The new literacy

This narrated PowerPoint presentation by Daniel Churchill gives an excellent overview of the new literacy in all its many dimensions, and what ‘essential abilities’ are now required of learners if they are to fully participate in modern society. He refers to the technologies that have emerged in recent times, and how they have created ‘new possibilities, practices and demands’. Significantly, how one traditionally conceives of literacy (reading, writing, speaking and listening) has become seriously outdated, and now just one element of a multi-faceted literacy that includes, among others, information literacy, visual literacy, critical literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy. Worryingly, as Churchill points out, few educational institutions have adjusted to the realities of the Web 2.0 world and, by implication, they are staffed by ‘new illiterates’.