Reading with technology: the new normal

ABSTRACT

Widespread changes in communication associated with new technologies have led to a growing interest in digital literacy. Although the concept of digital literacy suffers from a lack of agreed definition, this paper suggests that reading and writing with technology remains a key point of concern. The written word, a central feature of evolving patterns of communication, is now used in new ways and often in combination with different media as new devices and physical practices are recruited to the task of meaning making. The influence of different ways of thinking about these new communicative practices has led to the development of the diverse body of research outlined here. Tracing these strands in current research and writing about digital practice is used in order to identify how literacy has both expanded and diversified. Because it is now a significant aspect of full participation in social and cultural life, reading with technology raises important questions for education. This paper suggests that in England policy in this area is poorly articulated and argues that there is a pressing need for more focused classroom research to develop practices that support digital literacy.     

基于游戏化学习的儿童数字读写素养研究

读写素养是儿童认知和学习的基础。数字时代的儿童读写素养面临儿童阅读兴趣不足的挑战。游戏化思维在儿童教学中具有重要影响,能够激发儿童学习动机,增加学习兴趣。为提升儿童数字读写素养,文章提出基于游戏化学习的儿童数字读写素养培养项目设计,开发了游戏化阅读平台--"阅读大挑战",在香港小学生中推广使用,并对使用效果进行了实证分析,讨论该项目中游戏化学习策略与项目运行要素;借此构建基于游戏化学习的儿童数字读写素养培养模式,研究结果可为数字时代下的儿童读写能力培养设计提供启示。     

What Hands May Tell Us about Reading and Writing

Reading and writing are increasingly performed with digital, screen‐based technologies rather than with analogue technologies such as paper and pen(cil). The current digitization is an occasion to “unpack,” theoretically and conceptually, what is entailed in reading and writing as embodied, multisensory processes involving audiovisual and ergonomic interaction with devices having particular affordances. Highlighting the sensorimotor contingencies of substrates and technologies — how movement and object manipulation affect perception, experience, and sensory “feel” — this article presents an embodied approach to reading, writing, and literacy, using three cases of digitization as illustrations of some educational implications: (1) beginning writing by hand or by keyboard; (2) dialogic reading with iPads and print picture books in kindergarten; and (3) deep reading of long, linear texts on paper and on screens.     

#poetryisnotdead: understanding Instagram poetry within a transliteracies framework

Adolescents are more connected to the globalised world than ever before, with an increased prevalence of social media use amongst youth. Young people are composing multimodal creative works, including digital poetry, to share with an online audience, using platforms such as Instagram. Drawing on transliteracies theory, this case study found that three main themes appeared regarding the nature of literacy practices on Instagram. Community and interactivity were important to poets, especially in regard to feedback. The platform and complementary apps, especially those used for photo editing, afforded poets agency and fostered multimodality when composing, thus highlighting the changing nature of digitised writing practices. Value was placed on the mobility and accessibility of Instagram as a mobile app, for composing and consuming digital poetry. Young people may therefore be considered innovators of multimodal writing who employ ever‐evolving technologies to engage in authentic literacy practices in digital spaces. As a result, this study suggests that the implications of Instapoetry on English pedagogy include the increased exposure and relevance of poetry writing and appreciation, a space for student‐centred writing, reading, and analysis of poems, as well as a relevant method of peer review and collaboration.     

The digital reading path: researching modes and multidirectionality with iPads

This paper reports a study that examines the integration of tablet technologies such as iPads into literacy lessons to investigate how reading and meaning‐making occur within this digital medium. Specifically in this paper, we discuss the concept of reading paths as applied to physical and cognitive planes of meaning‐making. The paper reports on data collected as part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project involving researchers from Canada, the United States and Australia. The study is currently under way in schools in the three different countries where the researchers are observing students in classrooms in primary and secondary schools. The research is designed with a mixed methods approach coding video footage of dyads to enable close study of their interaction during literacy tasks incorporating iPads. Our findings show that the affordances of touch technology allow for multimodal, multidirectional reading paths. By tracking students' interactions with the digital platform through touch, it is possible to see navigation as evidence of the relationship between material and cognitive processes, which fosters metatextual awareness. These aspects of modes and new literacies construct a dynamic materiality for students' reading and writing. As a result, we propose that current awareness of the mode of gesture needs to be expanded to take into account haptic ways of learning.     

Media Education in the University: enhancing media literacy through first‐year undergraduate coursework

This article provides a case study of a first‐year university subject designed to assist the development of media literacy. The context is one of ongoing debate about the purpose and role of media courses. In what ways do new communications technologies alter our understanding of media literacy? How can media subjects be most relevant to students following increasingly different educational pathways? The subject in question responded to such questions by seeking to promote independent capacities for research and writing in the changing media communications field. It used flexible learning techniques to encourage students to apply and reflect on writing formats drawn from professional fields such as journalism and screen production. In doing so, it aimed to encourage interest in the broader social conditions affecting media practices and the diverse settings in which these forms can operate. Through the case study, the article draws out some of the problems encountered in resource‐based learning and suggests some strategies for dealing with them in media education.     

Worlds have collided and modes have merged: classroom evidence of changed literacy practices

Debates continue in public and in educational policy forums about the ‘basics’ of literacy while many have not recognised that these basics may never be the same again. Rapid changes in digital communication provide facilities for reading and writing to be combined with various and often quite complex aspects of music, photography and film. At the same time, educational policy and national testing requirements are still principally focused on the reading and writing of print‐based texts. This paper examines evidence from classroom research to analyse the nature of multimodal literacy, the literacy that is needed in contemporary times for reading, viewing, responding to and producing multimodal and digital texts. Examples of students' engagement in multimodal literacy are presented to demonstrate how classroom literacy practices can incorporate the practices of talking, listening, reading and writing together with processing the modes of written text, image, sound and movement in print and digital texts.     

The building blocks of digital media literacy: socio-material participation and the production of media knowledge

This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of ‘digital building blocks’ is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy. The article argues that the two established approaches to media literacy education, critical reading and media production, do not adequately explain how students develop media knowledge. It suggests there has been too little focus on material practices and how these relate to the development of conceptual understanding in media learning. The article explores empirical evidence from a four-year investigation in a primary school in Queensland, Australia using actor–network theory to explore ‘moments of translation’ as students deploy technologies and concepts to materially participate in digital culture. A generative model of media learning is presented with four categories of building blocks that isolate the specific skills and knowledge that can be taught and learnt to promote participation in digital media contexts: digital materials, conceptual understandings, media production and media analysis. The final section of the article makes initial comments on how the model might become the basis for curriculum development in schools and argues that further empirical research needs to occur to confirm the model’s utility.     

ICT水平对学生数字化阅读素养的影响--基于PISA跨国学生评估项目的多层次模型比较

本研究旨在利用PISA2018跨国学生测评数据,通过多层次模型方法系统刻画与评估个体-学校-国家层级的ICT水平对数字化阅读素养的影响路径及其效应。实证研究发现,不仅各层ICT水平对学生数字化阅读素养具有显著正向效应,且不同层级间存在显著的跨层交互调节效应;同时,“一带一路”国家与发达经济体在ICT水平上的发展差距在短期具有拉大数字化阅读素养差距的“马太效应”,但长期来看“一带一路”国家更快的ICT发展速率又将“平抑”技术分层导致的差异固化问题。中国应积极利用自身ICT发展优势,参与全球教育治理,引领“一带一路”沿线国家ICT水平与国民数字化阅读素养的协同发展,为全球教育发展开辟新的发展道路,贡献中国力量。     

The emergence of reading literacy in post-primary teacher education: from the background to the foreground

While recognising the fact that historically teacher education and adolescent literacy are two fields that have had limited intellectual contact, the development of reading literacy is increasingly now accepted internationally as a core responsibility of all teachers and teacher educators. Adopting a socio-cultural perspective, this paper, drawn from the Learning to Teach Study, focused on the beliefs, knowledge and experiences regarding reading literacy of Irish post-primary student teachers on one initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The data were collected through three interviews with each of 17 student teachers. Results suggest that the surveyed student teachers had some concerns about their own literacy, had narrow conceptions of literacy, tended not to see it as their responsibility, held a minimal threshold view of literacy and viewed new digital technologies as a resource and motivator for their students’ literacy learning. Results are discussed in terms of how student teachers’ knowledge of literacy in ITE programmes could be reframed, extended and deepened.     

Digital writing practices: a close look at one grade three author

This paper reports on the digital writing practices of a Grade Three primary school student as he used an iPad to plan, produce and share digital texts. The case study acknowledges that writing is undergoing a period of great change in many classrooms and works to show how a student author has interpreted and produced digital texts with new technologies. In particular, the specific practices, digital materials and literacy concepts will be explicated through analyses of two digital texts created by this author. This focus acknowledges the ways texts can be planned, produced and shared using multiple modes and media. These social practices and the wider learning opportunities afforded through the flexible and recursive ways students produce text have yet to be fully explored. This paper also extends current understandings about digital writing practices through its examination of the connections between and among multiple apps as an author crafts digital text.     

Reading and writing to learn science: Achieving scientific literacy

A key step in helping students to achieve scientific literacy is to ensure that each school's curriculum supports students' efforts to learn science meaningfully. Educational researchers play a vital role in this step by providing teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policy makers with information about the creation of a curriculum that supports scientific literacy. In a scientific literacy curriculum, reading and writing can serve as dynamic vehicles for learning science meaningfully. The task of educational researchers is to show how reading and writing can be used most effectively to support science learning. Much of what is done now in schools is based on teacher intuition—good intuition—but intuition nonetheless. What is needed is school-based research to validate and build upon these intuitions. This article is intended to stimulate research on reading and writing to learn science.     

Women and literacy: a Nepal perspective

This article looks at adult women's experiences of literacy and literacy learning in a remote area of Western Nepal. As part of a research degree at Sussex University, I spent eight months living in a small village community where an American aid agency was implementing a development programme, comprising of a literacy class with follow-up income-generating activities for women. Drawing on an “ideological” approach to literacy research, I investigated how women and men of differing ages and economic backgrounds used literacy in their everyday lives. My research aimed to move away from the simple polarisation of women and men, traditional and developed, to analyse what meanings of literacy and gender were shared or disputed between different groups of people and how they reacted to literacy interventions by a foreign aid agency.By looking at three main kinds of literacy practices which so-called “illiterate” women participated in—existing everyday practices such as religious reading; new everyday practices such as account keeping introduced by the aid agency; and the literacy class which ran every evening in the village—this article analyses how women reacted to different kinds of literacies and what they gained from attending a literacy class. Everyday literacies tended to be seen as separate or even in opposition to the literacy class or new practices since they were learnt informally in the home. Many new literacy practices, such as form filling or keeping minutes, were viewed by both men and women as symbolic of the agency's authority but not necessarily useful. The literacy class introduced women to new roles as “class participants” and more participatory methods of teaching, but they preferred the kind of education seen in local schools so encouraged the teacher to adopt chanting methods and mirror the hierarchical teacher–pupil relationship.Though the women contested the dominant model of literacy and gender presented to them by the aid agency—that reading and writing would help in their existing role as mothers or wives or were useful for income generating—they wanted to become “educated” by attending the literacy class. They felt they gained a new identity through becoming literate and valued the additional social space that the class gave them as a group of women from differing backgrounds. Certain new practices like creative writing, though imposed by the aid agency, were welcomed by women at the class as enabling them to have a new voice.     

eBooks and Literacy in K–12 Schools

In this article the authors present a review of literature from multiple disciplines pertaining to using eBooks in the classroom in order to understand the underlying literacy and technology related issues and challenges. eBooks brought about changes in how students learn to read, and in how they read to learn. They require students to learn new literacies and to use new technologies, which has had a profound impact on reading pedagogy in K–12 classrooms. Dedicated eBook readers, smartphones, and tablet computers have led to changes in a signature pedagogy—reading literacy instruction. Research is needed on how to best teach the new literacies to help learners adapt to the challenges of new media and technologies.     

LITERACY AND ELDERS: WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW

Little research has been done on the literacy needs and interests of elders. Consequently, many programs of literacy training for elders are based upon inadequate and inaccurate information. The authors review recent literature about literacy and the aged and offer some suggestions for future investigations. They maintain that there is a need for empirical research into the perceptions of reading and writing held by the elderly themselves. Specifically, this research should: (1) assess the reading/writing needs and interests of the elderly; and (2) examine what effect societal expectations of the elderly have on their reading/writing behavior and interests.     

Old World Teaching Meets the New Digital Cultural Creatives

This article sets forth a conceptual, philosophical and social agenda for art and design education in the twenty‐first century, considering how a set of beliefs articulated within US art education discourse interfaces with conceptualisations about emerging global digital media and technologies. Discussion highlights selected writings in the USA primarily, writings about art education technology orientations; and then describes the professional experiences and insights of the writer as she embraced, implemented and made sense of technology in terms of her own multicultural educational orientation in a US university. Based on these insights, this writer proposes that technology pedagogy is not actually about digital technologies per se, but about what we intend to do with new technologies in the twenty‐first century. Old notions of art as an embodiment of things that matter and a testament to the human condition are now connected to contemporary ideas about citizenship, caring and public engagement. In this trajectory, citizenship education is then posed as central to a future vision of art education in the digitally connected classroom. Caveats and limitations of the educational and transformative power of new global electronic media being set forth in this article are also noted, including paradoxical self‐contradictions within the orientation itself.     

数字化读写影响儿童传统读写能力的研究与启示

读写能力是个体借以理解文本和表达思想的基本能力,影响读写能力发展的一般因素既有生物学因素,也有环境和个体因素.国内外研究发现,数字化读写活动对儿童传统读写能力是一把双刃剑,网页浏览、信息搜索、写邮件和博客等对传统读写能力发展具有积极作用,而数字阅读、即时信息、计算机写作和拼音输入法的使用则可能存在消极作用.未来研究需要...     

Exploring literacy and growth: An analysis of three communities of readers in urban Senegal

This paper consists of two parts. The first part reviews how the arguments supporting literacy education have changed over the last five decades. Although there has been a shift in emphasis from economic to socio-cultural and personal dimensions, literacy is still considered mainly as an instrument for economic growth and poverty alleviation. The second part presents a case study of three different establishments which provide reading materials in urban Senegal. The analysis indicates that people are more likely to practise reading when they have access to materials which genuinely interest them. These materials are not necessarily about development or livelihood—themes often judged as ‘appropriate’ for socio-economic growth by policy makers and practitioners. People read stories and history books for their own pleasure – rather than out of a sense of duty – to transcend the mundane routine of their daily lives. This ‘reading for pleasure’ aspect needs to be taken more account of in literacy education.     

Multimedia literacy practices in beginning classrooms and at home: the differences in practices and beliefs

Multimedia literacy practices in the homes of young children are changing rapidly, but the use of them in the early years of education is moving slowly. This research was aimed to find out what teachers of 5‐year‐olds, in their first 6 months of compulsory schooling, think about the children's literacy practices at home, including the perceived use of digital media at home. We also wanted to find out what the teachers did in their classrooms that was similar or different to the students' experiences of literacy practices across several media. Parents of 76 children, and their teachers, from 10 classrooms in mid‐high and mid‐low socio‐economic areas completed surveys. The parents' survey asked about the literacy‐related experiences their children are involved in. The teachers' survey asked for their beliefs about the literacy‐related experiences the children in their classrooms engaged in, on average, including the use of digital media. The teachers were also asked about the literacy practices in their classroom and their use of media. This paper describes the teachers' beliefs and the similarities and differences in practices between home and school, including literacy practices using digital technology.