What Does it Mean to be Literate in the 21st Century?
According to the Cambridge dictionary, literacy is defined as the ability to read and write, and also a basic skill or knowledge of a subject. Before enrolling in this class, I thought literacy was a very black and white subject — you’re either literate or you’re illiterate, but this is not the case. Essentially, everyone is literate, it just may be in different fields and aspects of life.
For example, in the writings of Roswell and Burke, they describe two students: Peter, a type of introvert who struggles with school and Patty, a very outgoing athlete who is very involved in school. When looking through Patty’s perspective, it may seem like Peter is illiterate, but this is not the case. He just doesn’t know about the same things that Patty knows about. When asked about the show Naruto, Peter could talk for hours about it. This example shows that being literate doesn’t always mean the same thing for everyone. For Patty, she was literate in topics like sports and Webkinz, but was illiterate in the subject of Naruto, and opposite for Peter. Just because they are knowledgable about different topics does not make one person more literate than the other, they are just literate different things that go hand in hand with their interests.
It is important to enhance students’ learning with technology because it is an easy way to keep students engaged with their learning during class time. In Ken Robinson’s video about changing education paradigms, he discusses the sad truth that many students across the nation are being misdiagnosed and medicated for disorders such as ADHD. This disorder is obviously a real thing that is medically proven, but Robinson later goes on to say that students are being misdiagnosed simply for being bored during class. As teachers, it is our job to keep students engaged in their learning through texts that our students can relate to. In this age, many students respond more positively to multimodal texts and social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and even the study game Kahoot. If we encorporate these into the classroom, it not only helps students engage in their learning, but also helps them become more literate in what is appropriate on these social platforms. This is important when students graduate and are applying to companies because many companies look up applicants on social media platforms before hiring them to see what kind of image they are portraying on social media. If we can instill in students the importance of being literate on social platforms at a young age, this will help them in the hiring process down the road.
Being literate in the 21st century often goes hand in hand with digital literacy. The American Library Association’s digital literacy task force defines digital literacy as, “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” With it being the age of technology, many students have grown up around all kinds of technology. Growing up, I was encouraged to play outside with my friends, while now, many kids are playing on Ipads and Xboxes. This is why we see many toddlers who know how to used phones and tablets almost better than grandparents who were not raised in a technological world, but had to learn as they went as the world became more digital. As future teachers, we should do our best to enhance technology in the classroom because that’s what students are literate in. We should not make classrooms and learning environments anti technology because in the long run, this will hinder students in the real world as it becomes more digital. It is important to enhance students’ skills and understanding of digital media for them to be successful in the world. It is also important to be digitally literate to effectively communicate with others in this digitalized world. Many nontraditional texts such as text messages, emails, tweets, and chat forums are now a common way of effectively communicating information to others. In many offices, sending emails is the primary source of communication. If someone is not digitally literate, and does not know how to do simple things such as compose emails, they will not be successful in that career. This is why it is essential to teach digital literacy in schools. The definition of literacy is always changing and morphing to fit societies norms and that’s why essentially, being literate in the 21st century means being digitally literate.
References:
“Literacy Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” Cambridge Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/literacy.
Roswell, & Burke. (2009, October). Roswell & Burke_2009[PDF].
T. (2010, October 14). RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=470&v=zDZFcDGpL4U
