What is literacy in the 21st Century?
Literacy in the classroom has been an area of discussion for the past few decades. The definition for literacy has not changed in hundreds of years. In our (out-dated) education system, it is widely believed that literacy is as simple as having the ability to read and write. Those that believe the out-dated definition of literacy, would be considered, “stuck in Flatland” by Nick Sousanis. In the 21st Century, literacy has a brand new meaning and the antiquated meaning needs to be updated for students and educators.
For centuries, for someone to be considered smart or successful all they needed to be was literate. Being literate gave anyone an instant boost into a higher class. However, once the printing press was invented and books became less expensive, the literacy rate skyrocketed. According to the Huffington Post and the Department of Education, the literacy rate in the United States has not changed in the last 10 years. So what is literacy? There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016) (The Huffington Post, 2014). Is it possible to modify and adapt the old definition of being able to read and write, to the technology rich 21st century? Absolutely! To be able to read and write it requires understanding the medium that you are using to communicate. If the technology that you are using is as simple as pencil and paper, you need to understand letters, grammar, punctuation, etc.
Being a middle school student in 2000 and using dial-up internet that would slowly boot AOL, so I could chat with people after school, I had some literacy difficulties. There was a girl who I would talk with on a daily basis and she would sometimes start the chat with “WRUD”. I assumed that she was trying to spell my name but misspelled it. I would always reply with “yes”. I did not know at the time (because this was still a new technology) that it really meant “what are you doing”. Needless to say I felt like a complete idiot.
To someone who would look at that situation through the lens of the old definition of literacy would immediately think that I was not literate. Alvermann’s difference approach would say that as our society learned the new technology of instant messaging, I would have been considered literate (p. 681). Being able to understand and comprehend how to use the technology, to be able to listen to the horrible beeps and screeches of dial-up connections, to have the know-how to open the program and change pictures, fonts, and colors would constitute someone as literate.
As Jeff Magee, a teacher, said, “Literacy is an essential aspect of our everyday lives that is embedded in our activities, social interactions & relationships. It is not only the ability to read & write, but to comprehend.” Literacy has moved from taking mass amounts of text and being able to regurgitate what was read. Literacy can now be expressed through many forms as long as the “receiver” can understand what is being shown by the “sender”, and then both have some level of literacy and are literate to one another.
References
Alvermann, D. E. (2001). Reading adolescent’s reading abilities: Looking back to see ahead. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 676–689.
Central Intelligence Agency. (2016, September 6). The World Factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2103.html
The Huffington Post. (2014, December 12). The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn’t Changed In 10 Years. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html
Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
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