What is 21st Century Literacy?

21st Century Literacy is…•Multimodal

•Creative and Interpretive•Immediate•Engaging

21st century literacy is the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap. These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute them pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms (p. 2).

What does 21st Century Literacy look like?•Communication is multi-dimensional, engaging, and increasingly unbound to text.•Creativity is valued by not only using words but using video, images and sounds.•Education individualized for each learner to more fully engage students on multiple levels to create critical thinking.•Reintroduction of media and arts into the curriculum.•New teachers who use their experience as digital natives to create new pathways for communication and learning.

Digital NativesToday’s young people, who have grown up using digital literacies as forms of communication and learning.

As digital natives we have a responsibility:• To integrate 21st Century Literacy into the classrooms.• To call for training on how to implement new technology effectively in the classroom.• To spread awareness of the possibilities of using 21st Century literacy in the classroom.

21st Century Literacy Summit

•San Jose, California April, 2005•Experts, from around the world, in the field of new literacies from each of five areas: policy, research, media and the arts, K-12 education, and higher education•Conversed at a day and a half summit in which enablers and barriers to 21st Century Literacy were discussed and recommendations for advances in new literacies were made.

Enablers and Barriers to 21st Century Literacy in

Schools

Enablers: Barriers:•The Internet•Digital Natives becoming teachers•Programs and software licensures becoming less expensive for preloading on standard computers•Advances in the research of 21st Century Literacy practices•Parent representation

•Lack of research •Resistance to change•Old school pedagogy•Cost of software•Lack of standardized formats between programs.•Policymakers lack of understanding•No teacher certification requirements•Professional development that does not keep up with new technology•No Child Left Behind

Recommendations by 21st Century Literacy Summit

PanelI. Development of Research AgendaII.Raise Awareness and Visibility in the

FieldIII.Make Tools for Creating and

Experiencing New Media Widely Available

IV.Empower Teachers with 21 Century Literacy Skills

V. Work as a Community

What the Research Says:Positives: Negatives:

•Student engagement increases through use of digital literacy•Student motivation increases through use of digital literacy•Students with learning disabilities benefit greatly from assistive technologies•Students use higher order thinking when synthesizing information from other students on blogs•Students who use technology to gain background knowledge before reading have a higher comprehension rate.

•Schools are still a long way from adopting technologies that support 21st Century Literacy.•Teachers lack the skills to effectively impliment 21st Century Literacy technology in their class.•Professional development for using technology to engage students is lacking behind the growth in technology.•Policymakers and school systems are slow to change their viewpoints from traditional pedagogy towards 21st Century Literacy because of the lack of research.

A vision of 21st Century Literacy

References:

Anderson, N. A. (2010). Elementary children’s literature: Infancy through age 13. Boston, Mass: Allyn & Bacon.

Coiro, J. (2009). Rethinking online reading assessment. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 59-63.

Jeffs, T., Behrmann, M., & Bannan-Ritland, B. (2006). Assistive technology and literacy learning: Reflections of parents and children. Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(1), 37-44.

Honan, E. (2009). Fighting the rip: Using digital texts in classrooms. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(3), 21-35.

New Media, C. (2005). A global imperative: The report of the 21st century literacy summit. New Media Consortium, Retrieved from ERIC database.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Zawilinski, L. (2009). HOT blogging: A framework for blogging to promote higher order thinking. Reading Teacher, 62(8), 650-661.