&#039;New Literacies&#039; and Ambiguity

Underlying epistemology
1. Positivism
  1. There is something out there to which our relationship is ambiguous
2. Pragmatism
  1. All that matters is that our belief about a possible 'state' or 'thing' is *useful*
3. Hirst (1974) - 'fields of knowledge' (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:20)
Seven types of ambiguity
1. 1st type
  1. Metaphor - two things are said to be alike (metaphysical conceit)
  2. Detail is effective in several ways at once
2. 2nd type
  1. Two different metaphors are used at the same time
  2. Two or more alternative meanings are fully resolved into one
    1. Used Venn diagram to explain this?
3. 3rd type
  1. Two ideas, connected by context, are simultaneously given through one word
  2. (the reader has to be aware of this for it to be an ambiguity)
4. 4th type
  1. Two or more meanings combine to make clear a complicated state of mind in the author
  2. (these meanings do not agree)
5. 5th type
  1. When the author discovers his idea in the act of writing
  2. A 'fortunate confusion' where the author does not hold the whole of the idea in his mind at once
6. 6th type
  1. When a statement says nothing so the reader has to invent meaning
    1. (this is usually in conflict with what the author says)
  2. What is said is contradictory or irrelevant
7. 7th type
  1. Two words, within context, that are opposite and show a division in the author's mind
  2. (these is a rare form of ambiguity)
Digital Literacy
1. Culture
  1. Engaging with media as a cultural form (Buckingham, 2008:74)
2. Functional
  1. Usually given functional definition, but is more than this (Buckingham, 2008:76)
  2. Core competencies to survive in a digital environment (Gurak, 2001:27)
  3. Being equipped with the skills needed to function in the Information Society (European Commission)
  4. Performing tasks effectively in a digital environment (EDUCAUSE 29:2, 2006)
  5. Ability to understand and use information presented by computers (Gilster, 1997)
  6. LearnDirect (several elements) - functional skills
  7. About meeting the computer-related requirements of your degree programme (University of Washington)
  8. Basic computer concepts and skills (Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum)
3. Critical evaluation
  1. About critical evaluation (Buckingham, 2008:77-8)
  2. Awareness of one's own digital literacy (Martin, 2008:165)
  3. Involves critical thinking and problem-solving (Van Leeuwen, et al., 2006:1580)
4. More than...
  1. Means having to reconceptualize what we mean by 'literacy' (Buckingham, 2008:87-8)
  2. Core competencies remain viable after technologies shift (Gilster, 1997:230)
  3. More than just consuming content and using software (Hoem & Schwebs, 2005)
5. Ethical element
  1. About learning 'digital rights and wrongs' (Mehlman)
6. Identity
  1. About digital identity and countering threats to one's own digital identity (Martin, 2008:174)
  2. Involves a systematic awareness of how digital media are constructed (Buckingham, 2007:155)
7. Taking advantage of technologies
  1. Ability to understand, evaluate and create information in a multiple formats (Karen Robertson, exc-el.org.uk)
  2. Skills, insight and savvy to exploit fully the benefits of technologies (Prof. Rob Frieden, Penn State University)
8. Other
  1. Operational, Semiotic, Cultural and Civic elements (Tornero)
  2. Complicated definition by DigEuLit project (quoted by Martin, 2006 - in Bawden, 2008:27)
  3. To be skilled in deciphering complex images and sounds (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008:2-3)
Media Literacy
1. Connections classrooms with 'techno-popular culture' (Buckingham, 2008:87)
2. Being able to handle a 'flood of content' (European Commission)
3. Meyrowitz (1998) - Consists of media content literacy, media grammar literacy and medium literacy (Frechette, 2006:164)
4. Tyner (1998) - Consolidates strands of communications multiliteracies (Martin, 2008:160)
5. Many similarities with information literacy (Martin, 2008:161)
6. Competencies involved in information literacy, visual literacy and media literacy so close that separating them seems artificial (Tyner, 1998:104)
7. Media literacy as an umbrella term including reading literacy, visual literacy and computer literacy (Potter, 2004:33)
8. 'Entails reading and interpreting discourse, images, spectacle, narratives, and the forms and genres of media culture' (Kellner, 2002:163)
Transliteracy
1. Being literate across multiple media (Wikipedia)
2. "Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks."
3. Derived from the verb 'to transliterate'
4. Transliteracy is 3D
5. An umbrella term containing other literacies (Thomas, et al., 2007)
6. Bridges and connects past, present and future modalities (Thomas, et al., 2007)
Information Literacy
1. Critical evaluation
  1. Using information successfully (both finding and critically evaluating) (Open University website)
  2. Shapiro & Hughes (1996) - New liberal art - goes from accessing information to critically reflecting on the nature of information itself (Spitzer, et al., 1998:24)
  3. Bruce (2002) - inextricably linked with critical thinking in ICT environments (Virkus, 2003)
2. Awareness
  1. Rockman - The ability to recognize when information is needed and the ability to act upon that need (Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment, 2005:44))
3. Ethical dimension
  1. Johnson & Webber (2003) - ;the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain... information well fitted to information needs, together with critical awareness of the importance of wise and ethical use of information in society' (Allan, 2008:160)
  2. SCONUL - 'knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.' (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008:52)
  3. Webber & Johnson (2002) - Adoption of appropriate information behaviour together with a critical awareness of importance of wise and ethical use of information (Virkus, 2003)
4. Elements
  1. Boekhurst (2003) (Can be summarized in 3 concepts: ICT concept, information resources concept, and the information process concept (Virkus, 2003)
  2. American Libraries Association - Ability to recognize when information is needed, 'and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information' (Spitzer, et al., 1998)
  3. US Association of College & Research Libraries - 5 standards to information literacy (Allan, 2008:159)
  4. UNESCO's 'Prague declaration - 'the knowledge of one's information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues of problems at hand' (Allan, 2008:160)
  5. American Libraries Association - 6 step process to becoming information literate (Bawden, 2008:21-2)
  6. Lenox & Walker (1993) - Several conditions must be present: desire to know, formulation of questions, identification of research methods, evaluation of results. Also, must have skills to search based on this, as well as accessing what is sought (Spitzer, et al., 1998:23-24)
  7. The 'ability to access, evaluate, organise and use information in order to learn, problem-solve, make decisions' (Bruce, 1997)
  8. Audunson & Nordlie (2003) - Involves technical capabilities, intellectual capabilities, and communicative competency (Virkus, 2003)
5. Umbrella term
  1. A way of thinking rather than a set of skills (Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment, 2005:viii-ix)
  2. An inclusive (umbrella) term (Doyle, 1994:)
  3. An umbrella term within which 'digital literacy' can be found (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008:55)
6. Problems
  1. 'Literacy', 'fluency' and 'competence' fluid in this context (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008:50-1)
  2. Muir & Oppenheim - No agreed definition (Virkus, 2003)
  3. Foster - 'A phrase in a quest for meaning' (Snavely & Cooper, 1997:10)
  4. ICT literacy seems to include 'information literacy' but means something distinct (Town, 2003:53)
  5. Generational barrier (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008:67)
7. Misc.
  1. Not a static or fixed phenomenon (Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment, 2005:x)
  2. Definitions have been adopted at national level in the USA, UK, New Zealand and Australia (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008:52)
  3. 'Information competence' sometimes used (Virkus, 2003)
Electracy
1. Covers 'different institutional practices' (Taylor & Ward, 1998:xii)
2. Umbrella term - combines various forms of literacy (Erstad, 2003:11)
3. Developed by growing up in a digital culture (Erstad, 2003:11)
4. Confusing definition (Morrison, quoted in Erstad, 2003:17)
Visual Literacy
1. Self-expression
  1. 'The ability to interpret (read) and to produce or use (write) culturally significant images, objects and visual actions' (Kovalchick & Dawson, 2004:602)
  2. Braden & Hortin - 'The ability to understand to use images, including the ability to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images' (Barry, 1997:1)
2. Communication & Meaning
  1. 'The ability to recognize, interpret, evaluate, and create visual messages' (Cook & Cooper, 2006:1)
  2. Bamford (2003) - 'What is seen with the eye and what is seen with the mind. This includes the ability to successfully decode and interpret visual messages and to encode and compose meaningful visual communications' (Sigafoos & Green, 2007:29)
  3. Ausburn & Ausburn (1978) - 'a group of skills which enable an individual to understand and use visuals for intentionally communicating with others' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:281)
  4. Giorgis, et al. (1999) - 'The ability to construct meaning from visual images' (Bamford, no date:1)
  5. Curtiss (1987) - 'The ability to understand the communication of a visual statement in any medium and the ability to express oneself with at least one visual discipline' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:282)
  6. Sinatra (1986) - 'The active reconstruction of past experiences with incoming visual information to obtain meaning' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:282)
  7. 'About interpreting images of the present and past and producing images that effectively communication the message to an audience' (Bamford, no date:1)
  8. 'A visually literate person is able to discriminate and make sense of visual objects and images; create visuals; comprehend and appreciate the visuals created by others; and visualise objects in their mind's eye' (Bamford, no date:1)
  9. Considine (1986) - 'The ability to comprehend and create images in a variety of media in order to communicate effectively' (Tyner, 1998:105)
  10. 'the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.' (Wikipedia)
3. Style
  1. 'Includes not just our ability to understand the written word, but also symbols, the design and arrangement of objects, and people's appearances and behaviours' (Paxton, 2004:vi)
  2. Frechette - 'Media grammar literacy, or visual literacy, includes an understanding of the medium and the message, the form, as well as the content.' (Buckingham & Willett, 2006:168-9)
4. Problem-solving
  1. 'The ability to interpret and process visual messages, to understand the content of the visuals, and to create effecive visuals. Thus, visual literacy involves visual/critical thinking and problem solving as well as active participation in analyzing and producing visuals.' (Bazeli & Heintz, 1997:4)
  2. Ausburn & Ausburn (1983) - 'the ability to understand (read) and use (write) images and to think and learn in terms of images, ie, to think visually (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:281)
5. Culture
  1. Debes - 'refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences...When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment.' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:281)
  2. Raney (1999) - 'implies that the entire world is the purview of visual literacy... art education becomes a subcategory of visual education, art becomes a subcategory of visual culture, and visual literacy is what is needed to navigate around it.' (Owen-Jackson, 2002:141)
6. Problems
  1. Cassidy & Knowlton (1983) - '… the VL metaphor is phonologically, syntactically, and semantically untenable.' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:282)
  2. Suhor & Little (1988) - '[Visual Literacy is] not a coherent area of study but, at best, an ingenious orchestration of ideas' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:282)
  3. Baca & Braden (1998) 'Each person who has written on the topic of visual literacy has done so from the perspective of his or her own background and professional concerns...The result has been the lack of comprehensive description of the field of visual literacy and of the related elements and constructs which underlie it.' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:283)
  4. Burbank & Pett (1983) - 'Defining visual literacy is comparable to the problem the six blind men faced when describing an elephant." (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:283)
  5. Sless (1984) - 'f Visual Literacy is to be rescued as a term (and I think it may still have some life in it), we need to interpret it more generously' (Averignou & Ericson, 1997:282)
ICT/Computer Literacy
1. Problems
  1. Goodson & Mangan (1996) - Computer literacy ' is often poorly defined and delineated, both in terms of its overall aims and in terms of what it actually entails' (Buckingham, 2008:76)
  2. 'We need to be much more accountable in saying when and how certain materials, computers among them, might convey enough intellectual power to be likened to textual literacy.' (diSessa, 2000:109)
  3. Talja (2005) - 'definitions of computer literacy are often mutually contradictory' (Johnson, 2008:33)
  4. Computer literacy a 'largely discredited term' (Bigum & Green, 1993:6)
2. Skills
  1. Computer Literacy 'requires a conceptual understanding of systems analysis & design, application programming, systems programming and datacenter operations. It also implies hands-on ability to work the operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) and common applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, database programs, personal information managers (PIMs), e-mail programs and Web browsers' (thefreedictionary.com)
  2. Simonson, et al. (1987) - '[Computer literacy is] an understanding of computer characteristics, capabilities and applications, as well as an ability to implement this knowledge in the skilful and productive use of computer applications suitable to the individual roles in society.' (Oliver & Towers)
  3. US National Council Report (1999) - 'Generally, 'computer literacy' has acquired a 'skills' connotation, implying competency with a few of today's computer applications, such as word processing and e-mail.' (Martin, 2003:16)
  4. 'Genuine computer literacy involves not just technical knowledge and skills, but refined reading, writing, research, and communicating ability.' (Kellner, 2002:162)
  5. Van Leeuwen, et al - 'Computer literacy (software/operating system): refers to the level of expertise and familiarity someone has with computers' (Cunningham, 2006:1580)
  6. Scher (1984) - '[Computer literacy is] appropriate familiarity with technology to enable a person to live and cope in the modern world.' (Oliver & Towers)
3. Misc.
  1. Martin (2003) - Computer literacy as gone through 3 phases: Mastery, Application, Reflection (Martin, 2008:156-7)
  2. Bowers - 'Understanding how the educational use of computers infludences our pattern of thinking, and thus contributes to changes in the symbolic underpinning of the culture, should be an essential aspect of computer literacy.' (Provenzo & McCluskey, 1999:23)
  3. Nevinson (1976) - 'It is reasonable to suggest that a peson who has written a computer program should be called literate in computing. This is an extremely elementary definition. Literacy is not fluency.' (Martin, 2003:12)
  4. Computer Literacy was a popular term in the 1980s to describe a specific set of skills and competencies (Bawden, 2008:21)
  5. Andrew Molnar - 'Nobody knows what computer literacy is. Nobody can define it. And the reason we selected [it] was because nobody could define it, and [...] it was a broad enough term that you could get all of these programs together under one roof' (thefreedictionary.com)
4. Elements
  1. Essential elements of computer literacy (Eraut, 1991:27)
  2. Shapiro & Hughes (1996) - seven components to Computer Literacy (Bawden, 2008:23)
5. Knowledge
  1. 'Now we use the term to refer simply to basic knowledge as in 'computer literacy'. Though even more confusingly, computer literacy is also bound up with reading and writing skills.' (Holme, 2004:1-2)
  2. Kellner - 'Computer literacy comprises the accessing and processing of diverse sorts of information proliferating in the so-called 'information society'. It encompasses learning to find sources of information ranging from traditional sites like libraries and print media to new Internet websites and search engines' (Kellner, 2002:161)
  3. 'Computer literacy is the knowledge and ability to use computers and technology efficiently' (Wikipedia)
New Literacies
1. Difficult to pin down what 'literacy' means anymore. 'New literacies' (technological emphasis) may exacerbate existing inequalities (Beavis, 1998:244)
2. Lemke (1997) Four new literacies required (Beavis, 1998:244)
3. Kress (2003) - New literacies involving images and writing together (Trayner, 2004)
4. Difference between 'ontologically' and 'chronologically' new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:2)
5. Difference between 'paradigmatic' and 'ontological' versions of new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:23-4)
6. Two parts to 'ontologically' new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:24-5)
7. New literacies part of an unfolding literacy dialectic (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:29)
8. Different literacy 'universes' in and out of school (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:30)
9. Using new technologies doesn't automatically lead to new literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006: 54-5)
10. Lankshear & Knobel's definition of literacies (2006:64)
11. 'Paradigm' cases of new literacies involve 'technical stuff' AND 'ethos stuff' - if just one then not necessarily a new literacy (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:93)
12. Manga is a non-digital 'new literacy' (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:118)
13. New literacies allow for the restructuring of education (Kellner, 2002:154)
14. 'Playing' defines new literacies (Smith & Curtin, 1998:229)
15. New Literacy Studies (NLS) denies literacy as a skillset (Trayner, 2004)
16. Memes and affinity spaces are examples of new literacies in action (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006:128)
17. Street (1997) - Checklist of principles that apply to NLS (Street, 2005:4)