The New Literacy
Information literacy has emerged as the new literacy. It is a combination of visual, aural, and digital literacy. It cannot be ignored. It must be fostered as it develops. The 21st Century Literacy Summit generated an intentional strategy to enhance information literacy skills that includes five elements:
1. develop a strategic research agenda
2. raise awareness & visibility of the field
3. make tools for creating & experiencing new media broadly available
4. empower teachers with 21st century literacy skills
5. work as a community
Each one of these requires vast resources, but as with any goal, they require a commitment from and the will of many people. It is clear that education is a critical domain for this literacy to be nurtured in our young people. One main barrier is the financial resources to support this movement. Technology spending has been criticized as a black hole by some. All the more reason to ensure that the first element be addressed. A strategic research agenda must first be developed and endorsed by major players. The government, in particular the ministries of education need to take action. The empowerment of teachers with 21st century skills is a laudable goal and one that will take its toll on the teaching profession as it is today. New curriculum standards and assessment tools will be developed and teachers will be required to implement new ways. The digital natives will lead and new ways of teaching and learning will emerge. How exciting! Schools may take on a different look altogether. Online courses are already flourishing.
One thing is for sure, change is inevitable and information literacy continues to evolve.
1. develop a strategic research agenda
2. raise awareness & visibility of the field
3. make tools for creating & experiencing new media broadly available
4. empower teachers with 21st century literacy skills
5. work as a community
Each one of these requires vast resources, but as with any goal, they require a commitment from and the will of many people. It is clear that education is a critical domain for this literacy to be nurtured in our young people. One main barrier is the financial resources to support this movement. Technology spending has been criticized as a black hole by some. All the more reason to ensure that the first element be addressed. A strategic research agenda must first be developed and endorsed by major players. The government, in particular the ministries of education need to take action. The empowerment of teachers with 21st century skills is a laudable goal and one that will take its toll on the teaching profession as it is today. New curriculum standards and assessment tools will be developed and teachers will be required to implement new ways. The digital natives will lead and new ways of teaching and learning will emerge. How exciting! Schools may take on a different look altogether. Online courses are already flourishing.
One thing is for sure, change is inevitable and information literacy continues to evolve.
posted by vivi at 6:55 PM
1 Comments:
You have a very nice blog Sylvie. Your comment re: communicating while travelling is what got my interest about blogging. My niece has a blog and has been travelling Central and S. America since August. We have all been able to keep up with her adventures.
Your final post is excellent. The "vast resources" you mention are in one sense a reality, yet in another do not prevent us from starting where we are at. It will indeed be interesting to see where education is in 10 or 20 years, when the majority of educators are digital natives.
Thanks for your insight and hard work Sylvie!
- Doug
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