Literacy: 21st Century Definition

Setting on the Thanksgiving dinner table with her parents, grannies, and siblings, Emma found herself in a round table of rich discussions where she was excepted to fully participate for he first time as she’s a college student now and fully an adult.

Emma’s grandma kept asking her about college life, affirming to her that education is a very important stage of one’s life because being able “to read books and write things are what make you a successful citizen.”

but is it really? …

Literacy as known by older generations seems to have a narrow definition that is restricted to reading and writing.

However, being 21st century generations, we can easily tell that this is no longer the case because our contemporary world is so different than that of our grandparents and therefore, what makes us literate citizens today goes way beyond our ability to read books and write letters.

According to Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan’s article Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, literacy has assumed new complex meanings because of the “rapidity with which digital technology has changed our society”.

To be literate is to be fully functional in society, according to Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan, and in a society where digital media and digital technologies are a seamless part of the daily life, literacy has to change too.

The National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) agrees confirms this concept with their position statement on The Definition of 21st Century Literacies.

In this statement, they argue that ” Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies.” These literacies, they argue, ought to be “multiple, dynamic, and malleable,” as “Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to:

•  Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology;

• Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;

• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes;

• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information;

• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts;

•  Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.”

DifferUnity

Every single human is different than the other. Just like we all have a different combination of genes that form our DNAs, we also all have a different combination of experiences that has shaped us into who we are and continues to do so. The combination of ancestors we each have is different, the families that brought us up, the schools we attended, the classmates we had, the books we read, the places we visited, shopped at, and took a walk in, the people we encountered or befriended, the media we watched, the discourses we exchanged, and all the times we spent doing what we do, with whoever we chose to do it with…. all those are pivotal in shaping who we are as individuals.

We each have different experiences and backgrounds that shape the way we do things and the way we view the world. They determine what we classify to be “correct” or incorrect, what is “normal” and what is abnormal or even weird.

Kenneth Burke, a literary theorist and rhetorician, has a theory called the identification theory. This theory argues that we as humans are naturally divided (different) but we, by our human nature, keep trying to identify with other individuals who share the same interests, hobbies, material possessions, or anything basically so that we can form societies and sub communities.

We then get normalized into our sub communities, who might share our race, skin color, religious affiliation, cultural or historical heritage, to the point that we start seeing our experiences as the norm with anybody different from us being the other. This view is the main drive that leads to prejudice as one group assumes supremacy over the other.

Our education systems need to pay attention to such things and address them adequately because we need to make sure that the personalities we are shaping are not just ready to be good citizens of our individual nations but rather good citizens of our world. They need to receive the diverse and culturally inclusive education, an education that encourages tolerance and respect to all as core values, an education that would turn our young innovators into peaceful, productive global citizens.

because the realities of our world today require us to stand united with all our differences equally celebrated……

and because in our differunity lies the real beauty of our world.

Integrating Technology

Embracing electronic devices, rather than forbidding them in the classroom (and consequently making the students use them behind your back for texting and distracting activities), can be a great addition to the classroom and a way to get students engaged, be more active participants, and use the devices they love to use in a productive manner.

Whether it is an elementary classroom or even a college classroom, technology can be a great addition to your classroom if integrated in a seamless manner.

Blogger and Tech teacher, Mary Beth Hertz, explains in her blog that seamless integration of technology is where “Students employ technology daily in the classroom using a variety of tools to complete assignments and create projects that show a deep understanding of content.”

The question here becomes for many teachers about the practical way that they can seamlessly integrate students’ electronic devices in the classroom. It is hard to find one definite answer to this question because smart devices have so many, and ever increasing, features and things you can do with them but some ideas may be to use apps that are already available in the android and Apple application stores.

Among those, is a very cool student response system called Kahoot! Using this online resource, the teacher can create some questions for a quiz, class participation, a review session, or any classroom activity that can be completed with a question-multiple choice answer format, before asking the students to take out their smart devices, go to the Kahoot.it website to enter the game pin, and let the fun begin.

Another idea is to have the students use their devices to create Quizletsto use them as a practice for an exam or when prepping for standardized tests; or take collective notes and come up with their own study guides in aGoogle doc.

Other resources may include using gaming such as the ones found in theedugames.com to transform a boring math class into a fun, interactive learning environment. Languages classes can also have that gaming option with the cool gaming options that mind snacks.com provides.

Really! There are tons of free apps, websites, and resources that can help you as a teacher integrate technology in your classroom to get your students to use their devices productively while maintaining an interactive, fun, and content focused class session.