Defining Literacy

There are many definitions of “literacy” – a few I found online include, but are not limited to:

Literacy has been described as the ability to read for knowledge and write coherently and think critically about the written word. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy).

Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential. (Task-based Literacy– National Assessment of Adult Literacy http://nces.ed.gov/naal/fr_definition.asp).

Successful use of printed material is a product of two classes of skills: (1) Word-level reading skills and (2) Higher level literacy skills (Skills-based literacy – National Assessment of Adult Literacy http://nces.ed.gov/naal/fr_definition.asp).

The quality or state of being literate, especially the ability to read and write. (Dictionary.com).

 

Recently, I’ve been hearing about “multimodal literacies” and that’s a new term for me. Literacy, by definition, always meant, to me, the ability to read and write. I understand in this new “digital age,” this is probably an “old-school” definition. Research on the internet brought forth some examples of literacies – visual, media, technological, information, multicultural, etc. Multimodal literacy has become a rather interesting topic for me. I particularly was interested in NCTE’s statement found at: http://www.ncte.org/governance/MultimodalLiteracies/.

A couple key things that stand out for me are:

“In digital forms, students, even very young students, are often more literate in the technical aspects of digital production than many of their teachers.” (NCTE)

This is the effect of the current digital age. It’s almost scary because when I was learning to read and write, printed books or media were the sources of my literacy development. Children today are exposed to computers, blogs, text-speak and when I have tried to work with them, I find myself taken aback by their ability to whip through such modalities with ease and expertise that I do not have. Also, because of this, children may become bored which is what NCTE indicates in this statement – students may find school instruction irrelevant.

“With the development of multi-modal literacy tools, writers are increasingly expected to be responsible for many aspects of the writing, design, and distribution processes that were formerly apportioned to other experts.” (NCTE)

I found this statement interesting, but have to agree. As technology is continuously improved the accountability of writers increases. NCTE’s statement says that this development will cause writers to “…lose control over the work and its potential audience in a way that wasn’t as true in print publishing.” The statement further indicates that there are ethical issues that may arise. I believe this is true because the Internet is making it easy for people to publish with ease; however, it also brings more potential for plagiarism, more complicated “issues of ownership.”

I think to really define literacy is to look at the mode of literacy that is being used. The common link is the ability to read, write – to learn to communicate or convey your message through the modalities that are being used. However, I probably will remain “old school” and say personally, my definition is “Ability to read and write for both an increase in knowledge and ability to put both reading and writing to practice.” I think this is achievable when using any modality providing we do not lose sight of the importance of literacy in our lives.