New Literacies, verbal literacy and beyond it....

 "The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" ( Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).

I teach science at a high school in NY which has a very diverse population. During Covid-19 I felt the need of  digital literacy more than ever. 

 When we were at class, I would use google translate to help my students while teaching Human Biology Bilingual. I personally understand and can read Spanish but instructing was a tremendous struggle for me. However, something I carefully observed and concluded was that students could write on their cell phones and translate much faster than me. Of course I prefer books and traditional literacy, but my students found it easier to learn English by typing and translating from their cell phones, instead of writing and translating the words in their notebook. 

Once the schools closed, I was worried about them because even though they were used to google translate and texts, they were not prepared to use Google suite. We also started to use Remind app which brought me closer to my students. Sometimes my students would write sentences about their knowledge in the certain topic and the way they would text was challenging for me; they included many abbreviations. So, I had to search up what that would mean. This is how our new generation is trying to make sense of their surrounding or expressing themselves as social people. Literacy is everywhere and digital literacy has more and more become a way to include everyone. It is inclusive on students with different languages, different backgrounds, different interests, different abilities and different ideas. The first emphasis on "situated practice" reinforces the notion that learning is always connected to specific domains of activity-the settings, participants, discourses and dynamics of participation ( Lave and Wenger, 1991). 

Same as  traditional literacy, digital literacy can not be explained as a way that only can be used on English courses or Social studies. Science and Math uses it, too. Part of the learning process that we require from our students it is, being able to explain the answer. So, by using technology and digital literacy we are giving our scholars a new way to express themselves. This necessarily does not mean that students that know how to research, translate using google translate, using remind, Schoology or gmail, know how to research if they are given traditional literacy options but this is what  the 21 century is about. We are preparing our students for future jobs. Estelle Morris in Digital Britain calls for everyone to have "digital, life skills," ( Morris, 2009).

Teaching our students how to use digital literacy or them learning how to use it, it is not going to be something that goes backwards. Instead these new skills are going to be an important part of our scholars everyday's life. As Cassell says: " Verbal literacy remains paramount for success throughout life-from the beginning of education to the future employment of adults" ( Cassell, 2004 )

Since this is something that everyone is using and will be using, it makes collaboration easier and learning from each-other much easier while sharing the information.

References:

• Cassell, J. (2004). Towards a model of technology and literacy develop- ment: Story listening systems. Journal of Applied Developmental Psy- chology, 25, 75-105.
• Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Morris, E. (2009) Independent review of ICT user skills. London: DCSF http://www.dius.gov.uk/~/media/publications/I/ict_user_skills (accessed 30 November 2009).