Literacies

The term literacies emerged as as an alternative to the singular literacy because of the "increased use of the term literacy to stand in for expertise in such areas a computer literacy, geographical literacy, statistical literacy--a veritable host of literacies" (Wagner, p. 6). Street coined this term to break conceptually and practically with the idea that literacy is a skill to learn. Instead, literacies is rooted in the sociolinguistic idea that literacy isn't one learnable skill "with predictable consequences for individual and social development" (p. 6), but rather it varies with context and is rooted in cultural practices.

On page 198 in 1995 in "Digitial Literacy" in Scientific American, Richard Lanham said that literacy was no longer just being able to read and write; it was "the ability to understand information however presented" (qtd. in Lankshear and Knobel 3). According to Street (1984), literacy is a "shorthand for the social practices and conceptions of reading and writing" (p. 1). Scribner and Cole said litarciy is made up of a "set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and disseminating it" (qtd. in Lankshear and Knobel 5). Literacy is understanding different texts in different/specific ways of reading.

Rheingold addresses five literacies: 1) the literacy of controlling attention [see Rainie and Wellman's focus literacy]; 2) the literacy of filtering (out crap) information; 3) literacy of participation; 4) literacy of collaboration; and 5) the literacy of network savvy. First, for the literacy of controlling attention, Rheingold advocates harnessing your attention’s attention and practicing mindfulness which he states as the process of metacognition (p. 69).

References:

Lankshear, Colin and Michele Knobel.Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices.New York: Peter Lang, 2008.

Rheingold, H. (2012). Net Smart : How to Thrive Online. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.

Scribner, Silva and Michale Cole. The Psychology of Literacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. Print.

Street, Brian. Literacy in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Print.

Wagner, D. (1999). Rationales, debates, and new directions: An introduction. In D. Wagner, R. Venezky, & B. Street (Eds.), Literacy: An international handbook (1-8). Boulder: Westview Press.