Evolution of Literacy

 “what counts as literacy, how literacy changes in response to the new media landscape, and what value we should ascribe to the new forms of communication that continue to emerge and evolve online (Jenkins, 2009)." 📖--->💻

Traditional literacy or digital literacy? This is an interesting topic where researchers, professors, parents and young scholars' debate about. Are they really reading and as a result learning? Why is it difficult to accept change and an evolution in literacy? 

     We are evolving digitally and one of the main reasons are the digital-age jobs, as some literacy experts say that online reading skills will help children fare when they begin looking for digital-age jobs (Rich, 2). We do not know how we ended up having well organized and great content books. All we know is that, people started and developed a way to express themselves in order to transfer knowledge about different subjects from one individual to the other, so from one generation to the other. We learned how to learn from books or written materials. We are doing the same, people and young generation learn and find it easier to use digital literacy. Starting from the simplest form such as SMS to the most difficult tasks, such as reading from a computer.

    During these digital times we are adapting, learning and getting tested by digital literacy but what about quality vs. quantity of the information we read and the one we learn for into our future?

Online researching and digital literacy have made our lives easier when it comes to just find a material or watch a video and learn from it, isn't it a fractured experience? What about reading and learning relationship? When you read a material, you will not be distracted by adds or click/not click, also the attention span will be greater than 30 seconds which gives time for the brain to process the information. As Ken Pugh says: "Reading a book and taking the time to ruminate and make inferences and engage the imaginational processing, is more cognitively enriching, without doubt, than the short little bits that might get if you're into the 30-second digital mode." (Rich, 6)

    We know there is a debate between digital and traditional literacy, and it is based on individual's needs and preferences. However, as everything else that goes though change and it is evolving passes three phases. Rejection, acceptance and normalization. I believe we are experiencing the acceptance phase and we still must learn more as parents, students and teachers. Until it becomes a normal, widely accepted phenomenon to learn from digital literacy.

References:

Rich, Motoko. (2008, July 27). Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? The New York Times