Technology in Everyday Life: A New Definition of Literacy
When you walk into a fast food restaurant the cashier takes your order on a touchscreen, and sometimes (like in the video above) the cashier is a touchscreen. The way you apply for jobs in order to get the fastest response and most applications out there is by going on the internet. Training for many jobs is a computerized process consisting of filling out forms, watching videos, and answering questions. The work schedule for the week is emailed out or on some occasions sent out by app. Businesses are starting to use technology more and more and they are focusing on integrating it seamlessly into the workplace (Efron, 2017). Technology use is becoming increasingly important in the world today and knowing how to use and understand digital media has become necessary for many daily tasks. If a person is not literate in using these new technologies they may not be able to get a job, communicate with other people as easily, and even order food. Literacy used to be defined as simply knowing how to read and write, and it was possible to get jobs and perform most daily tasks without these skills. Being able to operate in today’s society not only requires the ability to read and write, but being literate in new ways. If these abilities are essential to operating in today’s society, the definition of literacy in the twenty-first century must be expanded to include the ability to read, write, and communicate using a variety of texts including traditional, multimodal, and digital.
Educators have an important role in making sure that students are literate in this new way. The National Council of English Teachers is working towards this by redefining literacy as being proficient with technology, being able to solve problems and collaborate with others, being able to communicate with other cultures and share information with the world, being able to manage multiple streams of information at once, and being able to analyze multimedia texts (2017). The importance of being able to use technology in the modern world cannot be understated, and can even be described as a new language. Not knowing this “language” can be extremely detrimental and akin to speaking “with an accent” (Flannigan and Jones, 2006) or not knowing the language of the country you live in. Teachers who do not recognize what their students do online as being literate are actually themselves less literate in the modern world. Understanding that being literate in the modern world requires communication on online affinity spaces such as Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites. Students such as those in Roswell and Burke’s study may not be engaging with traditional text, but Peter and Patty’s engagement and ability to communicate in their own affinity spaces is a form of literacy (2009). The same applies for students who go to online forums (Curwood, 2013) and students who use social media proficiently (Warner, 2017). Although understanding digital texts is increasingly important and teachers need to learn to recognize these new skills as being a form of literacy, the ability to understand traditional and multimodal texts is still important.
Teachers need to build classroom environments where students can learn how to interact and effectively communicate with all types of texts. The science class in Alverman and WIlson’s article is a good example of creating a class where students engage with many different texts, and then use them all to communicate their ideas (2011). Activities where students use technology along with more traditional texts can teach students to communicate effectively and are necessary to make sure they learn the skills required to be literate in the 21st century. If teachers can give students activities where they enjoy using different tools and enjoy the subject matter, these students can learn how to be literate and at times may not even realize they are learning. Teachers also need to recognize that some students may not have the same access to technology as others, so extra work may be required for some students.
Literacy is no longer simply reading and writing, and it has become increasingly hard to live without these skills. Even people who know how to read and write, but do not know how to effectively use technology are lacking knowledge that is necessary for operating in the world today. With technology now being an essential part of life, literacy in the 21st century must be thought of as the ability to effectively communicate using a variety of texts, especially digital. Teachers need to apply this new definition in their teaching practices and help students work towards being able to function in today’s society.
References:
Alvermann, D. E., & Wilson, A. A. (2011). Comprehension strategy instruction for multimodal texts in science. Theory into Practice, 50(2), 116–124.
Curwood, J. S. (2013). “ The Hunger Games”: Literature, Literacy, and Online Affinity Spaces. Language Arts, 90(6), 417–427.
Efron, L. (2017, December 03). How Technology Can Transform Workplace Humanity. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/louisefron/2017/12/03/how-technology-can-transform-workplace-humanity/#455b17f02f00
Jones, B., & Flannigan, S. L. (2006). Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century. Educause Quarterly, 29(2), 8–10.
The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. (2017, October 25). Retrieved from http://www2.ncte.org/statement/21stcentdefinition/
Rowsell, J., & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by design: Two case studies of digital reading practices. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 106–118.
Warner, J. (2017). Adolescents New Literacies with and through Mobile Phones. Peter Lang International Academic Publishers.
