Changing minds : computers, learning, and literacy

Literacy, a word that is simply defined as being able to read and write, has different connotation among different individuals. One individual has different personal background with another individual, depending on countries, race, gender, and faith. Every one of us was born and raised in different situations that influence the way we understand and see the meaning of literacy. Even though educational institutions had been organized through various mechanisms in order to give proper education to every individual from the children to adults, the phenomenon of the lack of reading and writing ability still emerge. Why does that happen? When we view our daily life that is full of massive development in technology recently, we can see that the problem is not in the media that equip us into the emergence of literacy, but it is in the users of the technology. However, we could still deal with this matter and what literacy means by looking at three literacies that we need in our daily life today: technological literacy, cultural literacy, and internet literacy.

Language Learning & Technology, 2000

Many people who write about information technology draw a parallel between the introduction of the printing press in 15th century Europe and the introduction of the computer. The parallel is based on the notion that technological revolutions entail rapid and far-reaching social change that is the inevitable result of the introduction of a major new technology. In this view, changes in the technologies of literacy affect literacy practices and communities: The transformation from an oral culture to a literate one reshaped consciousness; the introduction of alphabetic writing in Ancient Greece transformed Greek thought; the invention of the printing press moved the power of scholar-priests to more democratic institutions and promoted individualism, nationalism, and secularism. Scholars thus claim that the introduction of the computer will inevitably result in a different social consciousness of what literacy is and how it functions in individuals and society. This common view does not reflect the realities of history. Technologies themselves did not cause changes such as the Reformation. Changes result from mutually influencing social and technological factors: New technologies like the printing press merely facilitated changes already beginning to take place. The uses of literacy are various. As a technology, it gives its possessors potential power; as a stock of cultural knowledge within a given tradition, literacy can constrain or liberate, instruct or entertain, discipline or disaffect people. Princeton historian Lawrence Stone once remarked that if you teach a man to read the Bible, he may also read pornography or seditious literature. Put another way, if a man teaches a woman to read so that she may know her place, she may learn that she deserves his. These are the Janus faces of literacy (Kaestle, 1991, p. 27). In 1986, the Wall Street Journal carried an advertisement that proclaimed, "In 1455 Gutenberg brought the miracle of printing to the civilized world ... 531 years later, Apple brings it to the civilized desktop" (February 21, 1986, pp. 11-13). One might condemn Apple's hubris were it not for the fact that many people who write about information technology draw a parallel between the introduction of the printing press in Europe in the middle of the 15th century and the introduction of the computer in the late 20th century. The parallel is based on the notion that technological revolutions entail rapid and far-reaching social change that is the inevitable result of the introduction of a major new literacy technology. Attributing cognitive and sociocultural change to new literacy technologies did not begin with the introduction of the printing press but is documented in Ancient Greece and Medieval England, where the technologies being introduced were alphabetic writing and literacy respectively. Literacy is a technology as Kaestle argues above, one that converts thought into records, as proposed when he claimed literacy is the technology of the intellect. Whether it is in discussions about Ancient Greece or about 20th century computer technology, many scholars and others separate into two usually opposing camps: those who fear the new technology, fearing it will negatively change life as they know it, and those who extol the virtues of the new technology, believing it will create new, beneficial ways of knowing and interacting. Both sides ultimately argue over issues of power and control (even if those arguments are not voiced explicitly)--over form, authorship, distribution of knowledge, and the very construction of knowledge itself. What both supporters and opponents of a particular technology generally hold in common is the view that the technology is prior,

International Council For Educational Media, 2009

1993

Current efforts to improve literacy teaching and learning are directed at replacing task-oriented approaches to teaching isolated skills with an integrated language arts curriculum, focusing on the cognitive and social processes the learner engages in to write. This new approach requires fundamental changes in the classroom, and computer-baied te_chnologies are an important part of the change. In the first place, they Can serve as composition tools. Word processors support students in many wi-iting tasks, and the more complex multimedia composing tools proVide a rich context for writing and other expression. Computer-based resource tools include multimedia databases and online educational services to enhance the writer's reach. Communication tools include electronic mail, real-time conferencing, discussion forums, and bulletin boards. Technology can be a powerful tool for teachers and schools that are committed to an integrated language approach. Accompanying discussions examine student note-taking from computer-based materials and the use of computers in adult literacy programs. (Contains 4 references.) (SLD)

Journal of Literacy Research, 2007

Have you ever thought how you became literate? What influences-social, historical, political, technological-surrounded you and had an impact? What about how you came to be computer literate (or perhaps you do not consider yourself in this category)? What these books by Inman, and Selfe and Hawisher, bring to the area of technology and literacy instruction and composition studies is the human voices, the recognition that obtaining effective technological literacy is a complex web of interacting forces. They recognize that acquiring technological literacies-"literacy" in today's society-and associated practices cannot be described in a simple single cause-single effect way.

2018

Today's students will enter a workforce that is powerfully shaped by computing. To be successful in a changing economy, students must learn to think algorithmically and computationally, to solve problems with varying levels of abstraction. These computational thinking skills have become so integrated into social function as to represent fundamental literacies. However, computer science has not been widely taught in K-12 schools. Efforts to create computer science standards and frameworks have yet to make their way into mandated course requirements. Despite a plethora of research on digital literacies, research on the role of computational thinking in the literature is sparse. This conceptual paper proposes a three dimensional framework for exploring the relationship between computational thinking and literacy through: 1) situating computational thinking in the literature as a literacy; 2) outlining mechanisms by which students' existing literacy skills can be leveraged to foster computational thinking; and 3) elaborating ways in which computational thinking skills facilitate literacy development.

Handbook of literacy and technology: …, 1998

Language, 2006

Review by Donald Weasenforth, Collin County Community College That much of the writing we encounter daily takes the form of digital text displayed on screens probably goes unnoticed by many. In today's world, "we take reading on-screen for granted, and … in the developed world most reading is probably already electronic" (Kasdorf, 2003, p. 465). A fundamental revolution is that text is freed from the physical medium that conveys it, and this raises many questions about the definition of textuality, the processing of text, and the sociocultural effects of the shift to text liberated from print media. These are the types of questions Gunther Kress addresses in Literacy in the New Media Age (2003). He identifies two main goals for his book, one of which is to provide a perspective on literacy of the past through "the search for the beginnings of answers to questions such as: …What is common about the making of representations and messages between then and now, and in the likely tomorrow?" (p. 8). Kress's second goal is to provide "a conceptual framework and tools for thinking about a field that is in a profound state of transition" (p. 8). Kress's book delivers as promised on the first count, but it falls short of providing a coherent framework.

Education 3-13, 2020

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 central concern. The written word, a central feature of these communicative practices, 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 literacies has led to the development of the diverse body of research outlined here. Tracing these strands in current thinking about digital literacy helps to identify how literacy has expanded and diversified. But because it is now a significant aspect of full participation in society, reading with technology raises important questions for education. This paper suggests that policy in this area is poorly articulated and argues for more focused classroom research.

All technologies are selective. They facilitate, amplify, and enhance particular ways of knowing, while inhibiting, marginalizing, and sometimes even excluding others. This is as true of communication technologies and cognitive processes as it is of mechanical technologies and physical processes. And therein lies the link between technology and literacy. We are witnessing today the emergence of a variety of digital technologies which are displacing print technologies as the dominant media of our culture. This digital revolution is not only changing the way we communicate, but may be changing the way we think. It is clearly changing what it means to be literate in ways both obvious and subtle. This article explores such changes.