to read and write, but it also includes managing information critically and logically with the use of advanced technology.
The world we are living in, is rapidly changing. Technology and science evolve, in just one click digital world exists. And in the digital world aside from reading and writing, new literacies emerged from the view.
According to the New Literacies in a Digital World-Corwin, these emergent literacies include the following types:
- Computer Literacy
- The ability to learn and use computers and related technology
- Cultural Literacy
- A certain level of exposure and familiarity with the creative arts
- Game Literacy
- Diverse gaming experience and the ability to interpret games in many contexts
- Media Literacy
- Interpreting all meaning contained within media messages
- Multiliteracies
- Communication fluency across cultures, societies, and technological modalities
- Multimedia Literacy
- Using multimedia tools to convey information effectively
- Network Literacy
- Navigating, interacting, and discerning within virtual and human networks
- Social Literacy
- Thriving in diverse social contexts, both online and offline
- Visual Literacy
- Drawing meaning from visual depictions; also, to create such imagery
- Web Literacy
- Handling content and collaboration safely and productively online
- Information Literacy
- Locating, interpreting, organizing, and sharing information appropriately
- New Literacies
- Online reading comprehension and learning skills; social adaptability
- Digital Literacy
- Working intelligently with digital tools and data
These new literacies are not learned by professionals only, because even young people can acquire this. Hence, new generations could manage technological tools even without a manual or guide instructions since it comes naturally. For instance, when you buy a new smartphone or laptop, are you going to check and read the whole manual before you use it? Or you can able to operate it without reading? If yes, then you have insightful learning when it comes to operating smartphone, laptop or other tools of technology. We got diverse level of being literate, a Grade 1 kid can operate a tablet without knowing how to read or write because it happens all-of-a-sudden wherein kids nowadays can utilize digital tools instantly or by just observing how adults do it.
Literacy in 21st Century has expanded, with the advent of technology its meaning continually growing. Learning one or two more literacy must not be enough in the situation of today because it’s differ from the past. In this new era, a person must learn and master new literacies in a digital environment. Moreover, a teacher must be flexible and skilled enough on different types of literacies. According to Watters (2014), “Educators must develop these new literacies themselves – for themselves – before they can support students in developing them for themselves. Educators must learn to engage with new technologies and the literacy practices surrounding them (by blogging, for example, or by gaming),” in which learning new literacies cannot only makes a teacher advance from his or her students but also their capability to become more productive in teaching the learners of this new era.
References:
- Watters, A. (2014, November 11). New Literacies in the Classroom. Retrieved December 02, 2018, from http://hackeducation.com/2014/11/11/new-literacies-in-the-classroom
- New Literacies in a Digital World. (n.d.). Developing Digital Literacies: A Framework for Professional Learning, 7-14. doi:10.4135/9781483387901.n1
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