NEW MEDIA & THE FUTURE OF LITERACY

The readers of interactive narratives must be in an investigative mood, for they are required to process information and make decisions in order to progress through the text.

McErlean (2018) p. 137

I have been experimenting with literature, especially poetry, and exploring the creative potentials of digital media and platforms as we expand our understanding of what it means to read and write in today’s digital culture. Marshal Mcluhan (2003), Bolter (2001), and McErlean (2018) focus on the “remediation” of text in relation to the development of emerging multiliteracies. I have spent this semester in a deep dive into the literary landscape of new media, not just as a high school ELA teacher, but also as a creative writer, content creator, and consumer of text. Many high schools prioritize literary studies over new media with the misunderstand that media is a “soft option.” Hobbs and Jensen (2009) contend that teachers need to “guard against our prejudice of thinking of print as the only real medium” (p. 2) and should examine literacy through “sustained exploration of the deeper relationship between symbol systems, culture, and cognition” (p. 3). My focus is to explore with students the mediated world of new multiliteracies, moving beyond a traditional notion of critical media literacy to engage in a participatory culture with peers to increase cultural expression, shift attitudes, and empower one another.

Text, Technology and the Changing Spaces of Reading & Writing

Throughout my MET studies I kept a number of blogs dedicated to my research and experimentation into the changing spaces or reading and writing. I explore the evolution of literacy and its relationship with technology from the development of the codex to voice-to-text to digital storytelling and the future possibilities. In this deep dive into the shape of language and literacy and what it means to the current and future of education, I experiment with born-digital texts, the impact interacitivity has on the writing process and reading experience, as well as the connection between computational thinking and multiliteracies. Within these digital spaces I play with digital story-telling tools, code poetry, analyze digital texts, and synthesize my research through critical creative responses.

Text Technologies Blog
E-Literature & Evolving Literacies Blog

New Media 11: Electronic Literature Unit of Study

In the design of this unit of learning on Electronic Literature for the BC New Media 11 Curriculum, I synthesized the research of Devers et al. (2018), Anderson (2008), and Tobin (2014) among others. While Bolter (2001) and McLuhan (1960) emphasize that new mediums come from older mediums and The New London Group (1996) focus on the notion of the redesign when it comes to new media texts, it’s significant to note, that they create a kind of active reading lived within the physical space of the text that engages gestural literacies in the meaning-making process. Alexander’s (2014) future “renaissance” scenario of education with “digital storytelling” at the center nails the ubiquitous nature of media and the impact it has come to have on our lives, allowing “everyday people to seize the creative moment and reach a massive audience.” Even in the last ten years we’ve seen a birth of what Flores (2019) calls the third generation of electronic literature since “the increasing demand for digital skills in the workplace has resulted in growing numbers of programmers, designers, digital producers, coders, and web developers.”

New Media 11: Electronic Literature Fully Online Course

My continued exploration of the role electronic literature needs to play in high school education has lead me in the development of a full New Media 11 course centered on the study and creation of digital texts. My intention is to integrate computational thinking with the humanities, something I see lacking in many secondary schools, since the idea of technology and coding is often aligned with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), rather than creative writing and reading. Studying new media culture and affinity spaces alongside content analysis and creation will support learners in more than just “digital citizenship” but will develop much needed multiliteracy skills.

Garcia et al. (2013) stress that 21st century critical media literacy pedagogy has an essential role in social justice education as it “integrates discussion of media representation, power, and ideology into a class instead of teaching this content as something separate” (p. 119). Moving beyond a traditional notion of critical media literacy, they contend, students can engage in a participatory culture with peers to increase cultural expression, shift attitudes, and empower one another. Through this course design, I seek to provide both educators and students with the tools to approach critical media literacy in a way that challenges the dominant narratives so pervasive within many forms of existing curricular content.

Learners explore the intersection of identities through consideration of a variety of texts: painting, ted talk, interactive web series, music video, poetry, interactive e-poetry. Hobbs & Jensen (2009) highlight the challenge of media literacy educators today to “bring online technology tools into classrooms to harness their use for socially-connected (or participatory) learning” (p. 5). The authors insist that “we must continue to address issues that are central to the experience of growing up in a world full of mass media, popular culture and digital media” (p. 9) because students need to learn a range of important new media skills including “learning to analyze news and advertising, examining the social functions of music, distinguishing between propaganda, opinion and information, examining the representation of gender, race and class in entertainment and information media, understanding media economics and ownership, and exploring the ways in which violence and sexuality are depicted in media messages” (p. 9).

Multiliteracies: More Lessons, Units of Learning, & Digital Resources

GOALS | PHILOSOPHY | E-LEARNING | INCLUSIVE EDUCATION | GAMES & LEARNING | NEW MEDIA

References

Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2024: Glimpsing the future. Educause Review, 4(5). Retrieved from https://er.Educase.edu/articles/2014/9/higher-education-in-2024-glimsping-the-future

Anderson, T. (2008a). Teaching in an online learning context. In Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and practice of online learning (pp. 343-365). Athabasca University. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008-Theory_and_Practice_of_Online_Learning.pdf

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Devers, J. C., Devers, E. E., & Oke, L. D. (2018). Encouraging metacognition in digital learning environments. In D. Ifenthaler (Ed.), Digital workplace learning: Bridging formal and informal learning with digital technologies (pp. 9-22). Springer International Publishing AG.

Garcia, A., Seglem, R., & Share, J. (2013). Transforming teaching and learning through critical media literacy pedagogy. LEARNing Landscapes, 6(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v6i2.608   

Hobbs, R., & Jensen, A. (2009). The past, present, and future of media literacy education. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 1(1), 1.

McErlean, K. (2018). Interactive narrative. In Interactive narratives and transmedia storytelling: Creating immersive stories across new media platforms (pp. 120-151). New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315637570

McLuhan, M. (1960). “Classroom without walls,” Explorations in Communication. Boston: Beacon Press.

New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review; 66(1), 60-92.

Tobin, T. J. (2014). Increase online student retention with universal design for learning. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 15(3), 13-24.