A new literacy: How has technology changed the skills necesary for literacy?

Armstrong, S and Warlick, D. (2009) The new literacy. Tech and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/printableArticle.aspx?articleID=47102021

Summary:

This article explains that as information has changed in appearance, location, accessibility, application, and communication with the growth of technology, teachers are faced with the challenge of following the shift in literacy needs. While in the past literacy may have meant that one could read a text book, today requires different skills, namely: Finding information, decoding information, evaluating information, and organizing information into personal digital libraries. The authors also list basic mathematical skills, computer-aided processing of numbers, and processing media as necessary skills. Finally, the authors claim that :Writing will continue to be a core skill for all students, because some information is simply communicated most effectively in text.” But they acknowledge that other information may be expressed using multimedia.

Response:

One thing I do like about this article is how it clearly outlines the skills necessary for today’s information literacy. It explains that literacy is more than just reading something, it is knowing how to navigate various online resources, to understand multimedia presentations, to organize and store that information, and most importantly, it’s about critically evaluating that information. After reading and responding to Prensky’s article, “Teaching the Right Stuff” I can’t help to think that this article on the New Literacy might already be outdated. Prensky’s article emphasizes the need to see beyond the skills needed to catch up to today’s literacy needs, and to anticipate the needs of tomorrow. “The New Literacy” does a decent job of summarizing some basic skills for, perhaps, research literacy but does not delve far into communication literacy. I think that there has been a huge shift in how we communicate, and that we may need to learn more than multimedia presentations to keep up with the times.