Week 2: Introductory Thoughts on New Digital Literacies

(Readings found at bottom of post)

              

These readings discussed the new literacies developing here in this 21^st century world as well as identifying some skills that are needed by students in this world in order to be successful. What I found surprising was the fact that NCTE and especially P21 brought up the need for what I call ‘ethical skills.’ It states in NCTE that people need to “attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments” (NCTE) if they want to be successful in this new world. P21 repeatedly brought up the topic of ethics as part of the skills, noting that students need to understand “the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information,” “the access and use of media,” and “the access and use of information technologies” (P21) under Information and media literacy. It also mentions ethics under Productivity and Accountability, as well as Leadership and Responsibility, where it states that students need the ability to “work positively and ethically” and “demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior in using influence and power,” (P21) each in their respective categories. It was at first confusing to me exactly why ethics were mentioned so many times. For me, all the other skills mentioned were more or less self-explanatory, but the idea of ‘acting ethically’ seemed very vague, so I didn’t really know what to make of it. I then realized the importance of emphasizing it when I thought about where this might be applied. A major ‘new thing’ in the 21^st century is the Internet. Anyone can post whatever they want on the Internet, as is discussed in NLS when describing these new literacies as a “move from ‘publishing’ to participation, from centralized authority to mass collaboration, and so on.” (NLS, p. 9) There is no longer any sort of central authority that regulates what is and isn’t on the Internet. That’s when it clicked, that’s why it’s important to have ‘ethical skills’ in this new age of the Internet. Ultimately, it is up to the user to decide how they will act on the Internet, and even what type of persona they will be. We are the users, we have to be the ones that need to be aware of this. On the Internet, no one knows who is really and truly behind that username, or behind that picture, so it is up to the user to have a strong ethical basis concerning the use of the Internet. It bears a slight resemblance to “The Ring of Gyges” by Plato, where (in very quick summary) the question is posed if a man would act justly or unjustly if given a ring of invisibility that would allow him to do anything without being caught. (See “Ring of Gyges” for a longer summary) I see the Internet as being a sort of Ring of Gyges, in the sense that one isn’t quite directly connected to what they do on the Internet. If things go wrong, a person can simply delete the account, start up a new one, and not have to live with any consequences. Therefore it is essential in this day and age to have strong ‘ethical skills’ to realize what one should and shouldn’t do, especially when the Internet is concerned. We need to always be aware of the troubles that arise when everyone has access to the media and information, and could change it at any time. Thus comes the need for these ‘ethical skills’ in accessing information, working with it, and leading others, since ultimately, it is up to the individual to hold up those ethical standards.

               

NLS describes literacies as “socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participating in Discourses.” (NLS, p. 6) This definition, for me, demonstrates that these things we call ‘literacies’ exist only because a number of people agree that they exist. That’s my understanding as I read this definition. This would mean that there are no ‘objective’ literacies that exist by themselves. Literacies would come and go depending on what society thinks of them. They appear and disappear, and then might even reappear. Literacies aren’t physical things that we can touch and hold, but rather they are a way of communication and connection with other people that happens to be acceptable at that moment. If people stopped making and stopped responding to games and gaming, it would cease to be a literacy, in that sense. Without people participating in a given Discourse, the literacy disappears. However, I can’t immediately think of a time that this might have happened, if it even did at all. Perhaps the given literacy continues to exist, even if it is only a small group of people participating in it. The ‘encoded texts’ bit is also peculiar, and it makes me question if we can qualify anything before the invention of paper as being a certain type of literacy, since there would be no way to encode anything, unless I’m missing a big piece of history. But I would argue that literacies perhaps did exist in those ancient times, if one refines the definition a bit and removes the qualification of the encoded texts. I would imagine that in ancient societies, there were certainly different types of Discourses, ranging from people simply discussing philosophical concepts to discussing what the optimal method to weave a basket would be. In that respect they would be generating the meaningful content of thoughts and words, but it is never written down. Rather, the thoughts are transferred from generation to generation through things like storytelling. Is this perhaps a category of ‘Ancient Literacies’ perhaps? If we can even call it that. Things like this are always up for further discussion to delve deeper into.

What do you think, dear reader? Not only about this idea of ‘Ancient Literacies,’ but also about the concepts that literacies appear and disappear over time, and do you think the need for strong ‘ethic skills’ will start playing a more important role in this digital age? Or do you think that Ancient Literacies are bogus, that literacies are permanent, and that we don’t need to worry about ethics in relation to literacy today? Or perhaps you are somewhere in between on the spectrum. I’d love to hear your take on the topics.

Readings:

- NCTE Definition of 21^st Century Literacies:  (abbr. NCTE)               http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition

- P21 Framework Definitions: (abbr. P21)

  http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/P21_Framework_Definitions_New_Logo_2015.pdf

- A New Literacies Sampler, Chapter 1: (abbr. NLS)

  http://everydayliteracies.net/files/NewLiteraciesSampler_2007.pdf

Extra Readings:

            - Ring of Gyges Summary

  https://aphilosopher.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/summary-of-platos-ring-of-gyges/