/***
StyleSheet for use when a translation requires any css style changes.
This StyleSheet can be used directly by languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean which need larger font sizes.
***/
/*{{{*/
body {font-size:0.8em;}
#sidebarOptions {font-size:1.05em;}
#sidebarOptions a {font-style:normal;}
#sidebarOptions .sliderPanel {font-size:0.95em;}
.subtitle {font-size:0.8em;}
.viewer table.listView {font-size:0.95em;}
/*}}}*/
/*{{{*/
@media print {
#mainMenu, #sidebar, #messageArea, .toolbar, #backstageButton, #backstageArea {display: none ! important;}
#displayArea {margin: 1em 1em 0em 1em;}
/* Fixes a feature in Firefox 1.5.0.2 where print preview displays the noscript content */
noscript {display:none;}
}
/*}}}*/
To get started with this blank TiddlyWiki, you'll need to modify the following tiddlers:
* SiteTitle & SiteSubtitle: The title and subtitle of the site, as shown above (after saving, they will also appear in the browser title bar)
* MainMenu: The menu (usually on the left)
* DefaultTiddlers: Contains the names of the tiddlers that you want to appear when the TiddlyWiki is opened
You'll also need to enter your username for signing your edits: <<option txtUserName>>
These InterfaceOptions for customising TiddlyWiki are saved in your browser
Your username for signing your edits. Write it as a WikiWord (eg JoeBloggs)
<<option txtUserName>>
<<option chkSaveBackups>> SaveBackups
<<option chkAutoSave>> AutoSave
<<option chkRegExpSearch>> RegExpSearch
<<option chkCaseSensitiveSearch>> CaseSensitiveSearch
<<option chkAnimate>> EnableAnimations
----
Also see AdvancedOptions
<<importTiddlers>>
/*{{{*/
window.saveChanges = function(){};
setStylesheet(
"label {width:8em; float:left; text-align:right; width:9em; font-size:1.1em; padding:3px; height:1.5em: top:-20px; margin: 0px -2px 0 0;}"+
// "div.wizardFooter {padding-left:0em}"+
"div.wizardStep > input {display:fixed; padding:3px; margin-bottom:5px; margin-top:0px; margin-right:0px}",
'labelStyles');
merge(config.macros.importTiddlers, {
wizardTitle: "Import tiddlers",
step1Title: "Step 1: Locate the server or TiddlyWiki file",
step1Html: "Specify the type of the server: <select name='selTypes'><option value=''>Choose...</option></select><br>Enter the URL here: <input type='text' size=50 name='txtPath'><br><input type='hidden' size=50 name='txtBrowse'><br><hr>...or select a pre-defined feed: <select name='selFeeds'><option value=''>Choose...</option></select>"
});
merge(config.optionsDesc,{
txtUserName: "",
chkRegExpSearch: "Enable regular expressions for searches",
chkCaseSensitiveSearch: "Case-sensitive searching",
chkIncrementalSearch: "Incremental key-by-key searching",
chkAnimate: "Enable animations",
chkSaveBackups: "",
chkAutoSave: "",
txtTheme: "Change the TiddlyWiki theme being used",
chkGenerateAnRssFeed: "",
chkSaveEmptyTemplate: "",
chkOpenInNewWindow: "Open external links in a new window",
chkToggleLinks: "Clicking on links to open tiddlers causes them to close",
chkHttpReadOnly: "",
chkForceMinorUpdate: "",
chkConfirmDelete: "Require confirmation before deleting tiddlers",
chkInsertTabs: "Use the tab key to insert tab characters instead of moving between fields",
txtBackupFolder: "",
txtMaxEditRows: "Maximum number of rows in edit boxes",
txtFileSystemCharSet: "Default character set for saving changes (Firefox/Mozilla only)"});
merge(config.macros.options,{
wizardTitle: "Change Settings",
step1Title: "",
step1Html: ' These options are saved in a cookie.'
});
merge(config.macros.options,{
wizardTitle:"Advanced settings",
step1Title:null,
unknownDescription: "//(unknown)//",
listViewTemplate: {
columns: [
{name: 'Option', field: 'option', title: "", type: 'String'},
{name: 'Description', field: 'description', title: "", type: 'WikiText'}
],
rowClasses: [
{className: 'lowlight', field: 'lowlight'}
]
}
});
window.ccTiddlyVersion = '1.7.6';
window.workspacePermission= {};
window.url = "http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki";
window.url= 'http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/';
window.workspace = "";
window.fullUrl = window.url;
if (config.options.txtTheme == "")
config.options.txtTheme = 'purpleTheme';
workspacePermission.create = 1;
workspacePermission.upload = 1;workspacePermission.owner = 1;workspacePermission.anonC = 0 ;
workspacePermission.anonR = 1;
workspacePermission.anonU = 0;
workspacePermission.anonD = 0;
workspacePermission.userC = 1 ;
workspacePermission.userR = 1;
workspacePermission.userU = 0;
workspacePermission.userD = 0;
workspacePermission.canCreateWorkspace = 1;
window.workspace_delete = "A";
window.workspace_udate = "A";
var serverside={
url:"http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki", //server url, for use in local TW or TW hosted elsewhere
workspace:"",
queryString:"standalone=1",
debug:0, //debug mode, display alert box for each action
passwordTime:0, //defines how long password variable store in cookie. 0 = indefinite
messageDuration:5000, //displayMessage autoclose duration (in milliseconds), 0=leave open
loggedIn:0,
can_create_account:"1",
openId:"1"
};
config.defaultCustomFields = {"server.host":window.url, "server.type":"cctiddly", "server.workspace":window.workspace};
config.shadowTiddlers.OptionsPanel = "[[help|Help]] <br />[[settings|AdvancedOptions]]<br /><<ccOptions>>";
readOnly =false;
config.options.chkHttpReadOnly = false; //make it HTTP writable by default
config.options.chkSaveBackups = false; //disable save backup
//config.options.chkAutoSave = false; //disable autosave
config.options.chkUsePreForStorage = false;
/*}}}*/
// ccAdaptorCommandsPlugin //
function ccTiddlyAdaptor(){}
merge(ccTiddlyAdaptor,{
errorTitleNotSaved:"<h1>Your changes were NOT saved.</h1>",
errorTextSessionExpired:"Your Session has expired. <br /> You will need to log into the new window and then copy your changes from this window into the new window. ",
errorTextConfig:"There was a conflict when saving. <br /> Please open the page in a new window to see the changes.",
errorTextUnknown:"An unknown error occured.",
errorClose:"close",
buttonOpenNewWindow:"Open a Window where I can save my changes .... ",
buttonHideThisMessage:"Hide this message",
msgErrorCode:"Error Code : "
});
//{{{
config.commands.revisions = {};
merge(config.commands.revisions,{
text: "revisions",
tooltip: "View another revision of this tiddler",
loading: "loading...",
done: "Revision downloaded",
revisionTooltip: "View this revision",
popupNone: "No revisions",
revisionTemplate: "%0 r:%1 m:%2",
dateFormat:"YYYY mmm 0DD 0hh:0mm"
});
config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted = {};
merge(config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted,{
text: "delete",
tooltip: "Delete this tiddler",
warning: "Are you sure you want to delete '%0'?",
hideReadOnly: true,
done: "Deleted "
});
// Ensure that the plugin is only installed once.
if(!version.extensions.AdaptorCommandsPlugin) {
version.extensions.AdaptorCommandsPlugin = {installed:true};
config.commands.saveTiddlerHosted1 = {};
merge(config.commands.saveTiddlerHosted1, config.commands.saveTiddler);
config.commands.saveTiddlerHosted1.handler = function(event,src,title)
{
var tiddlerElem = story.getTiddler(title);
var fields = {};
story.gatherSaveFields(tiddlerElem,fields);
var newTitle = fields.title || title;
if(!store.tiddlerExists(newTitle))
newTitle = newTitle.trim();
if(newTitle==title){ // we are not renaming the tiddler
var newTitle = story.saveTiddler(title,event.shiftKey);
if(newTitle)
story.displayTiddler(null,newTitle);
} else { // the tiddler is being renamed
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(title);
if(store.tiddlerExists(newTitle) && newTitle != title) {
if(!confirm(config.messages.overwriteWarning.format([newTitle.toString()])))
return false;
}
var adaptor = new ccTiddlyAdaptor();
var userParams = {minorUpdate:event.shiftKey};
var context = {title:title, newTitle:newTitle, workspace:window.workspace};
adaptor.rename(context, userParams, config.commands.saveTiddlerHosted1.callback);
}
return false;
};
// implementing closeTiddler without the clearMessage();
Story.prototype.closeTiddler = function(title,animate,unused)
{
var tiddlerElem = this.getTiddler(title);
if(tiddlerElem) {
this.scrubTiddler(tiddlerElem);
if(config.options.chkAnimate && animate && anim && typeof Slider == "function")
anim.startAnimating(new Slider(tiddlerElem,false,null,"all"));
else {
removeNode(tiddlerElem);
forceReflow();
}
}
};
config.commands.saveTiddlerHosted1.callback = function(context, userParams) {
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(context.title);
if(tiddler) { // if tiddler exists with the old title. (we are renaming)
story.closeTiddler(context.title,false);
store.deleteTiddler(tiddler.title);
tiddler.title = context.newTitle;
store.addTiddler(tiddler);
story.displayTiddler(null,tiddler.title);
story.refreshTiddler(tiddler.title,null,true);
store.notify(tiddler.title,true);
displayMessage("Tiddler Renamed");
} else { //tiddler does not exist so this is a new tiddler.
var newTitle = story.saveTiddler(context.title,userParams.minorUpdate);
if(newTitle)
story.displayTiddler(null,newTitle);
story.closeTiddler(context.title,false);
}
}
function getServerType(fields)
{
if(!fields)
return null;
var serverType = fields['server.type'];
if(!serverType)
serverType = fields['wikiformat'];
if(!serverType)
serverType = config.defaultCustomFields['server.type'];
if(!serverType && typeof RevisionAdaptor != 'undefined' && fields.uuid)
serverType = RevisionAdaptor.serverType;
return serverType;
}
function invokeAdaptor(fnName,param1,param2,context,userParams,callback,fields)
{
var serverType = getServerType(fields);
if(!serverType)
return null;
var adaptor = new config.adaptors[serverType];
if(!adaptor)
return false;
if(!config.adaptors[serverType].prototype[fnName])
return false;
adaptor.openHost(fields['server.host']);
adaptor.openWorkspace(fields['server.workspace']);
var ret = false;
if(param1)
ret = param2 ? adaptor[fnName](param1,param2,context,userParams,callback) : adaptor[fnName](param1,context,userParams,callback);
else
ret = adaptor[fnName](context,userParams,callback);
return ret;
}
//# Returns true if function fnName is available for the serverType specified in fields
//# Used by (eg): config.commands.download.isEnabled
function isAdaptorFunctionSupported(fnName,fields)
{
var serverType = getServerType(fields);
if(!serverType || !config.adaptors[serverType])
return false;
if(!config.adaptors[serverType].isLocal && !fields['server.host'])
return false;
var fn = config.adaptors[serverType].prototype[fnName];
return fn ? true : false;
}
config.commands.revisions.isEnabled = function(tiddler)
{
return isAdaptorFunctionSupported('getTiddlerRevisionList',tiddler.fields);
};
config.commands.revisions.handler = function(event,src,title)
{
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(title);
userParams = {};
userParams.tiddler = tiddler;
userParams.src = src;
userParams.dateFormat = config.commands.revisions.dateFormat;
var revisionLimit = 10;
if(!invokeAdaptor('getTiddlerRevisionList',title,revisionLimit,null,userParams,config.commands.revisions.callback,tiddler.fields))
return false;
event.cancelBubble = true;
if(event.stopPropagation)
event.stopPropagation();
return true;
};
config.commands.revisions.callback = function(context,userParams)
// The revisions are returned as tiddlers in the context.revisions array
{
var revisions = context.revisions;
//#displayMessage("config.commands.revisions.callback:"+revisions.length);
popup = Popup.create(userParams.src);
Popup.show(popup,false);
if(revisions.length==0) {
createTiddlyText(createTiddlyElement(popup,'li',null,'disabled'),config.commands.revisions.popupNone);
} else {
revisions.sort(function(a,b) {return a.modified < b.modified ? +1 : -1;});
for(var i=0; i<revisions.length; i++) {
var tiddler = revisions[i];
var modified = tiddler.modified.formatString(context.dateFormat||config.commands.revisions.dateFormat);
var revision = tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'];
var btn = createTiddlyButton(createTiddlyElement(popup,'li'),
config.commands.revisions.revisionTemplate.format([modified,revision,tiddler.modifier]),
tiddler.text||config.commands.revisions.revisionTooltip,
function() {
config.commands.revisions.getTiddlerRevision(this.getAttribute('tiddlerTitle'),this.getAttribute('tiddlerModified'),this.getAttribute('tiddlerRevision'),this);
return false;
},
'tiddlyLinkExisting tiddlyLink');
btn.setAttribute('tiddlerTitle',userParams.tiddler.title);
btn.setAttribute('tiddlerRevision',revision);
btn.setAttribute('tiddlerModified',tiddler.modified.convertToYYYYMMDDHHMM());
if(userParams.tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] == revision || (!userParams.tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] && i==0))
btn.className = 'revisionCurrent';
}
}
};
config.commands.revisions.getTiddlerRevision = function(title,modified,revision)
{
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(title);
var context = {modified:modified};
return invokeAdaptor('getTiddlerRevision',title,revision,context,null,config.commands.revisions.getTiddlerRevisionCallback,tiddler.fields);
};
config.commands.revisions.getTiddlerRevisionCallback = function(context,userParams)
{
if(context.status) {
var tiddler = context.tiddler;
store.addTiddler(tiddler);
store.notify(tiddler.title, true);
story.refreshTiddler(tiddler.title,1,true);
displayMessage(config.commands.revisions.done);
} else {
displayMessage(context.statusText);
}
};
config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted.handler = function(event,src,title)
{
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(title);
if(!tiddler)
return false;
var deleteIt = true;
if(config.options.chkConfirmDelete)
deleteIt = confirm(this.warning.format([title]));
if(deleteIt) {
var ret = invokeAdaptor('deleteTiddler',title,null,null,null,config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted.callback,tiddler.fields);
if(ret){
store.removeTiddler(title);
story.closeTiddler(title,true);
autoSaveChanges();
store.setDirty(false);
}
}
return false;
};
config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted.callback = function(context,userParams)
{
if(context.status) {
displayMessage(config.commands.deleteTiddlerHosted.done + context.title);
} else {
if (context.statusText.indexOf("Not Found") == -1)
displayMessage(context.statusText);
}
};
}//# end of 'install only once'
//}}}
// ccAdaptor //
//{{{
function isLoggedIn(){
return (window.loggedIn == '1')
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype = new AdaptorBase();
ccTiddlyAdaptor.mimeType = 'application/json';
ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverType = 'cctiddly'; // MUST BE LOWER CASE
ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverParsingErrorMessage = "Error parsing result from server";
ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorInFunctionMessage = "Error in function ccTiddlyAdaptor.%0";
ccTiddlyAdaptor.minHostName = function(host){
return host ? host.replace(/^http:\/\//,'').replace(/\/$/,'') : '';
};
// Convert a page title to the normalized form used in uris
ccTiddlyAdaptor.normalizedTitle = function(title){
return title;
};
// Convert a date in YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm format into a JavaScript Date object
ccTiddlyAdaptor.dateFromEditTime = function(editTime){
var dt = editTime;
return new Date(Date.UTC(dt.substr(0,4),dt.substr(5,2)-1,dt.substr(8,2),dt.substr(11,2),dt.substr(14,2)));
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.login = function(context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/loginFile.php?cctuser=%1&cctpass=%2';
var uri = uriTemplate.format([context.host,context.username,context.password]);
var req = httpReq('GET',uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.loginCallback,context);
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.loginCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
if(xhr.status==401){
context.status = false;
}else{
context.status = true;
var c='sessionToken'+"="+responseText;
c+="; expires=Fri, 1 Jan 2811 12:00:00 UTC; host=*";
document.cookie=c;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.register = function(context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/register.php';
var uri = uriTemplate.format([context.host,context.username,Crypto.hexSha1Str(context.password)]);
var dataTemplate = 'username=&0®_mail=%1&password=%2&password2=%3';
var data = dataTemplate.format([context.username,context.password1,context.password2]);
var req = httpReq('POST', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.registerCallback,context,null,data);
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.rename = function(context, userParams, callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
var uri = window.url+"handle/renameTiddler.php?otitle="+context.title+"&ntitle="+context.newTitle+"&workspace="+window.workspace;
httpReq('POST', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.renameCallback,context,null,null);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.renameCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.registerCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
if(status){
context.status = true;
}else{
context.status = false;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.getWorkspaceList = function(context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/listWorkspaces.php';
var uri = uriTemplate.format([context.host]);
var req = httpReq('GET', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.getWorkspaceListCallback,context,{'accept':'application/json'});
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.getWorkspaceListCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
context.status = false;
context.workspaces = [];
context.statusText = ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorInFunctionMessage.format(['getWorkspaceListCallback']);
if(status){
try{
eval('var workspaces=' + responseText);
}catch (ex){
context.statusText = exceptionText(ex,ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverParsingErrorMessage);
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
return;
}
for (var i=0; i < workspaces.length; i++){
context.workspaces.push({title:workspaces[i]})
}
context.status = true;
}else{
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.getTiddlerList = function(context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/listTiddlers.php?workspace=%1';
var uri = uriTemplate.format([context.host,context.workspace]);
var req = httpReq('GET', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerListCallback,context,{'accept':'application/json'});
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerListCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
context.status = false;
context.statusText = ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorInFunctionMessage.format(['getTiddlerListCallback']);
if(status){
try{
eval('var tiddlers=' + responseText);
}catch (ex){
context.statusText = exceptionText(ex,ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverParsingErrorMessage);
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
return;
}
var list = [];
for(var i=0; i < tiddlers.length; i++){
var tiddler = new Tiddler(tiddlers[i]['title']);
tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] = tiddlers[i]['revision'];
list.push(tiddler);
}
context.tiddlers = list;
context.status = true;
}else{
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.generateTiddlerInfo = function(tiddler){
var info ={};
var host = this && this.host ? this.host : this.fullHostName(tiddler.fields['server.host']);
var bag = tiddler.fields['server.bag']
var workspace = tiddler.fields['server.workspace']
var uriTemplate = '%0/%1/#%2';
info.uri = uriTemplate.format([host,workspace,tiddler.title]);
return info;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.getTiddlerRevision = function(title,revision,context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
if(revision)
context.revision = revision;
return this.getTiddler(title,context,userParams,callback);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.getTiddler = function(title,context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
if(title)
context.title = title;
if(context.revision){
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/revisionDisplay.php?title=%2&workspace=%1&revision=%3';
}else{
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/getTiddler.php?title=%2&workspace=%1';
}
uri = uriTemplate.format([context.host,context.workspace,ccTiddlyAdaptor.normalizedTitle(title),context.revision]);
context.tiddler = new Tiddler(title);
context.tiddler.fields['server.type'] = ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverType;
context.tiddler.fields['server.host'] = ccTiddlyAdaptor.minHostName(context.host);
context.tiddler.fields['server.workspace'] = context.workspace;
var req = httpReq('GET', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerCallback,context,{'accept':'application/json'});
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
context.status = false;
context.statusText = ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorInFunctionMessage.format(['getTiddlerCallback']);
if(status){
var info=[]
try{
eval('info=' + responseText);
}catch (ex){
context.statusText = exceptionText(ex,ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverParsingErrorMessage);
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
return;
}
context.tiddler.text = info['text'];
context.tiddler.tags = info['tags'].split(" ");
context.tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] = info['revision'];
context.tiddler.modifier = info['modifier'];
context.tiddler.modified = Date.convertFromYYYYMMDDHHMM(info['modified']);
context.tiddler.created = Date.convertFromYYYYMMDDHHMM(info['created']);
context.status = true;
}else{
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
return;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.getTiddlerRevisionList = function(title,limit,context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
context.title = title;
context.revisions = [];
var tiddler = store.fetchTiddler(title);
var encodedTitle = encodeURIComponent(title);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/revisionList.php?workspace=%1&title=%2';
var host = this.fullHostName(this.host);
var workspace = context.workspace ? context.workspace : tiddler.fields['server.workspace'];
var uri = uriTemplate.format([host,workspace,encodedTitle]);
var req = httpReq('GET', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerRevisionListCallback,context);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.getTiddlerRevisionListCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
if(responseText.indexOf('<!DOCTYPE html')==1)
status = false;
if(xhr.status=="204")
status = false;
context.status = false;
if(status){
var r = responseText;
if(r != '-' && r.trim() != 'revision not found'){
var revs = r.split('\n');
for(var i=0; i<revs.length; i++){
var parts = revs[i].split(' ');
if(parts.length>1){
var tiddler = new Tiddler(context.title);
tiddler.modified = Date.convertFromYYYYMMDDHHMM(parts[0]);
tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] = String(parts[1]);
tiddler.modifier = String(parts[2]);
tiddler.fields['server.host'] = ccTiddlyAdaptor.minHostName(context.host);
tiddler.fields['server.type'] = ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverType;
context.revisions.push(tiddler);
}
}
}
context.revisions.sort(function(a,b){return a.modified<b.modified?+1:-1;});
context.status = true;
}else{
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.putTiddler = function(tiddler,context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
context.title = tiddler.title;
var recipeuriTemplate = '%0/handle/save.php';
var host = context.host ? context.host : this.fullHostName(tiddler.fields['server.host']);
var uri = recipeuriTemplate.format([host,context.workspace,tiddler.title]);
var d = new Date();
d.setTime(Date.parse(tiddler['modified']));
d = d.convertToYYYYMMDDHHMM();
var fieldString = "";
for (var name in tiddler.fields){
if (String(tiddler.fields[name]))
fieldString += name +"='"+tiddler.fields[name]+"' ";
}
// Freds SEO Code
if(workspace)
var breaker = "/";
else
var breaker = "";
var el = createTiddlyElement(document.body, "div", "ccTiddlyTMP", null, null, { "style.display": "none" });
var formatter = new Formatter(config.formatters);
var wikifier = new Wikifier(tiddler.text,formatter,null,tiddler);
wikifier.isStatic = true;
wikifier.subWikify(el);
delete formatter;
var links = el.getElementsByTagName("a");
for(var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
var tiddlyLink = links[i].getAttribute("tiddlyLink");
if(tiddlyLink) {
if(hasClass(links[i], "tiddlyLinkNonExisting")) { // target tiddler does not exist
links[i].href = "#";
} else {
links[i].href = url+ workspace + breaker +tiddlyLink + ".html";
}
}
}
// End Freds SEO Code
if(tiddler.fields['server.page.revision']==1)
tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] = 10000;
else
tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'] = parseInt(tiddler.fields['server.page.revision'],10)+1;
if(!context.otitle)
var otitle = tiddler.title;
else
var otitle = context.otitle;
var payload = "workspace="+window.workspace+"&otitle="+encodeURIComponent(otitle)+"&title="+encodeURIComponent(tiddler.title) + "&modified="+tiddler.modified.convertToYYYYMMDDHHMM()+"&modifier="+tiddler.modifier + "&tags="+tiddler.getTags()+"&revision="+encodeURIComponent(tiddler.fields['server.page.revision']) + "&fields="+encodeURIComponent(fieldString)+
"&body="+encodeURIComponent(tiddler.text)+"&wikifiedBody="+encodeURIComponent(el.innerHTML)+"";
var req = httpReq('POST', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.putTiddlerCallback,context,{'Content-type':'application/x-www-form-urlencoded', "Content-length": payload.length},payload,"application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
removeNode(el);
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.center = function(el){
var size = this.getsize(el);
el.style.left = (Math.round(findWindowWidth()/2) - (size.width /2) + findScrollX())+'px';
el.style.top = (Math.round(findWindowHeight()/2) - (size.height /2) + findScrollY())+'px';
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.getsize = function (el){
var x ={};
x.width = el.offsetWidth || el.style.pixelWidth;
x.height = el.offsetHeight || el.style.pixelHeight;
return x;
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.showCloak = function(){
var cloak = document.getElementById('backstageCloak');
if (config.browser.isIE){
cloak.style.height = Math.max(document.documentElement.scrollHeight,document.documentElement.offsetHeight);
cloak.style.width = document.documentElement.scrollWidth;
}
cloak.style.display = "block";
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.hideError = function(){
var box = document.getElementById('errorBox');
box.parentNode.removeChild(box);
document.getElementById('backstageCloak').style.display = "";
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.handleError = function(error_code){
setStylesheet(
"#errorBox .button{padding:0.5em 1em; border:1px solid #222; background-color:#ccc; color:black; margin-right:1em;}\n"+
"html > body > #backstageCloak{height:100%;}"+
"#errorBox{border:1px solid #ccc;background-color: #eee; color:#111;padding:1em 2em; z-index:9999;}",'errorBoxStyles');
var box = document.getElementById('errorBox') || createTiddlyElement(document.body,'div','errorBox');
var error = ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorTitleNotSaved;
switch(error_code){
case 401:
error += ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorTextSessionExpired;
break;
case 409:
error += ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorTextConflict;
break;
default:
error += ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorTextUnknown+"<br />"+ccTiddlyAdaptor.msgErrorCode+error_code;
}
box.innerHTML = " <a style='float:right' href='javascript:onclick=ccTiddlyAdaptor.hideError()'>"+ccTiddlyAdaptor.errorClose+"</a><p>"+error+"</p><br/><br/>";
createTiddlyButton(box,ccTiddlyAdaptor.buttonOpenNewWindow,null,function(e){ window.open (window.location,"mywindow"); return false;});
createTiddlyElement(box,"br");
createTiddlyElement(box,"br");
createTiddlyButton(box,ccTiddlyAdaptor.buttonHideThisMessage,null,function(){ccTiddlyAdaptor.hideError();});
box.style.position = 'absolute';
ccTiddlyAdaptor.center(box);
ccTiddlyAdaptor.showCloak();
}
ccTiddlyAdaptor.putTiddlerCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
context.status = false;
if(status){
context.status = true;
}else{
context.status = false;
if(xhr.status == 401 || xhr.status==409){
ccTiddlyAdaptor.handleError(xhr.status);
}else{
ccTiddlyAdaptor.handleError(xhr.status);
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
}
}
if(context.callback){
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
}
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.prototype.deleteTiddler = function(title,context,userParams,callback){
context = this.setContext(context,userParams,callback);
context.title = title;
title = encodeURIComponent(title);
var host = this && this.host ? this.host : this.fullHostName(tiddler.fields['server.host']);
var uriTemplate = '%0/handle/delete.php?workspace=%1&title=%2';
var uri = uriTemplate.format([host,context.workspace,title]);
var req = httpReq('POST', uri,ccTiddlyAdaptor.deleteTiddlerCallback,context);
return typeof req == 'string' ? req : true;
};
ccTiddlyAdaptor.deleteTiddlerCallback = function(status,context,responseText,uri,xhr){
if(status){
context.status = true;
}else{
context.status = false;
context.statusText = xhr.statusText;
}
if(context.callback)
context.callback(context,context.userParams);
};
config.adaptors[ccTiddlyAdaptor.serverType] = ccTiddlyAdaptor;
//}}}
//}}}
Welcome to ccTiddly 1.7. To get started please read the [[Help]]
Doug's Thinking Space
...a space to put everything that doesn't fit elsewhere.
[img[Bayeux Tapestry|http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Bayeuxtap1.jpg/300px-Bayeuxtap1.jpg]]
__Would you invade 11th century England?__
//To decide whether England was worth invading and for what reason(s).//
__Who wanted to invade England in the 1060s?__
//To be able to name at least two kings who wanted to invade England and why they wanted to do so.//
*Terry Eagleton - [[Forgive Me Big Brother, I Have Sinned]]
''S. Chaiklin, 'A Developmental Teaching Approach to Schooling' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton (eds.), //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002)''
''p.168'' - Reason for schools being set up = control and influence over thinking and personality:
<<<
Obligatory schooling was first created and maintained by European states in order to develop the personalities of children in relation to the state... That original nationalist interest is still evident in contemporary school systems.
<<<
''p.168-9'' - Personality is 'learned' along with subject matter at school:
<<<
Personality is developed through the acquisition of psychological capabilities in relation to societally meaningful practices. These psychological functions are not developed in a general or abstract way, but only through working with specific substantive content - subject-matter content in the case of schooling. Therefore, subject-matter teaching that develops learning activity for specific contents is fundamental for the development of personality.
<<<
''p.170-1'' - Curriculum development should be carried in coordination with subject-matter analysis in order to link 'the general to the specific':
<<<
...considerations of what disciplines should be included in a school programme and what topics should be taught for the selected diciplines... cannot be done without at least an informal or superficial subject-matter analysis... Ideally, one would want curricular decisions to be based on a more systematic consderation of subject-matter knowledge and its relations to societal practices.
<<<
''p.171'' - 'Global curricular questions' are usually already decided and institutionalized in various ways - i.e. national curriculum, examination demands, textbooks, etc. They are therefore 'beyond the grasp of classroom teachers.'
''J.L. Lemke, 'Becoming the Village: Education Across Lives' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton (eds.), //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002)''
''p.35-6'' - Schools should be like villages:
<<<
We may prefer one particular way of working, but becuase we must work together, we must also learn how to collaborate. Some of us prefer telling stories, others liek to argue; some like to draw, others prefer building things; but we must all learn how our words and their pictures can be combined, and how building gets connected to drawing and to telling. We become individuals who liek and prefer, but we always also gradually become in a larger sense the whole village. We learn to take part by learning how parts fit together. Over time we learn that there is nothing worthwhile we can do without a tool someone else has made, without combining ways of working we're comfortable with and ways we're not but others are, without taking into account viewpoints that are unfamiliar or unpleasant, without finding a way through conflict. What we do when we learn is to enter into social activities.
<<<
''p.35-6'' - Purpose of learning = to be able to put what is learned into practice, or to apply it:
<<<
When we start from the concept of learning alone, we tend to think only of the person who learns and to forget that //what// we learn is how to live successfully in a world of other people, and //how// we learn is by participating in the activities of our community. When we think of learning as something that happens now, we may forget that learning only has value if it lasts long enough to be put to use, and that we know much less about changes in behaviour that accumulate over the years than we do about what happens in a minute or an hour.
<<<
''p.36-7'' - Cultural factors shape everything we do - even when learning 'alone':
<<<
Participation in socially meaningful activities is not just what we learn, it is also how we learn. Even if we are alone, reading a book, the activity of reading - knowing which end to start at, whether to read a page left-to-right or right-to-left, top-down or bottom-up, and how to turn the pages, not to mention making sense of a language, a writing system, an authorial style, a genre forma (e.g. a dictionary vs. a novel) - depends on conducting the activity in a way that is culturally meaningful to us. Even if we are lost in the woods, with no material tools, trying to find our way or just make sense of the plants or stars, we are still engaged in making meanings with cultural tools such as language (names of flowers or constellations) or learned genres of visual images (flower drawings or star maps). We extend forms of activity that we have learned by previous social participation to our present lonely situation.
<<<
''p.37'' - Problem is that simplifying something that is supposed to be the first rung on a ladder to something else is that it becomes too disconnected from the thing to which it is supposed to lead onto:
<<<
The strategy of schooling, in fact, always runs the risk of school becoming too unlike professional practice: a bridge to nowhere.
<<<
''p.41'' - Identities aren't just formed at school - but curricula take no account of this:
<<<
An identity... has to be nurtured, by us and by others, in more parts of the day than a single classroom hour, outside school as well as inside, after school and after schooling. But our curricula are not designed in these terms; we believe in teaching knowledge, rather than building character. In most education there is no real effort to integrate experiences in school and outside of school; indeed the academic curriculum all but rejects as worthless or irrelevant nearly all that happens to students outisde of school.
<<<
''p.43'' - Schools should not be merely inward-looking 'micro-villages', but should be relevant to wider cultures:
<<<
Students in schools today are deeply alienated from the curriculum. For many students school presents an alternate reality that bears no obvious connection to the rest of their lives. Some take it on faith that obedient conformity will lead to later financial rewards; many are justly sceptical as to whether that promise applies to them. Schools as institutions are isolated from the mainstream of both public and private life. Far from helping students to understand the village in which they live, schools become micro-villages in their own right, with their own typical activities that are only distantly related to those outside. The range of activities that occur in schools is narrow and impoverished in its diversity compared to the activities that define the reality of the larger village.
<<<
''p.44'' - No 'real world' learning going on in schools:
<<<
Is it wrong to describe schools as buildings consisting of empty rooms where too many children and too few adults talk about or enact pale simulations of the rich and varied activities of the community around them, rather than actually observing or participating in those activities?
<<<
''p.44'' - Need for planning in schools for continuity and intellectual development:
<<<
Organizationally, schools minimize the opportunity for long-term intellectual and identity development by severing the bonds between teacher and student every several months, disconnecting the study of each subject from all the others, and even dividing the day into periods defined by a clock rather than by the needs of learning. The whole point of intellectual and identity development is to learn to integrate experience over progressively longer time-scales, but the institutional arrangements of schooling seem deliberately designed to thwart this effort. How often do students get the opportunity to engage in sustained learning projects that stretch their abilities to organize activity across longer time-scales? And what kinds of projects could engage the interest and attention of students on these longer scales?
<<<
''p.45'' - New technologies will eventually replace the need for some classroom instruction:
<<<
New technologies can often do the job of simulating and talking about the typical activities of the community far better than the average teacher in the average classroom. Technologies will not, however, be able to substitute for direct participation, nor will they be able to replace thoughtful guidance of students' critical reflection and analysis, nor the emotional encouragement of achievement and creativity that live teachers provide.
<<<
''p.45'' - Collaborative, negotatiated learning is the way forward:
<<<
Schools will become places where students and their teachers decide together what comes next: collaborative projects, participatory internships, multimedia study modules, specialized learning activities, places to see and things to do. Students will participate in online peer-discussion groups, in cross-age groups where they can learn from older students and teach younger ones, and they will also have online access to a wide range of part-time mentors who mainly live and work in the world outside schools.
<<<
''I. Snyder, 'Beyond the hype: reassessing hypertext' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.126-7'' - Definition of ''hypertext'':
<<<
A hypertext is constructed partly by the writers who create the links, and partly by the reader who decide which threads to follow. Unlike printed texts, which generally compel readers to read in a linear fashion - from left to right and from top to bottom of the page - hypertexts encourage readers to move from one text-chunk to another, rapidly and non-sequentially. Hypertext differs from printed text by offering readers multiple paths through a body of information: it allows them to make their own connections, incorporate their own links, and produce their own meanings. Hypertext consequently blurs the boundaries between readers and writers. These differences help support the view that the use of hypertext affects how we read and write, how we teach reading and writing, and how we define literacy practices.
<<<
//(absolutely: if hypertext is this different, it affects what we mean by literacy)//
''p.132'' - 'Technological determinism' = the assumption that 'qualities inherent in the computer medium itself are responsible for changes in social and cultural practices.'
//(as wrong-headed as saying 'The Pill produced a sexual revolution' or 'Hypertext transforms education')//
''p.135'' - Hypertext needs to be used in different ways by teachers:
<<<
Hypertext is both a teaching and a learning tool. If teachers are prepared to transfer to students much of the responsibility for accessing, sequencing and deriving meaning from information, hypertext can provide an environment in which explanatory or discovery learning may flourish. Hypertext users participate actively when locating information: students become reader-authors, either by choosing individual paths through linked information, or by adding texts and links to the network. Hypertext systems seem to foster an implicit, incidental and contextual kind of learning, which is widely regarded as more enduring and transferable than direct, explicit teaching.
<<<
//(hence the benefits of new media - blogs, wikis & podcasts)//
''p.138'' - Hypertext embodies postmodern theories r.e. text.
''p.139-40'' - No //one// impact of hypertext:
<<<
Technological determinists who predict the social consequences of hypertext tend to rely vulnerably on either a utopian or a dystopian view of the future. But because hypertext can be used for all sorts of purposes, it can both 'liberate' and 'constrain' educational and social practices. It 'can be an enormously liberating innovation or a powerful system of ideological hegemony' (Burbules & Callister, 1996, p.43).
<<<
//(wrong, therefore, to have extreme view r.e. impact)//
''p.140'' - Snyder quotes Umberto Eco (1995):
<<<
Even if it were true that today visual communication has overwhelmed written communication, the problem is not one of opposing written to visual communication. The problem is rather how to improve both.
<<<
//(educators need to think about how they can build upon things that are already happening in the wider world)//
''Grossman, P.L. & Stodolsky, S.S., 'Content as Context: the role of school subjects in secondary school teaching' (in R. McCormick & C. Paechter (eds.), //Learning and Knowledge//, OUP, 1999)''
''p.234-5'' - Most studies of schools focus on the whole school rather than individual school subjects. The authors argue that 'the nature of the parent discipline and features of the school subject, as well as teachers' beliefs regarding the subject, help create a conceptual context within which teachers work.' Authors will argue that 'these subcultures are characterized by differing beliefs, norms, and practices that affect teachers' work and responses to reform efforts'.
''p.237'' - Teachers in some subject areas have more freedom than those in others:
<<<
...teachers of broad, less well-defined subjects, such as English or social studies, may feel a greater sense of curricular autonomy than do teachers of more defined and more sequential school subjects. Because the subjects they teach are so broad, they may feel they need to make individual choices about what to include and what not to include.
<<<
''p.242'' - If teachers have autonomy, they are more likely to resent reforms:
<<<
If they perceive and value greater autonomy over the content to be taught as an inherent feature of the subject they teach, teachers may resent reforms that threaten to deprive them of this autonomy. At the same time, such policies may have th side-effect of encouraging more departmental coordination of th ecurriculum or at least discussion of what is being taught...
<<<
''Bennett, S., Maton, K. & Kervin, L.'' (2008) [[The 'digital natives' debate: A critical review of the evidence|http://bit.ly/RwBMe]] (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 39:5, pp.775-786)
*''p.776'' - Authors define the territory:
<<<
The generation born roughly between 1980 and 1994 has been characterised as the ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001a) or the ‘Net generation’ (Tapscott, 1998) because of their familiarity with and reliance on ICT. They are described as living lives immersed in technology, ‘sur rounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age’ (Prensky, 2001a, p. 1). Social researchers Howe and Strauss (2000, 2003), labelled this generation the ‘millenials’, ascribing to them distinct characteristics that set them apart from
previous generations. They offer a positive view of this new generation as optimistic, team-oriented achievers who are talented with technology, and claim they will be America’s next ‘great generation’.
<<<
//(it would seem, then, that on this definition I - being born in 1980 - would qualify as a 'Digital Native'!)//
*''p.777'' - Authors identify 2 main assumptions in literature:
<<<
The claim made for the existence of a generation of ‘digital natives’ is based on two main assumptions in the literature, which can be summarised as follows:
1. Young people of the digital native generation possess sophisticated knowledge of
and skills with information technologies.
2. As a result of their upbringing and experiences with technology, digital natives have
particular learning preferences or styles that differ from earlier generations of students.
<<<
*''p.778'' - Different //types// of technology used to diffeing extents by 'Digital Natives':
<<<
The general thrust of these findings is supported by two recent studies of Australian university students (Kennedy, Krause, Judd, Churchward & Gray, 2006; Oliver & Goerke, 2007) showing similar patterns in access to ICTs. These studies also found that emerging technologies were not commonly used, with only 21% of respondents maintaining a blog, 24% using social-networking technologies (Kennedy et al, 2006), and 21.5% downloading podcasts (Oliver & Goerke, 2007). As observed by Kennedy et al (2006), although many of the students were using a wide range of technologies in their daily lives, ‘there are clearly areas where the use of and familiarity with technology- based tools is far from universal’ (p. 8). Some of this research (Kennedy et al, 2006); Kvavik et al, 2005) has identified potential differences related to socio-economic status, cultural/ethnic background, gender and discipline specialisation, but these are yet to be comprehensively investigated. Also not yet explored is the relationship between technology access, use and skill, and the attitudinal characteristics and dispositions commonly ascribed to the digital native generation.
<<<
//(my own experience bears this out - students good at ''procedural'' stuff, but not at being creative with digital tools)//
*''p.779'' - As much difference //within// generations as //between// generations:
<<<
Such generalisations about a whole generation of young people thereby focus attention on technically adept students. With this comes the danger that those less interested and less able will be neglected, and that the potential impact of socio-economic and cultural factors will be overlooked. It may be that there is as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations.
<<<
//(and if this is the case, makes no sense to talk of 'natives' and 'immigrants')//
*''p.779'' - 'Digital Natives' aren't the first generation to 'multitask', nor is there any evidence that it's a good thing:
<<<
Although such claims may appeal to our common-sense perceptions of a rapidly changing world, there is no evidence that multitasking is a new phenomenon exclusive to digital natives. The oft-used example of a young person doing homework while engaged in other activities was also applied to earlier generations doing homework in front of the television. Such examples may resonate with our personal observations, but research in cognitive psychology reveals a more complex picture. For example, multitasking may not be as beneficial as it appears, and can result in a loss of concentration and cognitive ‘overload’ as the brain shifts between competing stimuli (Rubinstein, Meyer & Evans, 2001; Sweller, 1988).
<<<
//(you can actually only focus on one thing at a time - need references for this! it's just micro-attention-switching)//
*''p.780'' - Attributing a learning style to a whole generation is problematic:
<<<
Furthermore, the claim that there might be a particular learning style or set of learning preferences characteristic of a generation of young people is highly problematic. Learning style theories (cf, Jonassen & Grabowski, 1993; Kolb, 1984) do differentiate between different preferences learners might have and different approaches they might adopt, but these are not seen as static, nor are they generalisable to whole populations. Such theories acknowledge significant variability between individuals. Research also shows that students change their approach to learning depending on their perception of what a task requires and their previous success with a particular approach (Biggs, 2003;
Ramsden, 1992). To attribute a particular learning style or even general preferences to a whole generation is thus questionable.
<<<
''p.781'' - Authors question how transferable and useful the skills 'Digital Natives' develop at home for //real// learning:
<<<
Furthermore, questions must be asked about the relevance to education of the everyday ICTs skills possessed by technically adept young people. For example, it cannot be assumed that knowing how to look up ‘cheats’ for computer games on the Internet bears any relation to the skills required to assess a website’s relevance for a school project. Indeed, existing research suggests otherwise. When observing students interacting with text obtained from an Internet search, Sutherland-Smith (2002) reported that many were easily frustrated when not instantly gratified in their search for immediate answers and appeared to adopt a ‘snatch and grab philosophy’ (p. 664). Similarly, Eagleton, Guinee and Langlais (2003) observed middle-school students often making ‘hasty, random choices with little thought and evaluation’ (p. 30).
<<<
*''p.782'' - Idea borrowed from Cohen (1972) of a 'moral panic' r.e. 'Digital Natives':
<<<
Cohen’s (1972) notion of a ‘moral panic’ is helpful in understanding the form taken by the digital natives debate. In general, moral panics occur when a particular group in society, such as a youth subculture, is portrayed by the news media as embodying a threat to societal values and norms. The attitudes and practices of the group are subjected to intense media focus, which, couched in sensationalist language, amplifies the apparent threat. So, the term ‘moral panic’ refers to the form the public discourse takes rather than to an actual panic among the populous. The concept of moral panic is
widely used in the social sciences to explain how an issue of public concern can achieve a prominence that exceeds the evidence in support of the phenomenon (see Thompson, 1998).
In many ways, much of the cur rent debate about digital natives represents an academic form of moral panic. Arguments are often couched in dramatic language, proclaim a profound change in the world, and pronounce stark generational differences.
<<<
*''p.782-3'' - Problem of those who don't believe in the Native/Immigrant distinction - seen by some as 'obvious', therefore those who don't believe in it automatically 'out of touch':
<<<
Another feature of this ‘academic moral panic’ is its structure as a series of strongly bounded divides: between a new generation and all previous generations; between the technically adept and those who are not; and between learners and teachers. A further divide is then created between those who believe in the digital native phenomenon and those who question it. Teachers who do not change their practices are labelled as ‘lazy’ and ‘ineffective’ (Prensky, 2001a). Those who refuse to recognise what is described as an inevitable change are said to be in denial, resistant and out of touch, and are
portrayed as being without legitimate concerns (Downes, 2007; Tapscott, 1998).
<<<
*''p.783'' - Summary of authors' position:
<<<
The claim that there is a distinctive new generation of students in possession of sophisticated technology skills and with learning preferences for which education is not equipped to support has excited much recent attention. Proponents arguing that education must change dramatically to cater for the needs of these digital natives have sparked an academic form of a ‘moral panic’ using extreme arguments that have lacked empirical evidence.
The picture beginning to emerge from research on young people’s relationships with technology is much more complex than the digital native characterisation suggests. While technology is embedded in their lives, young people’s use and skills are not uniform. There is no evidence of widespread and universal disaffection, or of a distinctly different learning style the like of which has never been seen before. We may live in a highly technologised world, but it is conceivable that it has become so through evolution, rather than revolution. Young people may do things differently, but there are no grounds to consider them alien to us. Education may be under challenge to change, but it is not clear that it is being rejected.
<<<
Salomon & Almod (1998) - constructivist beliefs r.e. learning - which is a process,
<<<
"whereby learners construct their own knowledge by applying their existing knowledge and mental skills to novel incoming information, constructing their own meanings as they go along."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.256
----
Roberts (1998) - socio-constructivism:
<<<
"Good learning is a process of socially based, active co-construction of contextualized knowledge and webs of relations among its nodes."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.256
----
Pressures of cost & time in education sector have led to version of the constructivist paradigm, which makes "a virtue out of a necessity."
Rushby, 'Editorial: where are the new paradigms?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:3, 2005), p.360
----
''R. Smith & P. Curtin, 'Children, computers and life online: education in a cyber-world' (in I. Snyder, //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.211'' - Authors believe that children in 1998 are different from 1988:
<<<
...children raised in contemporary Australia [1998] are attitudinally and cognitively predisposed to life in general and formal education in particular in ways that make them quite different to children of even a decade ago.
<<<
//(I was of that generation, so perhaps could give my take on it...)//
''p.212'' - Boundaries between humans and machines have become blurred which means that children have 'new needs and new capacities' (Green & Bigum, 1993, p.119)
''p.215'' - Older generations that 'excessive computer use' replaces human interaction and can hamper development. However:
<<<
Our interpretation of the research is that human communication skills are fundamental to computer use and that interaction is of prime importance in an Internet environment because people are challenged to communicate with others from many 'cultures'.
<<<
Also:
<<<
The assumption that the young are losing out on human interaction possibly reflects the ignorance of an older generation and its inability to accept any form of radical change.
<<<
//(absolutely spot on - each generation worries about the younger generation!)//
''p,221-2'' - Saturation in a virtual world is commonplace for younger generations:
<<<
Indeed, the very conventionality and mundaneness of their everyday lives disguises the pervasive use of computer-based devices. In an epistemological sense, they are a whole historical period removed from their parents' and most of their teachers' generations. Their interest in print literacy has waned in comparison with that of former generations and their meta-representation or self-structure is generated by a social context in which electronic media is an organisational principle for social life. The children in our sample are better prepared for dealing with computing concepts, the virtual reality world of cyberspace, the Internet and hypertext than their parents are because they have acquired a repetoire of social practices thatlink computer-based artefacts to the structure of self. This behaviour flexibility enables the young to colonise the new electronic environments (Brandon & Hornstein 1986)
<<<
//(see if I can tie in the mention of literacy with an article saying that we actually read more now than ever before - just that most of it is digital)//
''p.223'' - By 2010, computer technology will no longer be 'alien', it will be mainstream:
<<<
If we are correct... by about 2010 the techno-cultural understanding and practices of the children described in this chapter will incorporate the whole sociocultural space called adulthood so that there is no computer technology 'alien' phenomenon as such. There will be other discontinuities between generations, to be sure, but in our view the shift to the electronic revolution will have been achieved.
<<<
//(we're getting there - c.f. Facebook with people in their 20s/30s - but ''literacy''?)//
''p.227'' - Clark (1992, p.552) - there is no such thing as the 'general idea' of something, there are only many minute particulars which, when fully comprehended, can be referred to in shorthand by a single name.
//(This could be very important to my thesis - i.e. ''there is no such thing as digital literacy!'')//
''p.227'' - Technology challenges the dominant conception of schools, which is perhaps they tend to be a bit conservative:
<<<
Schools seem even more quaint and shaky against the backdrop of technology and the new kinds of capacities and needs demonstrated by the children in our sample.
<<<
''p.228'' - Younger teachers feel a tension between the 'real' and digital worlds:
<<<
...younger teachers, forced into the rigidity of a schooling order that seeks certainty, respond by adopting strategies that rely more on presentation styles like visualisation and performance than on printed text.
<<<
//(''I feel this!'' We're focusing on style rather than the substance because we don't have the power (yet) to change things...)//
''p229'' - 'Literacy' is a political issue:
<<<
What 'communication' and 'literacy' might mean in this social habitat is of considerable political interest... It is widely believed that the ability to read print and the possession of background knowledge that makes reading are meaningful but not sufficient for today's young. The new literacy, referred to by Green (1996) as 'computeracy' or 'computent', contains a vastly different set of capacities. It demands a style of relating to computers and, moreover, the connection of the technology to 'a constellation of cultural associations' (Turkle 1995, p.61)
<<<
//(this 'computeracy' is ''digital literacy'' - and is something above and beyond basic definitions of literacy)//
''p.229'' - The reader as author is an element of digital literacy:
<<<
...at the core of the new literacy are the notions of a 'soft' style: playing with bits of the program and the tasks at hand, having a relationship with the computer or video game, having a conversation with the work materials, dealing with electronic devices as expressive media (Turkle 1995)
<<<
//(Yes, this is the Read/Write web...)//
''p.230'' - Lemke (1993) - we should revise literacy to go back to a pre-literate age of image which would actually move us two seps forward. Literacy would become 'immersed in' and also be a 'by-product' of images.
''Snyder, I., 'Communication, Imagination, Critique - Literacy Education for the Electronic Age' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silicon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002) ''
''p.177'' - Bauman (2001) - a distinctive mark of contemporary living is an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty - the world is essentially 'undecidable, uncontrollable and hence frightening'.
''p.178'' - Bourdieu (1998) - a hold on the present must precede any intention to transform it. This is difficult to achieve given the 'precariousness' of the contemporary life. People have no control over mysterious forces called 'recession', 'competitiveness', etc.
//(this is a reason why we need to change what we teach in schools)//
''p.179'' - The present period is marked by 'radical instability' (Kress 2000).
''p.179'' - One of the central changes is that of communication:
<<<
Central to all these changes is the altering of the landscape of representation and communication. We are in the midst of a shift from an era of mass communication to an era of individuated communication; from unidirectional communication from a centre to the ass, to multidirectional communication from many locations; from the 'passive' audience to the 'interactive' audience. Clearly, these changes have direct and profound implications for literacy education - not just for the future, but also for the present.
<<<
''p.179'' - Great quotation r.e. schools:
<<<
''The world for which schools were formed no longer exists.'' Except for our inevitable death, the future is unknowable and unpredictable.
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.181'' - 21st century literacy education:
<<<
A central aim of effective literacy education in the electronic age is to provide students with opportunities to learn not only how to communicate more effectively, but also how to respond in critical and informed ways to the disintegration of conventional world views, world orders and social formations, a process mediated and accelerated by the availability of increasingly sophisticated electronic technologies.... We need to develop pedagogical and curriculum frameworks that seek to endow students with a sense of their place in the new global system, but also with the capacity to view that system critically.
<<<
''C. Beavis, 'Computer games, culture and curriculum' (in I. Snyder, //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.238'' - Two major issues which decide how schools change for the future:
<<<
Any evaluation of future directions for the curriculum takes place in the larger context of the relationship between schools and society, and the role that schools are called upon to play in the formation and reformation of the community. Central to such debates run two threads: the purposes of schooling; and the relationship between education and culture.
<<<
//(Which is why actually every school should be different, and what it means to be 'digitally literate' could vary context-to-context...)//
''p.240'' - 'Literacy' tends to be directed towards 'high culture' which is actually a //minority// culture. //(Aren't schools supposed to be about helping students understand the world around them? Also, cultures are fluid and dynamic, not static!)//
''p.242'' - We need to start from where students are at, which involves a certain element of digital literacy - Buckingham (1993):
<<<
If the curriculum is to equip young people to understand and participate in their society, it must invariably begin by acknowledging the cultural experiences of the majority.
<<<
//(links to previous quotation)//
''p.243'' - Lemke (1993) - literacies become obsolete:
<<<
The image of literacy that most of us now have will be obsolete before today's new readers and writers have finished primary school
<<<
//(This might be a good quotation to introduce a section?)//
''p.244'' - Difficult to pin down what it means to be 'literate':
<<<
Just what it is to be 'literate' in social terms is becoming increasingly complex and elusive. While multimedia and digital technologies are redefining literacy, issues of equity also become more pressing. The new literacies, with their heavy technological emphasis, could well exacerbate existing inequalities in access, currency and power. We know that the links between literacy and power are subtle; they are complicated further by new technologies involving economic and global interests and new technological 'literacy' skills.
<<<
//(Hence the OLPC project? Also the quotation about technology creating 'gated communities')//
''p.244'' - Lemke (1997) - at least four new literacies will be required in the age of the new information technologies:
*multimedia authoring skills
*multimedia critical analysis
*cyberspace exploration strategies
*cyberspace navigation
//(Could I use these as a starting point to consider digital literacy?)//
''Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L. (2000) 'Conclusion: inventing postmodern identities: hybrid and transgressive literacy practices on the web' (in Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L., //Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web//)''
''p.277'' - This assertion about feminism holds true for literacy, I think - especially part about 'micropowers' - Castells (1997):
<<<
Feminism constructs not one but many identities, each one of which, by their autonomous existence, seizes micropowers in the world wide web of life experiences.
<<<
''p.279'' - Meaning-making in control of reader (Castells, 1996: 3):
<<<
People increasingly organize their meaning not around what they do but on the basis of who they are, or believe they are.
<<<
//(I think literacy - especially the 'digital' kind - is closely allied to conceptions of identity)//
''p.288'' - Deibert (1996: 201) - postmodernism and the digitally-connected world:
<<<
[C]ertainly the postmodern decentred self with multiple identities resonates with the demassification of imagined communities and the enmeshment of sovereign states in multiple layers of authority. And the latter seems especially to "fit" the postmodern sense of juxtaposition and superimposition, and nonlinear, pastiche-like orderings of space as characterized by Foucault's notion of "heterotopia ..." And the recognition of "difference" and hyperplurality.. suggest that the emerging architecture of world order is moving away from territorially distinct, mutually exclusive, linear orderings of space toward nonlinear, multiperspectival, overlapping layers of political authority. Likewise, modern mass identities centred on the "nation" are being dispersed into multiple, nonterritorial "niche" communities and fragmented identities.
<<<
//(need to look into Foucault's notion of 'heterotopia' and how it may link to thesis)//
[[Welcome]]
[[To Do]]
*''Oliver, R. & Towers, S.'' (no date), [[Benchmarking ICT literacy in tertiary learning settings|http://bit.ly/4tBPWj]], (in Sims, R., O’Reilly, M. & Sawkins, S. (eds.). //Learning to choose: Choosing to learn//. Proceedings of the 17th Annual ASCILITE Conference, pp. 381-390, Lismore, NSW: Southern Cross University Press)
<<<
...more recently, writers have moved to more functional description [of ICT literacy]. What the student can demonstrate, in terms of measurable conceptual and skill development relative to computers, their uses and products, has given another direction for providing a means for assessing ICT literacy.
<<<
*''Oliver, R. & Towers, S.'' (no date), [[Benchmarking ICT literacy in tertiary learning settings|http://bit.ly/4tBPWj]], (in Sims, R., O’Reilly, M. & Sawkins, S. (eds.). //Learning to choose: Choosing to learn//. Proceedings of the 17th Annual ASCILITE Conference, pp. 381-390, Lismore, NSW: Southern Cross University Press)
<<<
There are many views on what constitutes an appropriate functional definition for ICT literacy in contemporary settings. Some people believe ICT literacy is an absolute term, and is a measure of a person’s total functional skills in use of ICT. When defined this way, measures of ICT literacy enable comparisons to be drawn between the ICT skills of people, for example, between a farmer and a rocket scientist. In nearly every instance, the rocket scientist would be deemed the most ICT literate. On the other hand, others see the term as a relative measure of functional ICT skills. When used this way the
ICT literacy of a rocket scientist is measured on a different scale to that of a farmer. It serves little
purpose to be comparing the ICT skills of farmers and rocket scientists and hence it makes little sense to assume a definition that supports this use.
For the purpose of this study, we embraced the contemporary view of ICT literacy, as the set of skills and understandings required by people to enable meaningful use of ICT appropriate to their needs. In this setting, the ICT literacy of a student is a relative measure of the student’s capacity to make appropriate use of ICT for educational and learning purposes.
<<<
//(surely the ability to distinguish between the skill levels of various people is ''exactly'' what 'ICT literacy' should concern itself with?)//
*''Cook, J. & Smith, M.'' (2004) [[Beyond formal learning: Informal community eLearning|http://bit.ly/6GyOF]] //Computers & Education// 43, pp.35–47
<<<
Although more work is needed, there is suggestive evidence to support the view that the three stages [of ICT literacy] are: (1) simple use of ICT on, for example, spreadsheets for simple accounts or word processors for CV writing, (2) users may have then gained enough confidence to cycle upwards to engage with an online community, by sending emails and browsing the web, and (3) the centre user may then engage in eLearning using whatever systems are available (e.g. systematic internet searching, engagement with discussion groups, taking online courses, etc.).
<<<
*''ICT Literacy Panel'' (2002) 'Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy', Technical Report (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Center for Global Assessment, available at: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ICTREPORT.pdf), p.2
<<<
ICT literacy is using digital technology, communications tools, and/or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information in order to function in a knowledge society.
<<<
*''ICT Literacy Panel'' (2002) 'Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy', Technical Report (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Center for Global Assessment, available at: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ICTREPORT.pdf), p.12
<<<
If ICT literacy is to have a transformative effect on people’s lives, it must be understood as a broad
set of tools that can be integrated across a range of contexts. Teaching technology applications as
isolated competencies, independent of traditional disciplines, does not provide this kind of under-
standing. Tasks undertaken at school, at work, and in everyday life increasingly require an understand-
ing and application of this integration of cognitive, literacy, and technology skills.
<<<
*''ICT Literacy Panel'' (2002) 'Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy', Technical Report (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Center for Global Assessment, available at: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ICTREPORT.pdf), p.16
<<<
The panel selected the term literacy over other terms such as competency, ability, or fluency that have been used in earlier frameworks (Committee on Information Technology Literacy, 1999). To some “literacy” connotes functional literacy and implies basic or fundamental skills. To the panel, the term literacy implies a universal need, a condition that must be met to enable full and equitable economic and social participation. ''We view literacy as a tool that may be applied to simple or more complicated contexts — like a hammer that can be used to build a shelf, or a house.'' In its broadest sense, literacy is a dynamic tool that allows individuals to continuously learn and grow. The increasing role of technology in our lives requires us to expand our notion of literacy. It is obvious that to function fully and effectively in society, individuals must be literate in terms of traditional domains such as reading and numeracy. But today it is becoming increasingly clear that ICT literacy joins the ranks of essential and fundamental requirements. Perhaps as important is the panel’s belief that those who fail to acquire this new kind of literacy, like the more traditional literacy skills, will find themselves falling further behind as economies and societies grow and change over the years ahead.
<<<
//(My emphasis - I like the hammer metaphor!)//
*''ICT Literacy Panel'' (2002) 'Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy', Technical Report (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Center for Global Assessment, available at: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ICTREPORT.pdf), p.18
[img[ICT Literacy diagram|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/ict_literacy.png]]
//(Interesting that this resembles Bloom's taxonomy)//
Adamson & Morris (2000) - traditional curriculums have:
<<<
"a strong degree of separation among the subject, a low degree of teacher-and-pupil control of the curriulum, and a focus on established knowledge."
<<<
*instead, should be focusing on problem-solving skills, etc. because you cannot teach every specific piece of knoweldge each individual will need throughout their lives.
quoted in C.T. Yip, P.S. Cheung & C. Sze, //Towards a Knowledge-creating School: a research project on paradigm shift of teaching and learning in IT education// (Hong Kong, 2004), p.74
----
Scardamelia, et al (1994) - typical school environment has little room for students to interact with other people and with the real world:
<<<
"Students are required to complete endless series of tasks within a limited amount of school time and the emphasis is mainly placed on the advancement of a student's personal knowledge. Communicative technologies, therefore, provide alternative channels for students to learn from peers, to establish shared knowledge, to recognize different viewpoints from other people, and to examine one's ideas and opinions."
<<<
*quote = from Yip, et al.
C.T. Yip, P.S. Cheung & C. Sze, //Towards a Knowledge-creating School: a research project on paradigm shift of teaching and learning in IT education// (Hong Kong, 2004), p.90
----
The role of the teacher in the classroom of the future needs to change from "the sage on the stage to the guide on the side."
J.W. Schofield, //Computers and Classroom Culture// (CUP, 1995), p.201
----
Bullock Report (1975) - schools producing wrong range of skills in learners:
<<<
"school frequently appears to... rely on the habitual exercise of a different combination of skills from those expected elsewhere."
<<<
<<<
"There is... something unacceptable about education's ability to... create such dependent learners."
<<<
quoted in - B. Somekh, 'Towards effective learning with new technology resources: the role of teacher education in reconceptualising the relationship between task setting and student learning in technology-rich classrooms' (in D. Passey & B. Samways (eds.), //Information Technology: supporting change through teacher education// (London, 1997), p.270
----
Toffler - should scrap curriculum and start again:
<<<
"As for curriculum, the Councils of the Future, instead of assuming that every subject taught today is taught for a reason, should begin from the reverse premise: nothing should be included in a required curriculum unless it can be strongly justified in terms of the future. If this means scrapping a substantial part of the formal curriculum, so be it."
<<<
quoted in - M. Golby, 'The Multiple Functions of Education' (in N. Entwistle (ed.), //Routledge Handbook of Educational Ideas and Practices// (London, 1990), p.132
----
<<<
"The creative adoption of new technology requires teachers who are willing to take risks... a professional culture that is dominated by a prescriptive curriculum, routine practices, strict demarcation lines and a tight target-setting regime, is unlikely to be helpful."
<<<
Conlon & Simpson, 'Silicon Valley versus Silicon Glen: the impact of computers upon teaching and learning: a comparative study' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:2, 2003), p.149
----
Jackson (1968) - teachers in classroom primarly concerned with "achieving and maintaining student involvement in (a set of) activities."
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.25
----
Traditions of education system inherited from Victorians & no longer prepare children for world they will inhabit:
<<<
"The traditions of our educaiton system were mostly inherited from the Victorians. They belong to the era of the great mill and the production line and were better suited to preparing young people for that world than they are for our own world. Today we need self-confident, independent thinkers, whether team players or entrepeneurs, capable of acquiring a range of different skills and adapting to several jobs over a lifetime."
<<<
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.35
----
Academic success or failure is,
<<<
"a product of the functioning of educational systems rather than an effect of 'natural aptitude'."
<<<
*transmission of 'cultural capital'
Kapitzke, 'Information Technology as Cultural Capital' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.50
----
Arguments for process-oriented rather than fact-oriented curriculum - i.e. //how to find// that Paris is the capital of France, rather than simply being told so (atlas-reading skills, etc.)
J.D.M. Underwood & G. Underwood, //Computers and Learning: helping children acquire thinking skills// (Oxford, 1990), p.59
----
Outdated curriculum:
<<<
"We are being tyrannised by curricula which fossilise information into facts to be known, rather than into material to be manipulated and thought about."
<<<
J.D.M. Underwood & G. Underwood, //Computers and Learning: helping children acquire thinking skills// (Oxford, 1990), p.61
----
Spokesman for British Prime Minister (1996):
<<<
"...we have set out arrangements for what is effectively a teacher-proof curriculum."
<<<
quoted in - J. Abbott & T. Ryan, //The Unfinished Revolution: learning, human behaviour, community and political paradox//, (London, 2000), p.205
----
Papert - problem with traditional classrooms:
<<<
"an artificial and inefficient learning environment that society has been forced to invent because its informal environments fail in certain essential learning domains."
<<<
*e.g. maths, grammar, etc.
quoted in - T. Stonier & C. Conlin, //The Three C's: children, computers, communication// (Chichester, 1985), p.16
----
*''Koltko-Riviera, M.E.'', (2004). 'Personality Theory and Human Factors Research' (in Vincenzi, D., et al. (eds.), //Human performance, situation awareness and automation: Current research and trends, Vol. 1//, 2004, pp. 249-252).
<<<
...digital competence (i.e., competence in working within a highly computerized environment)
<<<
*''Coutinho, C.P.'' 'Cooperative Learning in Higher Education using Weblogs: a study with undergraduate students of Education in Portugal' (in //World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetic and Informatics//, 11(1), 2007, pp. 60-64)
<<<
The European Commission has already identified "digital competence" as a "key competence" that individuals need to acquire for personal development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. It is important to acknowledge this and to confirm that it is not only about "ICT literacy", i.e. learning to operate the technology, but also about higher-order skills such as knowing and understanding what it means to live in digitalized and networked society but specially what it means to work in online cooperative teams where information is shared and knowledge collaboratively constructed.
<<<
*''Erstad, O.'', 'Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology'
(//Young//, Vol. 11(11), 2003, pp.11-28), p.16-17
<<<
Digital competence relates to an ability both to operate technological applications and to use technology to accomplish personal needs. In this sense,it raises important questions about new digital divides in the population, between those who know how to operate the technology and those who do not,and between those who use the technology to gain relevant knowledge for education and those who use it for other purposes.
<<<
*''Hoem, J. & Schwebs, T.'' (2005), 'Personal publishing and media literacy' (Working Paper presented at //WCCE 2005, 8. IFIP World Conference on Computers in Education//, Cape Town, South Afrika, 2005, available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10049/104) p.1
<<<
In Norway the Department of Education usually understand “digital competence” as the ability to use word processors, spreadsheet, presentation programs and Internet search. In addition it is preferred that students get to know critical use of sources and interpretation and analysis of different genres (NOU 2003). Some of these skills are associated to knowledge of and reflections on qualities of the digital media, but for all practical purposes one ends up with a tools oriented approach to the use of computers. As a result the teaching is reduced to a relatively trivial software instruction. A more reliable digital literacy should have a different point of departure than just mere consuming of content and use of software.
<<<
''J. Delors, //Choices for education: the political factor//, in J. Delors (ed.), //Learning:The Treasure Within// (UNESCO, France, 1996)''
''p.157'' - The marketization of education has its place in education, but should not be allowed into some spheres:
<<<
While it is proper to speak of a market for vocational education inasmuch as some of its services may be evaluated in cost-benefit terms, this is clearly not the case with all educational activities, some of which lie outside the economic order - those, for example, which relate to participation in the life of the community or self-fulfilment.
<<<
''p.158'' - Educational reforms are viewed with considerable scepticism as:
<<<
Almost everything has been tried, yet the results rarely llive up to expectations. In many countries, repeated and contradictory attempts at reform have seemingly only intensified their education systems' resistance to change.
<<<
''p.160'' - The decentralization of education is not in and of itself a good thing:
<<<
Decentralization measures can form part of a democratic process or, equally well, of authoritarian processes leading to social exclusion... The weakening of the state's role with decentralization may then prevent the introduction of corrective measures.
<<<
''p.160'' - Education is too important to be left to market forces:
<<<
Education is a collective asset that cannto be left only to market forces. Thus, whatever the organization or degree of decentralization or diversification of a system, the state must assume certain responsibilities to its citizens, including creating a national consensus on education, ensuring that the system forms a coherent whole and proposing a long-term view for the future.
<<<
-> ''p.160-1'' - Consensus formed, not accidental:
<<<
Experience shows that a consensus in society is essential to any reform process, but that it rarely occurs spontaneously. This means that it must be given institutional form and allowed to express itself through democratic procedures.
<<<
''p.172'' - New technologies are changing and re-shaping the world. Access to these is very important:
<<<
...there is a decisive issue at stake here, and it is important that schools and universities should have a central place in a profound change that is affecting the whole of society. There is no doubt but that individuals' ability to access and process information is set to become the determining factor in their integration not only into the working environment but also into their social and cultural environment.
<<<
''p.173'' - New technologies can ensure better dissemination of knowledge and increase equality of opportunity:
<<<
...as tools for the education of children and adolescents, the new technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity to satisfy an increasingly widespread and diversified demand, while maintaining quality. The possibilities they open up, along with their advantages for teaching, are vast.
<<<
''p.174'' - New technologies change the role of teachers:
<<<
A crucial point worth recalling... is that the development of the new technologies does not at all diminish the role of teachers - quite the contrary - but it does change it profoundly and it offer them an opportunity they must seize. True, in an information society teachers can no longer be regarded as the sole repositories of knowledge that they have only to pass on to the younger generation: they become as it were partners in a collective fund of knowledge that is up to them to organize, positioning themselves firmly in the vanguard of change.
<<<
''p.174'' - To even be able to acquire knowledge, learners have to learn how to navigate through information:
<<<
Given the considerable quantity of information available on information networks, accurate navigation through knowledge becomes a precondition of knowing. This competency is becoming what some people consider to be a new form of literacy. This 'computeracy' is becoming more an dmore of a necessity for proper understanding of the real world of today. It is thus a pre-eminent means of acceding to independence, enabling individuals to play their part as free and enlightened members of society.
<<<
''Cromer, A., //Connected Knowledge: Science, Philosophy, and Education// (Oxford, 1997)''
''__Chapter 7 - Of Chalk and Chips__''
''p.121'' - We take some educational technology for granted:
<<<
After printing, the most important technological innovations in education have been inexpensive paper and the blackboard. We take it for granted that every child has unlimited amounts of paper on which to write and draw, but this is really a luxury of industrial societies that isn't available to many children in undeveloped regions of the world... The humble blackboard is the epitome of a successful educational technology. Its essential characteristics of universality, accessibility, and flexibility become apparent, as to the functions of a gene, only when they are lost.
<<<
''p.121'' - Educational technology has its drawbacks:
<<<
The effectiveness of a technology for education is always limited by the weakest link in the whole implementation process. You can't connect a drinking straw to a fire hydrant.
<<<
''p.125'' - An educational technology has to be ubiquitous to be truly effective and contribute to significant learning gains:
<<<
The personal computer is as revolutionary an innovation as paper, but its full impact on education won't be realized until it becomes as universal as paper, that is, until every child can put her hands on one any time she wants. In spite of the millions of computers in schools, schoolwork is still done almost exclusively by hand.
<<<
''p.126'' - We need cheap computers:
<<<
The computer revolution in education would be greatly accelerated if the manufacturers agreed to produce a standard school computer with standard software that sold for under $200. At this price every elementary-school student and teacher could have one, transforming the school environment from paper to keyboard.
<<<
(c.f. OLPC?)
''p.126'' - Schools shouldn't even try to keep up with the latest developments in technology:
<<<
Schools can never keep up with the explosive pace of the microcomputer revolution, since it takes decades to develop effective computer-based curricula and to train every teacher in it, whereas computers change every two years. Schools will never have the time and money to stay at the cutting edge of technology, nor is there any reason that they should...[A] universal computer is the best for everyone's children because, over time, every teacher will incorporate it into her teaching. It's of little value to a rich school to have a lot of new equipment that only a few teachers have the time or interest to fully use. The technology doesn't do much good on its own.
<<<
''p.130'' - There is no extra time to learn how to use educational technology, which can be a barrier:
<<<
It's a zero-sum game. Time programming a calculator is time not listening to a physics lecture. Time on the Internet is time spent not reading a book. It would be nice if schools that are spending millions of dollars for new computer had done a cost-benefit analysis showing that time spent on computers was more productive than time spent on more traditional activities, but I know of no such studies.
<<<
//(would it really? isn't it about developing digital literacy and motivation too?)//
''p.132'' - Talks about what a low-cost computer would look like in practice (seems to have been read by OLPC manufacturers!)
*Anderson, J. (1991) 'New technologies and literacy' (//Australian Journal of Reading//, 14(1), pp.50-59)
*Avgerinou, M. & Ericson, J. (1997). A review of the concept of visual literacy. British Journal of Educational Technology, 28(4), 280-291.
*Aviram, A. (2004). "Why Should Children Go to School?", in: Aviram, A. & Richardson J. (eds.), Upon What Does the Turtle Stand? Rethinking Education for the Digital Age, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
*Ba, H., Tally, W. & Tasikalas, K. (2002). Investigating children's emerging digital literacies. Journal of Technology Learning and Assessment, 1 (4): 1-48.
*Barclay, D.A. (ed.) //Teaching Electronic Information Literacy: a how-to-do-it//
*Barton., Hamilton & Ivanic (eds.) //Worlds of Literacy//
*Bolter, Jay David. (1998). Hypertext and the question of visual literacy. In David Reinking, Michael C. McKenna, Linda D. Labbo & Ronald D. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 3–13). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
*Bolter, Jay David, & Grusin, Richard. (1999). Remediation: understanding new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
*Booker, D. (ed.) 1995, //The Learning Link: information literacy in practice//
*Brasseur, Lee. (1997). Visual literacy in the computer age: a complex perceptual landscape. In Stuart A. Selber (Ed.), Computers and technical communication: pedagogical and programmatic perspectives (pp. 75–96). Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corp.
*Breivik & Gee (1989) //Information Literacy: revolution in the library// (described as 'influential')
*Brent, Doug. (1997). [[Rhetorics of the Web: implications for teachers of literacy. Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments|http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.1/features/brent/bridge.html]], 2 (1)
*Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (eds.) 2000, //Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures//
*Cothey, V. (2002). A longitudinal study of world wide web users' information-searching behavior. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53 (2), 67-78.
*Cox, S. (ed.) 1998, //Literacy is not enough//
*Delany, Paul, & Landow, George P. (1991). Hypermedia and literary studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
*Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13 (1): 93-106
*Eshet-Alkalai & Amichai - Hamburger (2004). Experiments with digital literacy. Cyber Psychology, 7 (4): 425-434
*Eshet-Alkalai (2005). Thinking skills in the digital era. In: Haward, C., Bottcher, J. V., Justice, L., Schenk, K., Rogers, P. L., Berg, G, A. (eds.) (2005). Encyclopaedia of Distance Learning, Vol. I. London, Idea Group Inc., (pp. 1840-1845).
*Eshet, Y. and Chaiut, E. (2005). Living books: On the acquisition of digital skills in multimedia environments. Learning in the Technology Era. Proceedings of the Chais Conference, The Open University of Israel, Raanana, (pp. 15-25).
*Faigley, Lester. (1999). Beyond imagination: the Internet and global digital literacy. In Gail E. Hawisher & Cynthia L. Selfe (Eds), Passions, pedagogies, and 21st century technologies (pp. 129 –139). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
*Gardner, H. (2000). Technology remakes the schools. The Futurist, March-April 2000, 30-32.
*Green, B. (1996) - 'Literacy/technology/learning: notes and issues' (unpublished discussion paper, but might find references)
*Green & Bigum (1993) - 'Aliens in the classroom' (//Australian Journal of Education//, vol.37, no.2, pp.119-41)
*Griffin, Robert E., Gibbs, William J., & Wiegmann, Beth (Eds.). (1999). Visual literacy in an information age. Blacksburg, VA: International Visual Literacy Association.
*Griffin, Robert E., Hunter, J. Mark, Schiffman, Carole B., & Gibbs, William J. (Eds.). (1997). Visionquest: journeys toward visual literacy. Blacksburg, VA: International Visual Literacy Association.
*Hargittai, E. (2002b). [[Second-level digital divide: Differences in people's online skills|http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_4/hargittai/index.html]]. First Monday 7 (4)
*Hawisher, Gail E., & Selfe, Cynthia L. (Eds.). (2000). Global literacies and the World-Wide Web. London: Routledge.
*Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L. (1999) //Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies//
*Heba, Gary. (1997). Hyperrhetoric: multimedia, literacy, and the future of composition. (//Computers and Composition//, 14, 1944).
*Hirschl, T. & Stack, M. (ed.) 1997, //Cutting Edge: technology, information capitalism and social revolution//
*Hull, G. (2003) 'Youth culture and digital media: new literacies for new times' (//Research in the Teaching of English//, 38(2): 229-233)
*Inoue, H., Naito, E., and Koshizuka, M. (1997). Mediacy: What it is? Where to go? International Information & Library Review 29 (3-4), 403-413.
*Jonassen, D. H., (2000). Computers as Mind tools for Schools. New York: Merrill.
*//Journal of Literacy Research//
*Labbo, L. D., Reinking, D., and McKenna, M. C. (1998). Technology and literacy Education in the next century: exploring the connection between work and schooling. Peabody Journal of Education 73 (3-4), 273-289.
*Lanham, Richard A. (1995, September). Digital literacy. Scientific American, 273 (3), pp. 198, 200.
*Lanham, Richard A. (1992). Digital rhetoric: theory, practice, and property. In Myron C. Tuman (Ed.), Literacy online: the promise and perils of reading and writing with computers (pp. 221–243). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
*Lemke, J. (1993) - 'Education, cyberspace and change' (//The Arachnet Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture//, vol.1, no.1)
*Lemke, J. L. (1998). Metamedia literacy: transforming meanings and media. In David Reinking, Michael C. McKenna, Linda D. Labbo, & Ronald D. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 283–301). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
*Luke, C. (1997) //Technological Literacy//
*Lyotard, J-F. (1984) //The Postmodern Condition: a report on knowledge//
*Mardis, M.A., 2002. Mind the gap: An overview of perceptual barriers to k-12 information literacy. In P. Barker and S. Rebelsky, (eds.), Proceedings of ED-MEDIA, 2001 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (1221-1222). Denver, USA. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
*Martin, Allan and Dan Madigan, 2006. Digital Literacies for Learning. Facet Publishing
*Mason, J. M. (2002). From Gutenberg's galaxy to cyberspace: A new model for a new writing space In P. Barker and S. Rebelsky, (eds.), Proceedings of ED-MEDIA, 2001 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (1230-1236). Denver, USA. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
*Mendrinos, R. (1994) //Building Information Literacy Using High Technology: a guide for schools and libraries//
*Minkel, W. (2000). No, it's not all true! Library Journal, 33-34, Supp. Sum 2000, 35-43.
*New London Group (1996) 'A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: designing social futures' (//Educational Review// 66(1), pp.60-92)
*Norton, P. and Wilburg, K. M. (1998). Teaching with Technology. New York: Harcourt Brace Publishers.
*O'Sullivan, M. (2000). Teaching Internet information literacy: A collaborative approach (Part III). Multimedia Schools 7, 34-37
*Pool, C. R. (1997). A new digital literacy: A conversation with Paul Gilster. Educational Leadership 55 ( 3), 6-11.
*Postman, N. (1993) //Technology: the surrender of culture to technology//
*Prensky, M. (2001). “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” On the Horizon, Vol. 9, No. 5, 2001, pp. 1–6.
*Spiro, R.J., Feltovitch, P. L., Jacobson, M. J., and Coulson, R. L. (1991). Cognitive flexibility, constructivism and hypertext: Random access instruction for advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. Educational Technology 31 (5), 24-33.
*Swan, K., Bangert - Drowns, J. B., Moore-Cox, A., and Dugan, R., 2002. Technology & literacy learning: A national survey of classroom use. In P. Barker and S. Rebelsky (eds.), Proceedings of ED-MEDIA, 2001 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications (221-223). Denver, USA. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
*Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
*Taylor, Todd, & Ward, Irene. (1998). Literacy theory in the age of the Internet. New York: Columbia University Press.
*Valenza, J.K. (1996) //[[Information Literacy is More Than Computer Literacy|http://crossings.phillynews.com/archive/k12/infolit4_16.htm]]// (1998)
*Wallace, P. (1999). The Psychology of the Internet. Cambridge: University Press.
*//Wired// (1995) Vol. 1(1)
*White, R. (1990) 'The perils of techno-think' (//Education Australia// 10(13))
*Wysocki, Anne Frances, & Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. (1999). Blinded by the letter: why are we using literacy as a metaphor for everything else? In Gail E. Hawisher & Cynthia L. Selfe (Eds.), Passions, pedagogies, and 21st century technologies (pp. 349 –368). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
*Normal meaning of 'critical' = 'includined to criticize severely and unfavourably' (p.3)
*Word 'critic' comes from Greek //kritikos// which 'denotes the ability, or even licence, to discern or to judge.' (p.3)
*Most basic sense of Critical Theory = "principles upon which criticism might responsibly proceed." (p.4)
*Word 'criticism' comes from Greek //krinein// meaning 'to decide' (p.7)
8Greek //theoria// means 'way of seeing' or 'setting in view' (p.32)
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000)
----
We construct frameworks to make sense of the world:
<<<
"Frameworks are constituted by habits of thought and action, the ways, and indeed the styles, we adopt to be confident and more or less secure in our relation to the world and to others."
<<<
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000), p.11
----
Kant began process culminating in Critical Theory:
<<<
"The key source for today's use of the term Critical Theory is the work of the German eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant."
<<<
*Uses 'critical' to describe his mature philosophy
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000), p.11
----
Criticism puts **all** grounds for knowledge into crisis:
Kant:
<<<
"Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be subjected. The sacredness of religion and the authority of legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the examination of this tribunal. But, if they own they are exempted, they become the subjects of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood the test of a free and public examination."
<<<
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000), p.12
----
Names in development of Critical Theory:
*Kant
*Hegel
*Marx
*Nietzsche
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000), p.13
----
Plato (//The Republic//) - "We must let our destination be decided by the winds of the discussion."
J. Phillips, //Contested Knowledge: a guide to critical theory// (London, 2000), p.42
----
Herbert Marcuse - //Philosophy and Critical Theory// (1937) - criticizes philosophy's inability to offer a truly critical approach to the actual development of the world:
<<<
"For at its conclusion [philosophy] arrives at nothing that did not exist in itself 'at the beginning'. The absence of concrete development appeared to this philosophy as the greatest benefit."
<<<
~-Critical Theory "derives its progressive tendencies from its involvement with the present social process."
P.U. Hohendahl, 'From the Eclipse of Reason to Communicative Rationality and Beyond' (in P.U. Hohendahl & J. Fisher (eds.), //Critical Theory: current state and future prospects// (Oxford, 2001)), p.5-6
----
Critical Theory = a metaphor and a development of a way of thinking:
<<<
"Critical Theory is a metaphor for a certain kind of theoretical orientation which owes its origin to Kant, Hegel and Marx, its systemization to Horkheimer and his associates at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, and its development to successors, particularly to the group led by Jürgen Habermas, who have sustained it under various redefinitions to the present day."
<<<
*'Critical Theory' = both general (critical element that began with Kant) and specific (orientation towards philosophy) as a term.
D.M. Rasmussen, 'Critical Theory and Philosophy' (in D.M. Rasmussen (ed.), //The Handbook of Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1996)), p.11
----
Critical Theory is interested in ''action'' - c.f. Marx: "Philosophers have always interpreted the world, the point is to change it."
D.M. Rasmussen, 'Critical Theory and Philosophy' (in D.M. Rasmussen (ed.), //The Handbook of Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1996)), p.11
----
Term 'critical theory' owes its definition more than anything else to essay called 'Traditional and Critical Theory' by Max Horkhiemer in 1937. (p.16)
*Danger of 'reification' - experience conforms to generalizations (according to theories) - generalizations tend to conform to ideas present in minds of researchers. (p.18)
*Problem = theory conforms to researchers' ideas and not to experience.
D.M. Rasmussen, 'Critical Theory and Philosophy' (in D.M. Rasmussen (ed.), //The Handbook of Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1996))
----
Influences:
{{table columns="3" cellpadding="1" cells="Individual;Time Period;Concept;Hegel;French Revolution;Freedom;Marx;Industrial Revolution;Class Struggle;Frankfurt School;Inter-war years;Rise of Fascism"}}
D.M. Rasmussen, 'Critical Theory and Philosophy' (in D.M. Rasmussen (ed.), //The Handbook of Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1996), p.21
----
Aim of Critical Theory = 'enlightenment'. Problem = leads to alienation.
D.M. Rasmussen, 'Critical Theory and Philosophy' (in D.M. Rasmussen (ed.), //The Handbook of Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1996), p.23
----
<<<
"[Horkheimer] argued against the equation of fallability with relativity. To grant that there is no final and conclusive theory of reality of which we are capable is not at all to abandon the distinction between truth and error. We make that distinction in relation to the "available means of knowledge." The claim that a belief is true must stand the test of experience and practice in the present. knowing that we are fallible, that what stands the test today may well fail to do so tomorrow or in the next century does not prevent us, or even exempt us, from making and defending claims to truth here and now. The abstract recognition that all our beliefs are open to connection does not make a rationally warranted belief any less warranted, any less rational."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.10
----
Horkheimer - social researchers are engaged in socially-situation forms of social action. They need to be conscious of this and think through the implications.
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.14
----
Critical theory interested in //real life://
<<<
"Unlike 'traditional' theory... critical social theory takes as topics of investigation the reflexivity of social research, the division of labor... and its social functions; that is, it studies, 'what theory means in human life'."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.15
----
Critical Theory takes into account the origin and application of facts, etc.
<<<
"Critical theory is concerned precisely with the historical and social genesis of the facts it examines and with the social context in which its results will have their effects. It stresses that social research is itself a form of social interaction in which the objects of knowledge are potentially subjects of the very same knowledge."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.16
----
<<<
"...critical social theory expressly aims at becoming a factor in social change by becoming part of the self-consciousness of oppressed social groups. It does not consider the purposes it serves to be external to the context of enquiry."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.16
----
Postmodernists criticise and reject 'grand narrative' but they can still be relevant and useful:
<<<
"Critical theorists can develop and deploy practically interested, theoretically informed, general accounts in a fallibilistic and open manner, that is, without claiming closure. The point is to view big pictures and grand narratives as //ongoing accomplishments//. They are never finished, but have to be constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed in ever-changing circumstances."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.19
----
<<<
"There is no extramundane standpoint from which we can set our social world as a whole at a distance."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.21
----
<<<
"The key to avoiding both a pure "insider's" or participant's standpoint, and a pure "outsider's" or observers standpoint is... to adopt the perspective of a critical-reflective participant. As there is no God's-eye point of view available to us, we can do no better than move back and forth between the different standpoints, playing one off against the other."
<<<
D.C. Hoy & T. McCarthy, //Critical Theory// (Oxford, 1994), p.81
----
<<<
"Critical theory is social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only to understanding or explaining it."
<<<
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory - accessed: 27/02/06)
----
Frankfurt School:
<<<
"According to these theorists, a “critical�? theory may be distinguished from a “traditional�? theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation, “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them�? (Horkheimer 1982, 244)."
<<<
Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory - accessed: 27/02/06)
----
Critical Theory different from traditional theories:
<<<
"Critical Theorists have long sought to distinguish their aims, methods, theories, and forms of explanation from standard understandings in both the natural and the social sciences. Instead, they have claimed that social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences: explanation and understanding, structure and agency, regularity and normativity. Such an approach, Critical Theorists argue, permits their enterprise to be practical in a distinctively moral (rather than instrumental) sense."
<<<
Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory - accessed: 27/02/06)
----
Horkheimer - critical theory must have three qualities concurrently:
*explanatory
*prescriptive
*normative
<<<
"That is, it must explain what is wrong with current social reality, identify the actors to change it, and provide both clear norms for criticism and achievable practical goals for social transformation."
<<<
Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory - accessed: 27/02/06)
----
*''Rosado, E. & Bélisle, C.'' (2006) 'Analysing Digital Literacy Frameworks. A European Framework for Digital Literacy, LIRE, Université Lyon 2, Lyon (available at http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/13/77/79/PDF/Analysing-Edu-Frameworks.pdf)
<<<
Digital knowledge refers to a new condition of knowledge that can be processed and transformed by technological tools. The first, most visible aspect is instantaneous access to outstanding sources of information. But a more important change is under way with the provision of tools capable of content categorizing, semantic marking, allowing knowledge foraging and mining by machines. What this implies is still debatable, but already standardization and tokenization of knowledge are developing rapidly. Knowledge processes, such are searching texts for words, summarizing texts and pictures, customizing information, translating within specific contexts, clustering large quantities of information, searching for labelled contents, are being taken over by technological tools. Important quantities of knowledge can be handled, taking into consideration not only the way knowledge is produced and its epistemological context (for example scientific or religious knowledge) but also the way it is structured and represented. Knowledge can be managed through the descriptors of its semantic content as well as its form. This implies a machine interpretable description of the knowledge units that correspond to the information needed to apply specific processes to it.
<<<
*[[Definitions of digital literacy]]
*[[Definitions of computer literacy]]
*[[Definitions of visual literacy]]
*[[Definitions of ICT literacy]]
*[[Definitions of information literacy]]
*[[Definitions of digital fluency]]
*[[Definitions of digital competence]]
*[[Definitions of digital knowledge]]
*[[Miscellaneous]]
''R.W. Burniske & L. Monke, //Breaking Down the Digital Walls: learning to teach in a post-modem world// (New York, 2001)''
!Chapter 1 - The Manabi Hut (R.W. Burniske)
''p.9'' - Danger of representing things as we wish them to be, not how they actually are - Jacobs re-telling one of Aesop's fables (1984):
<<<
A Man and a Lion were discussing the relative strength of men and lions in general. The Man contended that he and his fellows were stronger than lions by reason of their greater intelligence. "Come now with me," he cried, "and I will soon prove that I am right." So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a statue of Hercules overcoming the Lion and tearing his mouth in two. "That is all very well," said the Lion, "but proves nothing, for it was a man who made the statue."
Moral: We can easily represent things as we wish them to be.
<<<
''p.11'' - Percentage of people who can be classified as 'innovators' = 2.5% of a given population, whereas roughly 13% prove to be 'early adopters' (Rogers, 1995)
!Chapter 2 - The Web and the Plow (L. Monke)
''p.21'' - The side-effects of advances in technology are not always obvious - Postman (1988):
<<<
When Gutenberg announced that he could manufacture books... he did not imagine that his invention would undermine the authority of the Catholic Church. And yet, less than eighty years later, Martin Luther was, in effect, claiming that with the word of God available in every home, Christians did not require the papacy to interpret if for them.
<<<
''p.21'' - Postman (1993) - technologies are ecological: their introduction sends out ripples that rearrange relationships throughout the system.
''p.21'' - Technologies have explicit and implicit effects:
<<<
Regardless of the technologies' intended uses, they also work at a deeper, personal level, influencing, though not fully determining, the way we act, the way we think, the way we view the world (Borgmann, 1984)... Each time I choose a tool to use, certain values get amplified while others get reduced (Bowers, 1988; Ihde, 1990). These values, in turn, tend to both reflect and influence my entire worldview.
<<<
(the computer amplifies the 'logic' worldview, the utilitarian picture)
''p.21-22'' - Theodore Roszak - "We do not bring the full resources of self to the computer" (1986)
(''My thought:'' is this actually true any more? //Are// we limited when using a computer any more than pen & paper, etc.?)
''p.24'' - Max Frisch - defined technology as "the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it".
''p.25'' - Great quotation about the limits of the knowledge available through uses of technology:
<<<
Sitting high atop the computer, students may be able to survey thousands, millions of acres of knowledge, but only if those students forgo taking the time to sink their hands deep and long into the educational soil that lies right at their feet.
<<<
(''My thought:'' isn't this a bit too much of a romantic notion? If schools were amazingly good and relevant, there would be no need for change...)
''p.27'' - Teachers //shouldn't// become the 'guide on the side':
<<<
What I have been trying to hammer home is that using computer technology in education is hard work; not in the sense of getting the machinery to work or the kids "talking" to one another across the oceans and mountains and prairies; that's really the easy part. The hard work is finding ways to get the technology to help us nurture our students' attempts to reach their own highest human potential. With the perplexing task to integrating computer technology with print and oral traditions before us, now is hardly the time for the teacher to step aside and become "the guide on the side" to please the wide-eyed technophiles. The responsibility we have for preserving what is dear to us from the old as well as discovering what is truly beneficial in the new is enormous, and not something to be left to chance encounters in cyberspace.
<<<
''p.29'' - We shouldn't be afraid to experiment - Mike Rose (1989):
<<<
Error marks the place where education begins.
<<<
!Chapter 5 - Out of the Labyrinth, Into the 'Net (R.W. Burniske)
''p.87'' - Need for a balance between the old and the new - quote from Ovid:
<<<
I warn you, Icarus, he said, you must follow a course midway between earth and heaven, in case the sun should scorch your feathers, if you go too high, or the water make them heavy if you are too low. Fly halfway between the two.
<<<
(followed on the same page by the next quotation)
<<<
Drawn on by his eagerness for the open sky, he left his guide and soared upwards, till he came too close to the blazing sun.
<<<
''p.87'' - In Ancient Greece, the //paidagogos// was a slave who escorted children to and from school. This is where we get the word 'pedagogy' from - the strategies employed to accomplish this task. However, teachers should not be cast in this role:
<<<
Sadly enough, modern educators in K-12 schools often feel like the //paidagogos//. They have good reason: state and local organizations deliver prescribed curricula to administrators who enforce them through the assignment of designated texts, regimented report cards, and standardized tests and teacher evaluations.
This is hardly a conducive environment for innovative teachers. If anything, the system's design frustrates innovators and impedes the diffusion of their innovations (Rogers, 1995).
<<<
''p.128'' - We need to move away from facts for facts' sake - c.f. Gradgrind in Charles Dickens' //Hard Times//:
<<<
Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.
<<<
''p.129'' - Information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom - Harris (1998):
<<<
Knowledge is private, while information is public. Knowledge, therefore, cannot be communicated; only information can be shared. Whenever an attempt to communicate knowledge is made, it is automatically translated into information, which other learners can choose to absorb, act upon and transform into their own knowledge, if they so desire.
<<<
(''My thought:'' is this really the case - can't we have knowledge residing in networks? c.f. George Siemens, //Knowing Knowledge//)
!Chapter 6 - The Global Suburb (L. Monke)
''p.131'' - Thomas Berry (1988):
<<<
The very structure of our technological civilization prevents us from communicating in depth with the native peoples.
<<<
!Chapter 7 - The Media Matter (R.W. Burniske)
''p.197'' - Teachers need to teach students the correct 'attitude' and approaches when using technology - not necessarily the skills - c.f. Henry Gregor Felsen, //Hot Rod// (mid-century book about automobiles in America):
<<<
These young drivers have learned to drive. They can operate a car all right, and make it go as fast as anyone else, but they haven't learned the one most important factor in driving - the proper attitude.
<<<
''p.198'' - Problems in replacing the traditional curricula - Lanham (1994):
<<<
Once you abolish rhetorical education, then you must ask, "How then, do I teach decorum. What else do I use for my behavioral allegory?" Property? Stuff? And what about the teaching of language? Once it has become simply instrumental, the clear, brief, and sincere transmission of neutral fact from one neutral entity to another, it loses it numinosity and then its power, as our present literacy crisis attests. If you pursue only clarity, you guarantee obscurity. And people lose their vital interest in language, as any composition teacher can attest. The "literacy crisis" is not only a social crisis, a crisis of instructional leverage, of educational policy, although it is all of those. It comes from the repudiation of the rhetorical heart of Western education, and its linguistic and behavioral education in decorum.
<<<
(''My thought:'' this completely misses the point of the purpose of education. The purpose of education is so that young people can make sense of the world around them and become positive contributing members of the society to which they belong. Saying that we should be doing this because education has always been done that way is simply wrong and, at worst, dangerous.)
''p.203'' - Administrators should not be responsible for student learning, teachers should - c.f. Joseph Weizenbaum (1976):
<<<
...the range of one's responsibilities must be commensurate with the range of one's actions.
<<<
!Chapter 8 - In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (L. Monke)
''p.206-7'' - Teachers should be neither the 'sage on the stage' nor the 'guide on the side'. Neither metaphor is a good way of going about educating students, as it's all to do with relationships and the development of the individual - not an impersonal tour of knowledge. Better metaphor = being a ''steward''.
''p.219'' - Postman (1995) - purpose of schools not necessarily about education:
<<<
schools are not now and have never been chiefly about getting information to children.
<<<
''p.220'' - Postman (1993) - schools need to adapt:
<<<
For four hundred years, school-teachers have been part of the knowledge monopoly created by printing, and they are now witnessing the breakup of that monopoly. It appears as if they can do little to prevent that breakup, but surely there is something perverse about school-teachers' being enthusiastic about what is happening.
<<<
(talking about TV)
''p.222'' - Dewey (1916) - problem of adults educating children they will not inherit:
<<<
Each generation is inclined to educate its young so as to get along in the present world instead of with a view to the proper end of education: the promotion of the best possible realization of humanity as humanity.
<<<
''p.225'' - Douglas Noble, //The Classroom Arsenal// (1991) - purpose of education:
<<<
The goals of education is neither the engineering of learning as an end in itself nor the production of cognitive components or technical skills for the technological infrastructure of the information age; rather it is the cultivation of human beings, through an encouragement of a deep self-understanding along with an understanding of and participation in the world. The best schools are those that are personalized, that are organized as communities of teachers, students and parents who are fully engaged, who understand why they are learning and teaching, and who together construct a full, rich inter-disciplinary curriculum, a nurturing, attentive pedagogy, and a sense of worldly commitment and care.
<<<
''p.226'' - Education depends very much on conceptions of knowledge and truth - Parker J. Palmer (1998):
<<<
I understand truth as the passionate and disciplined process of inquiry and dialogue itself, as the dynamic conversation of a community that keeps testing old conclusions and coming into new ones.
<<<
!Chapter 9 - The Drama of Dialectics (R.W. Burniske & L. Monke)
''p.256-7'' - Technology = skills as well as machines - Bolter (1991):
<<<
There is good etymological reason to broaden our definition of technology to include skills as well as machines. The Greek root of "technology" is //techne// and for the Greeks a techne could be an art or a craft, "a set of rules, system or method of making or doing, whether of the useful arts, or the fine arts." (Liddell and Scott, 1973). In the ancient world physical technology was simpler, and the ancients put a correspondingly greater emphasis on the skill of the craftsman - the potter, the stone-mason, or the carpenter. In his dialogue the Phaedrus, Plato calls the alphabet itself a techne. He would also have called the ancient book composed of ink on papyrus a techne; Homeric epic poetry was also a techne, as was Greek tragedy. All the ancient arts and crafts have this in common: that the craftsman must develop a skills, a technical state of mind in using tools and materials. ''Ancient and modern writing is a technology in just this sense. It is a method for arranging verbal thoughts in a visual space.'' The writer always needs a surface upon which to make his or her marks and a tool with which to make them, and these materials help to define the nature of the writing. Writing with quill and parchment is a different skill from writing with a printing press, which in turn differs from writing with a computer.
<<<
(my emphasis)
''p.258'' - Advantage of computers is that it shows how stale and boring traditional teaching actually is:
<<<
Even the most diehard Luddite has to admit that the computer has been the catalyst for accomplishing something neither Dewey nor Montessori nor all the radical reformers of the sixties could do: actually convince the general public that a curriculum taught by poorly prepared teachers, working in physical and categorical isolation out of dull textbooks, makes for boring, irrelevant learning. This is perhaps the computer's greatest contribution to education.
<<<
''Wisdom'' (according to [[Wordnet|http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=wisdom]])
<<<
*accumulated knowledge or erudition or enlightenment
*the trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight
*ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight
*the quality of being prudent and sensible
<<<
''Wisdom'' (according to [[Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom]], 27/12/06)
<<<
Wisdom is often meant as the ability and desire to make choices that can gain approval in a long-term examination by many people. In this sense, to label a choice "wise" implies that the action or inaction was strategically correct when judged by widely-held values.However true wisdom cannot be measured in terms of popular consensus.
<<<
''Wisdom'' (according to [[Dictionary.com|http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wisdom]]
<<<
the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.
<<<
''Wisdom'' (according to the [[Oxford English Dictionary|http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/wisdom?view=uk]]
<<<
''1'' the quality of being wise.
''2'' the body of knowledge and experience that develops within a specified society or period.
<<<
An ''educated person'' (according to [[Michigan State University|http://www.msu.edu/unit/provost/Educated_Person.htm]]):
<<<
An educated person is someone who has learned how to acquire, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, understand, and communicate knowledge and information. An educated person has to develop skills that respond to changing professional requirements and new challenges in society and the world at large. He or she must be able to take skills previously gained from serious study of one set of problems and apply them to another. He or she must be able to locate, understand, interpret, evaluate, and use information in an appropriate way and ultimately communicate his or her synthesis and understanding of that information in a clear and accurate manner.
<<<
Roger Schank - being an ''educated person'' is more than about being able to recall facts:
<<<
Facts are not the currency of learning, nor does mastery of them indicate anything about an educated person. Facts play a big role in the education system because they are so easy to test. And, it is tests (usually highly irrelevant tests) that have helped shape your learning since you were six. Curiously, most important things that people know they cannot explicitly recall or state as facts. What is the right way to get the person of your dreams interested in you? How does one pursue a successful career? Was the United States wrong to believe in "Manifest Destiny"? Is the situation in Bosnia really all that similar to Nazi Germany, or is it more like Vietnam? An educated person might have answers for these questions. But they are not simple questions and there are no simple answers for them. Being educated means being able to understand the questions and knowing enough relevant history to be able to make reasoned arguments. Making reasoned arguments, not citing history, is the key issue here. Learning to think and express what one has thought in a persuasive way is the real stuff of education.
<<<
(//[[What to Know, How to Learn It|http://cogprints.org/638/00/What_to_Know_Brockman_book.html]]//, no date)
Trevor Pateman - 3 characteristics of an ''educated person'':
<<<
I single out three characteristics central to my conception of an educated person, for on this occasion it is of persons that I am predicating educatedness. First, that such a person is open to, generally welcomes and searches for new experience and knowledge in and about the world in which they live. This requires that they have in some sense both learnt how to learn and also desire to learn. Secondly, that such a person has an individuality expressed in and through their own life plan (to borrow a concept of John Rawls), and this life plan contains reflective components in terms of which new experiences and claims to knowledge are evaluated. Thirdly, and this may in fact be derivable from my first two characteristics, that such a person be capable of participating in and capable of improvement by free and equal discussion. Here I borrow from John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, although `discussion' should be understood as widely as possible to include the voices of poetry and other arts in the conversation of humankind. This third criterion involves a recognition of the irreducibly social nature of human experience, knowledge and activity, a recognition usually associated with post-Wittgensteinian philosophy, but already present in Mill's Socratic theory of argumentation.
<<<
(//[[Can Schools Educate?|http://www.selectedworks.co.uk/schooleducation.html]]//, lecture given in 1980)
''Buckingham, D. 'Defining Digital Literacy: what do young people need to know about digital media?' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.73'' - Technology is not neutral:
<<<
[I]f we want to use the internet or computer games or other digital media to teach, we need to equip students to understand and to critique these media: we cannot regard them simply as neutral means of delivering information, and we should not use them in a merely functional or instrumental way.
<<<
//(so Buckingham arguing for a ''critical'' theory of literacy)//
''p.73-4'' - Buckingham sets out his stall:
<<<
I argue for a particular definition of "digital literacy" that goes well beyond some of the approaches that are currently adopted in the field of information technology in education. Indeed, implicit in my argument is a view that new digital media can no longer be regarded as a matter of "information" or of "technology." This is particularly the case if we are seeking to develop more effective connections between children's experiences of technology outside school and their experiences in the classroom.
<<<
//(Buckingham goes on to emphasize ''cultural'' aspect)//
''p.74'' - Regarding computers, etc. in terms of 'hardware' and 'software' is misguided:
<<<
In most children's leisure-time experiences, computers are much more than devices for information retrieval: they convey images and fantasies, provide opportunities for imaginative self-expression and play, and serve as amedium through which intimate personal relationships are conducted. These media cannot be adequately understood if we persist in regarding them simply as a matter of machines and techniques or as "hardware" and "software." The internet, computer games, digital video, mobile phone and other contemporary technologies provide new ways of mediating and representing the world and of communicating. Outside school, children are engaging with these media, not as technologies, but as //cultural forms//. If educators wish to use these media in schools, they cannot afford to neglect these experiences: on the contrary, they need to provide students with means of understanding them. This is the function of what I am calling digital literacy.
<<<
//(idea of cultural 'ecosystems'?)//
''p.75'' - Talk of 'literacies' (since 1986) may not be useful:
<<<
This proliferation of literacies may be fashionable, but it raises some significant questions. Popular discussions of "economic literacy," "emotional literacy" and even "spiritual literacy" seem to extend the application of the term to the point where any analogy to its original meaning (that is, in relation to written language) has been lost. "Literacy" comes to be used merely as a vague synonym for "competence," or even "skill."
<<<
//(as I've mentioned before - the Emperor's New Clothes...)//
''p.75'' - 'Literacy' confers social status:
<<<
The term "literacy" clearly carries a degree of social status; and to use it in connection with other, lower status forms such as television, or in relation to newer media, is thus to make an implicit claim for the latter's validity as objects of study. Yet as uses of the term multiply, the polemical value of such a claim - and its power to convince - is bound to decline.
<<<
//(interesting angle - ''should'' literacy have such a status?)//
''p.75'' - Barton (1994) and Kress (1997) argue that 'literacy' should be confined to the realm of writing.
//(it depends what you mean by 'writing' of course...)//
''p.75'' - Analogy between media and writing breaks down:
<<<
The analogy between writing and visual or audiovisual media such as television or film may be useful at a general level, but it often falls down when we look more closely: it is possible to analyze broad categories such as narrative and representation across all these media, but it is much harder to sustain more specific analogies, for example, between the film shot and the word, or the film sequence and the sentence (Buckingham, 1989).
<<<
//(so no 'digital' literacy, then?)//
''p.75'' - Connotations of rounder, more wide-ranging education through use of 'literacy':
<<<
Nevertheless, the use of the term "literacy" implies a broader form of education about media that is not restricted to mechanical skills or narrow forms of functional competence. It suggests a more rounded, humanistic conception that is close to the German notion of "Bildung." So what are the possibilities and limitations of the notion of "//digital// literacy"? Is it just a fancy way of talking about how people learn to use digital technologies, or is it something broader than that? Indeed, do we really need yet another literacy?
<<<
//(all good questions - perhaps cite this when moving between sections in thesis?)//
''p.76'' - Notion of 'digital literacy' not new as arguments for 'computer literacy' date back at least to the 1980s. Latter = problematic:
<<<
Yet as Goodson and Mangan (1996) have pointed out, the term "computer literacy" is often poorly defined and delineated, both in terms of its overall aims and in terms of what it actually entails. As they suggest, rationales for computer literacy are often based on dubious assertions about the vocational relevance of computer skills or about the inherent value of learning with computers, which have been widely challenged.
<<<
//(computer literacy based on future needs and functional skills - is 'digital literacy' the new computer literacy?)//
(follows on)
''p.76'' - Digital literacy usually given functional definition:
<<<
In contemporary usage, digital (or computer) literacy often appears to amount to a minimal set of skills that will enable the user to operate effectively with software tools or in performing basic information retrieval tasks. This is essentially a //functional// definition: it specifies the basic skills that are required to undertake particular operations, but it does not go very far beyond this.
<<<
//(seems some see 'digital literacy' as some all-encompassing idea, whereas other see it in a functional way)//
''p.77'' - Conceptions of digital literacy never stray too far away from idea of accessing information:
<<<
[M]ost discussions of digital literacy remain primarily preoccupied with //information// - and therefore tend to neglect some of the broader cultural uses of the internet (not least by young people)... Much of the discussion appears to assume that information can be assessed simply in terms of its factual accuracy... There is little recognition here of the symbolic or persuasive aspects of digital media, of the emotional dimensions of our uses and interpretations of these media, or indeed of aspects of digital media that exceed mere "information."
<<<
//(need ''cultural'' dimension to definitions of digital literacy)//
''p.77-8'' - Digital literacy is more than functional skills:
<<<
[D]igital literacy is much more than a functional matter of learning how to use a computer and a keyboard, or how to do online searches. Of course, it needs to begin with some of the "basics." In relation to the internet, for example, children need to learn how to locate and slect material - how to use browsers, hyperlinks and search engines, and so on. But to stop there is to confine digital literacy to a form of instrumental or functional literacy. The skills that children need in relation to digital media are not confined to those of information retrieval. As with print, they also need to be able to evaluate and use information critically if they are to transform it into knowledge.
<<<
//(Buckingham comes down on the side of those who try and put a lot into the conception of 'digital literacy' - umbrella term?)//
''p.79'' - Need for understanding as well as application of skills:
<<<
A truly literate individual is able not only to use language but also to understand how it works. this is partly a matter of understanding the "grammar" of particular forms of communication, but it also involves an awareness of the broader codes and conventions of particular genres. This means acquiring analytical skills and a metalanguage for describing how language functions. Digital literacy must therefore involve a systematic awareness of how digital media are constructed and of the unique "rhetorics" of interactive communication.
<<<
//(there's no absolute need for this ''necessarily'' to be predicated upon standard literacy - is there?)//
''p.79'' - Need for 'commercial awareness' in digital literacy:
<<<
Literacy also involves understanding who is communicating to whom and why... [it] also involves a broader awareness of the global role of advertising, promotion and sponsorship and how they influence the nature of the information that is available in the first place.
<<<
//(just how high up the ladder of 'critical' media does/should digital literacy go?)//
''p.82'' - Need to be teaching young people about games as //cultural forms//. Teachers - mainly those teaching English or 'language arts' - using them for traditional literacy ends. Ends up with 'quasi-literary' approach.
''p.83'' - Digital literacy about much more than simply 'accessing' media:
<<<
[I]t should be apparent that approaching digital media through media education is about much more than simply "accessing" these media or using them as tools for learning: on the contrary, it means developing a much broader //critical understanding//, which addresses the textual characteristics of media alongside their social, economic and cultural implications.
<<<
//(Buckingham highlighting cultural element again - an important aspect)//
''p.87'' - Buckingham argues 'for an extension of media literacy principles to digital texts.'
<<<
Media literacy provides a means of connecting classroom uses of technology with the "techno-popular culture" that increasingly suffuses children's leisure time - and it does so in a critical rather than a celebratory way. It raises critical questions that most approaches to information technology in education fail to address and thereby moves decisively beyond a merely instrumental use of technology.
<<<
//(Buckingham seems concerned to strike a 'middle ground')//
''p.87-8'' - Not just about adding another 'literacy' to the curriculum:
<<<
Ultimately, however, my argument here is much broader than simply a call for media education. The metaphor of literacy - while not without its problems - provides one means of imagining a more coherent, and ambitious, approach. The increasing convergence of contemporary media means that we need to be addressing the skills and competencies - the multiple literacies - that are required by the whole range of contemporary forms of communication. Rather than simply adding media or digital literacy to the curriculum menu or hiving off information and communication into a separate school subject, we need a much broader reconceptualization of what we mean by literacy in a world that is increasingly dominated by electronic media.
<<<
//(important quotations this - digital literacy as part of a much wider revolutionary movement?)//
*G. Kress - //Literacy in the New Media Age// (cited in [[Cultural Practices of Literacy: Cast Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yYwtW2qGa4C&pg=PA183&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&ei=bQ6QSNfLOJzwigGOkrj0DQ&sig=ACfU3U1-RD6HykkTIWtyExOrLmSrWF43qw#PPA184,M1]]):
<<<
...//literacy// is the term to use when we make messages using letters as the means of recording that message ...my approach leaves us with the probelm of finding new terms for the uses of the different resources: not therefore "visual //literacy//" for the use of image; not "gestural //literacy//" for the use of gesture; and also not "musical //literacy//" or "soundtrack //literacy//" for the use of sound other than speech; and so on.
<<<
*Allan Luke (2003: 133), quoted in K. Schultz (2005) Foreword to Street, B.V. (ed.) //Literacies across educational contexts: mediating teaching and learning//, p.xi
<<<
How will literacy practices be redefined in relation not only to the emergence of digital technologies but also the emergent, blended forms of social identity, work, civic and institutional life, and the redistributions of wealth and power that accompany economic and cultural globalization?
<<<
//(A great guiding question! Not only brings in digital literacy, but stresses importance of ''context'')//
*''Huffaker, D.'' (2005). [[The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom|http://bit.ly/35CZTD]]. //AACE Journal//, 13(2), 91-98
<<<
Technology has added a new type of literacy to consider. Sometimes referred to as digital fluency, this type of literacy refers to the ways people become comfortable using technology as they would any other natural language (Huffaker, 2004). Some scholars suggest digital fluency will be another prerequisite for sociability, lifelong learning, and employment opportunities (Resnick, 2002). The uses of educational technology have a two-fold advantage: they can promote the types of literacy traditionally encouraged in learning, as well as the digital fluency needed to prosper in the digital age.
<<<
*''Huffaker, D.'' (2004). [[Spinning Yarns Around the Digital Fire: Storytelling and Dialogue Among Youth on the Internet|http://bit.ly/2d0HDc]] //Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual//, 63-75
<<<
Digital fluency develops as children (and end-users in general) become comfortable and natural with using computers and other digital technologies. As Resnick (2002) suggested, “When you learn to read and write, you are in a better position to learn many other things. So, too, with digital fluency. In the years ahead, digital fluency will become a prerequisite for obtaining jobs, participating meaningfully in society, and learning throughout a life-time” (Resnick, p. 33).
<<<
*''Cavallo'' (MIT, 2000) quoted in Huffaker, D. (2004). [[Spinning Yarns Around the Digital Fire: Storytelling and Dialogue Among Youth on the Internet|http://bit.ly/2d0HDc]] //Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual//, 63-75
<<<
The idea of building technological fluency draws on the image of being fluent in a language. When one is fluent in a natural language, one can think, express, communicate, imagine and create with that language. In the same way, we like to develop fluency through the construction of, and with technology as a means of, personal and group expression. We try to develop fluency with technology in order to help people become more eloquent and effective in their expression. Just as fluency changes the focus to a more holistic use of natural language, this also changes the focus of learning with technology.
<<<
*''Resnick, M.'' (2002) - [[Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age|http://bit.ly/9K8T1]]. (in Kirkman, G. (ed.), //The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World//) Oxford University Press.
<<<
What does it mean to be digitally fluent? Consider the analogy with learning a foreign language. If someone learned a few phrases so that they could read menus in restaurants and ask for directions on the street, would you consider them fluent in the language? Certainly not. That type of phrase-book knowledge is equivalent to the way most people use computers today. Is such knowledge useful? Yes. But it is not fluency.
To be truly fluent in a foreign language, you must be able to articulate a complex idea or tell an engaging story; in other words, you must be able to “make things” with language. Analogously, being digitally fluent involves not only knowing how to use technological tools, but also knowing how to construct things of significance with those tools (Papert and Resnick 1995).
Fluency with language not only has great utilitarian value in everyday life but also has a catalytic effect on learning. When you learn to read and write, you are in a better position to learn many other things. So, too, with digital fluency. In the years ahead, digital fluency will become a prerequisite for obtaining jobs, participating meaningfully in society, and learning throughout a lifetime.
<<<
*''Glewa, M. & Bogan, M.B.'' (2007), [[Improving children's literacy while promoting digital fluency through the use of blogs in the classroom: Surviving the hurricane|http://bit.ly/3vp4uw]] //Journal of Literacy and Technology//, 8(1), p.42
<<<
Digital fluency is defined as the competencies, new representational practices, design sensibilities, and technical expertise that a learner gains or demonstrates by using digital tools to gather, design, evaluate, critique, synthesize, and develop digital media artifacts, communication messages, or other electronic expressions (Hsi, Pinkard, & Woolsey, 2005).
<<<
*''Thomas, D.'' (no date) [[Thinking Through Technology: Creating Microworlds in Los Angeles High Schools: Defining and Assessing Levels of Technological Fluency at the Electronic Information Magnet School (Los Angeles)|http://bit.ly/1NXKhK]]
<<<
Technological fluency suggests an ability to actually incorporate technology into one’s thinking about the world, to utilize it as a tool, but also to possess a fundamental understanding of the nature and function of technology. Fluency suggests an integration of a concept into one’s way of thinking about the object in question and in one’s thinking about the world as a whole.
<<<
Clarence Fisher - //[[A New Language|http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2007/03/a_new_language.html]]//
<<<
...the learning of a student in a globally connected educator's classroom is both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the learning of a student in a different classroom. Not only do I believe that these two students would obviously be learning very different things, but that the actual structure of their learning is different. They have a different experience of what learning is, of what counts as knowledge, and of how learning happens.
The same is true for the teachers themselves. Globally connected educators believe that different kinds of things count as knowledge and are important enough for kids to know. Globally connected educators believe that learning happens in different ways, using different tools, and in different spaces and times that teachers not involved in learning in these ways may not see.
So this is bringing on a split, a new kind of digital divide.
<<<
''Eyman, D., Digital Literac(ies), Digital Discourses, and Communities of Practice: Literacy Practices in Virtual Environments (Cultural Practices of Literacy Study, Working Paper #12, no date)''
''p.4'' - Kress, //Literacy in the New Media Age// (2003):
<<<
…literacy is the term to use when we make messages using letters as the means of recording that message….my approach leaves us with the problem of finding new terms for the uses of the different resources: not therefore “visual literacy" for the use of image; not “gestural literacy" for the use of gesture; and also not musical “literacy" or “soundtrack literacy" for the use of sound other than speech; and so on.
<<<
''p.7'' - 'Digital literacy' is a better term than 'computer literacy':
<<<
I prefer the term “digital literacy" because I believe it captures the notion that the literacy practices referred to are enacted in digital spaces. I would contrast this sense of media, location, and context with terms such as “computer literacy" which evokes a concept of mere tool use, “internet literacy" which is too specific both in locale and in historical moment, and “electronic literacy" which is too broad in scope (as it can be seen as referencing any electronic device). “Technological literacy" or “technology literacy" is similarly too broad, as nearly all modes of communication are technologies—so there is no functional distinction between print-based literacy and digital literacy.
<<<
''p.7-8'' - Snyder (2002) - 'Silicon Literacy':
<<<
Now, for the first time in history, the written, oral and audiovisual modalities of communication are integrated into multimodal hypertext systems made accessible via the Internet and the World Wide Web. Silicon literacy practices represent the ways in which meanings are made within these new communication systems.
<<<
''p.20'' - Alan Luke (2003) argues that schools define literate practice:
<<<
Literate practice is situated, constructed, and intrapsychologically negotiated through an (artificial) social field called school, with rules of exchange denoted in scaffolded social activities around particular selected texts. But any acquired skills, whether basic or higher order, are reconstituted and remediated in relation to variable fields of power and practice in the larger community.
<<<
Children use tools of their culture:
<<<
"Like other builders, children appropriate to their own use materials they find about them, most saliently the models and metaphors suggested by the surrounding culture."
<<<
S. Papert, //Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas// (London, 1980), p.19
----
Cultural tools need to be given to learners (c.f. Vygotsky - children are capable of 'incidental learning based on their own natural mental functions):
<<<
"One of the most important challenges to an educational system is to empower the young with the intellectual tools of the culture."
<<<
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.16
----
Cultures = socially-constructed realities. How cultures change therefore 'depends on how one perceives and enacts culture.'
Berger & Luckman (1966) - cited in D. Meyerson & J. Martin, 'Cultural Change: an integration of three different views' (in A. Harris, N. Bennett & M. Preedy (eds.), //Organizational Effectiveness and Improvement in Education//;OUP, 1997), p.31
----
3 different paradigmitic views r.e. cultural change:
''Paradigm 1'' - hope & promise that leadership can initiate and control organization-wide cultural changes.
''Paradigm 2'' - attempts to manage cultural change have localized impact (both intentional & unintentional) - can't predict organization-wide.
''Paradigm 3'' - all cultural members 'inevitably and constantly change and are changed by the cultures they live in.'
D. Meyerson & J. Martin, 'Cultural Change: an integration of three different views' (in A. Harris, N. Bennett & M. Preedy (eds.), //Organizational Effectiveness and Improvement in Education//;OUP, 1997), p.40
----
Need to ''do'' something with computers:
<<<
"Simply handing out computers will not bring about... changes to the school culture, no matter how desirable the changes are."
<<<
A. McFarlane, '...and where might we end up?' (in A. McFarlane (ed.), //Information Technology and Authentic Learning: realising the potential of computers in the primary classroom//;London, 1997), p.175
----
John Donne (//The Anatomie of the World//) - change of paradigm:
<<<
"And the new Philosophy cals all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th' earth and no man's wit,
Can well direct him, where to looke for it.
'Tis all in peeces, all cohaerance gone."
<<<
quoted in W.E. Doll, Jr., //A Post-modern pespective on curriculum// (London, 1993), p.28
----
We are in midst of revolution r.e. technology in education:
<<<
"We are in the first phases of a profound revolution in technology whose consequences for teaching and learning are enormous. Our culture will never be the same again."
<<<
E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.245
----
Castells (1996) - our culture will change due to ICTs:
<<<
"The emergence of a new electronic communication system characterised by its global reach, its integration of all communication media, and its potential interactivity is changing and will change forever our culture."
<<<
*defines culture as our historically-produced systems of beliefs & codes - mediated through communication
*ICT = new way of communicating
quoted in I. Snyder, 'Hybrid Vigour': Reconciling the verbal and the visual in electronic communication (in A. Loveless & V. Ellis (eds.), //ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: subject to change//; London, 2001), p.44
----
Buckingham (1993) - 'high' culture is not the culture of the majority. Purpose of education? Need to allow the world to make sense to them:
<<<
"If the curriculum is to equip young people to understand and participate in their society, it must invariably being by acknowledging the cultural experiences of the majority."
<<<
*e.g. TV, computers, mobile phones
quoted in C. Beavis, 'Computer games, culture and curriculum' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1988), p.242
----
Use of ICT and changing culture leading to change in notion of an 'educated person':
<<<
"The ubiquitous presence and utility of ICT in modern life are having a significant impact on the way we live, and even on the notion of an educated person. It has led to the concept of the knowledge society - sometimes also called the learning society or information society. There is a widespread awareness that these developments have profound implications for education, and that schools must change, but as yet little detailed consideration of the extent of the change needed and the advantages that ICT can bring. The growth of the knowledge society and the pervasiveness of the technology represent a major challenge //and// a major opportunity for education."
<<<
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.9
----
Society looking to schools to provide skills needed:
<<<
"Modern society is increasingly looking to schools to foster independent and creative thinkers who can confidently solve problems and manage their own learning throughout their lives, the very qualities which ICT supremely is able to promote."
<<<
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.11
----
Schools need to change to gain benefits from ICT use:
<<<
"Powerful tensions exist between traditional curricula - based on well-defined content and rules for students to learn and be able to reproduce - and the open, skills-based, student-centred approaches supported by ICT. Dominant curricular and organisational patters in school were not designed for the Internet age, and often inhibit its effective use. ICT offers some gain for traditional curriculum delivery, but its full educational potential cannot be realised without radical changes in school structures and methodologies. As ICT gains acceptance in schools, it may become the driver and the facilitator of the necessary curriculum change."
<<<
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.15
----
Smith, Sachs & Chant (1988) - young people are "culturally positioned by the pervasiveness of computer-based and media technologies" (author) - these technologies are producing a "postmodern consciousness of multiple perspectives" - need for "technology literacy" to live in a "semiotic society".
cited in J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking
literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998), p.211-2
----
Kinsman (1991) - analogies between present historical period & shifts from agricultural to industrial production and culture in 18th & 19th century England:
<<<
"New technologies intended to simplify or streamline tasks become events in themselves." (author)
<<<
cited in J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998)
----
Green & Bigum (1993) - young people growing up in a different culture:
<<<
"... a fundamental issue is the significance of what is more specifically and appropriately understood as 'techno-popular culture', conceived as more and more the distinctive semiotic space which young people will increasingly inhabit as their natural environment, their proper realm, and the site par excellence of their sovereignty."
<<<
quoted in J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998), p.223
----
Major theme of new culture = 'social connectedness':
<<<
"Common culture is not (as 'post-modern' culture is held to be) chaotic or meaningless even though it is invisible or baffling to outside formal eyes. Its inherently democratic impulses, its variety and complexity, above all its social connectnedness, show us much more than does the formal 'modernist' or 'post-modernist' elite debate about how 'ordinary' identities creatively and 'commonly' articulate with, and are developed through, the restless, dramatic and contradictory themes of modernization."
<<<
P. Willis, //Common Culture// (OUP, 1990), p.140
----
Contradictions in gap "between cultural richness and possibility on one side and no work or boring work and lack of cash on the other." Need new view of human beings:
<<<
"The crucial lesson for us to draw here is that we need a different view of human beings. If not, the young will soon hit us over the head with one."
<<<
P. Willis, //Common Culture// (OUP, 1990), p.145
----
Reporting on changing teacher attitudes during ACOT (Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow) initiative:
<<<
"Throughout their careers, teachers had taken the role of expert in the classroom. But technology-rich classrooms undermined that role as some students quickly became more knowledgeable than both their peers and their teachers in using particular computer applications or hardware. Eventually, teachers not only accepted students' expertise but capitalized on and expanded the roles of student experts in their classrooms, relinquishing their emphasis on teacher-directed activities. Moreover, they discovered that students who had been perceived as slow or reluctant learners often blossomed when given an alternate means for displaying their abilities."
<<<
I. Haymore Sandholtz & C. Ringstaff, 'Teacher Change in Technology-Rich Classrooms' (in C. Fisher, D.C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (eds.), //Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms// (San Francisco, 1996), p.283-4
----
Såljo (1999) - learners use cultural tools:
<<<
"A fundamental assumption in a socio-cultural understanding of human learning is precisely this: learning is always learning to do something with cultural tools (be they intellectual and/or theoretical). This has the important implication that when understanding learning we have to consider that the unit we are studying is people in action using tools of some kind."
<<<
quoted in Sutherland & InterActive Project Team, //Designs for Learning: ICT and knowledge in the classroom// (Computers & Education, 43, 2004), p.6
----
Apple (1991) - educational technology is loaded with cultural values:
<<<
"The new technology is not just an assemblage of machines and their accompanying software. It embodies a //form of thinking// that orients a person to approach the world in a particular way."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.257
----
Morrisett (1996) - society creates technology, but technology also creates society.
Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.257
----
Changing culture and perceptions leading to a new teaching profession:
<<<
"The changes in society, among pupils' perceptions, and the evolution of new technologies are leading to a new profession for teachers."
<<<
B. Cornu, 'New technologies: integration into education' (in D. Watson & D. Tinsley (eds.), //Integrating Information Technology into Education//; London, 1995), p.8
----
Benjamin (1971) - analogy showing schools need to change:
<<<
"...a prehistoric tribe... decided to introduce systematic education for its children. The curriculum was specifically designed to meet particular survival needs in the local environment and so included such subjects as sabre-tooth-tiger-scaring-with-fire. But the climate of the region changes and the sabre tooth tigers perish. Attempts to change the curriculum to meet new survival needs encounter stern opposition."
<<<
quoted in J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.117
----
Smith, et al (1971):
<<<
"The curriculum is interwoven with the social fabric that sustains it."
<<<
quoted in J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.117
----
DiSessa (1988) - prediction of 'educated citizen' in 2020:
<<<
"an educated citizen in the year 2020 will be more valuable as an employee because he or she will be able to produce more builders of theory, synthesizers, and inventors of strategy than valuable as an employee who manages facts."
<<<
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.20
----
Svanaes (2000) - for understanding, need shared assumptions, etc.
<<<
"For language users to be able to comprehend the words of another language user, they need a shared background of experience. This includes culture, corporeality, sensory system, social life, etc. Wittgenstein uses the term //life form// for this. To him, language users of different life forms can never truly communicate."
<<<
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.34-35
----
Reason for implementing ICT in education - question seems to be:
<<<
"If technology helps us work, entertains us, is increasingly tied into the parameters of our existence generally, then why not invite it into the institutions of education, the places where culture itself is both sustained and revised?"
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1007
----
People becoming producers, not just consumers, of information:
<<<
"...individuals increasingly come to see themselves (and are expected to become) not only... consumers but also... producers of information for use by others." (Heylighen, 2002)
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1010
----
Brand:
<<<
"Communications media are so fundamental to society that when their structure changes, everything is affected."
<<<
Kenway, 'The Information Superhighway and Post-modernity' (//Comparative Education//, 32:2, 1996), p.219
----
Technology has a destabilizing effects - students have more time to gain technological competence than teachers.
Kapitzke, 'Information Technology as Cultural Capital' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.58
----
Metaphor of workers building cathedral - technician (building wall), craftsman (building cathedral), visionary (glorifying God)
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.109
----
Computers are the ulimate postmodern technology - "devoid of intrinsic commitment but programmable for any task."
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.111
----
Importance of //procedural// knowledge:
<<<
"We have more information being presented to us than we can possibly encode and remember. Our personal abilities are far exceeded by the amount of information created in the modern worlsd, and so ours has become a problem of deciding which information sources to attend to, and which information systems to use when we do not know something. In order to make use of an existing store of information we need to understand how the information within it is organised, and how to access it."
<<<
J.D.M. Underwood & G. Underwood, //Computers and Learning: helping children acquire thinking skills// (Oxford, 1990), p.60
----
Secretary of State for Education (1999):
<<<
"We stand of the brink of a new age. Familiar certainties and old ways of doing things are disappearing. Jobs are changing and with them the skills needed for the world of tomorrow. In our hearts we know we have no choice but to prepare for this new age, in which the key to success will be the education, knowledge and skills of our people."
<<<
quoted in - T. Imison & P. Taylor, //Managing ICT in the Secondary School//, (Oxford, 2001), p.124
----
Negroponte (1998):
<<<
"Like air and drinking water, being digital will be noticed only by its absence, not its presence."
<<<
G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.117
----
No choice but to join in 'ICT revolution':
<<<
"Abstention is not really an option since the ICT revolution is only one aspect of a deeper and broader cultural revolution that is changing Western culture from modern (or industrial) to postmodern (or post-industrial). Leaving educational systems outside this process would mean subjecting them to marginalization or even extinction."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.333
----
Adults who tell kids to turn off their computer games just don't get it:
<<<
You tell me to turn off the game. Because you're staring at the box. I can't turn off the game. Because the game ain't in the box.
So, stop making technology such a big deal. You want laptops. I got a cell phone. And you still don't get it.
'cause no matter what you spend your money and professional development time on, for us it's about being //inside// the game, inside the story, in //real-time//.
Everything else is over-priced and ready for recycling.
<<<
Christian Long in [["The Future of Learning" Manifesto|http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2007/01/the_future_of_l.html]]
''M. Eraut, //Education and the Information Society: a challenge for European policy// (London, 1991)''
''p.4'' - No unequivocal meaning for 'information society' - expression has three main meanings:
<<<
1. The quantity and rate of distribution of information by all the media with the emphasis on its diffuseness and rapid obsolescence.
2. The quantity of information classifiable, usable and analysable by the new computer technologies, with the emphasis on the theoretical potential of the information and the need for making it more accessible.
3. The central role played by knowledge, particularly knowledge with a well-defined purpose in modern society; knowledge is seen as an important factor in productivity.
<<<
''p.8'' - Representative of Cyprus at a meeting of the Council of Europe:
<<<
The explosion of information... has had many consequences, such as: contraction of the traditional culture and prevalence of the scientific-technological one; the questioning of authority and enormous change in human relations within the family, the school and the place of work; change of mentality and ways of life, and the enormous change in young people's values. The information provided by the mass media on the life styles and values of young people in other countries undermines existing models of conduct and behaviour and at the same time fails to provide a new model.
<<<
''p.13'' - Gradual development of an information society gives rise to a number of tensions that need to be resolved:
<<<
#The tensions between past and future, i.e. between traditional culture and new habits and attitudes.
#The tension between preparing pupils as citizens who will contribute to creating the future and qualifying them for future employment according to externally determined predictions of need.
#The tension between the formal curriculum of the school and the 'informal curriculum' available outside it.
#The tensions between teaching pupils about NICT and making the use of NICT part of school life.
#The tension between responding to vociferous demands from pupils and parents and ensuring equality of access for all pupils.
<<<
//(NICT = New Information Communication Technologies)//
''p.14'' - Representative of Austria at a meeting of the Council of Europe:
<<<
In future, every pupil must receive fundamental training in information technology. Such training, however, should not turn pupils into specialists in the field of basic computer technology; rather, they should be helped to recognize that information technology increasingly fulfils the function of a fundamental discipline necessary for other disciplines and subjects.
<<<
//(It's a __literacy__ then, right?)//
''p.27'' - Essential elements of computer literacy:
<<<
#Some knowledge and understanding of computers and their technology.
#The ability to use a few standard types of software.
#Some knowledge of computer applications and their use in a variety of contexts.
#Some knowledge and understanding of the current and future impact of computers upon society.
#The ability to write some simple computer programs.
<<<
//(I'd certainly question a few of these!)//
''p.85'' - Francis Balle: we have moved to an //informatics// - an //information-processing// - society.
''p.89'' - Technology is not inevitable - Francis Balle:
<<<
Cars have become indispensable because half a century ago we 'decided' that our economy was to be based on the automobile. Everything indicates that the computer will follow the same progression: from an object acquired to satisfy man's desire for technological novelty, it will become a fundamental need of the citizen, something he or she cannot imagine doing without unless there is a radical change of civilization.
<<<
''p.94'' - Francis Balle: technology is neutral:
<<
Technology is ambivalent it enslaves and emancipates at the same time.
<<<
*''Wikipedia'' - [[Computer Literacy|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_literacy]] [accessed 30 July 2008]:
<<<
Computer literacy is the knowledge and ability to use computers and technology efficiently. Computer literacy can also refer to the comfort level someone has with using computer programs and other applications that are associated with computers. Another valuable component of computer literacy is knowing how computers work and operate.
<<<
*''thefreedictionary.com'' - [[Computer Literacy|http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Digital+literacy]]:
<<<
Computer literacy does not deal with how the computer works (digital circuits), but does imply knowledge of how the computer does its work (calculate, compare and copy). It requires a conceptual understanding of systems analysis & design, application programming, systems programming and datacenter operations. It also implies hands-on ability to work the operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) and common applications such as spreadsheets, word processors, database programs, personal information managers (PIMs), e-mail programs and Web browsers.
<<<
<<<
The term was coined by Andrew Molnar, while director of the Office of Computing Activities at the National Science Foundation.
"We started computer literacy in '72 [...] We coined that phrase. It's sort of ironic. Nobody knows what computer literacy is. Nobody can define it. And the reason we selected [it] was because nobody could define it, and [...] it was a broad enough term that you could get all of these programs together under one roof" (cited in Aspray, W., (September 25, 1991) "Interview with Andrew Molnar," OH 234. Center for the History of Information Processing, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota).
<<<
<<<
A more useful definition from [[http://www.computerliteracyusa.com/|http://www.computerliteracyusa.com/]] is:
Computer literacy is an understanding of the concepts, terminology and operations that relate to general computer use. It is the essential knowledge needed to function independently with a computer. This functionality includes being able to solve and avoid problems, adapt to new situations, keep information organized and communicate effectively with other computer literate people.
<<<
*''Scher'' (1984), quoted by Oliver, R. & Towers, S., [[Benchmarking ICT literacy in tertiary learning settings|http://bit.ly/4tBPWj]], (in Sims, R., O’Reilly, M. & Sawkins, S. (eds.). //Learning to choose: Choosing to learn. Proceedings of the 17th Annual ASCILITE Conference//, pp. 381-390, Lismore, NSW: Southern Cross University Press)
<<<
[Computer literacy is] appropriate familiarity with technology to enable a person to live and cope in the modern world.
<<<
*''Hunter'' (1984), quoted by Oliver, R. & Towers, S., [[Benchmarking ICT literacy in tertiary learning settings|http://bit.ly/4tBPWj]], (in Sims, R., O’Reilly, M. & Sawkins, S. (eds.). //Learning to choose: Choosing to learn. Proceedings of the 17th Annual ASCILITE Conference//, pp. 381-390, Lismore, NSW: Southern Cross University Press)
<<<
[Computer literacy is] the skills and knowledge needed by a citizen to survive and thrive in a society that is dependent on technology for handling information and solving complex problems.
<<<
*''Simonson, Maurer, Montag-Torardi and Whitaker'' (1987) quoted by Oliver, R. & Towers, S., [[Benchmarking ICT literacy in tertiary learning settings|http://bit.ly/4tBPWj]], (in Sims, R., O’Reilly, M. & Sawkins, S. (eds.). //Learning to choose: Choosing to learn. Proceedings of the 17th Annual ASCILITE Conference//, pp. 381-390, Lismore, NSW: Southern Cross University Press)
<<<
[Computer literacy is] an understanding of computer characteristics, capabilities and applications, as well as an ability to implement this knowledge in the skilful and productive use of computer applications suitable to the individual roles in society.
<<<
''G. Claxton, 'Education for the Learning Age: A Sociocultural Approach to Learning to Learn' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton (eds.), //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002)''
''p.22-3'' - Education is concerned with morality - educators have to make value judgements r.e. how learners' minds should be shaped:
<<<
Education is essentially a moral enterprise. It maps out courses of learning that are designed to give people knowledge, skills, attitudes and qualities that are deemed to be worth having. Educators are in the business of making value judgements about what kinds of minds people need, and are therefore to be cultivated... At root, school exists to equip young people with the knowledge, capabilities and dispositions which they will need to cope well in the world that they are going, as adults, to inhabit.
<<<
''p.23'' - Education depends on the future that the educators believe is going to obtain:
<<<
But it also depends on whether the elders see their world as stable or changing, and on their image of the future. The goals of education are relative to the future which the 'elders' of a society forsee (Cole, 1996). If that future is imagined accurately, and the curriculum is appropriate, the ensuing education will be empowering. If the methods are ineffective, or if they develop skills that are unequal or inappropriate to the demands of the real world-to-be, then education fails. In a stable society, yesterday's education, if it was well designed originally, will do for the citizens of tomorrow. But if a culture is undergoing radical change, the demands of the future cannot be clearly predicted, and a different kind of preparation is required. If the main thing we know about the future is that we do know much about it, then the key responsibility for the educator is not to give young people tools that may be out of date before they have even been fully mastered, but to help them become confident and competent designers and makers of their own tools as they go along.
<<<
''p.23'' - Problems occur if educators do not realise need for change:
<<<
For a culture that is moving rapidly into a period of instability and uncertainty, and of increasing individual opportunity and responsibility for dealing with those demands, an imaginative reappraisal of methods and priorities becomes essential. If this challenge is ducked, the young will flounder (Claxton, 1999).
<<<
''p.24-5'' - Notions of 'epistemitc mentality', 'epistemic identity', and 'epistemic milieu':
*//Epistemic mentality// = "someone's accumulated ways of knowing, learning strategies and styles, and their habits of mind."
*//Epistemic identity// = "the person's view of themselves as a learner and knower: what they are good and bad at learning; what is worth knowing; what say they have in the generation and evaluation of knowledge and expertise; and so on."
*//Epistemic milieu// = "those aspects of the cultural world that impact most powerfully or directly on the development of epistemic mentality and identity."
''p.27'' - What schools should become:
<<<
Schools should become 'communities of practice' where the predominant practice is 'learning'... and where, concomitantly, the 'elders' of the community are themselves exemplary learners, and skilled coaches of the arts and crafts of learning.
<<<
''p.29'' - Schools need to develop a culture which encourages the development of 'learning how to learn':
<<<
Cultures that talk of learning as itself learnable, and which value engagement and tenacity as much as achievement and success... encourage the development of an epistemic mentality that is more robust and an epistemic identity that is more secture. Thus the informal language that teachers and parents use to comment on success, failure and difficulty embodies and conveys and view of learning and knowing which takes up residence in youngsters' minds, channelling the development of their learning dispositions, and influencing how their learning capabilities are expressed and developed.
<<<
''p.30'' - Educational institutions privilege some kinds of epistemic menalities and identities:
<<<
Educational institutions... differ in the extent to which they provide opportunities for a wide range of epistemic tools to be expressed, exercised and developed. They privilege certain ways of learning and knowing, and marginalize or stigmatize others. For example, the role of intuition in learning tends to be undervalued, and therefore under-exercised, in schools.
<<<
''p.31'' - Andy Hargreaves (1994) draws on anthropologist Edward Hall's (1984) distinction between two different approaches to time - //monochronic// and //polychronic//:
<<<
In a monochronic culture, tasks are clearly defined and tackled sequentially according to a predetermined timetable. there is a clear sense of the kinds of interactions between people that are 'on task' and those that are not. 'Success' is defined in terms of the production of 'solutions' that (appear to) meet the specification on time. In polychronic cultures, tasks are routinely tackled in a complex, parallel fashion without hard-and-fast deadlines. Social and instrumental interactions are interwoven and informal, often emerging organically and opportunistically. 'Success' is defined in terms of the production of 'solutions' that fulfil the initial intentions, even if not the technical specification, and which also serve to enhance social harmony and cohesion.
<<<
(Hall argues Northern European, North American & 'male' societies tend to be monochronic, whereas Mediterranean, 'Southern hemisphere' and 'female' societies tend to be more polychronic)
''p.31'' - School teachers tend to be more polychronic whilst administrators tend to be more monochronic:
<<<
Simply through the failure to recognize cultural differences, innovation may come to be subverted or collapse under a rising tide of frustration ('Why are they so slow and fuzzy?' grumble the change promoters) and resentment ('Why are they so pushy and insensitive?' complain the teachers)
<<<
(this sense of dissonance is also felt by many children as they move from the (more polychronic) primary school to the (more monochronic) secondary school)
''p.32'' - Schools need to focus on the 'how' rather than the 'what' when considering change:
<<<
Children acquire positive learning dispositions... by being 'apprenticed' to a community within which such dispositions are naturally manifested, modelled, recognized, acknowledged, and valued by the 'elders' by whom they are surrounded. The tools and attitudes of learning have to be nurtured within an educational milieu that affords, supports and encourages their expression and their development. This involves not the design of new programmes of study, nor even, in the main, the adoption of new forms of pedagogy, but an attention to the implicit values and assumptions of the culture, and to making sure that its objects, its tasks, its non-verbal signals and so on are consonant with the dispositions that the culture wishes to develop. It is the beliefs and priorities that are dissolved in the micro-'how' of the school that matter; not the glitzy new packages of 'what'.
<<<
''Gurak, L.J. //Cyberliteracy: navigating the Internet with awareness// (Yale, 2001)''
!Introduction
''p.2'' - Speech and writing are now blended:
<<<
What we used to separate into "speech" and "writing" is now blending together; notice how the text of most email mesages actually sounds like spoken language and is often sloppy, with little concern for spelling, capitalization, formality.
<<<
//(is this an issue relating to ''literacy'' or to culture? can the two be separated?)//
''p.2'' - Most people don't see technology as being about //choices//:
<<<
To most people, technologies are not about choices. Technologies are invented, advertised, packaged up, and sold to you. Technologies do not have backgrounds or politics, and technologies do not, in and of themselves, make you do things... That may be true. But technologies are invented by people and imbued with design choices that give these devices (software included) certain trajectories.
<<<
//(political aspect of digital literacy?)//
''p.3'' - First partial definition of 'cyberliteracy':
<<<
Enter cyberliteracy: a set of concepts and critical views with which to understand today's Internet.
<<<
//(but what about ''tomorrow's'' Internet - does that entail a different set of skills?)//
''p.6'' - Gurak points out the fact that conception of 'cyberliteracy' means seeing Internet and world from her point of view:
<<<
In selecting the terms that I find to be critical for cyberliteracy, I am inviting the reader to experience, understand, and view the digital world through my lens and my interpretation. Like any critic, I acknowledge that there are many other ways to interpret these artifacts. I invite readers to continue the discussion and challenge my interpretation.
This style of criticism, it strikes me, is very much in keeping with the pace and structure of communication online: if you don't agree, post a note and start a new discussion. It's indeed eclectic and hypertextual, but in the end, there is strength in drawing from a range of critical perspectives.
<<<
//(sounds like a great model to follow in my thesis - especially when posted online!)//
''p.7'' - Cyberliteracy involves understanding the //consequences// of technology:
<<<
Our culture does not inspire us to look beyond... simplistic answers to understand the broader social issues that these questions raise. Nor are we inspired to protest or change the technology. Yet to be cyberliterate means to recognize that technologies have consequences, and that we can decide how we allow the Internet to be part of our lives.
<<<
//(isn't this leading more towards 'how to be a good digital citizen'?)//
''p.8'' - Additional element of 'cyberliteracy' is stance taken towards technologies:
<<<
In the end, technologies are what we make them. Hardware and software do not follow some predetermined path towards a predetermined future. As a result, we must take a critical, informed stance about the Internet in order to be cyberliterate. Otherwise, we go blindly into a new communication era unprepared to understand and egnage the ways the Internet, and all its future iterations, is enmeshed in the fabric of our daily lives.
<<<
//(this quotation 'gets at' something - perhaps the way that 'digitally literate' people do have digital experiences 'enmeshed in the fabric' of their daily lives and are pro-active with the technology they use?)//
!Chapter 1 - Cyberliteracy: toward a new Internet consciousness
''p.9'' - Kathleen Welch (1999: 67) - definition of literacy:
<<<
By "literacy" I mean... not only the ability to read and write but an activity of the minds... capable of recognizing and engaging substantive issues along with the ways that minds, sensibilities, and emotions are constructed by and within communities whose members communicate through specific technologies. In other words, literacy has to do with consciousness: how we know what we know and a recognition of the historical, ideological and technological forces that inevitably operate in all human beings.
<<<
//(so literacy is a meeting of minds through a medium - digital or otherwise?)//
''p.12'' - Gurak expands on earlier point r.e. economic & political forces involved in literacy:
<<<
...to be truly literate online, users must understand the economic and political forces that are shaping information technologies. For technologies are not neutral. They do not develop in isolations from the social, political, and... economic powers. Cyberliteracy involves... a //conscious// interaction with the new technologies: one that embraces and enjoys the technology but at the same time is critical, looking beyond the enticing Web images or speedier data connections that deominate our images of cyberspace.
<<<
//(I think this is bordering on 'awareness' and 'political activism' - do we require the same for text-based literacy?)//
''p.13'' - Popular definitions of literacy are 'performative':
<<<
...popular understandings of literacy often hearken back to those more biased, simplistic definitions, valuing reading and print over any other form of communication. This view of literacy is what might be labeled as "performative": that is, the ability to do something is what counts. We hear about literacy in this way almost every day when we watch the television news or read the paper and learn that people need to become more "computer literate" or "technology literate," which, translated, usually means that these people need to learn how to use a computer and keyboard. Indeed, this view of literacy is so common that it leaves little room for what I am suggesting: a critical technological literacy, one that includes performance, but also relies heavily on people's ability to understand, criticize, and make judgments about a technology's interactions with, and effects on, culture.
<<<
//(Great quotation to use in thesis - performative aspect of literacy very often cited and implied)//
''p.13-14'' - Walter Ong - idea of 'secondary orality':
<<<
In addition to literacy as performance, most people understand literacy to mean "print," an d thus we have come to favor the book over the screen.
...
One way to update this print-limited view of literacy to include electronic texts is to consider the work of Walter Ong. Ong's notion of "secondary orality" helps describe the language we use on the Internet (email, Usenet news, the Web) - language that is a blend of written and spoken communication.
<<<
//(need to mention this in thesis - an important distinction)//
''p.14'' - Ong: nine features of oral discourse:
<<<
Ong identifies nine features of oral discourse, noting in one example that oral style is "additive rather than subordinative"; that is, each sentence builds on the previous one using certain parts of speech and rhythm. Others of Ong's oral characteristics - aggregative rather than analytical; redundant; conservative; close to the human lifeworld; agonistically toned; empathetic and participatory; homeostatic; situational - are useful in seeing how the "written" e-texts of electronic discussions (like email) resemble both writing and speech.
<<<
//(need to look at Ong's work in some more detail...)///
''p.14'' - Cyberliteracy is not print, but nor is it purely oral:
<<<
[The concept of 'secondary orality'] helps us to see that cyberliteracy is not purely a print literacy, nor is it purely an oral literacy. It is an electronic literacy - newly emerging in a new medium - that combines features of both print and the spoken word, and it does so in ways that change how we read, speak, think, and interact with others. Once we see that online texts are not exactly written //or// spoken, we begin to understand that cyberliteracy requires a special form of critical thinking. Communication in the online world is not quite like anything else.
<<<
//(Another important quotation - especially about online texts being neither written nor spoken!)//
''p.16'' - Some technologies affect literacy practices long after they have fallen into disuse - Tyner (1998: 40):
<<<
Some literacy technologies atrophy from widespread disuse, but the conventions they foster in form and content may linger for centuries.
<<<
//(Gurak gives examples of standard page size, cutting & pasting, kerning)//
''p.17'' - The book is a 'profound communication technology':
<<<
Books and pamphlets, and issues of who could print and own them, became the subjects of many political battles, but in the end, the book - particularly the paperback - became what some would call a profound communication technology. It is small and lightweight. It does not require batteries. You can read it and pass it along to someone else.
<<<
//(Perhaps a counter to those who see Internet as completely different from any other 'revolution'?)//
''p.18'' - The telegraph system in the 19th century had elements of what we find 'unique' about the Internet:
<<<
Tom Standage, in //The Victorian Internet// (1998), calls the telegraph the "mother of all networks" and describes how this technology hinted at what we find so profound about Internet communication: speed, reach, online romance, news and media coverage, and "a technological subculture with its own customs and vocabulary."
<<<
//(Another example of how Internet revolution has elements of others embedded within it?)//
''p.18'' - Cultural aspects of technologies understood only by those who live through the changes:
<<<
People born in the midst of a new technology, before it becomes ubiquitous, are often keenly aware of these social and cultural changes (never more so that today, when commentary about the Internet is everywhere.
<<<
//(This is an important point and perhaps why //I// see the need for change? Also, those who are born afterwards don't really see it as 'technology' - or just take it for granted)//
''p.19'' - Haas (1996) - the 'text sense problem'. Those who had come to use computers later in life had "a hard time //knowing where [they were]]//" and felt disconnected in relation to the screen text.
''p.20'' - How we work affects how we read and write:
<<<
Linear ways of thinking go by the wayside the more one begins to be surrounded by chunks of information, sound bites, and "site bites" (Welch, 1999).
<<<
//(Links to hypertextuality)//
''p.21'' - Additional element of 'cyberliteracy' - Internet = blend of communication:
<<<
Cyberliteracy recognizes that on the Internet, communication is a blend of oral, written, and visual information: the technology, like many before it, shapes our social spaces, replacing the slower methods of handwriting and typing with the speed and frenzy of digitized text.
<<<
//(Cyberliteracy has quite a narrow scope - just online interactions?)//
''p.21'' - Literacy can have an 'ought' element to it:
<<<
In some cases, the term //literacy// not only means performance and written language, it also indicates exactly what one //should// read and write... Canons are always problematic, because what they include will always privilege some people's stories, plays, art or ideas over others.
<<<
//(Does digital literacy include an 'ought'?)//
''p.21'' - Welch (1999) drawing on Street (1984) - literacy in age of 'electric rhetoric' must make room for differing kinds of knowledge and recognition must be made that literacy is always connected to issues of power:
<<<
[Literacy] constitutes intersubjective activity in encoding and decoding screen and alphabetic texts within specific cultural practices and recognizes the inevitable deployment of power and the control that larger entities have over these media... While literacy now and historically is conditioned by communication technology, it is not determined by it; changes in consciousness bring about social constructions in which some writing and speaking activities are privileged and others are devalued.
<<<
//(Brings in elements of knowledge and power to the literacy debate - ''can'' these be excluded? Are they ''part'' of literacy are simply intertwined?)//
''p.23'' - Historian and critic David F. Noble (1986: 44) - fallacy of 'technological determinism':
<<<
It is a staple of current thinking about technological change that such a "successful" technology, having become dominant, must have evolved in some "necessary" way. Implicit in the modern ideology of technological progress is the belief that the process of technological development is analogous to that of natural selection. It is thus assumed that all technological alternatives are always considered, that they are disinterestedly evaluated on their technical merits, and that they are then judged according to the cold calculus of accumulation. Any successful technology, therefore - one which becomes the dominant and ultimately the only solution to a given problem - must, by definition, be the best, for it alone has survived the rigors of engineering experimentation and the trials of the competitive marketplace. And, as the best, it has become the latest, and necessary, step along the unilinear path of progress.
<<<
//(Gurak presumably arguing that Cyberliteracy allows people to see through this? On p.24 she calls this 'Technological Darwinism')//
''p.27'' - Problem with Gilster's 1997 book //Digital Literacy//:
<<<
Paul Gilster (1997), in a book with the promising title //Digital Literacy//, appears to break [the] mold and discuss how users can determine if a website is credible or not. But in the end, he suggests that digital literacy is literacy of the performance sort - that it "involves acquiring the necessary survival skills, the core competencies [described in his book] to take advantage of this environment". Even when Internet software changes, you will still be "literate" if you can use the Internet to "find, verify, and incorporate [Internet] content into [your] work."
<<<
//(Excellent! Another scholar rebutting Gilster. Definitely use this.)//
''p.27'' - Element in 'cyberliteracy' = being //active//, not passive:
<<<
Cyberliteracy means voicing an opinion about what these technologies should become and being an active, not a passive, participant. To become aware of technology should be to become curious... Note... the word //user//, a standard word in technology development... The term echoes throughout the software field... Yet the only other area that refers to people as "users" is the area of drug addiction, where the term connotes someone who is controlled by the substance.
<<<
//(Hmm... not sure if I agree with this!)//
!Chapter 2 - Speed, Reach, Anonymity, Interactivity
''p.29'' - 'Action terms' of the Internet (and relation to 'cyberliteracy'):
<<<
How does cyberspace operate? What are the "action terms," if you will, of communication on the Internet? They are speed, reach, anonymity, interactivity: the functional units by which most Internet communication takes place. These terms help us understand how cyberspace functions, how this technology is the same as and different from others before it, and how we can work with the technology to become cyberliterate.
<<<
//(Are these 'action terms' still the same? Is, for example, 'anonymity' still a feature of most Internet communication?)//
''p.41-2'' - Difficulty of 'authorship' and 'ownership' in digital world - relation to plagiarism:
<<<
The identity-based concepts of //author// and //owner// are problematized in the digital world. It is often difficult to identify the authors of a digital document. Email contains the cascading parts of other messages. Web sites contain material gleaned from other sites as well as links to images, other Web pages, sounds, and text. From one perspective, this makes for a wonderful space where information can be shared, reused, and circulated. But when authorship and ownership are as fluid as this, notions about what constitutes plagiarism become confusing.
<<<
//(Is this still the case with Creative Commons licensing, wiki histories, etc.?)//
!Chapter 3 - Techno-Rage: Machines, Anger, and Censorship
''p.63'' - Internet filtering make 'full' cyberliteracy harder to obtain:
<<<
[Internet filters] may have their place, but they do not support a full cyberliteracy, one that believes in open information but asks Internet citizens to turn a critical eye on whatever information they encounter.
<<<
//(Again, to what extent is this ''literacy''?)//
''p.63'' - 'Cyberliteracy' is against notion of 'technological determinism:
<<<
In the end, cyberliteracy means rejecting technological determinism. Even though the key features of online communication - speed, reach, anonymity, interactivity - may inspire or encourage us to behave in certain ways, in the end we, not the machines, are in charge. The edgy, wired times we live in do not necessarily have to translate into all-out anger. Cyberliteracy means understanding the tendencies of Internet communication and making thoughtful, informed choices.
<<<
//(Goes on to discuss 'netiquette' - is this part of ''literacy'' or not?)//
!Chapter 4 - Gender(s) and Virtualities
''p.81'' - 'Cyberliteracy' and gender:
<<<
Cyberspace, then, is certainly not a utopia when it comes to gender... Cyberliteracy requires us to acknowledge the gendered nature of the Internet and take action. We can construct sites that defy this trend, reject Barbie computers, create new role models for girls and women, and recognize that there is no utopia, even in cyberspace.
<<<
//(Is this part of ''literacy'', or is it citizenship?)//
!Chapter 5 - Humor, Hoaxes, and Legends in Cyberspace
''p.83'' - Problem of Internet hoaxes and link to 'cyberliteracy':
<<<
A cyberliterate citizen is one who knows how to be critical about online information. As the Internet continues to grow, it will be important to distinguish facts from hype, especially because much of the hype is designed to create fear and alarm.
<<<
//(I believe Gurak is conflating literacy and citizenship - nowhere is it clearer than here. Even uses the term 'citizen'!)//
!Chapter 6 - Privacy and Copyright in Digital Space
''p.126'' - 'Cyberliteracy' and rights:
<<<
Cyberliteracy means more than just surfing the Internet and knowing how to click a few buttons. It means understanding your legal rights and paying attention to how the forces behind the technology cyberspace are changing our social spaces.
<<<
//(Citizenship, not literacy, in my opinion...)//
!Chapter 8 - Think Globally, Eat Locally
''p.146'' - Phil Agre (1998) argues that we can't really 'live' in cyberspace:
<<<
Cyberspace... does not exist. The Internet does exist, and so do a lot of other technologies, [but] neither the technologies nor the changes are well described as the creation of a distinct, separate, authonomous pseudo-place that could reasonably be called 'cyberspace'.
<<<
//(Gurak goes on to say that William Mitchell, an architecture professor at MIT, "points out that cyberspace is in fact the new public space, a virtual yet very real place where more and more of us go to hang out." Gurak says she agrees with both points of view.)//
<<<
''p.147'' - Phil Agre (1998) - concept of 'Cyberspace' = destructive:
<<<
[T]he concept of cyberspace is destructive because it draws our attention away from the most consequential effects of the adoption of distributed information technologies. It focuses our attention on unrepresentative cases, it interferes with our attempts to conceptualize the material and institutional context in which online interactions occur, and it makes us less likely to ask many important questions. Not only that, but the cyberspace ideology makes a vast number of predictions, the great majority of which are turning out to be 180 degrees the opposite of the truth.
<<<
//(Such as? No examples given! This is just assertion and not backed up with any proof at all, really. I do, however, agree that notion of 'cyberspace' isn't a positive one and is both of less use and less ''used'' nowadays.)//
''p.152'' - Link between digital world and physicality. Gurak explains what going away from the computer after a length of time entails:
<<<
It doesn't just mean getting up and walking away. It also means leaving behind the ways ceyberspace makes you feel and think. The intensity of the screen and hte seductive quality of type behind the glass make our bodies and brains function in ways they should not have to endure for long.
<<<
//(This psycho-physical phenomenon is an important one. Similar to teenager playing computer game being asked to 'turn it off' when they're actually ''in the game'' in a very real sense)//
''p.159'' - 'Cyberspace' isn't a //physical// space and therefore we need to be careful:
<<<
Although it's fun to talk about cyberspace as place, we reside in the physical world. We thus need to strike a balance in our wired lives... Technologies have consequences, and the Internet is no exception. To be cyberliterate, we must be alert to the ways in which the Internet is changing our connection to our physical lives. And in doing so, we must make choices about what sort of activities are appropriate for cyberspace and what sort are better experienced in the physical world.
<<<
//(How does this relate to immersive 3D environments like Second Life?)//
''A. Davis & K. Williams, 'Epistemology and Curriculum' (in N. Blake, et al. (eds.), //The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education//, Oxford, 2003)''
''p.268'' - Cannot guarantee minimum standards through a curriculum:
<<<
It is one thing then to prescribe a curriculum based on a rich conception of knowledge; it is another to ensure the richness of this learning. We cannot guarantee a minimum education, let alone a rich quality of engagement with curricular pursuits or practices. We can prescribe a right or entitlement to receive schooling and do our utmost to ensure that young people profit from it but it is impossible to ensure the success of our efforts. Analogously, perhaps, we can prescribe a minimum wage but we cannot guarantee a minimum quality of life; we can prescribe minumu standards of health care but we cannot guarantee health. Educational expectations must not therefore be extreme and unrealistic.
<<<
(this also means that any given assessment "can never assess in an exhaustive way a learner's achievement")
''Fieldhouse, M. & Nicholas, D. 'Digital Literacy as Information Savvy: the road to information literacy' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.47'' - Information-seeking fundamentally different in world of the Internet:
<<<
The digital revolution has changed information-seeking behavior beyond recognition and, by means of simple to use web interfaces and search engines, has rendered us all information "savvy," in that we think we can easily find, create and use information on the internet.
<<<
//(is 'savvy' really a useful term - not merely a colloquialism?)//
''p.48'' - Oxford English Dictionary defines 'savvy' as:
<<<
having practical sense, quick-witted; knowledgeable, wily, experienced. Also wise to (something).
<<<
//(what's this got to do with anything?!)//
''p.48'' - Authors suggest following for being 'information savvy':
<<<
In a digital environment, being information savvy is more than just being able to use technology to locate information. It suggests a common sense approach to and awareness of the problems and pitfalls of exploring the highways of the internet, just as being street-wise implies being able to handle the harsher realities of city life.
<<<
//(I would reject this analogy - the two are nothing like one another!)//
''p.48'' - Is being 'savvy' enough? the authors ask - what about concept of 'wisdom'. Look at OED again for 'wise':
<<<
[h]aving or exercising sound judgement or discernment; capable of judging truly concerning what is right or fitting, and disposed to act accordingly; having the ability to perceive and adopt the best means for accomplishing an end; characterised by good sense and prudence.
<<<
//(is recourse to the OED in this day and age valid? doesn't it just play catch-up to real-world usage and agreement?)//
''p.49'' - Authors create //(false)// dichotomy between 'information savvy' and 'information wise'
''p.50-1'' - Problem with multiple definitions of 'digital literacy':
<<<
Definitions of digital and information literacy are numerous. Within this pool of definitions, terms often are interchangeable; for example, "literacy," "fluency," and "competency" can all be used to describe the ability to steer a path through digital and information environments to find, evaluate, and accept or reject information.
<<<
//(can they? I think the literature is slightly more nuanced than this 'interchangeable' view)//
''p.50'' - Martin & Madigan (2006) 'explore a range of conceptions of digital literacy and how these conceptions are enabled and supported in different communities.'
''p.50'' - Definition of 'digital literacy' by Martin (2005):
<<<
the ability to succeed in encounters with the electronic infrastructures and tools that make possible the world of the twenty-first century.
<<<
//(can this be measured? is it of much use as a definition? ''should'' 'digital literacy' be measurable?)//
''p.50'' - Martin (2005) believes that digital literacy involves:
<<<
acquiring and using knowledge, techniques, attitudes and personal qualities and will include the ability to plan, execute and evaluate digital actions in the solution of life tasts, and the ability to reflect on one's own digital literacy development.
<<<
//(again, does this ''mean'' anything concrete?)//
''p.50'' - Erstad (2006) - digital literacy for school-age learners in Norway:
<<<
...skills, knowledge and attitudes in using digital media to be able to master the challenges in the learning society.
<<<
//(wishy-washy and clearly influenced by Martin (above)...)//
''p.51'' - Two reason why Gilster (1997) important r.e. 'information savvy' element of digital literacy:
<<<
*he describes how the digital environment has revolutionalized not only information-seeking, but also information-handling behavior.
*he suggests that technical skills may be less important than a discriminating view of what is found on the internet.
<<<
//(this latter point is important to my thesis - do you need knowledge of how the tools work to use them effectively?)//
''p.52'' - Information literacy = a term more easily agreed upon and adopted:
<<<
Definitions of information literacy are more substantial and have been adopted at a national level in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and in the U.K.
<<<
''p.52'' - Definition of being 'information literate' by the //Final Report of the American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy// (1989):
<<<
To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
<<<
(these were developed into competency standards in the US)
''p.52'' - Definition of 'information literacy' by the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) (1999):
<<<
knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner.
<<<
//(where did the 'ethical manner' bit come from?!)//
''p.53-4'' - Table showing similarities and differences between definitions of digital and information literacy:
[img[Summary of relationships between different positions on digital and information literacy|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/digital_literacy_info_literacy.jpg]]
''p.55'' - Authors consider 'information literacy' to be umbrella term under which 'digital literacy' can be found:
<<<
The concept of content evaluation is common to both digital and information literacy... Being digital literate and information savvy are not, on their own, enough to be considered information literate, and the authority, relevance, currency, quality, coverage and objectivity of information have to be assessed according to the defined standards.
<<<
//(starting to think that this whole thing is like the Emperor's New Clothes...)//
''p.59'' - Digital native/immigrant dichotomy still being used:
<<<
Digital natives are enthusiastic searchers and completely at east in an electronic environment; they are confident about their ability to find information. Nonetheless, surveys tell us that older internet users - or "digital immigrants" - quickly develop skills to a similar level of expertise.
<<<
//(evidence? argument for dichotomy?)//
''p.60'' - The 'language' of the digital world:
<<<
The digital generation gap represent something of a dichotomy, with digital natives and digital immigrants using different languages. With no experience of pre-digital life, members of the Net Generation do not describe things in terms of them being digital, since they always have been, so there is no alternative. To them, computers are not technology, they are part of life. Digital immigrants, on the other hand, speak a language which reflects their experience of pre-digital life, by describing things as "digital" to differentiate between electronic and traditional versions.
<<<
//(no argument or definition as what 'digital' means)//
//(very good point, this - despite my rejecting the dichotomy!)//
''p.62'' - Massive problem in that people not taught how to search for information properly:
<<<
It is possible that we are witnessing failure at the terminal on a truly astonishing scale, and nobody seems to care because information seeking has been completely disintermediated and is an activity which as become commercially attractive. The default position is that with unprecedented levels of information access, it is up to you to make the most of it.
<<<
//(another good point - where does 'digital literacy' come in with this?)//
''p.62'' - Why good Internet skills important:
<<<
Health, wealth and education are now dependent on access to the internet and the ability to use it effectively. Many opportunities and much information are only offered to the virtual consumer.
<<<
//
//(I agree - it's a shame no examples are given by authors...)//
''p.63'' - //Authors go off on a bit of a rant about information searching. First they talk about young people 'power browsing', saying// 'It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.' //This is presented as A BAD THING. Then they say that 'anecdotal evidence' from logs of internet use show that://
<<<
The message coming from libraries, schools and academics is that young, information-savvy people think that finding information is simple; also they //want// simple information, served up in bite-sized chunks. Fast food and obesity come to mind when thinking of analogous situations.
<<<
//I really can't see how the two can be linked. Just because people waded through lots of books in the past to find information doesn't mean we have to these days! They then ask who can put this situation right//:
<<<
Can anyone put this right and if so who? The assumption generally is that it really has to be teachers and librarians; we surely cannot leave it to intelligent systems, most of which have a hidden financial agenda.
<<<
//Indeed, but that doesn't mean that they don't provide good, relevant results - why rely solely on limited human capacities?!) The authors then finish with a call to 'extrinsic motivation' - the last nail in the coffin for their argument as far as I'm concerned...//
<<<
If the information literacy message is to be heard then it will only be hard if it can be connected to real world outcomes... There has to be some kind of pay-back; that's why the information profession in particular desperately needs to come up with outcomes data; hard data which demonstrate conclusively that, say, if you attend this literacy program, if you really search the library's databases, and don't just use Google, it will make a difference and you will end up with a higher grade, better degree, etc.
<<<
//I agree that students shouldn't ''just'' use Google, but this type of argument is reactionary!)//
''p.67'' - Generational problem r.e. digital/information literacy:
<<<
There is... a generational barrier to accepting the potential of information literacy, in that education systems are currently dominated by Baby Boomers, who do not always recognize the need to update their levels of digital literacy since they can get by on the skills they have already acquired even if they are not the most efficient or effective. ''The lack of recognition of the extent to which digital literacy infiltrates every aspect of life leaves more aware students and researchers confused by unfamiliar and outdated practices and methods.''
<<<
//(my emphasis - I agree!)//
*''Microsoft's'' [[Digital Literacy Curriculum|http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/Citizenship/giving/programs/UP/digitalliteracy/default.mspx]]:
<<<
The goal of Digital Literacy is to teach and assess basic computer concepts and skills so that people can use computer technology in everyday life to develop new social and economic opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
<<<
*''[[OCR qualification in Digital Literacy|http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/vocationally-relatedcertificate/digital_literacy_entry_level_certificate/index.html]]'' (uses Microsoft curriculum):
<<<
The OCR Entry Level Certificate in Digital Literacy (Entry 3) has been designed to assess basic computer concepts and skills so that candidates' knowledge, understanding and skills are recognised and they gain confidence in using computer technology in everyday life. This helps to develop new social and economic opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities.
<<<
*''[[European Commission|http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/tl/edutra/skills/index_en.htm]]'' - interested in digital literacy as an enabling factor, especially for women:
<<<
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect our lives every day - from interacting with our governments to working from home, from keeping in touch with our friends to accessing healthcare and education.
To participate and take advantage, citizens must be ''digitally literate'' - equipped with the skills to benefit from and participate in the Information Society. This includes both the ability to use new ICT tools and the media literacy skills to handle the flood of images, text and audiovisual content that constantly pour across the global networks.
Digital literacy is therefore one element in the i2010 Strategy's emphasis on Inclusion, better public services and quality of life. But this is not just about Inclusion - ICT-related skills are vital for the competitiveness and innovation capability of the European economy (see the Economy & Work theme)
<<<
*''European Commission'': [[Benchmarking in a Policy Perspective: Digital Literacy and ICT Skills|http://www.ictliteracy.info/rf.pdf/digital_literacy_and_ict_skills.pdf]] (PDF):
<<<
''ICT practitioner skills'' are the capabilities required for researching, developing and
designing, managing, the producing, consulting, marketing and selling, the integrating,
installing and administrating, the maintaining, supporting and service of ICT systems;
''ICT user skills'' are the capabilities required for effective application of ICT systems and
devices by the individual. ICT users apply systems as tools in support of their own work,
which is, in most cases, not ICT. User skills cover the utilisation of common generic software
tools and the use of specialised tools supporting business functions within industries other
than the ICT industry;
''e-Business skills'' are the capabilities needed to exploit opportunities provided by ICT,
notably the Internet, to ensure more efficient and effective performance of different types of
organisations, to explore possibilities for new ways of conducting business and
organisational processes, and to establish new businesses.
<<<
*''University of Washington'' - [[Health Department's Digital Literacy Self-Assessment|http://courses.washington.edu/hsstudev/studev/self-assess.html]] 'to help you determine if you will need additional training or practice to meet the computer-related requirements of your degree program'. Divided into 9 sections:
<<<
1. General Computer Knowledge
2. File Management Knowledge
3. System Maintenance and Security Knowledge
4. Word Processing Skills
5. Communications Skills (email, listservs)
6. Web Skills
7. Databases, Searching and Information Integrity
8. Spreadsheets
9. Presentation Skills
<<<
*''EDUCAUSE (Volume 29, Number 2, 2006)'' - [[Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century|http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/ConnectingtheDigitalDotsL/39969?time=1217394861]] (Barbara R. Jones-Kavalier & Suzanne L. Flannigan):
<<<
Literacy today depends on understanding the multiple media that make up our high-tech reality and developing the skills to use them effectively.
<<<
<<<
Digital literacy represents a person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment, with “digital” meaning information represented in numeric form and primarily for use by a computer. Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media (text, sound, images), to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments.
<<<
<<<
Literacy, in any form, advances a person’s ability to effectively and creatively use and communicate information.
<<<
*''Herald Tribune'' - [[Literacy debate: Online, r u really reading?|http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/27/arts/27reading.php]] (27 July 2008):
<<<
Clearly, reading in print and on the Internet are different. On paper, text has a predetermined beginning, middle and end, where readers focus for a sustained period on one author's vision. On the Internet, readers skate through cyberspace at will and, in effect, compose their own beginnings, middles and ends.
<<<
<<<
To date, there have been few large-scale appraisals of Web skills. The Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT, has developed a digital literacy test known as iSkills that requires students to solve informational problems by searching for answers on the Web. About 80 colleges and a handful of high schools have administered the test so far.
<<<
*''LearnDirect'' - [[Digital Literacy course|]] consists of reaching a stage where you are able to:
<<<
- Understand common computer terminology
- Understand what the Internet and the World Wide Web are and how they work
- Write, send and manage e-mail messages
- Perform tasks using word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software
- Identify risks to your computer’s security and privacy
- Protect your computer and your data from common threats
- Understand the features and benefits of modern digital technology
<<<
*''[[Karen Robertson|http://exc-el.org.uk/content/index.php/main/digital_literacy]]'' (exc-el.org.uk) - definition of digital literacy:
<<<
Digital Literacy describes a person’s ability to understand, evaluate, and create information in multiple formats via computer and the Internet. One’s level of digital literacy, which is also referred to as computer literacy, relies on various skills and capacities related to the use of computer technologies and communication tools. These skills include the use of computer hardware and peripherals, a computer operating system, computer software applications including office software, and the ability to navigate and find information on the World Wide Web and communicate using electronic email.The term digital literacy is being increasingly used by educational institutions and other organizations who require that their students or employees possess a basic level of computer technology skills.
<<<
*''José Manuel Pérez Tornero'' - [[Digital Literacy and Media Education: an Emerging Need|http://www.elearningeuropa.info/directory/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=4935&doclng=6]]:
<<<
Digital literacy is a process that affects at least four dimensions:
* Operational: The ability to use computers and communication technologies.
* Semiotic: The ability to use all the languages that converge in the new multimedia universe.
* Cultural: A new intellectual environment for the Information Society.
* Civic: A new repertoire of rights and duties relating to the new technological context.
In this sense, digital literacy today is similar to what UNESCO has defined for some time as "media education". According to this organisation, media education "enables people to gain understanding of the communication media used in their society and the way they operate and to acquire skills in using these media to communicate with others". To accept the similarity, we only need to acknowledge the evident fact that practically all media today are based on the use of digital technologies.
<<<
*''Professor Rob Frieden'' (Penn State University) - [[Course on Digital Literacy|http://www.personal.psu.edu/rmf5/Digital%20Literacy.htm]]:
<<<
Digital literacy refers to the skills, insights and savvy needed for one to exploit fully the benefits accruing from the convergence of telecommunications and information processing technologies and markets. Put another way, digital literacy helps you "pass the Best Buy" test making it possible to avoid expensive surprises and disappointments.
<<<
*''Yoram Eshet Alkali & Yair Amichai-Hamburger.'' [[CyberPsychology & Behavior|http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2004.7.421?cookieSet=1&journalCode=cpb]] August 1, 2004, 7(4): 421-429:
<<<
Having digital literacy requires more than just the ability to use software or to operate a digital device; it includes a large variety of complex skills such as cognitive, motoric, sociological, and emotional that users need to have in order to use digital environments effectively. A conceptual model that was recently described by the authors suggests that digital literacy comprises five major digital skills: photo-visual skills ("reading" instructions from graphical displays), reproduction skills (utilizing digital reproduction to create new, meaningful materials from preexisting ones), branching skills (constructing knowledge from non-linear, hypertextual navigation), information skills (evaluating the quality and validity of information), and socio-emotional skills (understanding the "rules" that prevail in cyberspace and applying this understanding in online cyberspace communication).
<<<
*''Gilster'' (1997) [[defined|http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=18648&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html]] 'digital literacy' as:
<<<
the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers
<<<
*''Bruce P. Mehlman'' - [[ICT Literacy: Preparing the Digital Generation for the Age of Innovation|http://www.technology.gov/Speeches/p_BPM_030124-DigGen.htm]]:
<<<
At the individual level, the ability to understand and make use of ICT - digital literacy - is proving essential to employment success, civic participation, accessing entertainment, and education - it is truly revolutionizing how we work, live, play and learn.
<<<
<<<
...digital literacy is more than having Internet access and broader than technical proficiency. It's also about learning digital rights and wrongs. Respecting intellectual property rights, practicing security as second nature, and valuing others' privacy are all going to be critical to a functionally literate information society.
<<<
*'''Kelly' (student)'' - cited in [[Cultural Practices of Literacy: Cast Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yYwtW2qGa4C&pg=PA183&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&ei=bQ6QSNfLOJzwigGOkrj0DQ&sig=ACfU3U1-RD6HykkTIWtyExOrLmSrWF43qw#PPA184,M1]]:
<<<
I hear the term "computer illiterate" all of the time and that has nothing to do with the written word. I think that to be fully literate you have to be able to apply the ability to read to several types of mediums... To be fully digitally literate you have to continuously learn new things as new things are presented.
<<<
*'''Cassy' (student)'' - cited in [[Cultural Practices of Literacy: Cast Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yYwtW2qGa4C&pg=PA183&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&ei=bQ6QSNfLOJzwigGOkrj0DQ&sig=ACfU3U1-RD6HykkTIWtyExOrLmSrWF43qw#PPA184,M1]]:
<<<
[Digital literacy is] the ability to read and write through the use of computers, as well as the ability to navigate through electronic interfaces.
<<<
*''Luke (2000)'' - cited in [[Cultural Practices of Literacy: Cast Studies of Language, Literacy, Social Practice, and Power|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2yYwtW2qGa4C&pg=PA183&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&ei=bQ6QSNfLOJzwigGOkrj0DQ&sig=ACfU3U1-RD6HykkTIWtyExOrLmSrWF43qw#PPA184,M1]]:
<<<
The Multiliteracies of digital electronic "texts" are based on notions of hybridity and intertextuality. Meaning-making from the multiple linguistic, audio and symbolic visual graphics of hypertext means that the cyberspace navigator must draw on a range of knowledges about traditional and newly blended genres or representational conventions, cultural and symbolic codes, as well as linguistically coded and software-driven meanings.
<<<
*''Buckingham (2007)'' - [[Beyond Technology: Children's Learning in the Age of Digital Culture|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oS6ILTCN_pMC&pg=PA175&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&lr=&ei=xh6QSOPiA6WoigHTx7T4DQ&sig=ACfU3U2mjRCHGTXZpeP6D46LfVoN4oN7Jg#PPA155,M1]] - p.155:
<<<
A truly literate individual is able not only to use language, but also to understand how it works. This is partly a matter of understanding the 'grammar' of particular forms of communication, but it also involves an awareness of the broader codes and conventions of particular genres. This means acquiring analytical skills and a meta-language for describing how language functions. Digital literacy must therefore involve a systematic awareness of how digital media are constructed and of the unique 'rhetorics' of interactive communication: in the case of the web, for example, this would include understanding how sites are designed and structure, and the rhetorical functions of links between sites (cf. Burbules and Callister, 2000: 85-90)
<<<
*''Lankshear (2006)'' - [[New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cv3T9JIdBQMC&pg=PA22&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&lr=&ei=xh6QSOPiA6WoigHTx7T4DQ&sig=ACfU3U3FS2icFvbPRh51ZzXgpNO7GSZNSA#PPA23,M1]] - p.23:
<<<
From the ETS [US Educational Testing Service] digital literacy can be seen as 'the ability to use digital technology, communication tools and/or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society.' (ets.org). It comprises 'the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information, and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information.'
<<<
*''Van Leeuwen, et al.'' - Literacy strategies and efforts: the BENTLI project (in ''Cunningham (2006)'' - [[Exploiting the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications and Case Studies|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LDJhJW8M5m4C&pg=PA1578&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&lr=&ei=xh6QSOPiA6WoigHTx7T4DQ&sig=ACfU3U20j22YAEbuLnnVrxhsp1DANdw07g#PPA1580,M1]]) - p.1580:
<<<
The consortium believes that Digital Literacy cannot be defined primarily as the mastery of technical skills, the concept should be broadened to include both critical cognitive skills as well as the application of technical skills and knowledge. These cognitive skills include general literacy, such as reading and numeracy, as well as critical thinking and problem solving. Without such skills, true Digital Literacy cannot be attained. This belief is reflected in the definition chose: "Digital Literacy is the ability to access network computer resources and to use them and to understand information as presented by computers." In this definition, Digital literacy is made up of:
*//Computer literacy// (software/operating system): refers to the level of expertise and familiarity someone has with computers." Computer literacy generally refers to the ability to use applications rather than to program
*//Network literacy// (using the networked nature of the network): refers to the ability to communicate with others; obtaining (or downloading) and installing software on a computer; questioning the source of information search on the Internet and Searching for the required information, as well as the ability to use new media such as the Internet to access information effectively.
*//Digital eloquence literacy// (expressing opinions and ideas through digital means): refers to the ability to gather, organise and evaluate information, and to form valid opinions based on the results; and the ability to use new media such as the Internet to communicate information effectively
In total 83 indicators have been identified and described, distributed among the four categories.
<<<
*''National Research Council (U.S.) (1999)''- [[Being Fluent with Information Technology|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4KKW1KNQVTwC&pg=PA97&dq=%22digital+literacy%22&lr=&ei=xh6QSOPiA6WoigHTx7T4DQ&sig=ACfU3U0aH0trzKIyNH0tVgxAGD7QyDDQOQ#PPA97,M1]]) - p.97:
<<<
Developing digital literacy requires a combination of formal instruction, self-instruction, trial and error, peer discussion, and a computer's online help facility.
<<<
*''Kløvstad, et al.'' (2003) quoted in Grov Almås, A. & Krumsvik, R. (2007) 'Digitally literate teachers in leading edge schools in Norway' (//Journal of In-service Education// 33(4), December 2007, pp. 479–497) p.484
<<<
A general definition of digital literacy in Norway is that digital literacy incorporates the skills, knowledge,
creativity and attitudes which everyone needs when using digital media for learning and mastering the knowledge society.
<<<
*''Rosado, E. & Bélisle, C.'' (2006) 'Analysing Digital Literacy Frameworks. A European Framework for Digital Literacy, LIRE, Université Lyon 2, Lyon (available at http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/13/77/79/PDF/Analysing-Edu-Frameworks.pdf)
<<<
Digital literacy is an evolving concept. Digital literacy had initially been understood as equivalent to technological literacy, in a technologically centred approach. The implicit assumption was that technology is introducing change in society and that individuals need to master the technological tools in order to be able to adjust to these changes. All schools today include, or plan to include, training for the basic understanding of digital literacy, that is having mastered the use of a personal computer and of the key tools that allow word processing, online navigating and email. However, digital literacy can also refer to an in-depth understanding of literacy in a knowledge society, with what it implies in terms of competences, empowerment and critical reflection. “Literacy is underpinned by critical thinking and the ability to challenge dominant ideologies. All literacy practices are integrated within the social context. The objectives of literacy are holistic. They are not limited to individual and/or vocational outcomes, and they include the building of capacity for communities. » Lina Markauskaite (2005) It will therefore matter if literacy is understood as a set of social practices rather than a narrow cognitive skill.
<<<
*''Søby, M.'' (2003) //Digital Competence: from ICT skills to digital "bildung"// (available online: http://folk.uio.no/mortenso/Dig.comp.html)
<<<
Digital literacy describes the ability to develop the potential inherent in ICT and the innovative use of the technology in learning and work activities. This entails a familiarity with ICT and digital media and is considered a key concept in lifelong learning.
<<<
Links, etc. for my students' Vietnam coursework:
''Question 1:'' Explain why the Cold War ended and what problems emerged as a result of it.
''J.Y. Douglas, 'Here Even When You're Not: teaching in an Internet degree programme' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silcon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.125'' - Robert de Sorbon, founder of the College of the Sorbonne at Paris, just after founding the college in 1257 - quoted in Cobban (1975):
<<<
[A]pportion [your] time wisely, listen to all [you] are told, make copious notes, memorise the essential facts, discuss [your] problems with fellow students and finally... pray for success.
<<<
//(Which is kind of what we still do...)//
''p.126'' - QWERTY keyboards as they are due to a quirk of technology - metaphor for schools:
<<<
We're stuck with an awkward arrangement of keys solely due to resource limitations skulking around during the typewriter's infancy. So, too, arguably, is the state of our classrooms burdened with a legacy that has nothing to do with ideal configurations of resources or research on optimal learning conditions and everything to do with the interaction between secularised clergy, resource scarcity and the rise of the first great Western universities - and a precedent that, like the QWERTY keyboard, enshrined a briefly useful method of instruction as a central //modus operandi// in education, based on little or no evidence of its efficacy.
<<<
//(Great metaphor to use - very clear and to the point)//
''Glaser, R., 'Expert Knowledge and Processes of Thinking' (in R. McCormick & C. Paechter (eds.), //Learning and Knowledge//, OUP, 1999)''
''p.89'' - Experts recognise patterns:
<<<
The study of expert/novice differences in other domains [than chess] has deepened our appreciation of the significance of the experts' perceptions of patterns. This perceptiveness, we can now suggest, is one of the critical manifestations of experts' highly organized, integrated structures of knowledge.
<<<
(even expert chess players find it difficult to memorize a randomly laid-out chess board)
''p.91-2'' - Six generalizations r.e. experts' structures of knowledge:
#//Experts' proficiency is very specific// - where random or meaningless patterns or involved, experts experience a 'disruption in proficiency'.
#//Experts perceive large, meaningful patterns// - the recognition of patterns occurs so rapidly that it takes on the character of intuition.
#//Experts' problem solving entails selective search of memory or use of general problem-solving tactics// - experts have an efficiency of search that comes from their knowledge being structured and patterned, ready for retrieval.
#//Experts' knowledge is highly procedural and goal-oriented// - experts can far more readily relate items of information in cause-and-effect sequences towards a particular goal.
#//Experts' knowledge enables them to use self-regulatory processes with great skill// - experts are self-aware r.e. their own skills and abilities. Whilst novices may be quicker initially, experts are quicker at problem-solving in the long-run, as they do not deal with just surface features.
#//Experts' proficiency can be routinized or adaptive// - experts can function in different ways, some can be tied to the demands of the task and conditions, whereas others develop the capability for //opportunistic planning//.
''p.94'' - Bartholomae (1985) - student has to re-invent the context for each situation in which they write:
<<<
Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion - invent the university or a branch of it, that is, like history or anthropology, or economics, or biology. He has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our comunity.
<<<
(explains why some experts when they feel at a loss when asked to operate outside of their disciplines)
''p.94'' - The way that people argue, debate and discuss are learned behaviours:
<<<
Students who are novice writers in a domain are not necessarily inept thinkers; they are rather insufficiently familiar not only with information about specialized topics but also with the specific conventions or techniques of expository discourse - the procedures for describing and arguing for an interpretations or for presenting claims and counterclaims. The patterns of reasoning that we expect in academic writing are not inherent in our thinking; they are conventional, learnable forms of argumentation and rhetoric.
<<<
''p.98-99'' - Having a model, theory or principle that guides performance allows individuals to 'avoid disconnected trial and error':
<<<
This permits understanding of one's performance, the swift and graceful recovery from error, and the seizing of opportunities for more elegant and precise solution and discovery. Expertise then becomes more than a matter of sheer efficiency and, as it is acquired, knowledge becomes an object for questioning and learning from experience and, thereby, is reorganized to enable new thought and action.
<<<
...therefore (follows on)
<<<
An essential aim of instruction and the design of curriculum materials should be to enable the student to acquire structured knowledge along with procedural skill. Too often the fragmented bits of information supplied by textbook and teaching presentations do not encourage students to construct organized knowledge usable for thinking and principled performance.
<<<
''p.99'' - The social context to learning is an extremely important consideration:
<<<
Cognitive activity in school and outside is inseparable from a cultural milieu. The acquisition of competent performance takes place in an interpersonal system in which participation and guidance from others influences the understanding of new situations and the management of problem solving that leads to learning.
<<<
''J. Delors, //Education: the necessary Utopia//, in J. Delors (ed.), //Learning:The Treasure Within// (UNESCO, France, 1996)''
''p.25'' - World Conference on Education for All (1990) - World Declaration on Education for All, Art.1, para.1 - basic learning needs:
<<<
These needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as knowledge, skills, values and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning.
<<<
''p.25'' - No need for an overloading of curricula to achieve all the skills and learning tools that young people require. Out-of-school approaches are also important, as are the effective use of modern media and social relationships:
<<<
To put it another way, education is also a social experience through which children learn about themselves, develop interpersonal skills and acquire basic knowledge and skills. This experience should being in early childhood, in different forms depending on the situation, but always with the involvement of families and local communities.
<<<
''p.29'' - Need for local community participation in educational institutions as this develops responsibility and improves quality of life. One way to do this is through decentralization as this increases their scope for innovation. (N.B. This can be seen through the current DIY personalization agenda)
''p.31'' - Teachers should work in teams, especially in secondary schools as this will lead to flexibility in the courses on offer. In turn, this should brring out some of the pupils' natural talents and help to lessen some sense of 'failure'.
''p.31'' - Market forces and the marketization of education does not lead to the best educational experiences for all:
<<<
The improvement of education... requires policymakers to face up squarely to their responsibilities. They cannot leave it to market forces or to some kind of self-regulation to put things right when they go wrong.
<<<
* Einstein on the importance of history:
<<<
Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.
There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind.
Nothing is more needed than to overcome the modernist’s snobbishness.
<<<
[img[Amputation|http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/wiki/images/medicine.jpg]]
!Introduction
__Lesson 1 - Overview of the development of medicine from Prehistory to today__
__Lesson 2 - What factors have been involved in the development of medicine?__
__Lesson 3 - How do historians know how medicine has developed through time?__
!Prehistoric Medicine
!Ancient Egyptian Medicine
__Lesson 1 - What did the Greeks believe caused disease and bad health?__
__Lesson 2 - Why was the River Nile so important to the Ancient Egyptians?__
__Lesson 3 - Was Egyptian medicine mainly natural or supernatural?__
!Ancient Greek Medicine
__Lesson 1 - What did the Greeks believe caused disease and bad health?__
__Lesson 2 - What were Asclepions and why were they important to Greek medicine?__
__Lesson 3 - Why was Hippocrates important in the history of medicine?__
!Roman Medicine
__Lesson 1 - What made people healthy or unhealthy in the Roman Empire?__
//Lesson aim: To be able to match examples and explanations to factors affecting the development of medicine.//
1. Students write down date, title and aim of lesson (sample [[Powerpoint|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=270.msg444#msg444]])
2. Starter = Go through 'Odd One Out' activity with students - they need to say which of each three is the odd one out and why (go through answers when they've finished - give about 5-6 mins)
3. Introduce Roman public health in whatever way you wish.
4. Give out //What made people healthy or unhealthy in the Roman world?// sheets (available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=270.msg391#msg391]]) Go through sheets (read out as class if necessary)
5. Remind students of the factors in the development of medicine (war, science, communication, religion, etc.) - go through examples from the time periods already studied.
6. Model how to categorize information from the What made people healthy or unhealthy in the Roman world? sheets onto a factors diagram sheet (available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=270.msg443#msg443]]). Students then complete sheet. If they finish, give them a text book from which to add information to their diagram.
7. Plenary = Finish with a Q&A style game. [[Simpsons Snakes & Ladders|http://www.reviseonline.co.uk/teacher.html]] can be used if a projector/IWB is available for a more visual and 'game' feel. Ask questions about Roman Public Health followed by comparative questions about the time periods studied so far (e.g. 'Tell me a way in which the Romans were similar to the Ancient Egyptians?')
__Lesson 2 - Who was Galen and why was he so famous in his time and for the next thousand years?__
//Lesson aim: To decide why Galen's work was so influential in the development of medicine.//
__Lesson 3 - Did the Romans just copy the Greeks' medical ideas?__
//Lesson aim: To evaluate how different Greek and Roman medicine were from one another.//
!Medieval European (Christian) Medicine
__Lesson 1 - What impact did the Christian church have on the development of medicine?__
__Lesson 2 - What were medieval cures to general illness?__
__Lesson 3 - How was the Black Death interpreted by medieval people?__
!Medieval Islamic Medicine
__Lesson 1 - Who were the leading figures in Islamic medicine?__
__Lesson 2 - Was Islamic medicine more advanced than Christian medicine?__
//Aim: To decide whether Islamic or Christian medicine was the most developed in the Middle Ages.//
*Students copy down date, title and aim of lesson.
*Starter = Keyword Bingo - Canopic Jars, River Nile, Galen, Hippocrates, Medicine Man, Alexandria (using blank sheets available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=92.0]])
*Go through Islamic vs. Christian medicine Powerpoint (available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=358.0]])
*Divide class into groups of 3-4. Give out information on Islamic and Christian medicine, along with Islamic vs. Christian medicine comparison grids (available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=347.0]])
*Students fill in grids in groups. Feed back to class.
*If finished, go through how to make a mind map of information. Students then create mind map.
*Plenary = Blockbusters r.e. medicine knowledge so far (available [[here|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=359]])
__Lesson 3 - Was religion a help or hinderance in the development of medicine?__
!Renaissance Medicine
__Lesson 1 - Who was Ambroise Pare?__
__Lesson 2 - Why was Andreas Vesalius important in the development of medicine?__
//Aim: To be able to explain the importance of Vesalius in the development of medicine.//
Resources: [[Powerpoint|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=390]], p.56-57 of blue //Essential Medicine// textbook (photocopied)
*Starter = Odd One Out
*Think, Pair, Share r.e. examples of factors in the development of medicine
*Go through life of Vesalius using A3 photocopied sheets from blue //Essential Medicine// books
*Students create mind-map r.e. Vesalius using base from Powerpoint ([[resource|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=389.0]])
*Extension = creating timeline/cartoon strip of the life of Vesalius
*Plenary = whiteboard challenge ([[how to play|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=90.0]])
__Lesson 3 - For what was William Harvey famous?__
//Aim: To be able to explain the contribution of Harvey to the development of medicine.//
Resources: [[Powerpoint|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=392.0]], Print-out of [[William Harvey's page at Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harvey]]
*Starter = Keyword Challenge (students have to write down as many keywords as they can think of in a specified time)
*Introduce William Harvey using Powerpoint and any other materials available
*Recap factors in development of medicine
*Show //Why did Harvey make discoveries when he did?// diagram - link to factors
*Introduce concept of [[Wikipedia|http://en.wikipedia.org]] and [[Simplified Wikipedia|http://simple.wikipedia.org]] to those unaware.
*Students create simplified Wikipedia entry using main version and any other info available.
*Plenary = students create mnemonic using William Harvey's surname (see [[Powerpoint|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=392.0]])
!Germ Theory
__Lesson 1 - What was vaccination and how was it discovered?__
__Lesson 2 - How did Pasteur's germ theory change medical procedures?__
!Surgery
__Lesson 1 - How did the development of anaesthetics help the development of medicine?__
__Lesson 2 - What are antiseptics and how did they improve medical procedures in the 19th century?__
!Nursing
__Lesson 1 - Who were Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole?__
__Lesson 2 - Why do we remember Florence Nightingale instead of Mary Seacole?__
!Public Health
!20th Century Medicine
__Lesson 1 - Why did the British government start taking an interest in the health of the nation?__
__Lesson 2 - How and why did the health of British people improve between 1900 and 1950?__
__Lesson 3 - What factors were involved in the development of penicillin?__
Lesson plans for the teaching of <<tag ICT>>
[img[Humanities GCSE|http://images.hoddersystems.com/getimage.asp?isbn=0340885831&issue=1&size=web]]
__What was life like in Hitler's Germany?__
//Learning Objective: To be able to explain how minorities were persecuted by Nazis.//
''Resources:'' Video clip - 'Evacuating the Ghettos' from //Schindler's List//, Video clip - 'Death Camps', Keynote presentation for title & learning objective, partially-completed 5W's mindmap, photocopies from //Maus// (esp. p.230-231)
*Starter = Splashr-like slideshow intro using pictures of Nazi Germany, diagrams of 1933-39 and Holocaust.
*Q&A r.e. persecution & prejudice
*Explain background, then show 'Evacuating the Ghettos' clip (give out photocopies from //Maus// near end)
*Go through //Maus// photocopies and explain what happened to the Jews at Auschwitz
*Show 'Death Camps' video clip
*Q&A
*Students write down what they have learned this lesson in bullet points.
*Explain homework - (analysis of //[[The Eternal Jew|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=450.0]]// propaganda)
ICT = adaptable.
<<<
"Information technology is such an adaptable intellectual tool that it may be better visualised as many tools."
<<<
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.17
----
ICT covers wide range of technologies:
<<<
"The label 'ICT' embraces a range of software with very different features... It is clearly unhelpful to talk about the range of ICT types as if they were all identical and to suggst that a single model of integration will suit each type is equally unhelpful."
<<<
L. Newton, 'Management and the use of ICT in subject teaching' (in Selwood, Find & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.17
----
One way of thinking is that ICTs are "systems that support cultural tools that are now in the process of development."
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1010
----
''Rodríguez Illera, J.L., 'Digital Literacies' (//Interactive Educational Multimedia//, number 9 (November 2004), pp. 48-62)''
''p.49-50'' - Convoluted definition of literacy, but does get a handle on something:
<<<
On the one hand, literacy is seen as a competence (as opposed to performance), that is, as a cognitive capacity capable of generating numerous specific forms. Educational conceptions of this competence are particularly valuable when they contrast the simple analysis or evaluation of the performance, but they are even more so when they include a social/cultural component within the very heart of the idea of competence - in other words, treating literacy as a communicative competence and not solely as one that is simply linguistic or cognitive, that is as a social competence that takes into consideration the cultural and interpersonal context in which it is produced.
<<<
''p.51'' - Scribner & Cole (1981):
<<<
...we perceive literacy as a set of socially organised practices that make use of a system of symbols and of a technology to produce and disseminate it. Literacy is not simply knowing how to read and write a given text but rather the application of this knowledge for specific purposes in specific contexts. The nature of these practices including, of course, its technological aspects will determine the types of abilities associated with literacy.
<<<
//(importance of application of knowledge)//
''p.53'' - Difference between an 'internal' mindset (native users) and an 'external' mindset when it comes to technology //(c.f. digital natives vs. digital immigrants)//:
<<<
an "external" mindset is the mentality of those who have learnt to use digital technologies as adults and as something completely new, and consequently these subjects have not always understood them perfectly. These same attitudes and mindsets determine the use of technologies in schools, where in the best of cases they are introduced by teachers that have an "external" mindset towards technology and the digital world.
<<<
''p.55'' - The computer isn't just one medium:
<<<
The computer is a medium but, at the same time, it is a true metamedium which digitally incorporates what were previously separate analogue media. This characteristic is central in order to relate the digital world with what it is not: the computer is capable of processing and representing all kinds of digital information in an integrated manner, something that is quite impossible in the analogue world in which, at most, two media join forces if they share the same physical channel of transmission (e.g. in the way that television integrates audio and video capacities, and printing allows us to bring together written text and images).
<<<
''p.58'' - Digital literacies present education with a challenge:
<<<
Digital literacies are one of the greatest challenges facing education today: in an increasingly digitalised world, the very idea of being competent in the new literate practices is subject, on the one hand, to the tension that exists between the new media and new ways of meaning and communicating, and, on the other, to educational practices that all too often were conceived for a society that has since undergone profound changes.
<<<
''p.58-9'' - Changes in what we mean by 'literacy':
<<<
Rethinking literacy in terms of literate practices rather than seeing it solely as learning to read and write, seeing it as a process and not only as a state, and emphasising its multiple character and, above all, its social dimension, are the main changes that have taken place. Digital literacy means, moreover, a new medium, a variety of media, which underlie the practices and which transform them in a hitherto unknown
way, in a global, intercommunicated context which is also a historical novelty. And this is not only changing our way of relating with technology but it is influencing the way we relate with society itself, and, therefore, transforming our own identities and ways of learning.
<<<
''Johnson, G.M. 'Functional Internet Literacy: required cognitive skills with implications for instruction' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.33'' - Concept of literacy has evolved: the ability to sign your own name used to be the benchmark:
<<<
Currently, literacy includes the ability to use a variety of technologies (Selber, 2004), although precise definitions are lacking.
<<<
//(if literacy not a static concept, then who defines it?)//
''p.33'' - Difficulty of defining 'computer literacy':
<<<
Gurbuz, Yildirim, and Ozden (2001) argued that "the definition of computer literacy will be specific to the context in which the computer-literate person must function" (p.260). Talja (2005) noted that "definitions of computer literacy are often mutually contradictory". (p.13)
<<<
//(that's because there's ''no such thing'' as 'computer literacy'!)//
''p.34'' - Educational Testing Service (2005) define 'information and communication literacy' as:
<<<
[A]bilities to find, use, manage, evaluate and convey information efficiently and effectively. (p.1)
<<<
//(how much 'information' literacy is involved with 'digital' literacy?)//
''p.34'' - 'Internet literacy' has been defined by Eisenberg & Johnson (2002) as the capability to access and evaluate online information. 'Functional literacy' "reflects typical use and common requirements."
''p.35'' - Communication = most common online activity, followed by accessing information and then recreation (games, music, etc.)
''p.37'' - Discussion r.e. 'Functional Internet Literacy' and Bloom's Taxonomy.
//(where would digital literacy skills fit into the hierarchy?)//
''p.38'' - Table of taxonomy of cognitive skills - adapted from Bloom:
[img[Figure 2.2. Taxonomy of Cognitive Skills (adapted from Bloom, 1984)|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/blooms-cognitive-skills.jpg]]
//(need to re-find debate r.e. whether 'evaluation' or 'synthesis' should be highest-level cognitive skill)//
''p.39-40'' - Johnson matches Internet skills with Bloom's Taxonomy:
[img[Figure 2.3. Required Cognitive Skills for Common Internet Use|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/blooms-internet-skills.jpg]]
//(how does this link to 'digital literacy'?)//
''p.41'' - Mitra & Rana (2001) - direct observation of children in India exposed to computers for the first time - "concluded that computing and internet skills emerge without formal instruction." Dryburgh (2002) - most computer users learn necessary skills from trial-and-error & help from a friend (informally) or semi-formally through online tutorials or manuals. Harkham Semas (2002) - children's "educational use of the internet mainly occurs outside the school day with little direction, if any, from teachers."
''p.42'' - Bloom's Taxonomy provides structure to categorize everyday use of the Internet:
<<<
Patterns of daily internet use form the basis of functional internet literacy. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive skills (1984) provides a structure by which to organize the intellectual requirements of effective online communication, information, recreation, and common pursuits and the technical skills necessary to operate the equipment that mediates such activities... Functional internet literacy is not the ability to use a set of technical tools; rather, it is the ability to use a set of cognitive tools.
<<<
//(I like that last statement! However, no argument as to ''why'' Bloom's so relevant to Internet...)//
Knowledge & learning always associated with literacy:
<<<
"Knowledge and learning are almost always viewed in forms associated with current literacies; they appear to us through the lens of a literacy."
<<<
*(This is a reason for people who //don't// have ICT literacy not seeing need for it)
A.A. diSessa, //Changing Minds: computers, learning, and literacy// (London, 2000), p.65
----
Danger of using term like 'computer literacy':
<<<
"We need to be much more accountable in saying when and how certain materials, computers among them, might convey enough intellectual power to be likened to textual literacy."
<<<
A.A. diSessa, //Changing Minds: computers, learning, and literacy// (London, 2000), p.109
----
ICTs change how we define literacy:
<<<
"Computers, along with multimedia software and hardware, help us express our ideas as animations, video poems, slide shows, interactive movies, virtual environments, and other forms yet to be created. As we create these new texts, we are changing how we define literacy."
<<<
B. Reilly, 'New Technologies, New Literacies, New Patterns' (in C. Fisher, D.C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (eds.), //Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms// (San Francisco, 1996), p.218
----
Teachers see 'ICT competency' in terms of general skills and vocabulary.
Demetriadis, et al, ' 'Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.30
----
<<<
"ICT is being introduced to education not because it does a better job: it is being introduced because it does the job differently and
because this different way of doing things is now rapidly conquering the world, is radically changing it and schools do not have the option
of ignoring it."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.340
----
<<<
"Those who have never used a computer make assumptions about its purposes and use. These are culturally constructed ...Those who develop expertise in computer use acquire a technical language and in-front-of-screen behaviours which serve to set them apart from novices, and give them a sense of power that they frequently learn to turn to advantage."
<<<
B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.188
----
Evolution, not revolution r.e. ICT in education:
<<<
"Technological visionaries of one kind or another have been promising us, among other things, that schools and the rest of our world will be unrecognisable in five, ten or twenty-five years. For the vast majority of us, not surprisingly, the world is changing, but by a process of evolution rather than revolution."
<<<
A. McFarlane, '...and where might we end up?' (in A. McFarlane (ed.), //Information Technology and Authentic Learning: realising the potential of computers in the primary classroom//;London, 1997), p.173
----
Tom Snyder - change r.e. ICT = inevitable:
<<<
"Complaining about computers is about as smart today as complaining about the printing press would have been in the 1500s."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.245
----
Foucault - idea of an 'episteme' - a worldview that is so comprehensive that is not possible for people from one to comprehend how people from another think - kind of a 'metaparadigm'.
J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.4
----
Potton (1978) - sam thing gives paradigms their strength and weakness:
<<<
"Paradigms are also normative, telling the practictioner what to do without the necessity of long existential or epistemological consideration. But it is this aspect of paradigms that constitutes both their strength and their weakness - their strength in that it makes action possible. Their weakness in that the very reason for action is hidden in the unquestioned assumptions of the paradigm."
<<<
quoted in J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.83
----
Computers were initially used according to the behaviourist model (e.g. 'drill and practice' - individual training). This did not substantially change the way the user interacted with knowledge (Transmission Metaphor)
R.M. Bottino, 'Advanced Learning Environments' (in M. Ortega & J. Bravo (eds.), //Computers and Education: towards an interconnected society//; London, 2001), p.13
----
Bayliss (1999) - risks of not changing greater than risks of changing:
<<<
"We cannot afford poverty of vision, let along poverty of aspiration. There are always risks in changing but the risk of failing to change is much greater."
<<<
quoted in - T. Imison & P. Taylor, //Managing ICT in the Secondary School//, (Oxford, 2001), p.124
----
Mass education was a revolution - previously, only the education elite were educated (worries r.e. people not knowing their station in life) - current system simply an evolutionary extension of that set up in 1870s.
T. Stonier & C. Conlin, //The Three C's: children, computers, communication// (Chichester, 1985), p.28
----
Kuhn (1970):
<<<
"To be accepted as a paradigm, a theory must seem better than its competitors, but it need not, and in fact never does, explain all the facts with which it can be confronted."
<<<
quoted in - G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.5
----
Difference between 'training' (mechanistic paradigm) and 'education' (complexity paradigm)
G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.68
----
Revolutions taking place other than ICT:
''Economic Globalization revolution'' - "the collapse of trade and monetary barriers that separated nations until a decade or two ago,
and the resulting weakening of the nation-state and nation-state oriented education systems (Drucker, 1993)" (p.344)
''End of Ideology revolution'' - "the transformation of western culture from reliance on objectivist and all-encompassing modern ideologies
(Scienticism, Socialism, Nationalism, and Thick Liberalism) to “reliance�? on a mixture of skeptical and relativistic views which emphasize individualistic and hedonistic values over collectivist and transcendental ones (Fukuyama, 1993). (p.344-5)
''Social Pluralism revolution'' - "the transformation of western societies from societies relying on one universal set of definitions of basic
social roles, to pluralistic societies allowing and encouraging a variety of definitions of the roles of “men�?, “women�?, “children�?, “adults�?,
“old people�?, and of basic social units or “families�? (Fukuyama, 1993), and the resulting collapse of the automatic authority of adults
over children fundamental to education throughout western history (Postman, 1984)." (p.345)
*these four revolutions affect and interact with one another (postmodern)
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000)
----
Fullan (1991) - current focus on technology is only 30 years after similar focus on science (stimulated by space race & global political needs)
Watson, 'Pedagogy before Technology: rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching' (//Education and Information Technology//, 6:4, 2001), p.265
----
<<<
"Despite these huge investments and grandiose expectations, ICT has not been widely integrated into educational systems throughout the postindustrial world; and to the extent that it has been integrated, there is no clear evidence that ICT makes a difference to student outcomes, enhances desired modes of learning or desired social values, or brings about desired changes in approaches to teaching (Alexander, 1999; Healy, 1998: Melamed, 1999). Indeed, on the basis of the outcomes realized to date, one could characterize the rapid and costly response of educational systems to the ICT revolution as “much ado about nothing�?. Furthermore, the introduction of ICT into education has often been carried out with vague and confused conceptions of the desired model of learning which the new technologies were supposed to enhance and without clear conceptions of any guiding educational values (Postman, 1992; Healy, 1998; Aviram, 1999a, 1999e; Agalianos, 1997: Agalianos & Witty, 2000)."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.332
----
These lesson outlines are based around //The American West, 1840-1895// by Dave Martin and Colin Shephard. Page numbers are provided, where appropriate...
[img[Buffalo Skin|http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/wiki/images/american_west.jpg]]
!Who were the Plains Indians?
__Lesson 1 - What was the 'American West' and why should I be bothered?__
//Aim = To gain an overview of the course and reasons for doing a depth study.//
''Resources:'' [[Powerpoint presentation|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=407.0]], Overview lesson outlines
*Starter = 'My Prejudices' mind-map (model first using PPT)
*Go through reasons for doing Depth Study (find out more about attitudes and ideas, challenge defective ways of thinking, broaden horizons, etc.)
*Give out overview lesson outlines for students to stick at front/back of books
*Title page 'American West - Depth Study'
*Go through text book - way it is set out, glossary, structure of course, etc.
*Video clip (if time)
*Plenary = Question generator activity - what do students want to get answers to?
__Lesson 2 - Who were the Plains Indians and where did they come from?__
//Aim = To be able to explain why the Plains Indians lived where they did.//
''Resources:'' Google Earth flyover, [[Powerpoint|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=407.msg646#msg646]], [[information for groupwork and recording sheet|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=431]], [[Timeline of American West|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=117.0]]
*Starter = Students put dates r.e. American West timeline in correct order (timeline for homework)
*Go through Bering Strait theory r.e. how Plains Indians came to be in America (use Google Earth flyover)
*Q&A
*Divide into groups of 3-4 and give information sources. Point out provenance of each one. Go through group work task - students have to look through information, decide whether to trust it based on where it comes from and whether it is corroborated (backed-up) by another source.
*Students complete group work task.
*Plenary = feedback to class - what have they learnt?
''Homework: Turn dates & events from starter activity into timeline''
__Lesson 3 - How did the Plains Indians adapt to their surroundings?__
//Aim = To be able to name five ways in which the Plains Indians adapted to their environment.//
''Resources:'' Powerpoint, American West textbooks, [[blank map of North America|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=428.0]]
*Starter = 'go for five' on scalping picture (in Powerpoint)
*Read through p.15 of textbook as class.
*Give out copies of [[this chart|http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110072/navigation/native_american_chart.htm]] and [[blank map of North America|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=428.0]]
*Show [[map of Native American tribes|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=429.0]]
*Students find tribe (from chart) on map and put onto own blank map. Draw arrows coming off showing how each adapted and any other relevant information about them. Should also shade according to type of land - p.12 of textbooks (will need to model this first)
*Students brainstorm answer to 'how did Native Americans adapt to life in North America?'
*Students write answer to question
*Plenary = students volunteer to read out answers, then Q&A ([[Save the Simpsons|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=37.0]]?)
!The Daily Life of the Sioux
__Lesson 4 - What were tipis and how did they reflect how the Plains Indians lived?__
//Aim = To draw and label a tipi, explaining how the Plains Indians lived in one.//
*Starter = Brainstorm about what would make the perfect portable house (qualities)
*Read through p.16-17 of textbook as class. Q&A
*Give students copy of Source 1 (drawing of tipi) - point out features (use Task 1 as guide)
*Explain how to approach Task 2 and Task 3 (extended writing)
*Plenary = Penalty Shootout (using generator) or similar game (factual knowledge)
__Lesson 5 - How were Plains Indians families and tribes organized?__
//Aim = To gain an overview of attitudes towards children, old people, women and warfare.//
__Lesson 6 - How dependent were the Plains Indians on buffalo?__
//Aim = To be able to explain how the life of Plains Indians revolved around buffalo.//
''Resources:'' Video clip of buffalo stampede, buffalo diagram, blank newspaper front page
*Starter = comparison of pictures on p.22-23 - what is different and why? (answer: buffalo)
*Show video clip of buffalo stampede
*Read through p.24-25 as class - go through activity on p.25
*Go through buffalo diagram on p.26-27
*Students copy info from buffalo diagram onto own picture
*Students start making newspaper front page about how Plains Indians hunted the buffalo
*Plenary = brainstorm of at least 5 ways in which Plains Indians relied on buffalo
__Lesson 7 - How warlike were the Sioux?__
//Aim = To be able to explain the attitude and practices of the Plains Indians r.e. warfare.//
__Lesson 8 - How important were horses to the Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To draw a graph of the distribution of horses across the Great Plains and describe how the Plains Indians initially acquired horses.//
__Lesson 9 - How religious were the Sioux?__
//Aim = To create a mindmap of the religious beliefs of the Plains Indians.//
__Lesson 10 - Who treated sick Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To use knowledge of medical procedures in other time periods to examine the medical practices of the Plains Indians.//
__Lesson 11 - What were the important events in the life of a Plains Indian?__
//Aim = To play a board game to gain a greater understanding of what everyday life was like for Plains Indians.//
__Lesson 12 - What were Sioux villages like?__
//Aim = To evaluate sources in order to compare our life with that of the Plains Indians.//
!The Attitudes of Outsiders towards the Plains Indians
__Lesson 13 - How did outsiders view the Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To compare and contrast accounts of the Plains Indians.//
__Lesson 14 - Why was land a big problem between the Plains Indians and the White Man?__
//Aim = To compare and contrast different attitudes towards nature and land.//
__Lesson 15 - What was 'Manifest Destiny' and how did affect the attitude of the White Man towards Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To be able to explain the concept of Manifest Destiny.//
!Why did the early pioneers cross the Plains?
__Lesson 16 - Who were the 'mountain men' and why did they go west?__
//Aim = To be able to give three reasons why some people decided to move west.//
__Lesson 17 - What were the 'push' and 'pull' factors which made people go west?__
//Aim = To describe different groups and the different factors which led them to travel across the Great Plains.//
__Lessons 18 + 19 - What was it like to travel west?__
//Aim = To develop empathy for pioneers who travelled to California.//
__Lesson 20 - How did the California Gold Rush affect the west?__
//Aim = To be able to describe five effects that the gold rush had upon life in the west.//
__Lesson 21 - Why were the Mormons unpopular in the east?__
//Aim = To be able to explain what polygamy means and how the Mormons were driven westward.//
__Lesson 22 - Why did the Mormons succeed in the West__
//Aim = To be able to give three reasons for Mormon success.//
!How did the homesteaders and ranchers settle the Plains?
__Lesson 23 - Why did homesteaders want to settle on the Plains?__
//Aim = To be able to give three reasons why homesteaders settled on the Plains.//
__Lesson 24 - How did homesteaders survive on the Plains?__
//Aim = To write a diary account of everyday life and problems as a homesteader on the Plains.//
__Lesson 25 - How were the major problems of life on the Great Plains overcome?__
//Aim = To create a poster showing solutions to everyday problems.//
__Lesson 26 - How important was the role of women in homesteading?__
//Aim = To gain an overview of the role of women in homesteads.//
__Lesson 27 - How did the cattle industry develop?__
//Aim = To discover how the ranchers rounded up and sold buffalo for profit.//
__Lesson 28 - How did ranching change on the Plains?__
//Aim = To chart the development of the way buffalo were herded on the Plains.//
__Lessons 29 + 30 - Who were cowboys and what was their life like?__
//Aim = To use sources to gain an overview of a cowboy's life.//
__Lesson 31 - Why was there conflict between cattle ranchers and homesteaders?__
//Aim = To give reasons for conflict for two different groups on the Plains.//
__Lesson 32 - What was the Johnson County War?__
//Aim = To be able to explain the causes, events and results of the conflict between ranchers and homesteaders.//
!How wild was the West?
__Lesson 33 - Was the West 'wild'?__
//Aim = To use sources to decide how wild the West actually was.//
__Lesson 34 - Why was there lawlessness or violence in the West?__
//Aim = To be able to give five reasons why the Wild West got its name.//
__Lesson 35 + 36 - What was the 'American West' and why should I be bothered?__
//Aim = To gain an overview of the course and reasons for doing a depth study.//
__Lesson 37 - Billy the Kid: hero or killer?__
//Aim = To decide whether Billy the Kid was a hero or just another killer.//
__Lesson 38 - What were Wild West towns like?__
//Aim = To gain an understanding of life in Abilene, a 'cow town'.//
!What role did the US army play in the defeat of the Plains Indians?
__Lesson 39 - How did conflict on the Plains develop?__
//Aim = To create a timeline of Plains conflict.//
__Lesson 40 - What role did the US army play in the defeat of the Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To use sources to support an argument whether to 'negotiate' or 'exterminate' the Plains Indians.//
__Lesson 41 + 42 - Why did the Sioux go to war?__
//Aim = To be able to explain the chain of events that led to the Plains Indians going to war against the US army.//
//Aim = To analyze the results of the Plains Indians going to war.//
__Lesson 43 - How well equipped was the US army for war?__
//Aim = To come to an opinion as to how well equipped the US army was for war.//
__Lesson 44 + 45 - Was Custer responsible for the defeat of the US army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn?__
//Aim = To decide whether Custer lost the battle for the US army.//
__Lesson 46 - Was Crazy Horse a great American hero?__
//Aim = To analyze sources to decide whether Crazy Horse should be remembered as an American hero.//
!How did the USA destroy the Indian way of life?
__Lesson 47 - How did the destruction of buffalo herds destroy the Plains Indians' way of life?__
//Aim = To decide whether the destruction of buffalo herds was a deliberate government policy.//
__Lesson 48 - How were reservations used to control the Plains Indians?__
//Aim = To be able to list five ways in which reservations altered the Plains Indians' way of life.//
__Lesson 49 - What was the 'Ghost Dance'?__
//Aim = To give reasons why the Ghost Dance became popular 1889-90.//
!Conclusion
__Lesson 50 - How did the Indians lose, or the settlers gain, control of the Great Plains?__
//Aim = To evaluate what we have learned.//
''Bigum, C., 'Design Sensibilities, Schools and the New Computing and Communication Technologies' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silicon Literacies: Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age//, London, 2002)''
''p.131'' - How new technologies are adopted:
<<<
When a new technology, particularly a communication technology, is developed its take-up is not automatic. How it is taken up is also a matter of conjecture (Bigum 2000). But whatever the mechanism, the user has to be convinced there is some advantage in using the new technology. Typically, persuasion is based upon improving an existing practice by making it more effective or efficient.
<<<
//(the problem with this, of course, is that it leads to 'School 1.5' instead of 'School 2.0' - instead of new things in new ways we get old things in new ways)//
''p.133'' - Links to my aside above about doing what has been done before - seeing everything through an existing lens:
<<<
The domestication of CCTs [Computing and Communications Technologies] can be seen in terms of bringing together a resilient and long-standing paper and pencil curriculum designed and developed to serve the needs of an industrial era, with a view of CCTs as educational or learning technologies. What resutls is a focus on 'the how' of using CCTs in classrooms with little attention paid to 'the what' and 'the why' (Bigum and Green 1993). Seeing CCTs as significant only in terms of how to teach and learn is related to a persistent 'horseless carriage' perspective on CCTs. This view regards the new, even though the new is in many respects now twenty years old, as not much different from the familiar, and continues to see it in those terms. Thus teaching, learning, curriculum or assessment practices many not be appropriate for a world outside schools, increasingly shaped by the use of CCTs. Domestication produces a kinds of reassurance that schools are doing something about CCTs. Such reassurances are implicit in the practices which are given labels like 'information literacy' or 'computer literacy'. They are consistent with an assumption that the new, digital world is really not that different from the world for which schools had become so rehearsed at preparing the young (Lankshear and Knobel 2000; Lankshear //et al.// 2000)
<<<
''p.135'' - Schrage (2000) - it's easy to misrepresent what technologies are actually about:
<<<
To say that the Internet is about 'information' is a bit like saying that 'cooking' is about oven temperatures; it's technically accurate but fundamentally untrue.
<<<
''p.135'' - Schrage (2000) - the biggest impact that digital technologies are having and will continue to have is to alter the //relationships// between people and organizations.
//(this is a really important point - schools don't get this at all...)//
Need for 'integrated teachers':
<<<
"They will not only be delivering knowledge, but acting as counsellors, advisors, organizers, leaders and managers. They will collaborate in the design, elaboration and production of tools for teaching. Thus they will be genuine intellectuals, specialists in teaching and learning, true professionals."
<<<
B. Cornu, 'New technologies: integration into education' (in D. Watson & D. Tinsley (eds.), //Integrating Information Technology into Education//; London, 1995), p.8
----
Becker (2000) - used //Teaching, Learning & Computing survey// (over 4000 teachers in 1,100 US schools) - minority of teachers had used computers transformatively. Such teachers,
<<<
"...have fairly distinctive teaching philosophies, being disproportionately supportive of constructivist pedagogies such as developing student responsibility for selecting and carrying out tasks, emphasising group work involving discourse, and the use of projects, products, and performances for outside audiences."
<<<
Conlon & Simpson, 'Silicon Valley versus Silicon Glen: the impact of computers upon teaching and learning: a comparative study' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:2, 2003), p.148
----
Teachers in study commented on the benefits of ICT in "re-awakening a learning culture among the staff" - improved communications (sharing resources, etc.) (p.77)
<<<
"Around half of the respondents acknowledged that ICT could have a significant impact on the classroom of the future, making it a very different place from that experience today." (p.78)
<<<
Condie & Simpson, 'The Impact of ICT initiatives in Scottish schools: cultural issues' (//European Journal of Teacher Education//, 27:1.2004)
----
ICTs result in changes in teaching styles, etc.
<<<
"IT is not only perceived as a catalyst for change, but also change in teaching style, change in learning approaches, and change in access to information."
<<<
*teachers not impressed because focus on what technology can //do//, rather than on learning.
Watson, 'Pedagogy before Technology: rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching' (//Education and Information Technology//, 6:4, 2001), p.251
----
Ofsted (2001):
<<<
"Only a minority of teachers are capable of managing ICT resources and organising the classroom to ensure that effective subject learning is taking place."
<<<
quoted in - Watson, 'Pedagogy before Technology: rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching' (//Education and Information Technology//, 6:4, 2001), p.258
----
Technology often results in teachers becoming co-learners with students - shift in roles - more autonomus learning - teachers become //facilitators// of learning (scaffolding)
*links to Vygotsky's 'zone of proximal development'
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.28
----
Some staff see technological developments as a threat - either becuase they are pushed to the margins of their competence, or because it alters the balance of power in the teaching & learning interaction.
King, 'Managing the Changing Nature of Distance and Open Education at Institutional Level' (//Online Learning//, 16:1, 2001), p.52
----
Gates (1995) - computers to replace teachers?
<<<
"There is an often-expressed fear that technology will replace teachers. I can say emphatically and unequivocally, IT WON'T."
<<<
quoted in - T. Imison & P. Taylor, //Managing ICT in the Secondary School//, (Oxford, 2001), p.111
----
Barnes (1992):
<<<
"To achieve change, teachers need to discover that their existing frame for understanding what happens in their classes is only one of several possible ones, and this... is likely to be achieved only when the teachers themselves reflect critically upon what they do and its results."
<<<
quoted in - G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.62
----
ICT allows new learning styles:
<<<
"the new technology is playing a role in the redefinition of self... Electronic technology is helping to change the communicative balance between word and image in our media... It is the breakout of the visual that leads to new constructions of the self."
<<<
Bolter (1996), quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.17
----
Challenge = to create higher-order tasks using ICT:
<<<
"The challenge for education is to design technologies for learning that draw both from knoweldge about human cognition and from how technology can facilitate complex tasks in the workplace. These designs use technologies to scaffold thinking and activity, much as training wheels allow young bike riders to practice cycling when they would fall without support."
<<<
J.D. Bransford, A.L. Brown, R.R. Cocking (eds.), //How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School// (Washington D.C., 1999), p.202
----
Dewey (1925) - effect of tool on learner:
<<<
"A tool is a particular thing, but it is more than a particular thing, since it is a thing in which a connection, a sequential bond of nature is embodied. It posesses an objective relation as its own defining property. Its perception as well as its actual use takes the mind to other things."
<<<
quoted in D. Blacker & J. McKie, 'Information and Communication Technology' (in N. Blake, et al. (eds.), //The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education//; Oxford, 2003), p.235
----
Technology affects the way learners think:
<<<
"The new technology is not just an assemblage of machines and their accompanying software. It embodies a //form of thinking// that orients a person to approach the world in a particular way. Computers involve ways of thinking that are primarily //technical//."
<<<
*'How to' tends to replace 'why'
M. Apple, 'Is the New Technology part of the solution or part of the problem in education?' (in A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R.D. Torres, //The Critical Pedagogy Reader//; London, 2003), p.454
----
Marshall McLuhan (1964) - technology affects humans:
<<<
"Any technology tends to create a new human environment." (p.1)
<<<
<<<
"Technological environments are not merely passive containers of people but are active processes that reshape people and other technologies alike." (p.3-4)
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999)
----
Heidegger - technology mediates human experience:
<<<
"any technology - whether the automobile, television, or the computer - //mediates human experience through it selection/amplification and reduction characteristics.//"
<<<
E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.4
----
Bowers - learners should become self-reflectively aware of the impact ICT has upon their modes of thought:
<<<
"Understanding how the educational use of computers infludences our pattern of thinking, and thus contributes to changes in the symbolic underpinning of the culture, should be an essential aspect of computer literacy."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.23
----
Winograd & Flores (1987) - we create technology, but it also creates us:
<<<
"All new technologies develop within the background of a tacit understanding of human nature and human work. The use of technology in turn leads to fundamental changes in what we do, and ultimately in turn what it is to be human. We encounter the deep questions of design when we recognize that in designing tools we are designing ways of being."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.40
----
Sherry Turkle - computer more than just a tool:
<<<
"At one level, the computer is a tool. It helps us write, keep track of our accounts, and communicate with others. Beyond this, the computer offers us both new models of mind, a new medium on which to project our ideas and fantasies."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.195
----
Heim (1993) - thought processes are shaped by technology - e.g. search engines use Boolean logic - affects the way we think, the questions we raise & the answers we get.
cited in C. Lankshear, M. Peters & M. Knobel, 'Information, knowledge & learning: some issues facing epistemology and education in a digital age' (in M.R. Lee & K. Nicoll (eds.), //Distributed Learning: social and cultural approaches to practice//; London, 2002), p.28
----
McLuhan (1987) - the medium is the message:
<<<
"In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology."
<<<
quoted in N. Lee, 'The Extensions of Childhood: technologies, children and independence' (in I. Hutchby & J. Moran-Ellis, //Children, Technology and Culture: the impacts of technologies in children's everyday lives//; London, 2001), p.162
----
<<<
"Learning takes place in the head of the student, and depends entirely on the activities of hte student... The activities of teachers, and the impact of textbooks or lectures or electronic displays influence education only to the extent that they affect the behaviors of the students. Designing effective methods requires predicting, with some accuracy, how students will respond to them."
<<<
H.A. Simon, 'Cooperation between Educational Technology and Learning Theory to Advance Higher Education' (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.62
----
Salomon (1993) - possibility of people still 'thinking with a tool' even when the tool is not present
Sutherland & InterActive Project Team, //Designs for Learning: ICT and knowledge in the classroom// (Computers & Education, 43, 2004), p.6
----
Cole & Engestrom (1993) - cultural mediation has a "recursive, bidirectional effect; mediated activity simultaneously modifies both the environment and the subject."
Sutherland & InterActive Project Team, //Designs for Learning: ICT and knowledge in the classroom// (Computers & Education, 43, 2004), p.6
----
Problem of learning being equated with 'having fun' - Bloom & Hanych:
<<<
"such an approach doesn't promote learning: it trivializes the learning process."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.258
----
Schnotz (2002) - new ways of dealing with and presenting information should be used due to different ways learners process info:
<<<
"As humans are exposed to an increasing mass of information that frequently dazzles the eyes, ears and mind, new standards of presenting information emerge... One can assume that learners who have much experience with electronic media and with new kinds of information presentation might have new expectations, new attitudes, and new processing havits that affect their cognitive processing."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.262
----
Oppenheimer (1997) - we don't know the effect of using computers with young learners:
<<<
"Little or no data exists on how comptuers affect the brains of young learners and whether we are teaching students to be better thinkers because they have access to technology. In other words, no clear method of 'best practices' is evident. In lieu of this, it appears that schools are forced to make subjective decisions, which affect the future of education on a massive scale."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.263
----
Jonassen & Rohrer-Murphy (1999) - tools affect human mental development:
<<<
"tools mediate or alter the nature of human activity and, when internalized, influence humans' mental development."
<<<
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' 'Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.34
----
Technology can given students greater control - metaphor of moving from 'stepping stones' approach to a 'walled garden' approach - i.e. intranet rather than internet.
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.30
----
Technology always has an effect on the user:
<<<
"Regardless of whether the implement is a stylus, a quill, a pencil or a keyboard, technologies of incription and communication do things //to// people as well as //for// people."
<<<
<<<
"Like the tool of language computers are instruments of normalisation, marginalisation or empowerment, depending on who is using them, how they are being operated, and to what end they are being employed."
<<<
Kapitzke, 'Information Technology as Cultural Capital' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.59
----
From //The Sunday Times// (8 June 2008)
>For all its screeching abuse and sexual antics under the blanket, Big Brother really represents a return to early Christianity. In the early days of the chuch, confession was a public affair. Rather than whisper sheepishly through a grille to a priest who was probably asleep, or engaged in some secret practice himself, people used to proclaim their sins in public.
...
>Privacy on television is a pretence. We know that the amorous young couple are not actually rolling in a remote haystack, because the haystack is being photographed. Voyeurism, of which the Big Brother audience has been accused, usually means spying on a private scene; but the ocular pleasures of the programme involve snooping on public events as though they were private.
...
>What is most striking, however, is that the scenes into which we are prying aren't for the most part steamy at all, or even mildly sensational. Nothing is as fascinating as banality, as Samuel Beckett discovered long before Jade Goody was invented.
...
>What nobody else can replicate is the fact that I am me. I may be boorish, domineering and mildly repulsive, but the mind-warping fact that only I am me gives me a clear edge over everyone else. This, at least, can compensate for the fact that I cannot speak Slovenian or play the flute.
>The ultimate democracy is to be supremely important simply for being yourself. Not even Thomas Jefferson could have foreseen that.
...
>It is an instance of what the French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard once described as our "pornographic appetite for the real". The bad news for the creative imagination is that nothing succeeds like good old-fashioned humdrum reality. Just by being real, reality, however dilapidated, has the edge over the most elaborately persuasive of fictions.
...
>Just as a pile of bricks becomes art when it is placed in the Tate, so a bunch of not overwhelmingly fascinating young people become fascinating by being framed by a TV screen.
...
>There is likely to be a rough sort of equality between the members of the house in any case, since only the kind of person that is interested in ending up on the programme will do so and that excludes whole swathes of the population.
>In the end, then, we are not really looking at "real people". We are looking at people who like to share their lives with millions of others, which, along with basket-weaving and coprophilia, is still a minority taste. It may not be so soon.
...
>The audience of BIg Brother is a narcissist peering in a mirror, delighting in the consolation of seeing its own features reflected there.
...
>In the end it is the puritanism of the programme that is the most eye-catching. For the puritan tradition, nothing can be real unless it is externalised. The original Big Brother society in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four drew the grim political conclusions of this belief. Everyone is publicly at stake all the time. Privacy is a crime. Subjectivity, since it seems to involve an interior world closed off from others, is a kind of treason.
>There is, however, a stage beyond even this totalitarian nightmare. It is when there is nothing important enough to keep secret in the first place. The ultimate collapse of privacy does not come about when everything must be compulsively publicised. It comes about hwen there is nothing of much value to be publicised in the first place, because everything is already on the surface.
>It's okay to parade your private life in public when everyone can predict its contents already. At this point the terms "private" and "public" lose their meaning. When everything is public the idea of privacy withers away. But so does the idea of the public, since there is now nothing to contrast it with.
__Lesson 1 - What shall we learn in History this year?__
//Aim: To discover what topics we shall be covering in History this year.//
1. Distribute books, etc. as needed, introduce self and expectations.
2. Students copy down date, title and aim of lesson.
3. ''Starter'' = Q&A r.e. subjects covered in History in primary school (write these onto the board)
4. In pairs/threes, students decide in which order these time periods came (Vikings, Tudors, Victorians, etc.) Extension = writing down approximate dates.
5. Go through which topics being covered in History this year - students write these into their books and draw a little picture next to each (and colour in if time)
6. Question generator activity - what would students like to learn about in the topics we shall be studying? (target = 10 questions)
7. Feed back questions to class. Discussions.
8. ''Plenary'' = game with questions involving expectations and content of lesson. (e.g. [[Save the Simpsons|http://www.reviseonline.co.uk/teacher.html]] or [[Simpsons Snakes & Ladders|http://www.reviseonline.co.uk/teacher.html]])
__Lesson 2 - What do historians mean by 'chronology'?__
//Aim: To be able to define chronology and put B.C. and A.D. dates in the correct order.//
__Lesson 3 - Timelines and scale__
__Lesson 4 - Anachronisms__
__Lesson 5 - Dividing up the Past__
__Lesson 6 - What is bias?__
__Lesson 7 - The Dustbin__
__Lesson 8 - Who was Tollund Man?__
<<<
Learning is not development; however, properly organized learning results in mental development and sets in motion a variety of developmental processes that would be impossible apart from learning
<<<
Vygotsky, 1978 - quoted in A. Stetsenko & I. Arievitch, 'Teaching, Learning, and Development: A Post-Vygotskian Perspective' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton (eds.), //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002), p.84
''J. Stephen Town, 'Information Literacy: definition, measurement, impact' (in A. Martin & H. Rader (eds.), //Information and IT literacy: enabling learning in the 21st century//, London, 2003)''
''p.53'' - ICT literacy tends to just mean basic skills:
<<<
Unfortunately, a number of issues obstruct clarity in the field of information literacy, particularly in the UK. The term 'ICT literacy' is a particularly unfortunate elision. ICT (information and communications technology) literacy appears to imply inclusion of information literacy, but in fact is only a synonym for IT (or computer) literacy. Its use tends to obscure the fact that information literacy is a well developed concept separate from IT (information technology) literacy.
<<<
(goes on to say that this isn't the case in other English-speaking countries)
''p.54'' - //Oxford English Dictionary// definition of 'wisdom' = precisely applicable to concept of information literacy:
<<<
Possession of expert knowledge together with the power of applying it practically.
<<<
''P. Gilster, //Digital Literacy// (New York, 1997)''
__''Introduction''__
''p.ix'' - Technology intimidating because we aren't familiar with it:
<<<
If this technology is intimidating, it's because we think in terms of models that are based on older forms of media. We're used to television and radio... Both call for a passive approach from their audience; we put ourselves in front of a receiver and absorb the content offered by networks and local stations. Where the Internet model diverges is that it places greater responsibility in the hands of the individual. Rather than being spectators - information consumers - we become Internet //users//, people who discover and evaluate content before deciding how to put it to work.
<<<
//(i.e. we're content __creators__)//
''p.x'' - Content on the Internet is a combination of different media:
<<<
In a sense, we're all experimenting when we used the Internet, because there has never been anything like it before... Content on the Internet is not a static thing. Instead, it is fully interactive. The Internet requires that we understand it as a combination of all the traditional forms of media, and several other forms that change the way we seek out information.
<<<
//(does this mean it takes a combination of different literacies to understand it?)//
''p.xii'' - Need for users to be critical users of information/knowledge:
<<<
So we needn't see the Net as a single thing; it's unique nature is shown by the manifold changes it rings on old themes... Misinformation - and disinformation - breeds as easily as creativity in the fever-swamp of personal publishing... It will take all the critical skills users can muster to separate truth from fiction.
<<<
//(this is an important point - personal publishing means that there is no peer review, no filtering, etc. Therefore need for critical skills perhaps not taught explicitly previously)//
__''Chapter 1 - Literacy for the Internet Age''__
''p.1'' - 'Digital literacy' should be easy to pin down:
<<<
The great physicist Ernest Rutherford, frustrated by the self-important airs of his peers, once told a colleague that a scientist who couldn't explain his theories to a barmaid didn't really understand them. An idea, in other words, should correspond to a recognizable reality, explainable to an audience larger than a handful of specialists. ''Digital literacy - the ability to access networked computer resources and use them - is such a concept.'' It is necessary knowledge because the Internet has grown from a scientist's tool to a worldwide publishing and research medium open to anyone with a computer and modem.
<<<
//(my emphasis: interesting definition of digital literacy - it is too broad, too simplistic?)//
''p.1-2'' - Another definition of 'digital literacy':
<<<
''Digital literacy is the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers.'' The concept of literacy goes beyond simply being able to read; it has always meant the ability to read with meaning, and to understand. It is the fundamental act of cognition. Digital literacy likewise extends the boundaries of definition. It is cognition of what you see on teh computer screen when you use the networked medium. ''It places demands upon you that were always present, though less visible, in the analog media of newspaper and TV.'' At the same time, it conjures up a new set of challenges that require you to approach networked computers without preconceptions. Not only must you acquire the skill of finding things, you must also acquire the ability to use these things in your life.
<<<
//(emphasis mine: I'm not sure that I agree with this)//
''p.2'' - 'Digital literacy' = acquiring core competencies:
<<<
''Acquiring digital literacy for Internet use involves mastering a set of core competencies.'' The most essential of these is the ability to make informed judgments about what you find on-line, for unlike conventional media, much of the Net is unfiltered by editors and open to the contributions of all.
<<<
//(what about peer review and filtering by networked communities? - c.f. Wikipedia, etc.)//
''p.3'' - Other competencies dependent upon critical thinking:
<<<
Other competencies branch inevitably from your ability to think critically. You will have to target your reading using the model of the electronic word - hypertext and its cousin hypermedia, the linking of the individual noun or phrase to supporting text or other forms of media. Sequential reading is supported by nonlinear jumps to alternative idea caches, with inevitable repercussions for comprehension. The journey through text becomes enriched with choices. ''Consequently, you need to learn how to assemble this knowledge; that is, build a reliable information horde from diverse sources. You must choose an environment within which to work and customize it with Internet tools.''
<<<
//(my emphasis: critical thinking is nothing new, so I don't think this can be at the heart of digital literacy - otherwise it doesn't really mean anything)//
''p.3-4'' - Digital literacy skills currently an adjunct, but will become essential in future:
<<<
...the powerful changes in media now occurring throughout the planet argue for a future in which digital literacy is essential.
<<<
''p.17'' - Always winners and losers with societal shifts when technology introduced on a mass-scale:
<<<
Neil Postman calls technology a Faustian bargain, noting that the tools we absorb in our culture are those that cut a broad swath through previously held beliefs. The printing press opened Europe to powerful currents of dissent, fostered by dogmatists intent on overturning the perceived abuses of the Catholic Church; ironically, its quick adoption by the defenders of Martin Luther played precisely against the hope of its creator, Johannes Gutenberg, that it would serve as a means of spreading Catholic orthodoxy. Build the printing press and you get individualism, dissent, upheaval, a breakdown in the medieval social order. But you also get widespread literacy and a sharp upswing in the notion of democracy.
<<<
//(this comparison of the Internet and the printing press is an interesting and important one))//
''p.20'' - Sven Birkerts, //The Gutenberg Elegies: the fate of reading in an electronic age// (Boston, 1994), p.156 - [[cited by 228|http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&cites=587761041157802440]]:
<<<
The earlier historical transition from orality to script - a transition greeted with considerable alarm by Socrates and his followers - changed the rules of intellectual procedure completely. Written texts could be transmitted, studied, and annotated; knowledge itself could rear itself upon a stable base. And the shift from script to mechanical type and the consequent spread of literacy among the laity is said by many to have made the Enlightenment possible. Yet now it is computers, in one sense the very apotheosis of applied rationality, that are destabilizing the authority of the printed word and returning us, although at a different part of the spiral, to the process orientation that characterized oral cultures.
<<<
//(the medium is as important as the message? - c.f. Marshall McLuhan)//
''p.22'' - Max Frisch, //Homo Faber// (San Diego, 1994) - technology is:
<<<
...the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.
<<<
//(it depends, of course, what you mean by 'reality', 'the world' and 'true experience'...)//
''p.25'' - In late Roman times, books started to appear. Meant pages could be turned rather than having to roll and unroll papyrus. This made cross-referencing easier. One technological change made a conceptual change possible.
__''Chapter 2 - The Nature of Digital Literacy''__
''p.28-9'' - Breaking down 'digital literacy' into its components:
<<<
But what exactly is the digital literacy envelope that encompasses these competencies? We know what //literacy// means; it stands for the ability to use language it its written form... In contrast, although computers work their own languages... digital literacy doesn't mean we have to become programmers or learn to puzzle out long lines of computer code. ''It refers to a way of reading and understanding information that differs from what we do when we sit down to read a book or a newspaper. The differences are inherent in the medium itself, and digital literacy involves mastering them.''
<<<
//(emphasis mine: this is all very wishy-washy...)//
''p.31'' - Digital literacy is partly about connecting with other people:
<<<
So literacy in the digital age - digital literacy - is partly about awareness of other people and our expanded ability to contact them to discuss issues and get help.
<<<
//(I think this is fundamental - the idea of __audience__ and the immediacy of the Internet)//
''p.33'' - Digital literacy also involves being able to formulate questions/search terms:
<<<
A digital read on literacy also involves being able to understand a problem and develop a set of questions that will solve that information need. The problem will be solved using search methods that allow you to access information sources on the Internet and evaluate them.
<<<
//(are these things that Gilster is listing actually dependent on things being __digital__ in any way?)//
''p.34'' - Digital literacy is about //creating// content as well as consuming it:
<<<
Digital literacy is emphatically twin-edged. The Internet provides us with new capabilities for using older media, but it also //creates// content, and that content is interactive and demanding.
<<<
//(again, 'creating content' is hardly dependent upon a digital environment...)//
''p.35'' - Digital literacy = traditional content-creation and consumption + 'networked' problem-solving skills:
<<<
Digital literacy... is about learning how to back up traditional forms of content with networked, problem-solving tools. But literacy goes beyond developing the skills necessary to use them. ''Digital literacy is likewise about context.'' The Internet is, among other things, a publishing medium... The sense of geographical limitation rapidly disappears.
<<<
//(my emphasis: an important point here about literacy depending upon context)//
''p.38'' - The Internet constitutes a paradigm shift in the way that we understand and use information/knowledge:
<<<
The Internet is not a gradual shift in the way we work. Instead, it is an analog-to-digital transformation that will alter the rules of communication.
<<<
//(hyperbolic, but true)//
''p.41'' - Internet different in that it engages the user as part of the process:
<<<
Whereas traditional media //offer// content, the Internet requires you to //build// content from the huge resources it puts at your disposal.
<<<
//(is this __always__ true? I'm sure some people use the Internet fairly passively...)//
''p.42'' - Peter Large, //The Micro Revolution Revisited// (New Jersey, 1984), p.35 - estimates that more new information has been created in last 30 years than in the previous 5,000.
...
__''Chapter 5 - From Hypertext to Context''__
''p.130'' - People who are 'digital literate' are wary about what they read online:
<<<
''A key component of digital literacy, then, is wariness.'' Sequential reading allows an author to build an argument, buttressing the case with examples and taking advantage of the arts of persuasion. Hypertextual reading puts the rhetorical arts into an odd tension; the reader, rather than the author, is the one who charts the course through the document. This being the case, the author of hypertext has to consider which routes the reader will be allowed to take.
<<<
//(gives example of a website about the Holocaust where every link is to a site which denied it ever happened)//
''p.137-8'' - Hypertext is actually evolutionary rather than revolutionary - the Talmud (collection of rabbinical commentary on the Hebrew Bible) is an example of hypertext at plat as it has marginal notes for cross-referencing. Also, many people use the index at the back of books to do the same thing with paper-based books.
__''Chapter 6 - Searching the Virtual Library''__
''p.193'' - 'Real' libraries and virtual libraries serve different purposes:
<<<
...the Internet is not a threat to traditional books any more than the airplane is a threat to the automobile. Each provides opportunities for significantly enriching the human experience; each can be a gateway into expanded knowledge and the productive use of information.
<<<
//(true, but it might get to the stage where convenience and accessibility is valued over everything else...)//
...
__''Chapter 8 - A Future for the Digitally Literate''__
''p.230'' - Core competencies of digital literacy do not depend upon specific hardware or software:
<<<
But if we can't always keep up with the specifics of Internet change, the core competencies of digital literacy remain viable. ''Technologies shift, but if you remember that knowledge assembly, Internet searching, hypertextual navigation, and content evaluation are all methods rather than specific hardware or software products, you will be able to apply them to the Net of tomorrow.''
<<<
//(this presumes that there will be no revolution, just evolution in digital technologies. He does have a point, though - I can figure things out about a piece of hardware and software based on previous experience of things different-but-similar)//
''p.230'' - Digital literacy just an extension of traditional literacy:
<<<
...digital literacy is the logical extension of literacy itself, just as hypertext is an extension of the traditional reading experience.
<<<
''p.255'' - Sven Birkets, //The Gutenberg Elegies// - is something lost when gains are made through using educational technology?
<<<
We might question, too, whether there is not in learning as in physical science a principle of energy conservation. Does a gain in one area depend upon a loss in another. My guess would be that every lateral attainment is purchased with a sacrifice of depth.
<<<
//(gives example of a student finding a lot out about the Globe theatre, but not much about Shakespeare's plays)//
''p.258'' - We are disturbed the immediacy of the Internet:
<<<
It's clear that the Internet's very connectivity is what disturbs us, not so much because it reflects an intrusion of technology into our lives, but because it puts us in closer contact with each other, for all the good and bad that entails.
<<<
//(c.f. social networking sites like Facebook and forums?)//
''C. Genishi & T. Glupczynski, 'Language and Literacy Research: Multiple Methods and Perspectives' (in J.L. Green, et al. (eds.), //Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research//, Washington D.C., 2006)''
''p.658'' - //Sociolinguistic// stance towards language and literacy:
<<<
The 'normal' condition of language is that it varies more than it stays the same across countless situations of use... [L]anguage, like research, is neither neutral nor static; it reverberates over time and across persons (Bakhtin, 1981). It situates us according to race, ethnicity, politics, gender, age, and so on and is what can bind and separate us relationally. Similarly, literacies, rather than literacy, are not static or decontextualized. Individuals make meaning of texts that are multi-modal, not limited to conventional print, drawing instead on diverse symbol systems across countless cultural contexts.
<<<
//(the last section on __literacies__ as opposed to __literacy__ is important to understand the importance of visual literacy within 'digital' literacy)//
__Further reading from bibliography__
*Ong, W.J. (1988), //Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the world//
''Freire, P. & Macedo, D., //Literacy: reading the word & the world// (London, 1987)''
''p.51-2'' - Literacy embedded in culture (Freire speaking in dialogue):
<<<
Literacy and education in general are cultural expressions. You cannot conduct literacy work outside the world of culture because education in itself is a dimension of culture.
<<<
''p.147'' - Giroux quotation about functional literacy:
<<<
Literacy within this perspective is geared to make adults more productive workers and citizens within a given society. In spite of its appeal to economic mobility, functional literacy reduces the concept of literacy and the pedagogy in which it is suited to the pragmatic requirements of capital; consequently, the notions of critical thinking, culture and power disappear under the imperatives of the labor process and the need for capital accumulation.
<<<
//(Amen! 'Functional literacy' is an anathema to the thinking person...)//
''p.151'' - Need to use students' own reality as basis of literacy.
<<<
Educators must develop radical pedagogical structures that provide students with the opportunity to use their own reality as a basis of literacy. This includes, obviously, the language they bring to the classroom. To do otherwise is to deny students the rights that lie at the core of the notion of an emancipatory literacy.
<<<
//(Authors talking about post-colonialism, but applies equally to digital sphere!)//
''Luke, A. & Kaptizke, C. 'Literacies and Libraries: archives and cybraries' (//Pedagogy, Culture & Society//, 7(3), 1999, pp.467-491)''
''p.474'' - 'The shift from industrial to information-based schooling', based on Green (1997):
<<<
| !From | !To |h
| Book | Screen |
| School | Media |
| Standalone | Networked world |
| Social logic of place | Social logic of flow |
| Teacher directed | Student centred |
| Classroom based | Resource based |
| Teaching | Learning to learn |
| Instruction | Construction |
| Subject centred | Inter-disciplinary |
| Knowledge as information | Knowledge as design |
| Passivity | Inter-activity |
<<<
''p.480'' The //simulacrum// and the disruptive capacity of new technologies:
<<<
Drawing on Jean Baudrillard's (1988) concept of the //simulacrum//, Poster (1999) goes on to argue that new technologies disrupt traditional figure/ground, truth/representation, signifier/signified relationships. As a consequence, and because of the rhizomatic character of knowledge and related power relationships, the internet is a medium that enables a great deal of agency and free play among its users. This agency entails both new capacities to juxtapose, to ignore, to elide, to silence and to critique information that doesn't appear to be relevant or valueable or interesting - but as well new capacities to produce, change, alter, relocate and transform these messages. At this historical moment - given the current political economies and technological constraints of the internet - the conventions for such literacies haven't been set in sandstone, or formalised in instructional events. Yet.
<<<
//(10 years later, they are beginning to be - aren't they? Need to find out more about Rhizomatic knowledge)//
''Lankshear, C. & Bigum, C., 'Literacies and New Technologies in School Settings' (//Pedagogy, Culture & Society//, 7(3), 1999)''
''p.457'' - Barlow, quoted in Tunbridge (1995): with information, it's familiarity, not scarcity, that has value:
<<<
it's dispersion that has the value, and it's not a commodity, it's a relationship and as in any relationship, the more that's going back and forth the higher the value of the relationship. ''People don't get this if they're coming from the industrial-era model.''
<<<
//(my emphasis - a great quotation as to the difference between School 1.0 and 2.0 - power of the network!)//
''p.458'' - Barlow, quoted in Tunbridge (1995): need for education instead of filtering:
<<<
If you have concerns about your child looking at pornography the answer is not to eliminate pornography from the world, which will never happen; the answer is to raise them to find it as distasteful as you do.
<<<
//(great point r.e. Internet filtering!)//
''p.458'' - Barlow, quoted in Tunbridge (1995): outsider-newcomer/insider dichotomy:
<<<
If you're under 25 you're close to being an [insider], in terms of understanding what it [i.e. the Internet, virtual concepts and the IT world generally] is and having a real basic sense of it.
<<<
//(this is probably what Prensky (2001?) probably picked up on with digital native/immigrant dichotomy)//
''p.460'' - 'Outsider' vs. 'Insider' mindset r.e. technology & computers:
<<<
In his seminal text of 1976 [//Computer Power and Human Reason: from judgement to calculation/]], Joseph Weizenbaum wrote eloquently of the dangers of allowing computers to do things solely on the basis that they //can be done// using a computer. He made a distinction between computing 'cans' and computing 'oughts'. From his perspective, the application of a computer to a task is a //moral// issue, which should //not// be determined solely on efficiency grounds. To outsiders, workability is almost entirely a matter of efficiency. to insiders, however, it is a [sic] much more: including a sense of elegance, beauty (Bennahum, 1998; Gelernter, 1998), appropriateness and other criteria which we, as newcomers, looking in teh from the outside, still perceive, but dimly. Across the two broad mind-ets, we have two very different perceptions of workability.
<<<
//(these different mindsets are largely generational at the moment, but barriers increasingly being broken down as more teachers come into profession with 'insider' mindset)//
''D. Barton & M. Hamilton, 'Literacy Practices' (in Barton, D., Hamilton, M. & Ivanic, R. (eds.), //Situated Literacies: reading and writing in context//, London, 2000)''
''p.8'' - Figure 1.1 - definitions of literacy:
<<<
*Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are mediated by written texts.
*There are different literacies associated with different domains of life.
*Literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and some literacies are more dominant, visible and influential than others.
*Literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices.
*Literacy is historically situated.
*Literacy practices change and new ones are frequently acquired through processes of informal learning and sense making.
<<<
''p.11-12'' - Literacies are situated within domains:
<<<
Domains are structured, patterned contexts within which literacy is used and learned. Activities within these domains are not accidental or randomly varying: there are particular configurations of literacy practices and there are regular ways in which people act in many literacy events in particular contexts. Various institutions support and structure activities in particular domains of life. These include family, religion and education, which are all social institutions. Some of these institutions are more formally structured than others, with explicit rules for procedures, documentation and legal penalties for infringement, whilst others are regulated by the pressure of social conventions and attitudes
<<<
//(this leads to notions of self-identity, etc.)//
''p.13'' - Literacy is culturally constructed and historically situated:
<<<
To understand contemporary literacy it is necessary to document the ways in which //literacy is historically situated//: literacy practices are as fluid, dynamic and changing as the lives and societies of which they are a part. We need a historical approach for an understanding of the ideology, culture and traditions on which current practices are based. The influences of one hundred years of compulsory schooling in Britain, or several centuries of organised religion, can be identified in the same way as influences from the past decade can be identified.
<<<
''P. Reffell, 'IT Skills are not enough' (in A. Martin & H. Rader (eds.), //Information and IT literacy: enabling learning in the 21st century//, London, 2003)''
''p.125-6'' - European Computer Driving License (ECDL) is not a good idea:
<<<
Initiatives like the ECDL reinforce the idea that the technology, and the techniques required to work the technology, are the central concern of the learning process, rather than developing both the information skills required to work within an information environment, and the technical understanding required to use the appropriate tools... In order to participate in any kind of social sphere, one must be able to make informed choices about the society within which one exists or with which one wishes to engage. In the case of the so-called information society and our need, perceived or otherwise, to participate in it, we need to know how to use IT in an appropriate way.
<<<
*''Wikipedia'' - [[Visual literacy|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy]] (accessed 1 August 2008):
<<<
Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.
The term “visual literacy” (VL) is credited to John Debes, who in 1969 offered a tentative definition of the concept: “Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences.” However, because multiple disciplines such as education, art history and criticism, rhetoric, semiotics, philosophy, information design, and graphic design make use of the term visual literacy, arriving at a common definition of visual literacy has been contested since its first appearance in professional publications.
Since technological advances continue to develop at an unprecedented rate, many educators in the twenty-first century promote the learning of visual literacies as indispensable to life in the information age. Similar to linguistic literacy (meaning making derived from written or oral human language) which is commonly taught in schools, educators are recognizing the importance of helping students develop visual literacies in order to survive and communicate in a highly complex world.
Many scholars from the New London Group such as Courtney Cazden, James Gee, Gunther Kress, and Allan Luke advocate against the dichotomy of visual literacy versus linguistic literacy. Instead, they stress the necessity of accepting the co-presence2 of linguistic literacies and visual literacies as interacting and interlacing modalities which complement one another in the meaning making process.
<<<
*''Donis A. Dondis'' - //A Primer in Visual Literacy// (1973) - definition of 'visual literacy' (quoted in A.M. Barry, //[[Visual Intelligence|http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=ICoNOpxTxvYC&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=kxhPWuS3gu&sig=Coxm43Jpp4eaO2oXcjaw0xW-upE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA1,M1]]//, 1997, p.1):
<<<
In print, language is the primary element, while visual factors, such as the physical setting or design format and illustration, are secondary or supportive. In the modern media, just the reverse is true. The visual dominates; the verbal augments. Print is not dead yet, nor will it ever be, but nevertheless, our language-dominated culture has moved perceptively toward the iconic. Most of what we know and learn, what we buy and believe, what we recognize and desire, is determined by the domination of the human psyche by the photograph. And it will be more so in the future.
<<<
*''Braden and Hortin'' - definition of visual literacy (quoted in A.M. Barry, //[[Visual Intelligence|http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=ICoNOpxTxvYC&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=kxhPWuS3gu&sig=Coxm43Jpp4eaO2oXcjaw0xW-upE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA1,M1]]//, 1997, p.6):
<<<
Visual literacy is the ability to understand to use images, including the ability to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images.
<<<
*''A.M. Barry'', //[[Visual Intelligence|http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=ICoNOpxTxvYC&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=kxhPWuS3gu&sig=Coxm43Jpp4eaO2oXcjaw0xW-upE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA1,M1]]//, 1997, p.6) - definition of //Visual Intelligence//:
<<<
Visual intelligence... may be described as a quality of mind developed to the point of critical perceptual awareness in visual communication. It implied not only the skilled us to visual reasoning to read and to communicate, but also a holistic integration of skilled verbal and visual reasoning, from an understanding of how the elements that compose meaning in images can be manipulated to distort reality, to the utilization of the visual in abstract thought.
<<<
*''Moholy-Nagy'', (quoted in D.A. Dondis, //[[A Primer of Visual Literacy|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rrf5SisMzQgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&ei=_5-SSIuWAY74jgHmzezTBA&sig=ACfU3U1JHSUqDNAtDUuCf1ten65qGrr3dw#PPP13,M1]]//, MIT Press, 1973, p.xi)
<<<
The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of pen and camera alike.
<<<
*''A.M. Barry'', //[[Visual Intelligence|http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&id=ICoNOpxTxvYC&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=kxhPWuS3gu&sig=Coxm43Jpp4eaO2oXcjaw0xW-upE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PPA1,M1]]//, 1997, p.18):
<<<
There is no easy way to develop visual literacy, but it is as vital to our teaching of the modern media as reading and writing was to print. It may, indeed, be the crucial component of all channels of communication now and in the future.
<<<
*''Considine'' (1986:38) (quoted in ''Kathleen R. Tyner'', //[[Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FukpXZ_JkZIC&pg=PA104&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&as_brr=3&ei=8KaSSMroDZzsiQGNjdnrBg&sig=ACfU3U1BFTVtgVzLyCkMu9mAAwdoVgufEQ]]//, 1998, p.105):
<<<
Visual literacy refers to the ability to comprehend and create images in a variety of media in order to communicate effectively. It is important to note that this is broader in scope than are critical-viewing skills - the ability to analyze, understand and appreciate visual messages... visual literacy contains the competencies of reading and writing. Visually literate students should be able to produce and interpret visual messages.
<<<
*''Joshua Meyrowitz'' (1985:77) (quoted in ''Kathleen R. Tyner'', //[[Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FukpXZ_JkZIC&pg=PA104&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&as_brr=3&ei=8KaSSMroDZzsiQGNjdnrBg&sig=ACfU3U1BFTVtgVzLyCkMu9mAAwdoVgufEQ]]//, 1998, p.108):
<<<
Understanding visual symbols has nothing to do with literacy.
<<<
*''Douglas Cook & Natasha Cooper'', //[[Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Social Sciences Students and Practitioners: A Casebook of Applications|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GAGgkNovqOMC&pg=PA1&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&as_brr=3&ei=8KaSSMroDZzsiQGNjdnrBg&sig=ACfU3U3JiIIQpBNNNv-yHhDPBLVXN5GWLQ]]//, 2006, p.1)
<<<
[Visual literacy is] the ability to recognize, interpret, evaluate, and create visual messages.
<<<
*''Julie Frechette'' 'Cyber Censorship or Cyber-Literacy? Envisioning Cyber-Learning Through Media Education (in ''David Buckingham & Rebekah Willett'', //[[Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and New Media|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-zShk3ifwysC&pg=PA168&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=laySSNC1NJDoigG7iIVZ&sig=ACfU3U3yMjYVI3x6020mEaAGuEgApb7BEw]]//), 2006, p.164) - Meyrowitz (1998) - three multiple literacies:
<<<
A curriculum framework for media literacy with technology can be built using the three multiple literacies offered by Meyrowitz (1998) - media //content// literacy, media //grammar// literacy, and //medium// literacy.
<<<
*''Julie Frechette'' 'Cyber Censorship or Cyber-Literacy? Envisioning Cyber-Learning Through Media Education (in ''David Buckingham & Rebekah Willett'', //[[Digital Generations: Children, Young People, and New Media|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-zShk3ifwysC&pg=PA168&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=laySSNC1NJDoigG7iIVZ&sig=ACfU3U3yMjYVI3x6020mEaAGuEgApb7BEw]]//), 2006) p.168-9:
<<<
Media grammar literacy, or visual literacy, includes an understanding of the //medium// and the message, the form, as well as the content. In terms of the internet, //medium literacy// would require students to examine the variables previously described in Meyrowitz's (1998) multiple literacies model and those extrapolated from Meyrowitz's sample medium variables. In particular, Internet technology impacts: (a) the multisensory types of information conveyed, as it conveys messages through visual, aural, and textual means; (b) the uni/bi/multidirectionality of the communication, which is affected by internet postings, e-mail correspondence between individuals, and chatroom discussions between two or more people; and (c) the speed and degree of immediacy in encoding, dissemination, and decoding, which are altered by the internet's instantaneous message transmissions and its ability to bring otherwise disjointed individuals or groups together in nonface-to-face encounters.
<<<
*''Peyton Paxson'' - //[[Media Literacy: Thinking Critically about Visual Culture|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QUIZSVzxqukC&pg=PP8&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=Xq2SSMDMAoa2jgGPyYn6DA&sig=ACfU3U3SHnuV82gambQOV9IOJ0DpHhB6aw#PPP8,M1]]//), 2004, p.vi)
<<<
Visual literacy includes not just our ability to understand the written word, but also symbols, the design and arrangement of objects, and people's appearances and behaviours.
<<<
*''Jeff Sigafoos & Vanessa Green'' - //[[Technology and Teaching|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gSTBmKFpdPoC&pg=PA29&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=Xq2SSMDMAoa2jgGPyYn6DA&sig=ACfU3U22BtT9Tzf58bQikkklXo5DFLCXGw]]//), 2007, p.29)
<<<
Visual literacy is what is seen with the eye and what is seen with the mind. This includes the ability to successfully decode and interpret visual messages and to encode and compose meaningful visual communications (Bamford, 2003)
<<<
*''Marilyn J. Bazeli, James L. Heintz'' - //[[Technology Across the Curriculum|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XAYg1OCzAZ4C&pg=PA4&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=O7OSSIS4OpDoigG7iIVZ&sig=ACfU3U3ZgLfvPZ-2rCCYKUqLJl94_eRhyw]]//), 1997, p.4)
<<<
Visual literacy can be defined as the ability to interpret and process visual messages, to understand the content of the visuals, and to create effecive visuals. Thus, visual literacy involves visual/critical thinking and problem solving as well as active participation in analyzing and producing visuals.
<<<
*''Ann Kovalchick & Kara Dawson'' - //[[Educational Technology: An Encyclopedia|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Le8DLxcXHaUC&pg=PA602&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=O7OSSIS4OpDoigG7iIVZ&sig=ACfU3U0vBF466S_pNRr13d57Guh4FEqezA]]//), 2004, p.602)
<<<
Visual literacy involves the ability to interpret (read) and to produce or use (write) culturally significant images, objects and visual actions.
<<<
*''Raney'' (1999:41) (quoted in ''Gwyneth Owen-Jackson'', //[[Teaching Design and Technology in Secondary Schools|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=soZovDRa9QEC&pg=PA140&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=V7OSSJHBNpOaigHZ6uz5DA&sig=ACfU3U0AKT6uHY23o4jb0uYM6usiMOYhnw#PPA141,M1]]//), 2002, p.141)
<<<
Coupling 'visual' with 'literacy' does two things. First, it introduces the metaphor of language, provoking debates about the value of linguistic metaphors for getting to grips with visual things... second, 'Literacy' suggests entitlement or necessity, and the need to seek out deficiencies and remedy them.
<<<
*''Raney'' (1999:44) (quoted in ''Gwyneth Owen-Jackson'', //[[Teaching Design and Technology in Secondary Schools|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=soZovDRa9QEC&pg=PA140&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=V7OSSJHBNpOaigHZ6uz5DA&sig=ACfU3U0AKT6uHY23o4jb0uYM6usiMOYhnw#PPA141,M1]]//), 2002, p.141)
<<<
[visual literacy] implies that the entire world is the purview of visual literacy... art education becomes a subcategory of visual education, art becomes a subcategory of visual culture, and visual literacy is what is needed to navigate around it.
<<<
//(substituting 'digital literacy' for 'visual literacy' here and putting in context of the Internet is a powerful way of thinking about the term)//
*''Adams & Hamm'' (2001:v) (quoted in ''W. James Potter'' //[[Theory of Media Literacy|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rylqA4aI-9EC&pg=PA30&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=eLOSSJLXCYa4jgGcw_T5DA&sig=ACfU3U2XsXgaArhIytdcUuNl9On86-zPUg#PPA29,M1]]//), 2004, p.29)
<<<
At one time literacy was squeezed into an established framework of reading and writing. The meaning has changed as new circumstances and new approaches to teaching have opened up a much wider range of possibilities. The word "literacy" has become almost synonymous with the word "competence."
<<<
//(perhaps should be looking at 'digital competence'?)//
*''Giorgis, et al.'' (1999:146) (quoted in ''Anne Bamford'', //[[The Visual Literacy White Paper|http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fuk%2Feducation%2Fpdf%2Fadobe_visual_literacy_paper.pdf&ei=IZuSSNy_JKfYQO3BiaAK&usg=AFQjCNFWLb4Yln0CEctPVT1AoiE7eElvYg&sig2=9D8dpBHZXJEq0cwWhV5P8A]]//), no date, p.1)
<<<
[Visual literacy is] the ability to construct meaning from visual images.
<<<
*''Anne Bamford'', //[[The Visual Literacy White Paper|http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fuk%2Feducation%2Fpdf%2Fadobe_visual_literacy_paper.pdf&ei=IZuSSNy_JKfYQO3BiaAK&usg=AFQjCNFWLb4Yln0CEctPVT1AoiE7eElvYg&sig2=9D8dpBHZXJEq0cwWhV5P8A]]//, no date, p.1)
<<<
A visually literate person is able to discriminate and make sense of visual objects and images; create visuals; comprehend and appreciate the visuals created by others; and visualise objects in their mind's eye. To be an effective communicator in today's world, a person needs to be able to interpret, create and select images to convey a range of meanings.
<<<
*''Anne Bamford'', //[[The Visual Literacy White Paper|http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adobe.com%2Fuk%2Feducation%2Fpdf%2Fadobe_visual_literacy_paper.pdf&ei=IZuSSNy_JKfYQO3BiaAK&usg=AFQjCNFWLb4Yln0CEctPVT1AoiE7eElvYg&sig2=9D8dpBHZXJEq0cwWhV5P8A]]//, no date, p.1)
<<<
Visual literacy is about ''interpreting images'' of the present and past and ''producing images'' that effectively communication the message to an audience.
<<<
*''Debes'' (1969:27) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.281)
<<<
Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication.
<<<
*''Ausburn & Ausburn'' (1978:291) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.281)
<<<
Visual literacy can be defined as a group of skills which enable an individual to understand and use visuals for intentionally communicating with others.
<<<
*''Ausburn & Ausburn'' (1983:99) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.281)
<<<
Visual literacy is the ability to understand (read) and use (write) images and to think and learn
in terms of images, ie, to think visually.
<<<
*''Curtiss'' (1987:3) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.282)
<<<
Visual literacy is the ability to understand the communication of a visual statement in any medium and the ability to express oneself with at least one visual discipline. It entails the ability to: understand the subject matter and meaning within the context of the culture that produced the work, analyse the syntax—compositional and stylistic principles of the work, evaluate the disciplinary and aesthetic merits of the work, and grasp intuitively the Gestalt, the interactive and synergistic quality of the work.
<<<
*''Sinatra'' (1986:5) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.282)
<<<
Visual literacy itself is defined as the active reconstruction of past experiences with incoming visual information to obtain meaning.
<<<
*''Cassidy & Knowlton'' (1983:88) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.282)
<<<
… the VL metaphor is phonologically, syntactically, and semantically untenable.
<<<
*''Sless'' (1984:226) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.282)
<<<
If Visual Literacy is to be rescued as a term (and I think it may still have some life in it), we need to interpret it more generously … VL is any sustained activity that treats visual material and its uses as worthy of intelligent consideration. This is the heart of the matter and the reason for retaining the metaphor.
<<<
*''Suhor & Little'' (1988:470) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.282)
<<<
[Visual Literacy is] not a coherent area of study but, at best, an ingenious orchestration of ideas.
<<<
*''Burbank and Pett'' (1983:1) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.283)
<<<
Defining visual literacy is comparable to the problem the six blind men faced when describing an elephant. The man who felt just the side of the elephant described the animal as being like a wall, while the man who felt the tusk said the elephant was like a spear. The men who felt just the trunk or tail or ear or leg were certain the elephant was like a snake, a rope, a fan, or a tree. Their description depended on the part they were examining. Visual literacy is also different things depending on one’s viewpoint.
<<<
*''Baca & Braden'' (1990:99) (quoted in Maria Avgerinou & John Ericson, 'A review of the concept of Visual Literacy', //British Journal of Educational Technology//, Vol.28, No.4, 1997, p.283)
<<<
The literature on visual literacy includes a variety of viewpoints and opinions held by the people involved in the field. Each person who has written on the topic of visual literacy has done so from the perspective of his or her own background and professional concerns. These concerns are reflected in the relative emphasis placed on different aspects of visual literacy. This has created an apparent lack of agreement as to what the components of visual literacy are and how critical an element each construct is. The result has been the lack of comprehensive description of the field of visual literacy and of the related elements and constructs which underlie it.
<<<
''J. Johnson-Eilola, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen//: London, 1998)''
''p.186'' - Today's students live in a different world, one that strikes fear into older generations:
<<<
...the computer, a device originally constructed to calculate weapons trajectories, is reconstructed and redistributed to provide a fluid, flowing space where users experiment with multiple subjectivities; where stories lose concrete beginnings, middles, and ends; where the rules of games shift, are overwritten, and sometimes even disappear.
<<<
-> Foucault: we are 'the pious descendants of time' which means we criticise these spaces/students unfairly.
''p.188-9'' - Feenburg - 'instrumentalist' view -> technologies are instruments for accomplishing predetermined ends (e.g. typewriter for placing letters on a page, etc.)
''p.189'' - Feenburg identifies the 'substantive' view -> holds that in some cases technologies have power over developers and users (e.g. handgun debate in US)
''p.189-90'' - //Instrumentalist// and //Substantive// views popular because each 'works to explain powerful aspects of technology use'. However, in use, technologies are neither neutral nor all-powerful.
''p.203'' - US Labour Secretary Robert Reich (1991) describes a new elite job class of 'symbolic-analytic workers' skilled at 'manipulating, abstracting, and experimenting with information.'
''p.207'' - Feenburg offers a 'critical theory of technology' as opposed to substantive and instrumentalist views -> not possible to identify the negative or positive potentials of a technology outside contextualised uses.
*''Bruce'' (2002) quoted by Virkus, S., [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
<<<
The idea of information literacy, emerging with the advent of information technologies in the early 1970s, has grown, taken shape and strengthened to become recognized as the critical literacy for the twenty-first century. Sometimes interpreted as one of a number of literacies, information literacy is also described as the overarching literacy essential for twenty-first century living. Today, information literacy is inextricably associated with information practices and critical thinking in the information and communication technology environment.
<<<
*The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Policy Advisory Groups (PAGs) describe information literacy this way: (quoted by Virkus, S., [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003)
<<<
Information literacy is about providing all members of society with the information competences necessary to function effectively within society - it might be termed functional information literacy.
<<<
//(this ''functional'' aspect is important - to what extent is literacy procedural?)//
*''Open University Library website'' (quoted by Virkus, S., [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003)
<<<
[Information literacy is a] skill that involves being able to use information successfully, including finding information, searching using various tools (e.g., internet, databases) and being able to critically evaluate the results.
<<<
*''Webber & Johnson'' (2002), quoted by Virkus, S., [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
<<<
...information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, together with critical awareness of the importance of wise and ethical use of information in society.
<<<
*''Boekhorst'' (2003) - all definitions and descriptions of information literacy presented over the years can be summarized in three concepts: (quoted by Virkus, S., [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003)
<<<
*The ICT concept: Information literacy refers to the competence to use ICT to retrieve and disseminate information.
*The information (re)sources concept: information literacy refers to the competence to find and use information independently or with the aid of intermediaries.
*The information process concept: information literacy refers to the process of recognizing information need, retrieving, evaluating, using and disseminating of information to acquire or extend knowledge. This concept includes both the ICT and the information (re)sources concept and persons are considered as information systems that retrieve, evaluate, process and disseminate information to make decisions to survive, for self-actualisation and development.
<<<
*''Virkus, S.'', [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
<<<
The Norwegian scholars, Audunson & Nordlie (2003) also highlight three main categories of information literacy: they describe technical capabilities or what one might call computer literacy; intellectual capabilities related to traditional literacy; and communicative competency that presupposes technical as well as intellectual capabilities, and at the same time transcends them. For each dimension they also distinguish several levels of competence, from basic competence to super-user competence to in-depth competence and consider information literacy as the sum of different 'literacies'.
<<<
*''Virkus, S.'', [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
<<<
Muir & Oppenheim, following the world-wide developments on national information policy, also have to conclude that information literacy 'has no agreed definition' and 'a number of people have offered their views on what they think information literacy is'.
<<<
*''Virkus, S.'', [[Information literacy in Europe: a literature review|http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html]], //Information Research//, Vol. 8 No. 4, July 2003
<<<
Several other terms and combinations of terms have been also used by different authors: 'infoliteracy', 'informacy', 'information empowerment' 'information competence', 'information competency', 'information competencies', 'information literacy skills', 'information literacy and skills', 'skills of information literacy', 'information literacy competence', 'information literacy competencies', 'information competence skills', 'information handling skills', 'information problem solving', 'information problem solving skills', 'information fluency', 'information mediacy' and even 'information mastery' was proposed by Bill Nisen, Director of the e-Institute of the Strathclyde/Glasgow University, during the first conference on Information Technology and Information Literacy in Glasgow in 2002. Finnish researcher Reijo Savolainen suggests the umbrella term 'information-related competences' that covers information literacy, media competence and library skills and adds: 'Because new labels describing specific kinds of literacies are continually introduced, reflecting the developments of ICTs, the attempts to develop an exact classification of information-related literacies seem to be futile' (Savolainen, 2002). However, despite of the continuous concern about the term since 1990s, information literacy is still the most commonly used phrase to describe the concept (Bawden, 2001).
<<<
*''Bruce, C. S.'' (1997). [[Seven Faces of Information Literacy|http://bit.ly/3QrpJZ]], AULSIB Press, Adelaide
<<<
[Information literacy is the] ability to access, evaluate, organise and use information in order to learn,
problem-solve, make decisions - in formal and informal learning contexts, at work, at home and in educational settings.
<<<
*''American Library Association'' (1989), quoted by Spitzer, K.L., et al. [[Information Literacy: essential skills for the information age|http://bit.ly/23Uno]], 1998
<<<
To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
<<<
*''Burchinal'' (1976), quoted by Spitzer, K.L., et al. [[Information Literacy: essential skills for the information age|http://bit.ly/23Uno]], 1998, p.22
<<<
To be information literate requires a new set of skills. These include how to locate and use information needed for problem-solving and decision-making efficiently and effectively.
<<<
*''Lenox & Walker'' (1993), quoted by Spitzer, K.L., et al. [[Information Literacy: essential skills for the information age|http://bit.ly/23Uno]], 1998, p.23-24
<<<
Implicit in a full understanding of information literacy is the realization that several conditions must be simultaneously present. First, someone must desire to know, use analytic skills to formulate questions, identify research methodologies, and utilize critical skills to evaluate experimental and experiential results. Second, the person must possess the skills to search for answers to those questions in increasingly diverse and complex ways. Third, once a person has identified what is sought, be able to access it.
<<<
//(is ''anyone'' information literate on this definition?!)//
*''Shapiro & Hughes'' (1996), quoted by Spitzer, K.L., et al. [[Information Literacy: essential skills for the information age|http://bit.ly/23Uno]], 1998, p.24
<<<
(Information literacy is) a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure and its social, cultural, and even philosophical context and impact.
<<<
*''Work Group on Information Competence, Commission on Learning Resources and Instructional Technology'' (1995), quoted by Spitzer, K.L., et al. [[Information Literacy: essential skills for the information age|http://bit.ly/23Uno]], 1998, p.25
<<<
Information competence is the fusing or the integration of library literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, technological literacy, ethics, critical thinking, and communication skills.
<<<
//('Information Literacy' as an umbrella term - but would anyone be able to achieve it?)//
*''Snavely, L and Cooper, N.A.'' (1997) [[The Information Literacy Debate|http://bit.ly/VXp7w]], //Journal of
Academic Librarianship// 23 (Jan. 1997), p.10
<<<
...there are disagreements about the phrase //information literacy//. Stephen Foster refers to it as “a phrase in quest of a meaning," noting that literacy is a measurable concept with an obvious remedy. He wonders how one would recognize information illiteracy.
<<<
*''Doyle, C.S.'' (1994) //Information literacy in an information society: A Concept for the Information Age//, DIANE Publishing
<<<
In the last decade a variety of "literacies" have been proposed, including cultural, computer, scientific, technical, global and mathematical. All of these literacies focus on a compartmentalized aspect of literacy. Information literacy, on the other hand, is an inclusive term. Through information literacy, the other literacies can be achieved (Breivik, 1991). In attaining information literacy, students gain proficiency in inquiry as they learn to interpret and use information (Kuhlthau, 1987).
<<<
//(Again, 'Information Literacy' as an umbrella term - how would you go about teaching/achieving it?)//
*''Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment'' (2005), //Colleges, Code, And Copyright: The Impact of Digital Networks and Technological Controls on Copyright and the Dissemination of Information in Higher Education//, Association of College & Research Libraries, p.viii-ix
<<<
First, information literacy is a //way of thinking// rather than a set of skills... It is a matrix of critical and reflective capacities, as well as disciplined creative thought, that impels the student to range widely through the information environment, forming initial hypotheses, collecting information sources and data, testing and retesting search paths, formulating and reinventing search strategies recursively, and applying rigorous standards to both the information found and the adaptive search process itself. Information literacy as a //way of thinking// is a constructive process, a metacognitive drive, assisted by "scaffolding" provided by faculty, librarians, and others to create new understandings, new knowledge and personal growth. When sustained through a supportive learning environment at course, program or institutional level, information literacy can become a //dispositional habit// - those affective tendencies to persist, overcome difficulties, to adapt to changing digital and print environments, to reach across disciplinary boundaries to solve information problems, to inquire deeply both within disciplines and beyond them, and to form a "habit of mind" that seeks ongoing improvement and self-discipline in inquiry, research and integration of knowledge from varied sources.
<<<
*''Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment'' (2005), //Colleges, Code, And Copyright: The Impact of Digital Networks and Technological Controls on Copyright and the Dissemination of Information in Higher Education//, Association of College & Research Libraries, p.x
<<<
Information literacy is not a fixed or static phenomenon; rather, it is a self-renewing panoply of capacities using critical thinking, metacognitive strategies, and, perhaps most important, creative abilities, dispositions, and native talents to foster self-motivation, to construct new knowledge, to build up expertise, and to acquire wisdom.
<<<
//(Information literacy is the fount of wisdom, no less!)//
*''Rockman, I.F.'', quoted in ''Center for Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment'' (2005), //Colleges, Code, And Copyright: The Impact of Digital Networks and Technological Controls on Copyright and the Dissemination of Information in Higher Education//, Association of College & Research Libraries, p.44
<<<
[Information literacy is] a set of abilities that allow a person to recognize when information is needed and to effectively and efficiently act on that need.
<<<
*''McGovern'' (2001), quoted by Riedling, A.M., //[[Information Literacy|http://bit.ly/1K8FIX]]//, Libraries Unlimited, 2004
<<<
Before our very eyes, witness the emergence of the information literate. The future is in their hands. Their hands are at the keyboard, and their eyes are on the screen. It is they who are shifting the present and shaping the future. The Internet is their tool of choice.
<<<
//(Hyperbole!)//
*''Audunson, R. & Nordlie, R.'', 'Information Literacy: the case or non-case in Norway? (//Library Review//, 52(7), 2003), p.319
<<<
When discussing Norwegian attitudes and policies in relation to the problem of information literacy, one important point of departure is that the Norwegian language does not have a word exactly paralleling the English term "information literacy". Norwegian does have the terms literacy/illiteracy, but it is probably correct to say that they first and foremost are used in relation to traditional reading capabilities. In the field of traditional reading, the term literacy denotes:
(1) the technical capability of combining letters into words and words into sentences; and
(2) the ability to understand and extract meaning from that which is being read.
The Norwegian language does not use the term literacy to describe a person's competencies in other fields of activity, be it cooking, social intercourse, skiing - or the field of ICT and information. (There are a few exceptions to this: in football, coaches and journalists speak of a player's ability to "read" a game, i.e. a kind of football literacy; when educating people in how to behave in traffic, one speaks of a person's ability to "read" a traffic situation. In both these situations, literacy is used to describe the ability to understand and extract meaning, independently of technical competencies in football or driving. Low or mediocre technical skills can be combined with high reading capabilities and vice versa.)
<<<
//(What a fantastic, common-sense approach! Definitely use this towards end of literature review.)//
''Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M., 'Introduction' (in Lankshear & Knobel, //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.1'' - Book represents emerging trend in emphasizing plurality of digital //literacies//. Only one English-language book with 'digital literacies' in title in December 2007.
''p.2'' - Important to emphasize plurality of digital literacies, because of:
<<<
*the sheer diversity of specific accounts of "digital literacy" that exist, and consequent impliciations of that for digital literacy policies;
*the strength and usefulness of a sociocultural perspective on literacy as practice, according to which literacy is best understood as literacies (Street, 1984; Lankshear, 1987; Gee, 1996). By extension, then, digital literacy can useful be understood as digital //literacies// - in the plural;
*the benefits that may accrue from adopting an expansive view of digital literacies and their significance for educational learning.
<<<
''p.2'' - David Bawden (Chapter 1) - refers to Gilster's claim (1997) that digital literacy involves "mastering ideas, not keystrokes."
''p.2'' - Difference between //conceptual// definitions of 'digital literacy' from //"standardized operational"// definitions (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006)
''p.2-3'' - One of the earliest examples of conceptual definition comes from Lanham (1995, p.198) who claims that 'literacy' has extended its semantic reach from ability to read and write to meaning "the ability to understand information however presented." To be digitally literate involves "being skilled at deciphering complex images and sounds as well as the syntactical subtleties of words." Digitally literate people are "quick on [their] feet in moving from one kind of medium to another."
//(this definition - ability to understand info however presented - by Lanham is important - need to find article!)//
''p.3'' - 'Operational' definitions "operationalize" what is involved in being digitally literate "in terms of certain tasks, performances, demonstrations of skills, etc., and advance these as a //standard// for general adoption."
Example of this = Certiport's Internet and Computing Core Certification (www.certiport.com)
''p.4'' - "[A]ny attempt to constitute an umbrella definition or overarching frame of digital literacy will necessarily involve reconciling the claims of myriad concepts of digital literacy, a veritable legion of digital literacies."
//(c.f. my comments r.e. umbrella terms...)//
''p.5'' - Gee, Hull & Lankshear (1996:1-2) - Literacy always to do with //reading//:
<<<
Whatever literacy is, it [has] something to do with //reading//. And //reading// is always //reading something//. Furthermore, if one has not //understood// [made meaning from] what one has read then one has not read it. So reading is always reading //something// with //understanding//. [T]his something that one reads with understanding is always a text of a //certain type// which is read in a //certain way//. The text may be a comic book, a novel, a poem, a legal brief, a technical manual, a textbook in physics, a newspaper article, an essay in the social sciences or philosophy, a "self-help" book, a recipe, and so forth, through many different types of text. Each of these different types of text requires somewhat different background knowledge and somewhat different skills.
<<<
//(agree with first bit, but not last bit - are they trying to use it to justify multiple literacies? what relation has knowledge to literacy? are they using texts in literal or metaphorical sense?)//
''p.7'' - Fluency & digital literacy:
<<<
A way of reading a certain type of text is acquired //only// when it is acquired in a "fluent" or "native-like" way, by one's being embedded in (apprenticed as a member of) a //social practice// wherein people not only //read// texts of this type in these ways but also //talk// about such texts in certain ways, //hold certain beliefs and values// about them, and //socially interact// over them in certain ways.
<<<
//(this links to literacy as a social practice - to what extent are they invoking 'digital immigrant/native' dichotomy here?)//
''p.7'' - Reason for //literacies// (plural) from literacy-as-sociocultural-practices model:
<<<
From a sociocultural perspective, these different ways of reading and writing and the "enculturations" that lead to becoming proficient in them are //literacies//. Engaging in these situated practices where we make meanings by relating texts to larger ways of doing and being is engaging in literacy - or, more accurately, //literacies//, since we are all apprentices to more than one.
<<<
//(I'm not sure I'm convinced that literacy is a socio-cultural practice...)//
''p.9'' - Another reason for digital //literacies//:
<<<
Approaching digital literacy from the standpoint of digital //literacies// can open us up to making potentially illuminating connections between literacy, learning, meaning (semantic as well as existential), and experiences of agency, efficacy, and pleasure that we might not otherwise make.
[T]he educational grounds for acknowledging the nature and diversity of digital literacies, and for considering where and how they might enter into //educational// learning have partly to do with the extent to which we can build bridges between learners' existing interests in these practices and more formal scholarly purposes.
<<<
//(a good point r.e. not just about engagement, but about building bridges)//
''p.13'' - Gee, 2007:138 - //Access// to technologies not enough - young people need mentoring and guidance:
<<<
[E]vidence is beginning to show that just giving young people access to technologies is not enough. They need - just as they do for books - adult mentoring and rich learning systems built around the technologies, otherwise the full potential of these technologies is not realized for these children.
<<<
//(great quotation - perhaps need to create a poster from this one for Flickr pool?)//
''p.15'' - Summary - reason for digital //literacies//:
<<<
Approaching digital literacy in terms of "digital literacies" allows for the kinds of analysis of social practices that identify key points at which effective learning is triggered within efficient socio-technical learning systems as well as key learning principles that can be adapted and leveraged for equitable educational learning. Taking an expansive view of digital literacies - one that includes popular cultural practices... extends the scope for identifying and understanding points at which these same conducive processes and principles operate within digital literacies that are increasingly part of the everyday lives of educators at large.
<<<
//(use this quotation in thesis somewhere!)//
''G. Kress, //Literacy in the New Media Age// (London, 2003)''
''(Review of this book [[here|http://www.seminar.net/reviews/literacy-in-the-new-media-age-by-gunther-kress]])''
__Chapter 1 - The Futures of Literacy__
''p.1'' - Literacy cannot be divorced from other factors:
<<<
It is no longer possible to think about literacy in isolation from a vast array of social, technological and economic factors. Two distinct yet relate factors deserve to be particularly highlighted. These are, on the one hand, the broad move from the now centuries-long dominance of writing to the new dominance of the image and, on the other hand, the move from the dominance of the medium of the book to the dominance of the medium of the screen.
<<<
//(Kress believes two questions to be raised by this: (i) likely future of literacy? (ii) likely larger-level social & cultural effects of this change?)//
''p.1'' - Literacy affects power:
<<<
//The world told// is a different world to //the world shown//. The effects of the move to the screen as the major medium of communication will produce far-reaching shift in relations of power, and not just in the sphere of communication. Where significant changes to distribution of power threaten, there will be fierce resistance by those who presently hold power, so that predictions about the democratic potentials and effects of the new information and communication technologies have to be seen in the light of inevitable struggles over power yet to come.
<<<
//(who are those who 'presently hold power'? Educators? Politicians?)//
''p.5'' - New media have three effects:
<<<
They make it easy to use a multiplicity of modes, and in particular the mode of image - still or moving - as well as other modes, such as music and sound effect for instance. They change, through their affordances, the potentials for representational and communicational action by their users; this is the notion of 'interactivity' which figures so prominently in discussions of the new media.
<<<
//(goes on to say that users can 'write back' to producers of texts very easily, unlike before)//
''p.6'' - Issue of authority when everyone is an author:
<<<
Of course the change to the power of the author brings with it a consequent lessening in the author's or the text's authority. The processes of selection which accompanied the bestowal of the role of author brought authority. When that selection is no longer there, authority is lost as well. The promise of greater democracy is accompanied by a levelling of power; that which may have been desired by many may turn out to be worth less than it seemed when it was unavailable.
<<<
''p.6'' - The very notion of 'authorship' comes into question - dispels myth of authors conjuring something out of nothing:
<<<
The ease with which texts can be brought into conjunction, and elements of texts reconstituted as new texts, changes the notion of authorship. If it was a myth to see the author as originator, it is now a myth that cannot any longer be sustained in this new environment. Writing is becoming 'assembling according to designs' in ways which are overt, and much more far-reaching, than they were previously.
<<<
//(goes on to say that much more talk about 'fitness for purpose' now that 'creativity')//
''p.7'' - Counter objection to those who say that more books published now than ever before. Kress says depends what you mean by 'book' - no longer linear and influenced by 'new logic of the screen':
<<<
These are still called 'book', though I think we need to be wary of being fooled by the seeming stability of the word. These are not books that can be 'read', for instance, in anything like that older sense of the word 'read'. These are books for working with, for acting on. So yes, there are more 'books' published now than ever before, but in many cases the 'books' of now are not the 'books' of then.
<<<
//(similar to books and films both influencing one another through narratives that flit about the place)//
__Chapter 2 - Preface__
''p.9'' - Screen has overtaken the book as dominating medium of communication:
<<<
After a long time of the dominance of the book as the central medium of communication, the screen has now taken that place. This is leading to more than a mere displacement of writing. It is leading to an inversion in semiotic power. The book and the page were the site of writing. The screen is the site of the image - it is the contemporary canvas. The book and the page were ordered by the logic of writing; the screen is ordered by the logic of image... The former constellation of //medium of book// and //mode of writing// is giving way, and in many domains has already given way, to the new constellation of //medium of screen// and //mode of image//.
<<<
''p.9-10'' - Images were formerly used to illustrate text, now somewhat the other way round:
<<<
When in the past image appeared on the page it did so subject to the logic of writing, the relation of image to writing which we still know as 'illustration'. When writing now appears on the screen, it does so subject to the logic of the image.
<<<
//(this is a great point, well put!)//
''p.10'' - Kress believes 'literacy' to be affected by four factors:
#The social
#The economic
#The communicational
#The technological
''p.11'' - Reason for change in literacy is that humans by nature are intentional and therefore change things through the work they do:
<<<
Change is always with us, for the simple reason that humans act, and act with intent. The work, and work produces change. Change is not neutral, nor is it the same at all times in history: it is always a change of a particular kind, moving in particular directions, favouring one group rather than another.
<<<
//(who does this 'new' literacy favour, then?)//
''p.11'' - 'Communicational landscape' = metaphor to be able to explain the environment that humans create through their work.
__Chapter 3 - Going into a different world__
''p.17'' - In the past, there has been tight control over who can broadcast from 'few' to 'many':
<<<
At different points in history... access has been - and still often is - tightly regulated by authorities of the state, the church or the 'party'... The relation of those who produced messages and could disseminate them to those who received them was that of //few// to //many//. These were the conditions of the era of mass communication. The new information and communication technologies have produced the technological condition where all can publish to all, and by means of that enormous change they have abolished the era of mass communication... [T]he potentials of these technologies imply a radical social change, a redistribution of semiotic power, the power to make and disseminate meanings.
<<<
//(Kress was writing in 2003. Have we moved beyond this now? YouTube?)//
''p.18'' - Users constantly remake the technologies involved with literacy:
<<<
Individual users of the technology of 'literacy' are integrated into... webs of structures. In making their meanings as messages in these webbed domains, individuals constantly sustain, produce and transform the resources of the technology of literacy, in line with the needs, demands, meanings and desires which they live and experience in these environments.
<<<
//('literacy' depends upon the use of technology by individuals, which is constantly changing)//
''p.18'' - Technology is just technology unless it is given //meaning//:
<<<
Technologies become significant when social and cultural conditions allow them to become significant. The new information and communication technologies have both made possible and been a part of the more profound force of (economic and cultural) globalisation.
<<<
//(this is important - changes in different arenas going hand-in-hand; what's the stimulus - curiosity?)//
''p.19'' - The 'logic' of the mode of writing shapes the final format. Kress gives example of creating his book:
<<<
The potentials of the medium of the book and the page gave rise both to the shaping of knowledge and ideas and to the distributions of power between those who could produce the written text and distribute the book and those who received the book and its texts as authoritative objects.
<<<
''p.20'' - Writing, speech and images have different 'logics':
<<<
The logic of writing is temporal/sequential... The logic of image on the other hand is spatial/simultaneous.... Writing is the ordering of elements (syntactic/grammatical and lexical) in the conventionalised sequences of syntax; image is the ordering of elements ('depicttions') in a more or less conventionalised and spatially simultaneous 'display'... When writing appears on the screen, as it does now and will continue to do, it will increasingly - as is indeed the case now - be reshaped by this logic. writing will more and more become organised and shaped by the logic of the image-space of the screen. This is one inescapable effect of the potentials of the screen, and the technology of the new media.
<<<
//(the format and output of something dictates the inputs - c.f. teaching and the examination system!)//
''p.21'' - Serious writing is no longer authoritative - just one of many forms of communication:
<<<
[W]riting is undergoing change of a profound kind: in grammar and syntax, particularly at the level of the sentence, and at the level of the text/message. Writing now plays one part in communicatoonal ensembles, and no longer //the// part. Where before all information was conveyed in writing, now there is a decision to be made: which information, for this audience, is best conveyed in image and which in writing? In this form, that is a very new role for writing to have.
<<<
''p.21'' - Reason to ask what we mean by 'literacy':
<<<
Given that in the world of the new media there are numerous modal resources involved in the making of 'messages' - word, spoken or written; image, still and moving; music; objects as 3D models; soundtrack; action - it has in any case become essential to ask what we mean by 'literacy'.
<<<
''p.22'' - An extended quotation to demonstrate why Kress is against using literacy to cover 'visual literacy', 'digital literacy', etc.
<<<
In English-speaking contexts, we have this word 'literacy'. As it is being used in ever-extended meanings, we might decide to stretch its use still further to cover any resource involved in the making of any 'message', whether through word or image or otherwise.
For me, two reasons speak against htat. One is that we need to be aware that other languages do not have such a word. They name the field differently: //alphabetismus// in German; //alphabetisme//, in French as in other romance languages. In languages which do not use a version of the alphabet, Chinese or Japanese for instance, quite different wordings exist: in Japanese, for instance 'the recognition of letters' (mon-mou); in Chinese there are a range of phrases, for instance 'know-character-ability', 'normal raise/bring up', 'to have received education'.
Of course, we could attempt to insist that as the English language already rules the world, the English word //literacy// should do also, or that other languages should at least produce translations of this word... A vast range of meanings is gathered up in the word; in anglophone contexts in can be anything from 'making reliable links between the letters of a written text and the sounds of speech' to 'being able to make readings of texts of the elite, which conform to the readings of the elite culture'. The more that is gathered up in teh meaning of the term, the less meaning it has. Something that has come to mean everything, is likely not to mean very much at all.
<<<
//(I'm not sure this is a very strong argument. Why not have modifiers - 'visual literacy', etc.?)//
''p.23'' - Kress defines what he means by literacy:
<<<
...for me //literacy// is the term to use when we make messages using letters as the mans of recording that message. When we communicate through numbers, we use the term 'numeracy', and for very good reasons: the meaning-potential and the meanings made with numbers are very different from those made with letters.
...
My approach leaves us with the problem of finding new terms of the use of different resources: not therefore 'visual //literacy//' for the use of image; not 'gestural //literacy//' for the use of gesture; and also not 'musical //literacy//' or 'soundtrack //literacy//' for the use of sound other than in speech; and so on.
<<<
//(Although initially in agreement, I'm not so sure. I think literacy //can// be subject to prefix-modifiers that make it applicable - just depends on domain)//
''p.23'' - Kress wants to make 'a threefold distinction in our naming-practices':
<<<
# words that name the resources for representing and their potential - speech, writing, image, gesture;
# words that name the use of the resources in the production of the message - literacy, oracy, singing, numeracy, (aspects of) 'computer literacy' and of 'media literacy', 'internet-literacy'; and
# words that name the involvement of the resources for the dissemination of meanings as message - internet publishing, as one instance.
<<<
//(Kress goes on to say that new technologies complication this picture as they 'bring together the resources for representation and their potential with the resources of production and the resources of dissemination'. This, he believes, is a 'conflation' that leads to 'the too ready extension of the term 'literacy'.)//
''p.24'' - Literacy is the knowledge of the use of the resource of writing - everything else = skills:
<<<
[W]e can have //writing// or //speech// as the names of two resources for making meaning. Using pencil, pen, (computer) keyboard or whatever else are then separate and different matters, involving the //skills// of both production and dissemination, which may be more or less closely integrated with the potentials of the resource. //Literacy// remains the term which refers to (the knowledge of) the use of the resource in writing. The combination of knowledge of the resource with knowledge of production and perhaps with that of dissemination would have a different name. That separates, what to me is essential, the //sense of what the resource is// and what its potentials are, from associated questions such as those of its //uses//, and the issue of whether skills are involved in using a resource in wider communicational frames.
<<<
//(So is 'literacy' knowledge or a skill for Kress? If find this problematic.)//
''p.24-5'' - Kress implies that people give what they are talking about an air of legitimacy, seriousness and status by making it a 'literacy':
<<<
The danger of extending the term too far is that of dragging things which are and should remain entirely outside the social regulations that literacy is subject to into that domain, to push social regulation into domains where there is no need for it to exist. I would want ot know what it means for someone to use terms such as //cultural literacy// or //sexual literacy//, what judgements are made, implicitly or explicitly, on whom, and what the effects are of such judgements on those who are being judged, on this as on other occasions.
<<<
//(Doesn't this apply to standard 'literacy' as well - it definitely already has a political element)//
__Chapter 5 - What is Literacy?___
''p.65'' - On-screen, things have to //look good//:
<<<
On the screen, the //textual entity// is treated as a //visual entity// in ways in which the page never was.
<<<
''p.65'' - Images tend to accompany text more on-screen:
<<<
...a significant organisational feature is that writing, whether on the screen or on the page, is accompanied more and more by image, whether as 'picture', diagram or map. In these writing/image ensembles //placement//, the spatial positioning of the mode-elements, matters, it has meaning-effects.
<<<
''Trayner, B., 'Multiliteracies: a theoretical overview' (blog post 25 March 2004 - http://www.eudaimonia.pt/btsite/content/view/37/42/ -accessed 13/12/08)''
*Change from 'literacy' to 'literacies' is a feature of a body of research known as 'New Literacy Studies' (NLS)
<<<
New Literacy Studies (NLS) denies the earlier notion of literacy as being a set of skills or competences that rest on culturally specific values about what is proper literacy. It challenges the way that literacy practices associated with people of different classes or different ethnic groups are presented as inadequate or unsuccessful attempts to achieve the proper literacy of the dominant culture. NLS uses language like "dominant literacies" and "literacy varieties" rather than, simply, "literacy".
<<<
*Cope & Kalantzis: 'Putting Multiliteracies to the Test' - argument for multiliteracies:
<<<
The Multiliteracies argument runs like this: our personal, public and working lives are changing in some dramatic ways, and these changes are transforming our cultures and the ways we communicate. This means that the way we have taught literacy, and what counts for literacy, will also have to change.
The term `Multiliteracies' highlights two of the most important, and closely related changes. The first is the growing significance of cultural and linguistic diversity. The news on our television screens screams this message at us every day. And, in more constructive terms, we have to negotiate differences every day, in our local communities and in our increasingly globally interconnected working and community lives. (...)The globalisation of communications and labour markets makes language diversity an ever more critical local issue.
The second major shift encompassed in the concept of Multiliteracies is the influence of new communications technologies. Meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal in which written-linguistic modes of meaning are part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns of meaning. Take for instance the multimodal ways in which meanings are made on the World Wide Web, or in video captioning, or in interactive multimedia, or in desktop publishing, or in the use of written texts in a shopping mall. To find our way around this emerging world of meaning requires a new, multimodal literacy.
<<<
*Gunther Kress - 2003:24 - new literacies involve image and writing together:
<<<
To use both modes, image and writing, together, as is ever more frequently the case with the new technologies, is to be involved in the use of the resources of visual composition (layout), in the use of the visual mode of image, in the use of the mode of writing, and all in ways which both draw on the existing knowledges and resources and yet are also quite new.
<<<
*Gee - 1994:168-169 - literacy bound up with identity:
<<<
Literacy is seen as a set of discourse practices, that is, as ways of using language and making sense both in speech and writing. These discourse practices are tied to the particular world views (beliefs and values) of particular social or cultural groups. Such discourse practices are integrally connected with the identity or sense of self of the people who practice them; a change of discourse practices is a change of identity.
<<<
''Sugimoto, T. & Levin, J.A., (2000) 'Multiple Literacies and Multimedia: a comparison of Japanese and American uses of the Internet' (in Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L., //Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web//)''
''p.133'' - Literacy recently has been seen as set of social & cultural practices rather than being neutral:
<<<
Recently, literacy has been viewed as a complex set of social and cultural practices rather than as a neutral technology of reading and writing. According to Street (1995), the 'literacy practices' concept 'refers to both behavior and the social and cultural conceptualizations that give meaning to the uses of reading and/or writing' (p.2).
<<<
//(authors' intention to show that both print and media literacies are ''not'' neutral)//
''p.133'' - Impact of culture on technologies:
<<<
...new technologies are created in specific cultural and social contexts. The uses and conceptualizations of these technologies reflect, intentionally or unintentionally, the culture they were created in. And when they come to another sociocultural context, the technologies often bring with them these cultural and social ideologies and value systems.
<<<
//(This needs to go in 'culture' section of my concept map - could also go in bit explaining why people(s) have different conceptions of 'digital literacy')//
''p.140'' - Technologies such as email predicated on prior technological advancements:
<<<
Moran and Hawisher (1980) stated "when we argue that e-mail is a new medium, developing its own rhetorics and languages, we mean that although new, it is intimately related to its ancestors. In its gene pool are all former and current modes and styles of human communication, written and spoken" (pp.80-1). And those "ancestors" are culturally grounded.
<<<
//(Obvious that text in digital world predicated upon print-based text - but what about at the cultural level? Are digital literacy practices predicated upon those in the print-based world? Should they be?)//
''p.146'' - Do we read things online in the ways authors intended?
<<<
There are three main ways of accessing information on the Web: following a link from another page, using a search engine, and typing in a URL directly. Each of these three ways has a potential to mislead readers (Sugimoto, 1997a, 1997b).
<<<
//(Does it ''matter'' if we don't read it in the 'way author intended'? Can we even be sure that we do this with print-based text?)//
''p.146-7'' - Path to pages on Internet is part of the meaning-making process:
<<<
When following a link from another page, the reading of the linked page is contextualized by the previous page. So the same Web page my have different meanings depending on what paths the reader has taken in coming to it. In this sense, each page of text is not neutral on the Web. Each page does not necessarily convey the meanings intended by its authors, since the path to the page provides a context for sense making. This is complicated by the fact that users can make a link to any page on the Web in any way they like. In conventional media, meanings are constructed through interactions between authors and readers. But on the Web, meanings are constructed between authors of pages and those who make links to those pages on the one hand, and readers on the other. Authors cannot control who can make links to the pages they have created.
<<<
//(How important is this? Does this feed into some type of 'digital citizenship' or 'netiquette'?)//
''p.148'' - Burbulus (sic?) - need to focus more on links in terms of the way they change the context of what is read:
<<<
Burbulus (1998) problematized the apparently neutral character of a "link" and suggested that we "concentrate more onlinks - as associative relations that change, redefine, and enhance or restrict access to the information they comprise." Considering the issues of how our readings of information on the Web are affected by links, we cannot say that information on the Web is neutral in any sense. Readers can too easily comprehend information differently from the original intents of the authors.
<<<
//(I don't think that using information on the web for a different purpose than the author intended is a problem, per se, but deliberate misrepresentation is, of course, a major concern)//
''Carr, D., //Making Sense of Education: an introduction to the philosophy and theory of education and teaching// (London, 2003)''
''p.7'' - Saying that education is an initiation into a society's 'culture' is too slippery a notion:
<<<
All the same, the claim that education is a matter of initiation into the values, habits, practices, customs and institutions of (human) culture does not yet get us very far. For a start, the term 'culture' is notoriously ambiguous. With respect to the 'sociological' sense of culture, which means the entire sum of customs and practices that characterise a given social constituency, it should be clear enough that education could not concern itself with all of these: aside from the fact that any such comprehensive initiation must be (logistically) beyond the scope of education, it is also clear that many human practices are morally or otherwise unsuitable for educational consumption. However, a narrower //evaluative// conception of culture as what is most humanly worthwhile - in the famous words of Matthew Arnold, 'the best that has been thought and said in the world' - confronts us with the central educational question of deciding //which// of the numerous forms of learning encountered in human culture(s) are to be considered crucial for the personal development of young people.
<<<
''p.8'' - The school curriculum has to try to be all things to all men:
<<<
...on even a superficial view, the standard school curriculum seems to contain forms of knowledge, understanding and skill of rather diverse human significance and value. First, many of the subjects and skills that have found their way into past and present schools would appear to have been included on grounds of simple //usefulness//.
<<<
''p.11-12'' - What does it mean to be 'educated'?
<<<
The best we can so far say is that to be educated is to come to appreciate or value for their own sake the non-instrumental or teleological (intrinsically valuable) features of those forms of knowledge, understanding and skill for which a reasonable educational case has or can be made.
<<<
''p.12'' - education more //and// less than knowledge, skills and understanding:
<<<
...education is clearly both more and less than equipping young people with the knowledge, understanding and skills that may be useful... to them in adult life: it is //more// because young people people could come to master and exercise such skills without ever valuing for their own sake, and it is //less// because at least some of the subjects and activities that are acquired for their instrumental value have few or no non-instrumental person-constitutive features.
<<<
''p.14'' - ([[Ed.D. blog|http://elgg.net/dougbelshaw/weblog/142829.html]]) P.H. Hirst, 'Liberal education and the nature of knowledge', //Knowledge and the Curriculum//, 1974) argues that there is not such thing as knowledge and understanding for its own sake - "the acid test of fitness for inclusion of any subject or activity in the school curriculum should be social or economic utility: education should be seen as a //means// to an end, not as an end in itself.
''p.15'' - The problem in the debate between instrumentalists and non-instrumentalists is a confusion between //education// and //schooling//:
<<<
Schooling is, of course, a social institution that is provided for out of public funds, and is to that extent accountable to the desires of taxpayers and their democratically elected political representatives. Among the many things that the average taxpaying parent will require from schools is that they equip their offspring with the sort of skills that will enable them to become responsible, productive and financially successful members of society. However, what will also be desired by many parents is that their offspring acquire the sort of educated understanding of themselves, the world and their relations with others that enables autonomous recognition and pursuit for their own sake of interests and projects of intrinsic satisfaction and value...
<<<
''p.16'' - Education is both more //and// less than schooling:
<<<
In one sense, education is //more// than schooling: we can speak meaningfully of life-long education or learning, but not so sensibly of lifelong schooling...
But in another sense, education (even in schools) is rather //less// than schooling. It can only be //part// of the business of the institution of schooling to initiate young people into an appreciation of the flower of worthwhile human literary, artistic and other achievements //for its own sake//...
<<<
''p.18'' - Young people have an entitlement to a cultural inheritance:
<<<
...there is a cultural inheritance to which all young people are entitled - irrespective of differences of ability, social background and vocational destiny - and into which it is therefore the sacred duty of schools to acquaint each and every child. Thus, although there are going to be skills and activities (such as literacy and numeracy) that //all// need to acquire because no modern person can adequately function without them, as well as skills (of auto-repair and secretarial work) that some but not all individuals will require for particular vocations, the different vocational destinies of children should not be allowed to undermine their common entitlement to proper initiation into the 'best that has been thought and said'.
<<<
''p.25'' - Education is more than the memorization of facts:
<<<
...although one cannot doubt that there //are// historical facts (for example, that the Battle of Hastings occurred in 1066 or that Henry VIII had six wives), and //education// in history is just as obviously not a matter of mere memorising, but of //understanding// such facts. Moreover, in the case of historical understanding, we should appreciate that even hard facts are open to rival interpretation or explanation. But now, if historical education is a matter of understanding and interpretation, it is also a matter of //meaningful// learning - and it remains a persistent danger that such learning may be utterly sidelined by precisely the kind of analysis that reduces knowledge to such atomic elements as facts.
<<<
''p.133'' - The central philisophical issue of the school curriculum...
<<<
...is that of determining which potentially objective kinds or forms of knowledge and understanding (broadly construed to include social and personal capacities and practical skills, as well as academic knowledge) are appropriate for inclusion in any formal programme of school-baed education.
<<<
''p.134'' - Schooling and education are not one and the same:
<<<
...it is mistaken to regard the school curriculum as //exclusively// concerned with education in the purest (or purist) sense of promoting an understanding of the world for (as it is said) its own sake: thus, there are clearly many qualities human agents need for effective functioning and well-being that are worthy of curriculum space, despite having quite straightforward instrumental or extrinsic utility.
<<<
''p.134'' - School is about producing 'informed rational agents':
<<<
...we are more or less bound to admit that socially institutionalised schooling could hardly other than be concerned with the promotion of informed rational agents who also possess capacities for responsible interpersonal association, and the basic knowledge and skills required for a useful economic contribution to society, as well as for independent and healthy personal functioning.
<<<
''p.135'' - It is no great mystery why the subjects and activities in the school curriculum are there:
<<<
...those philosophical issues that have sometimes arisen concerning the legitimacy or otherwise of including this or that subject in the curriculum - about whether, for example, there is a proper place for hockey or Latin - would often seem to have been generated by the sort of procrustean curriculum theories which have held that subjects ought to be excluded if they are //either// not economically useful (instrumentalism) //or// not intrinsically worthwhile forms of knowledge (non-instrumentalism). However, it is not just aht there are //many// reasons for including activities in the curriculum, but that individual activities will often find a place for rather different reasons: there are, for example, many differen treasons for including physical education - even through it is //neither// (for most people) economically useful //nor// an intrinsically worthwhile form of knowledge (in any significant educational sense).
<<<
''p.135'' - Five common criteria of recent official and professional curriculum design and development:
*balance
*breadth
*coherence
*continuity
*progression
''p.136'' - Having a 'balanced' curriculum is seen as important, but what exactly is meant by the term?
<<<
...it should be... clear that any employment of the term 'balance'... is little more than an uncashed metaphor, and probably acquires what little sense it has from its slightly more perspicuous application in other professional contexts. Thus, for example, we can have some idea of what might constitute a balanced diet on the grounds that there are reasonable natural scientific criteria of physical health: without regular intake of a certain specifiable range of minerals, proteins, liquids, vitamins, and so on, a person's physical flourishing is liable to observable and fairly well measurable decline. The obvious difficulty for any more analogical curricular application, however, is that of determining what might count as plausible educational or personal developmental equivalents of vitamins and minerals - or, worse yet, the appropriate intakes or dosages of any such curricular ingredients.
<<<
(follows on)
<<<
Hence, even if we distinguish as we have between schooling and education, and recognise that - insofar as education is simply one of the functions of schooling - any school curriculum has a responsibility to equip young people with knowledge, capacities, qualities, skills and dispositions that reach beyond the purely intellectual or the cognitive to the social, moral, emotional and practical, it is still far from entirely clear what one should include and what one could or should leave out.
<<<
(example of R.E.)
''p.139'' - We shouldn't confuse //forms of knowledge// with //school subjects//:
<<<
To some extent, the idea of constructing the school curriculum around forms of knowledge seems to have been precisely designed to address the potential problem of too many subjects in the curriculum. In this respect, of course, it is important not to confuse //forms of knowledge// with school //subjects//: thus, whereas geography is one subject, it would be regarded as involving different forms of knowledge (natural science, humanities, moral inquiry), and although physics, chemistry and biology are different subjects, they might be held to be but different modes or aspects of one (natural scientific) form of knowledge.
<<<
''p.140-141'' - It is impossible to initiate a person into //all// the forms of human knowledge:
<<<
Basically, curriculum conceptions of a forms of knowledge variety turn on a particular conception of education as a matter of a wide-ranging acquaintance with the greatest possible //extent// of rational human understanding. However, it is possible to question not just how far any such initiation can and should go, but also whether this conception of education is a very reasonable or practicable one. First, if one refused to regard as educated any person who had not been successfully initiated into all the human enterprises we might consider to be educationally worthwhile, surely hardly anyone would so count - since, to be sure, individual differences of talent and interest will preclude much if any success in some activities for most if not all of us.
<<<
(-Isn't Carr conflating initiation and 'success' here?-)
''p.141'' - education is more concerned with broad brushstrokes rather than ensuring a //passion// for a particular area of learning:
<<<
...it has been explicitly argued that focus on curricular breadth has often wrongly emphasised coverage of content at the expense of the development on the part of young people of a real passion for, or commitment to, //some// worthwhile form of human engagement. More particularly, it has been urged - not least in relation to those less able pupils whose capacity to cope with the academic rigours of a forms of knowledge curriculum is often held to be limited - that it is better for children to leave school with 'one genuine enthusiasm' than with a superficial smattering or acquaintance with many subjects.
<<<
(e.g. M. Warnock, 'Towards a definition of quality in education' in R.S. Peters (ed.), //The Philosophy of Education//, Oxford, 1973)
''p.141-142'' - 'Curriculum coherence' either means something very trivial or something very controversial:
<<<
...on the face of it, there cannot be much quarrel with any insistence that the content of the curriculum should be //coherent//: at all events, one could hardly wish it to be incoherent. The trouble here, however, seems to be that any call for curriculum coherence is either requiring something so general as to be trivial - in which case it may hardly seem worth emphasising - or it is claiming something very much more radical and //controversial//. First, indeed, it is necessary to determine precisely what any alleged relations of coherence are supposed to hold between - as well as, perhaps, exactly how such relations are supposed to hold. On the one hand, if coherence is required only between the parts of particular subjects or lessons, then - irrespective of any difficulties involved in achieving this - such coherence could hardly be other than an intrinsic goal of any and all good teaching... On the other hand, however, it could be that the demand for coherence is meant to apply rather more widely to the curriculum: to the programme in general, perhaps, rather than to this or that subject in particular... This more radical but controversial conception of curriculum coherence would maintain that if the general programme of study that children are required to undergo in schools is to be of any real educational worth, then it should be experienced more as a meaningfully interrelated whole than as a meaningless array of discrete or fragmented bodies of information or activity. In short, the more general demand for coherence may seem to be better met by a progressive or integrated than by a traditional or subject-centred curriculum.
<<<
''p.143'' - However, there are difficulties with coherence:
<<<
...it is still crucially important to appreciate the proper limits of integration: that, in short, it would be folly to attempt any wholesale integration of the school curriculum, since any curriculum will contain much that is not readily integrable. Hence, while there may be quite plausible cases for combining aspects of history with drama, cookery with geography, or even moral education with cricket, it is easy to see how the search for integration could become strained and artificial, resulting in some very much less meaningful constellations of learning.
<<<
''Unknown:''
>The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
<<<
"ICT has the potential to cause irreversible change in classrooms and schools, and has sometimes done so already; at other sites the machines simply wait in readiness like the charactersin a science-fiction story, later to fulfill their potential."
<<<
C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.7
----
Potential of ICT to change what educators will assess in pupils:
<<<
"Future courses may not be examined by testing the limits of an individual's memory but instead may challenge a student's strategies for obtaining information quickly, for ordering it into a logical sequence, for arriving at conclusions from given facts and for accurate and rapid problem solving."
<<<
Hill (1980) - quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.7
----
Technology can be applied to have good or bad effects:
<<<
"Technology is available to develop either independence and learning or bureaucracy and teaching."
<<<
Illich (1973) - C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.32
----
Technology = neutral:
<<<
'the technology itself is neutral. It can be used to deskill jobs, to fragment them and to increase routinisation and repetition. It can also be used to enhance them to provide more opportunities for the exercise of skill and responsibility."
<<<
Jones (1980) - quoted in S. Dunn & V. Morgan, //The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers// (London, 1987)
----
Different views of technology:
''Instrumentalist:'' technologies = simple tools for establishing predetermined ends
''Substantive'' some technologies have power over developers & users - draws them toward certain ends (e.g. nuclear tech. - nuclear weapons) (p.188-9)
*two extreme positions
<<<
"In use, technologies are neither completely neutral nor all-powerful - they are somewhere in between and beyond." (p.190)
<<<
J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking
literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998)
----
Feenberg - alternative to instrumentalist & substantive positions = **critical theory of technology** which:
<<<
"...attempts to help developers and users understand their relations to technologies and to each other in more contextualised, interpersonal ways."
<<<
*not possible to identify the positive or negative potentials of technologies outside contextualised uses.
in J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998), p.207
----
Threat of ICTs:
<<<
"Information technology poses an enormous, possibly unique, challenge as a resource to the teacher because its use demands considerable shifts on ''all'' fronts."
<<<
B. Robinson, 'Getting Ready to Change: the place of change theory in the information technology education of teachers' (in D. Passey & B. Samways (eds.), //Information Technology: supporting change through teacher education// (London, 1997), p.41
----
Potential of ICT in education will only be realised if modification of pedagogy takes place:
<<<
"As a matter of fact, the introduction of a new technology can bring with it a potential for education only if educationalists confront themselves with the necessity to understand, not only the technical and management problems related to its use, but also how the new possibilities offered by technology can help in the overcoming of problems usually encountered in didactical pactice. Hence, this will occur only if they consider how technology can influence or change the nature of the pedagogy which can be developed thanks to its mediation."
<<<
R.M. Bottino, 'Advanced Learning Environments' (in M. Ortega & J. Bravo (eds.), //Computers and Education: towards an interconnected society//; London, 2001), p.12
----
3 positions r.e. educational technology:
''Optimist-rhetoric'' - qualitative evidence r.e. nature and impact of ICT
''Pessimist-rhetoric'' - ICT has no effect
''Academic position'' - 'floating' position on spectrum of approaches
Nichol & Watson, 'Editorial: Rhetoric & reality: the present and future of ICT in education' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:2, 2003), p.131
----
ICT being used "as a tool for learning with little recognition of its potential role as a catalyst for social and educational change."
Tearle, 'ICT implementation: what makes the difference?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:5, 2003), p.579
----
ICTs = tools to preserve & extend culture:
<<<
"The cultural 'press to use new ICT tools in schools, colleges, universities and non-school training environments stems from the perceived value and power of these new tools as ways for humans to exchange ideas, and to preserve and extend the culture, in general."
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1014
----
Presence of new technology in the classroom has the potential to change culture and relationships - traditional classrooms are not ideal learning environments.
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.25
----
Use of ICT allows focus to move from laborious tasks to higher-level tasks (e.g. drawing graph)
Somekh, 'New Technology and Learning: policy and practice in the UK, 1980-2010' (//Education and Information Technology//, 5:1, 2000), p.29
----
<<<
"If technology is to act as a catalyst to support change in a teacher's pedagogy, there needs to be a change in the relationship between teaching and learning in a classroom. This means restructuring pedagogy by changing the roles of teachers and students. With new technologies, the teacher need not be the sole source of knowledge, but instead a facilitator or guide to support student learning."
<<<
G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.116
----
Means & Olson (1994):
<<<
"Technology by itself is not the answer to... educational problems. ...[T]he power of technology will come from its combination with serious educational reform. Schools must first rethink their mission and structure, starting with the needs of students and a set of instructional principles, before they can understand the ways in which technology can help them."
<<<
quoted in - G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.116
----
<<<
"Initially, computers were viewed as marginal tools to aid in practice and drill, or to add functionalities to prevailing didactic structures or improve them. Today there is a broad consensus that there is no clear and unequivocal proof that the computer has any advantages as a tool for practice and drill or as an extension of traditional didactics; and that the real potential of the ICT revolution is in the unprecedented possibilities it presents for active or research-oriented learning (Gorweis, 1996; Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Papert 1980, 1992, 1996; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994; Semerau & Boyer, 1996; Wiburg, 1994). This has led to a preference for computers to be located in classrooms instead of in computer laboratories and for ICT to be integrated into daily learning in modes to allow and encourage active or research-oriented learning."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.334
----
''I. Snyder, //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era// (London, 1998)''
__Intro__
''p.xx'' - Technology changes definitions of 'text':
<<<
...technologies offer us new spaces in which to create texts - spaces that are different from those that have preceded them. As a result, we no longer conceive of text as something located exclusively on a page, in a printed book. The new writing spaces include the screen where text is displayed and the electronic memory in which it is stored.
<<<
''p.xxi'' - New technologies do not mean the end of the old - they simply blur and/or complement one another:
<<<
New introduction of a new technology of writing does not automatically render older ones obsolete. For example, even though printing completely replaced handwriting in book production, it did not spell the end for handwriting. Rather, the boundaries between the two writing technologies blurred... The future of writing is not a linear progression in which new technologies usurp earlier ones. A more likely scenario is that a number of technologies will continue to co-exist, interact, even complement each other.
<<<
//(this is a very important point - it's not a black/white distinction, there are shades of grey...)//
''p.xxi'' - Writing cannot be separated from technology:
<<<
Writing has never been and can never be separate from technology: indeed, writing and technology are 'ineluctably intertwined' (Aronowitz 1992, p.133) and interdependent
<<<
//(perhaps links to Socrates' worry in Plato's dialogues that writing things down will mean the young lose their powers of memory?)//
''p.xxvi'' - Technology creates 'gated communities' - e.g. access to the internet, etc.
''Street, B.V. (2005) 'Introduction: New Literacy Studies and Literacies across Educational Contexts' (in Street, B.V. (ed.) //Literacies across Educational Contexts: Mediating Learning and Teaching//)''
''p.4'' - Street talks about NLS, or 'New Literacy Studies'. Checklist of principles that apply to NLS (Street, 1997)
<<<
a. Literacy is more complex that current curriculum and assessment allows.
b. Curriculum and assessment that reduce literacy to a few simple and mechanistic skills fail to do justice to the richness and complexity of actual literacy practice in people's lives.
c. If we want learners to develop and enhance the richness and complexity of literacy practices evident in society at large, then we need curriculum and assessment that are themselves rich and complex and based upon research into actual literacy practices.
d. In order to develop rich and complex curricula and assessment for literacy, we need models of literacy and of pedagogy that capture the richness and complexity of actual literacy practices.
e. In order to build upon the richness and complexity of learners' prior knowledge, we need to treat 'home background' not as a deficit but as affecting deep level of identity and epistemology, and thereby the stance that learners take with respect to the 'new' literacy practices of the educational setting.
<<<
//(This is very much based on the teaching and learning of English, but has some wider application to 'digital' literacies, I feel)//
''p.5'' - Literacy practices vary across cultures and contexts - so too do those within and without educational contexts:
<<<
...NLS has established that everyday literacy practices vary across cultures and contexts, so the literacies associated with different educational domains and contexts are different from each other and from those of noneducational contexts in significant cultural and discursive ways. While education has a tendency to see its own practices as somehow universal, logical, neutral, transferable, objective, even, an NLS approach in general and academic literacies in particular recognizes the extent to which such educational practices are socially constructed, vary across time and space, and have to be learned in specific ways (Hyland 1999), just as the other literacies that people encounter in a lifetime.
<<<
//(this again brings up the issue of a 'school' literacy. Does such a thing make sense? Is it just some type of habit or is it a 'literacy'?)//
''E. Bredo, 'Philosophies of Educational Research' (in Green, J.L., et al, //Handbook of Complementary Methods of Education Research//, Washington D.C., 2006)''
''p.4'' - Aaron Pallas - difficult to appeal to common shared fundamental beliefs in education:
<<<
Experienced researchers and novices alike find it hard to keep up with the cacophony of diverse epistemologies. Behind the welter of names - positivism, naturalism, post-positivism, relativism, feminist standpoint epistemology, foundationalism, postmodernmism, each with an array of sub-species - lie important questions: Is there a single, absolute truth about educational phenomena, or are there multiple truths (Or is the concept of truth itself so problematic as to be of no value in undertanding the world? Can we count on our senses, or on reason, to distinguish that which is strue about the world from that which is false? Are there methods that can lead us close to understanding, or are there inherent indeterminancies in all methods? Is knowledge of the world discovered, or constructed? Can knowledge of the world be evaluated independent of the scoal and historical contexts in which it exists, or is it always contingent upon, or relative to, particular circumstances?
<<<
//(this would be a good opening gambit for my discussion of research methodologies//)
''p.4-5''' - 3 approaches to knowing:
*''Externalist:'' the mainstream tradition where "properties of the environment [are] the principal factors explaining the properties of mind, thought or knowledge."
*''Internalist:'' emphasizes the way the internal structure of th emind, culture, or language affects knowledge.
*''Interactionism'' (or ''weak constructvisim''): comes from a dialectical or historicist philosophy such as Hegel or Marx where "thinking alters action, which subsequently affects the external world, thereby affecting one's future sensory input" ('internal' and 'external' factors therefore affect one another)
''p.7'' - Nice definition of positivism: a volcano's behaviour may be attributed to the fact it has high 'eruptability' inside it, much as the good school performance of a pupil might be attributed to them having high 'intelligence' inside.
''p.13'' - Educational research tries to formulate universal laws, but not possible:
<<<
Educational research, like social science generally, tends to be situated somewhere between the natural sciences and the humanities. It frequently aims at universal laws or generalizations holding for all people in all times and places. Yes because it deals with human behavior, greatly affected by people's varying aims, concepts, social norms and practices, educational research is also allied with the more particularalistic humanities.
<<<
//(need to emphasise the fact that 'digital literacy' is a construct - could link to quotation about the future already being here, just unevenly distributed)//
''p.15'' - The hermeneutic method:
<<<
In the hermeneutic method on euses an interpretation of a given piece of a "text" (which could be any act or product of an act, such as any utterance or action in a classroom) to help undersand the whole of which it is a part. Hypotheses about the whole help one interpret other parts, which in turn modify one's conception of the whol. Interpretation proceeds in a "hermeneutic circle", using current understanding of the whole to decipher a part, and current understanding of various parts to decipher the whole, working back and forth until a coherent interpretation emerges.
<<<
//(this could be a good research methodology to outline in my thesis proposal - author goes on to say it adds rigour as it "creates the challenge to understand all of the interrelated parts of an activity, and not just to sample those that conform to an initial interpretation." In other words, it's like developing an account of the pattern of the whole carpet, not just a particular section)//
''p.15-16'' - The hermeneutic method implies there are multiple, correct interpretations of a given 'text'. It also suggests that a given interpretation may be wrong as new facts appear, much like a falsifiable Popperian conclusion in postpositivistic philosophy of science. Hermeneutics focuses on the norms of the community being studied.
//(this means I could have a tentative conclusion which would reflect the evolving nature of 'digital literacy')//
''p.16'' - Max Weber (1993) - importance of 'verstehen' (understanding) in social research - i.e. //empathy// and //intuition//.
''p.21'' - William James - knowing is primarily for the sake of action, and action changes what is known:
<<<
our thoughts determine our acts, and our action redetermine the previous nature of the world.
<<<
//(this could be important for my discussion of digital literacy as the world is mediated to an extent by the tools we use - once we 'know' about, and how to use, different ones, the world changes for us)//
''Stephen Downes - How to be a Good Learner''
<<<
''Interaction: How to Get It''
You cannot depend on traditional learning for interactivity…
Most learning based on the broadcast model
Most interactivity separated from learning
<<<
<<<
''Principles of Relevance''
Information is a flow, not a collection of objects
Don’t worry about remembering, worry about repeated exposure to good information
Relevance is defined by function, not topic or category
Information is relevant only if it is available where it is needed
<<<
''N.C. Burbules & B.R. Warnick, 'Philosophical Inquiry' (in //Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research//, Washington D.C., 2006)''
''p.491'' - 10 things that philosophers do when they are doing the philosophy of education - 10 methods:
<<<
#Analyzing a term of concept, showing its multiple uses and meanings, for the primary purpose of clarification.
#An ideological or a deconstructive critique of a term or concept, identifying internal contradictions or ambiguities in uses of the term and a disclosure of partisan effects the term has had in popular discourses.
#Exploring the hidden assumptions underlying a particular view or broader school of thought.
#Sympathetically or critically reviewing a specific argument offered elsewhere.
#Questioning a particular educational practice or policy.
#Proposing the ends or purposes education should achieve, either in terms of benefits to the person, to the society, or both.
#Speculating about alternative systems or practices of education, whether utopian or prgrammatic, that contrast with and challenge conventional educational understandings and practices.
#A thought experiment, a method that takes an imaginary situation, analyzes it, then gradually modifies one or another element of the situation to determine which features are relevant to changing its pertinent character.
#Exegetical work: A close reading of a philosophical or literary text with an eye more toward explication and understanding of its complex meanings than analysis or critique.
#Synthesizing disparate research from philosophy itself or other fields (e.g., political theory, cognitive psychology, sociology, etc.) to find meanings and implications for educational theory and practice.
<<<
//(this list may be of use when I come to outline what I'm doing in the methdology section of my thesis proposal)//
Idea of the meme first appeared in Richard Dawkins' 1976 book //The Selfish Gene//:
<<<
"We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of //imitation//. 'Mimeme' comes from a suiable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to //meme//."
<<<
S. Blackmore, //The Meme Machine// (OUP, 1999), p.6
----
Definition of a meme & examples:
<<<
"Everything that is passed from person to person [by a process of imitation] is a meme. This includes all the words in your vocabulary, the stories you know, the skills and habits you have picked up from others and the games you like to play... Each of these memes has evolved in its own unique way with its own history, but each of them is using your behaviour to get itself copied."
<<<
S. Blackmore, //The Meme Machine// (OUP, 1999), p.7
----
Memes = amoral:
<<<
"Memes spread themselves around indiscriminately without regard to whether they are useful, neutral, or positively harmful to us. A brilliant new scientific idea, or a technological invention, may spread because of its usefulness. A song like Jingle Bells may spread because it sounds OK, though it is not seriously useful and can definitely get on your nerves. But some memes are positively harmful - like chain letters and pyramid selling, new methods of fraud and false doctrines, ineffective slimming diets and dangerous medical 'cures'."
<<<
S. Blackmore, //The Meme Machine// (OUP, 1999), p.7
----
Cannot define the unit of the meme - part of a symphony, or all of it?
S. Blackmore, //The Meme Machine// (OUP, 1999), p.53
----
//Oxford English Dictionary:// **meme** - an element of culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means.
D. Sperber, 'An Objection to the Memetic Approach to Culture' (in R. Aunger (ed.), //Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science//; OUP, 2000), p.163
----
Meme:
<<<
"The terms has come to describe a cultural unit that individuals rapidly take up and pass along to others."
<<<
*E.g.'s of successful memes = advertising slogans that become part of everday language, best sellers, emoticons & abbreviations.
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1007
----
Jahoda (2002) - idea of memes = simplistic and untestable.
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1008
----
Successful memes are "flexible, adaptable and can be turned into many different particular uses."
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1008
----
<<<
"Briefly put, memetics suggests that new ideas spread through a culture via a genetically modelled information flow in which some ideas become successful by rapidly replicating themselves and finding willing 'hosts' to pass them new ideas."
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1009
----
Ed. Tech. = a successful meme:
<<<
"Educational technology is a successful //meme// because, like a wordprocessor or other functional computer programme [sic], it 'copies the instruction' on how to make new copies of itself." (Blackmore, 1999)
<<<
<<<
"As a //meme//, it [educational technology] has become attractive enough to garner a wide network of adherent, a group of supporters who willingly and eagerly pass the idea on to others. It is, in other words, an idea that fits well with current cultural assumptions about how the world works."
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1010
----
Memetic interpretation of ICT in education:
<<<
"In a memetic interpretation, it is not so much that individuals find ICT tools attractive and urge their use, nor is it that groups (institutions such as schools) take an intentional stand in favor of using these tools. Rather, it is that the //idea// of using these tools in particular ways is so attractive and so motivating that individuals are constrained, willy-nilly, to pass on a good thing and to encourage others... to use ICT as a an increasingly regular taken-for-granted part of education."
<<<
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1014
----
''F.M. Connelly & D.J. Clandinin, 'Narrative Inquiry' (in J.L. Green, et al. (eds.), //Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research//, Washington D.C., 2006)''
''p.477'' - Narrative Inquiry = new metholodology (developed since 1990s) - no mention in first edition of //Complementary Methods for Research in Education//.
<<<
Arguments for the development and use of narrative inquiry come out of a view of human experience in which humans, individually and socially, lead storied lives. People shape their daily lives by stories of who they and others are and as they interpret their past in terms of these stories... Narrative inquiry, the study of experience as a story, then, is first and foremost way of thinking about experience. Narrative inquiry as a methodology entails a view of the phenomena. To use narrative inquiry methodology is to adopt a particular view of experience as phenomena under study.
<<<
//(This approach may be useful to get a handle on the difference between print and digital literacies)//
''p.478'' - There is much diversity and a lack of accepted criteria for what passes as high-quality narrative inquiry.
''p.478'' - Four terms used in narrative inquiry:
#Living
#Telling (main part)
#Retelling
#Reliving
''p.479-481'' - 3 commonplaces of narrative inquiry:
*''Temporality'' - "Narrative inquirers do not describe an event, person, or object as such, but rather describe them with a past, a present, and a future... Although for many forms of qualitative inquiry it is important to give an accounting of a person or an event independent of time, this is not the case for narrative inquiry."
*''Sociality'' - "Narrative inquirers are concerned with personal conditions and, at the same time, with social conditions. By personal conditions we mean the feelings, hopes, desires, aesthetic reactions, and moral dispositions of the person... By social conditions we mean the existential conditions, the environment, surrounding factors and foces, people and otherwise, that form the individual's context."
*''Place'' - "By place we mean the specific concrete, physical, and topological boundaries of place where the inquiry and events take place... When narrative inquirers write about the relevance of their work for others, they need to acknowledge the qualities of place and the impact of places on the study... Place may change as the inquiry delves into temporality.... A narrative inquirer needs to think through the impact of each place."
//(this is mainly a empirical method, but it could be used in conjunction with a hermeneutic methodology to look at identity through digital literacies)//
''p.485'' - 5 steps to writing a narrative inquiry:
#Inquirer needs to continue to think narratively - the text should "reflect the temporal unfolding of people, places, and things within the inquiry."
#The inquirer needs to consider textual form on account of the difference in the shape of lives.
#Research texts are narrative acts. They are written at a different times, in a different social contexts and for a different purposes. There is no ultimate finality or limiting truth to the particular research texts written.
#Questions of audience take on particular signifiance in narrative inquiry. There are multiple audiences which should be acknowledged in the way that the narrative inquiry is written.
#Inquirers need to be aware of the criteria by which their work may be judged, making explicit the "social significance of their work and the larger body of literature to which their inquiry makes a contribution."
//(these 5 steps may help me justify why I have chosen a particular research methodology)//
Computers can 'concretize' and personalize the formal:
<<<
"Seen in this light, [the computer] is not just another powerful educational tool, it is unique in providing us with the means of addressing what Piaget and other see as the obstacle which is overcome in the passage from child to adult thinking."
<<<
S. Papert, //Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas// (London, 1980), p.21
----
Strong statement r.e. importance of ICT
<<<
"If our society is to adjust and avoid turmil, alienation and the threat of disintegration, then the impact and potential of IT must be at everyone's fingertips."
<<<
Charles Desforges, in preface to B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997)
----
ICT for personalized learning:
<<<
"Within a system of mass schooling there has to be a tension between what is ideal for each individual and what is possible for all. It is perhaps in alleviating this tension that information technology tools may be able to make a difference."
<<<
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.15
----
Kozma (1991) - features of ICT which are important r.e. learning:
(i) Speed of processing
(ii) Produralisation of info (operating according to rules)
(iii) Transformative capabilities (text-to-speech, data to graph, etc.)
(iv) Help novices build mental models as experts do.
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.17
----
ICT skills learnt more quickly in context rather than in isolation:
<<<
"IT skills are likely to be more easily learned in the context of some other pursuit, focused more on open-ended tasks in which individuals can engage at their own speed; in this context learning to use information technology tools has an obvious purpose which provides the motivation to learn."
<<<
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.23
----
ICT can help support learners in the 'zone of proximal development" (Vygotsky)
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.25
----
ICTs can make learning environment more interesting and 'real':
<<<
"An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for curriculum and instruction by bringing real-world into the classroom for students to explore and solve. Technology can help create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems."
<<<
J.D. Bransford, A.L. Brown, R.R. Cocking (eds.), //How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School// (Washington D.C., 1999), p.195
----
Negroponte - labelling of certain learners may stem from teaching methods and tools used:
<<<
"We may be a society with far fewer learning-disabled children and far more teaching-disabled environments than currently perceived. The computer changes this by making us more able to reach children with different learning and cognitive styles."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.73
----
Using ICT can lead to new learning opportunities/objectives not available before:
<<<
"There is a real sense in which increasing familiarity with the use of ICT can foster the development of new activities. Over time, this can lead to insightful new uses for software, which in turn, leads teachers to develop new learning objectives. Rewards of this kind are won through a maturity of experience and reflection on using ICT in teaching."
<<<
L. Newton, 'Management and the use of ICT in subject teaching' (in Selwood, Find & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.18
----
3 main reasons for inclusion of ICT in education:
(i) ''Economic:'' perceived needs of a present and future economy - need for personnel with ICT skills. 'There is a widespread expectation on the global scale that those nations successfully embracing the information age will benefit economically.'
(ii) ''Social:'' ICT = a 'life skill' in same way as literacy and numeracy - 'digital literacy' (requirement & right) - 'As usage of ICT becomes more extensive across society, wider benefits will also flow - better links between home and school, greater parental involvement in student progress, and greater scope for schools and other educational institutions to play an inter-active part in community life and development.'
(iii) ''Pedagogical:'' role of ICT in teaching & learning - move from 'drill-and-practice' programme to increasing 'breadth and richness of learning, not least through the topicality and realism that the new resources can bring.' - also ''motivating''
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.10-11
----
Papert - one of the advantages of ICT = not knowing what kind of advantages it will bring:
<<<
"Education and the popular view reinforce one another on the informational side of this technology. Our view of what the technology is going to do in education becomes dominated by an informational aspect, which is a dangerously bad thing to do. The real value of this technology is to open up a vast, unprecedented, and up to now unimaginable, range of activities."
<<<
in OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.110
----
Technology about thought processes not just about hardware and software:
<<<
"For educational purposes, technology is not only about hardware and software, but also, and importantly, about procedures, processes, structure, systems, and patterns and use. In educational terms, technology is about means towards certain ends, having largely to do with thought processes, information flows and human communication."
<<<
C. Wright (ed.), //Issues in Education & Technology: politcy guidelines and strategies// (Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2000), p.23
----
Bransford, Brown & Cocking (1999) - ICTs can extend human capabilities for interaction:
<<<
"What has not yet been fully understood is that computer-based technologies can be powerful pedagogical tools - not just rich sources of information, but extensions of human capabilities and contexts for social interactions supporting learning. The process of using technology to improve learning is never solely a technical matter, concerned only with properties of educational hardware and software. Like a textbook or any other cultural object, technology resources for educaiton function in a social environment, mediated by learning conversations with peers and teachers."
<<<
quoted in Sutherland, & InterActive Project Team, //Designs for Learning: ICT and knowledge in the classroom// (Computers & Education, 43, 2004), p.5
----
Becta (2002):
<<<
"Schools that were judged by OfSTED to have very good ICT resources had better achievement than schools with poor ICT."
<<<
*true across all socio-economic groups.
quoted in Reynolds, Treharne & Tripp, //ICT - the hopes and the reality// (British Journal of Educational Technology, 34:2, 2003), p.152
----
Guile (1998) - ICT can lead to 'tremendous gains':
<<<
"ICT can lead to tremendous gains in student learning, for example, significant improvements in examination or statutory test performance, development of broader forms of social, cultural and intellectual capability."
<<<
Reynolds, Treharne & Tripp, //ICT - the hopes and the reality// (British Journal of Educational Technology, 34:2, 2003), p.153
----
Ferrate (2000) - use of technology is more important than the technology itself:
<<<
"It is not the technology itself that is important, but using the best technology available in the service of one idea: to enhance and globalize learning."
<<<
J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.20
----
Inventors of the printing press, Xerox machine & telephone didn't forsee the applications of their inventions for popular use.
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1009
----
We don't always know what technology is 'good for' at a given point in time:
<<<
"The social history of technology suggests that we do not always know what technology is 'good for' at any particular time or in any particular setting - the practices that people develop around it are varied and not always predictable, but they do represent what users of these technologies have found valuable at that place and time."
<<<
*(Not necessarily the //best// technologies that are widely adopted - e.g. Betamax vs. VHS)
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1009-10
----
ICTs allow us to work with information in ways not previously possible - 7 dimensions of this:
1. ''Fluidity'' - time & place become irrelevant for accessing information and communication: "In education, fluidity of information is both an opportunity and a threat" (end of lectures, etc.) - no canon or cultural core of information (p.1011)
2. ''Replicability'' - information easily copied and passed on.
3. ''Mutability'' - "The proposition that there is no place for a canon in contemporary life is a truism for postmodernists, but a joke for many scientists (Fish, 1996). Schools in the future may have to teach a form of textual connoisseurship that is partly aesthetic and partly forensic." (p.1012)
4. ''Selectability'' - problem of being done for others (*e.g. power of being in top 10 of Google search results*)
5. ''Idiosyncrasy'' - experience of education likely to be different becuase of highly-customisable nature of ICTs: "In turn, this may reduce the sense of and opportunity for common experience that individuals have as they learn." (p.1013)
6. ''Independence'' - learners able to structure and personalise their learning.
7. ''Agency'' - "Education, then, increasingly becomes not to be about mastering information that someone else determines to be significant but rather about how to make of oneself an agent, someone able both to consume but (more unusually) to produce information as an agent of culture. Acting in this way is so engaging that it, potentially, becomes not work but 'fun'... which is surely a new thing for education." (p.1013)
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005)
----
Papert (1980) - computers = extremely flexible:
<<<
"The computer is the Proteus of machines. Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate. Because it can take on a thousand forms and can serve a thousand functions, it can appeal to a thousand tastes."
<<<
T. Imison & P. Taylor, //Managing ICT in the Secondary School//, (Oxford, 2001), p.60
----
Fullan (1982) - classic stages of an innovation:
<<<
*its source (where did the idea come from and why?);
*its adoption (the decision of an institution to initiate the work);
*its implementation (teachers and students putting the new ideas into practice);
*its institutionalisation (changes in practice established as the norm so they will continue without any special support.
<<<
B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.191
----
2 things necessary to change school culture r.e. ICT:
(i) teachers need support - not just additional resources but time & assistance to apply understanding of ICT to planning & teaching
(ii) formal assessment system need adapting to give pupils credit for problem-solving, not just regurgitation, skills
A. McFarlane, '...and where might we end up?' (in A. McFarlane (ed.), //Information Technology and Authentic Learning: realising the potential of computers in the primary classroom//; London, 1997), p.178
----
Fullan (1991) - key factos that affect successful implementation of an innovation:
*needs identification
*goal clarity
*complexity (degree of difficulty)
*practicality
cited in L. Newton, 'Management and the use of ICT in subject teaching' (in Selwood, Find & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.13
----
Attitude, not provision = key in ICT implementation:
<<<
"...ultimately, successful integration of ICT into teaching is dependent on the attitudes, understanding and action of individual teachers towards teaching with new technology."
<<<
L. Newton, 'Management and the use of ICT in subject teaching' (in Selwood, Find & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.14
----
Knezeck, et al (2000) - 'will skill & access' = 3 conditions to promote teacher uptake r.e. ICT:
''Will:'' positive attitudes towards ICT (40% of variance)
''Skill:'' level of competence (40% of variance)
''Access:'' ability to procure computer & relevant software on regular basis (10% of variance)
cited in M. Lambert & P. Nolan, 'Managing Learning Environments in Schools: developing ICT capable teachers' (in Selwood, Fung & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.171
----
3 reasons why dramatic changes in education r.e. ICT differ from any previous reform:
(i) ICT has arisen from //outside// the world of education, unlike previous reforms, 'but with an irresistible case for adoption within schools.
(ii) Those who are taught often 'more comfortable with the new developments than their teachers'.
(iii) 'Finally, the pervasive nature of ICT has profound implications across the ethos and organisation of the whole of the learning environment.'
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.10
----
Schon (1971) - all real change involves passing through zones of uncertainty.
Fullan (1991) - "The anxieties of uncertainty and the joys of mastery are central to the subjective meaning of educational change."
Fullan (1991) - "Conflict is fundamental to any successful change effort... success in school change efforts is much more likely when problems are treated as natural, expected phenomena, and are looked for."
quoted in - B. Robinson, 'Getting Ready to Change: the place of change theory in the information technology education of teachers' (in D. Passey & B. Samways (eds.), //Information Technology: supporting change through teacher education// (London, 1997), p.42
----
5 stages of instructional evolution in ACOT (Apple Classrooms of Technology):
1. ''Entry'' - teachers focus on changes to physical environment - replication of traditional activities.
2. ''Adoption'' - teachers use text-based 'drill-and-practice' - still using whole-group lectures and individualised 'seat work'.
3. ''Adaption'' - technology increasingly incorporated into lessons - increases in student productivity and engagement.
4. ''Appropriation'' - teachers understand technology & use it effortlessly as tool to accomplish real work - team teaching, inter-disciplinary projects, etc. - old assumptions questioned.
5. ''Invention'' - continuing development by teachers - integrated curriculum & alternative assessment.
I. Haymore Sandholtz & C. Ringstaff, 'Teacher Change in Technology-Rich Classrooms' (in C. Fisher, D.C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (eds.), //Education and Technology: reflections on computing in classrooms// (San Francisco, 1996), p.285-7
----
'Productivity Paradox' - little connection between investments in IT and productivity benefits (i.e. benefit may not be where you expect them to be)
P.S. Goodman - 'Creating Organizational and Technological Change (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.157
----
Choosing technology before the educational task is "like buying twelve dozen hammers, then searching for nails to pound."
H.A. Simon, 'Cooperation between Educational Technology and Learning Theory to Advance Higher Education' (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.63
----
Becta study - ICT has cumulative effect on raising standards - more subjects ICT used for, better results across all subjects.
Reynolds, Treharne & Tripp, //ICT - the hopes and the reality// (British Journal of Educational Technology, 34:2, 2003), p.159
----
OECD (2001) - use of technology in education too dependent on pioneering teachers:
<<<
"Technology use reflects traditional classroom methodology, though affording some increased attention to the individual learner, it still depends too much on highly motivated pioneering principals and teachers."
<<<
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.21
----
Ely (1993) - 3 major conditions relevant to ICT implementation:
'(i) dissatisfaction with the status quo
(ii) existence of knowledge and skills
(iii) availability of resources'
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.22
----
Implementation of ICT bound to experience opposition:
<<<
"Not all will share the motivations, values and needs of the innovation's originators. Some will experience (or at least perceive) the costs of introducing the innovation as higher than the perceived benefits, and are therefore likely to ignore, resent, reject, subvert, or oppose the change."
<<<
Whitworth, 'The Politics of Virtual Learning Environments: environmental change, conflict, and e-learning' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:4, 2005), p.686
----
'Success' and 'failure' are subjective terms:
<<<
"Each stakeholder group brings to the development process a certain culture, filled with assumptions, values, prior experiences, calculations of costs and benefits, and the like. Therefore, each will have different ideas about what will constitute the 'success' or 'failture' of an innovation."
<<<
Whitworth, 'The Politics of Virtual Learning Environments: environmental change, conflict, and e-learning' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:4, 2005), p.686
----
Problem of ad-hoc resourcing of ICT:
<<<
"provides the illusion of adequate resourcing for educational purposes, at least in some rather limited areas: wordprocessing and printing."
<<<
*schools cannot capitalize on developments in ICTs any further, for fear of alienating those with inadequate provision.
Gough, 'Opinion: 'Learning Technologies'? 'Convergent Technologies'? What do these mean?' (//Education and Information Technologies, 5:2, 2000), p.135
----
Schools cannot re-purpose ICTs as 'tools':
<<<
"it does not make any sense for educational systems to refer to the ICT revolution in its present form as involving technological tools that the system can “swallow�? as it did earlier devices such as the television or the video, which did not leave any meaningful mark on the educational system. Rather, we have to switch from speaking about “integrating computers into the classroom�? or “using ICT for the teaching of Math to fourth graders�? to radically restructuring the educational system, while relying on a broad cultural perspective, in order to enhance its adaptation to cyber culture and postmodernity, thus saving it from marginalization or even extinction."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.345
----
<<<
"Ironically, change is often made more difficult because managers concentrate on trying to get other people to change, not realising that they may need to begin by changing their own management strategies - and probably also some aspects of organizational structure."
<<<
(C.f. metaphor of trying to put an engine in a horse)
B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997)
----
Hoyle (1976) - two extreme forms of organization in schools:
''Bureaucratic (hierarchical)''
*Fixed, rigid roles for teaching staff
*Clear & definite rules
*Rigid timetable & curriculum
*Head has lots of power
''Non-bureaucratic''
*Very few rules (and those established open to interpretation)
*Flexible timetable & curriculum
*School policy decided by teachers
B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, 'IT and the politics of institutional change' (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.196
----
Organizations = concepts:
<<<
"[Social institutions] are not entitities whose functions may be explained and controlled in terms of simple causes and controlled in terms of simple causes and efefcts. Rather, organizations are concepts. They are constituted in the minds of people. They are therefore subject to different and variable interpretations and impressions and different intensities of interest."
<<<
A. Inglis, P. Ling & V. Joosten, //Delivering Digitally: managing the transition to the knowlege media// (London, 2002), p.19
----
Integration of new technology into classroom practice = essentially a problem of management.
L. Newton, 'Management and the use of ICT in subject teaching' (in Selwood, Find & O'Mahony (eds.), //Management of Education in the Information Age: the role of ICT//; 2003), p.12
----
Leadership needed to integrate ICT and change organization:
<<<
"Visionary school leadership is needed to bring about and sustain the dramatic changes enabled by ICT, to persuade and give confidence to all involved - teachers and learners, parents and others in the school and community. The school must be re-organised so that working with ICT becomes integral and unexceptional..."
<<<
OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.16
----
Different forms of change:
(i) ''Incremental change'' - builds on work already done, making small changes.
(ii) ''Discontinuous change'' - organization makes fundamental break with past and undergoes major restructuring.
(iii) ''Proactive change'' - organization plans ahead and anticipates need to make changes.
(iv) ''Reactive change'' - changes in regulations, environment or competition forces organization to change.
P.S. Goodman - 'Creating Organizational and Technological Change (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.163
----
'Paradox of value' - tendency to build expectation r.e. benefits & understate losses in any change - initially, experienced costs likely to be higher and benefits lower. This leads to a discrepancy between expectations and experience - the greater the discrepancy, the more negativity.
P.S. Goodman - 'Creating Organizational and Technological Change (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.170
----
<<<
"Institutionalization refers to a process by which the change persists over time and the new learning environments become part of the structure, norms and values of the organization. The change becomes independent of any individual."
<<<
P.S. Goodman - 'Creating Organizational and Technological Change (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.172-3
----
Zhao & Cziko (2001) - 3 conditions necessary for teachers to use technology:
1. Teachers must believe that technology can more effectively achieve or maintain a higher-level goal than what has been used ('effectiveness')
2. Teachers must believe that using technology will not cause disturbances to other higher-level goals that they evaluate as more important than the one being maintained ('disturbances')
3. Teachers must believe that they have the ability and the resources to use technology ('control')
quoted in Demetriadis, et al, ' 'Cultures in negotiation': teachers' acceptance/resistance attitudes considering the infusion of technology into schools' (//Computers & Education//, 41, 2003), p.21
----
Need for change management:
<<<
"Whilst ICT has its own unique properties and additional requirements, the underlying need to address the fundamental requirements of change management is inescapable."
<<<
Tearle, 'ICT implementation: what makes the difference?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:5, 2003), p.578
----
Changing ideas r.e. learning should lead to a change in the structure of schools:
<<<
"Contemporary enthusiasm for using technology in education has much to do with current ideas about what learning is and how to foster it in young people and therefore how schools should be organised to do this."
<<<
*previously, the role of educational technology was "grounded in assumptions about technology's role in providing efficiency... or motivation."
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.1005
----
<<<
"Many teachers have beliefs about education that are traditional and slow to change. Most feel so heavily constrained by the contexts in which they work that new methods are attempted only rarely. Policy reforms, such as those relating to technology in schools, which do not address teachers' beliefs and contexts will have only a superficial effect on practice."
<<<
Conlon & Simpson, 'Silicon Valley versus Silicon Glen: the impact of computers upon teaching and learning: a comparative study' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:2, 2003), p.145
----
Error in applying business models to education.
Barbera, 'Quality in Virtual Educaiton Environments' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 35:1, 2004), p.15
----
Fullan (1989) - teacher is at the heart of the success or failure of educational change - however, usually small group of innovators cascade knowledge & skills to peer group - hasn't happened with ICT. (p.259)
*others see innovators as 'mavericks' as different from them (credibility gap)
*Fullan (1991): "In many ways the more committed an individual is to the specific form of change, the less effective he or shee will be in getting others to implement it." (p.260)
Watson, 'Pedagogy before Technology: rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching' (//Education and Information Technology//, 6:4, 2001)
----
Willis (1993) - barries to change - reasons why "efforts that involve technology may be particularly difficult to pull off":
*curriculum integration = complex
*teachers need time to experiment
*resentment & resistance destroys progress
*ownership = critical to success
*admin support = essential
Watson, 'Pedagogy before Technology: rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching' (//Education and Information Technology//, 6:4, 2001), p.260
----
RAND Corporation (1988) - American study:
<<<
"Reforms that deal with the fundamental stuff of education - teaching and learning - seem to have weak, transitory, and ephemeral effects; whilst those that expand, solidify and entrench school bureaucracy seem to have strong, enduring and concrete effects."
<<<
quoted in - J. Abbott & T. Ryan, //The Unfinished Revolution: learning, human behaviour, community and political paradox//, (London, 2000), p.109
----
Wilson & Daviss (1995) - difference between industry & education:
<<<
"Technical cultures are shaped and driven by... a community of learners. In essence, they are webs that link research, development, evaluation and dissemination into a single, synergistic, supportive system that increases the effectiveness and efficiency of creator, user and process alike. In contrast, the teaching profession is marked by a series of missing links - separations between areas within the profession that, if joined, could create the technical culture necessary to sustain progressive innovation in education."
<<<
quoted in - G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.5-6
----
<<<
"...if educational change is viewed as a complex system, it emphasizes the need to accompany change with a framework for long-term teacher learning because change is, in essence, learning to do something differently, involving adjustments to many elements of classroom practice."
<<<
G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.39
----
''Bawden, D. 'Origins and Concepts of Digital Literacy' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.17'' - Digital literacy is 'a topic whose terminology is very confused':
<<<
Not only must the idea of digital literacy find its place among information literacy, computer literacy, ICT literacy, e-literacy, network literacy, and media literacy, but it must also be matched against terms which avoid the "literacy" idea, such as informacy and information fluency.
<<<
//(....will he mention the 'umbrella term'?!)//
''p.18'' - Term 'digital literacy' introduced by Paul Gilster in 1997. No list of skills, competencies or attitudes:
<<<
Rather, he explained it quite generally, as an ability to understand and to use information from a variety of digital sources and regarded it simply as literacy in the digital age. It is therefore the current form of the traditional idea of ltieracy //per se// - the ability to read, write and otherwise deal with information using the technologies and formats of the time - and an essential life skill. This generic expression of the idea, although it has irritated some commentators, is one of the strengths of Gilster's concept, allowing it to be applied without concern for the sometimes restrictive "competence lists" which have afflicted some other descriptions of the literacies of information.
<<<
//(so Bawden sees generalised nature of definition as a positive thing?)//
''p.18'' - Lanham (1995) regarded 'digital literacy' as a kind of 'multimedia literacy' - different from traditional literacy. He argued that digital sources can generate many forms of information, therefore a new form of literacy was necessary to deal with each. However, this means that literacy depends on technology of the time. Eshet (2002) concludes (like Gilster) that 'digital literacy must be more than the ability to use digital sources effectively; it is a special kind of mindset or thinking.' (quote from Bawden)
//(I suppose this is an important distinction - whether authors are willing to 'bite the bullet' and say that each literacy depends upon a technology. If so, then how different do technologies have to be to one another to have their own 'literacy' attached?)//
''p.18'' - Gilster states explicitly in his 1997 book that, 'digital literacy is about mastering ideas, not keystrokes'.
''p.19'' - Gilster tended to conflate digital literacy with mastery of using the Internet:
<<<
The casual reader might assume, as did some reviewers of the book, that Gilster's digital literacy and effective use of the internet were essentially the same.
<<<
Bawden says this is not the case - Gilster states explicitly that, 'no-one is asking you to give up other sources of information just to use the Internet. Also that digital literacy is, 'the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it presented via computers.'
''p.19'' - Gilster's 'digital literacy' a bit paradoxical:
<<<
[I]t is important to note that from its first mention, Gilster's digital literacy is not about any particular technology, not even - paradoxically, given the term - digital technology itself. It is about the ideas and mindsets, within which particular skills and competences operate, and about information and information resources, in whatever format. The term itself is quite reasonable in this context, since all information today is either digital, has been digital, or could be digital.
<<<
//(if this is the case, term shouldn't be 'digital literacy'!)//
''p.19'' - Gilster's //Digital Literacy// 'does not give a particular clear and coherent account of digital literacy itself... it is rather an impressionistic and wide-ranging account.'
''p.20'' - Reviewers of Gilster's book a bit critical - e.g. Bunz (1997): 'useful information for the reader is scattered in bits and pieces, and Nicholas & Williams (1998) who noted that it was 'not organised very well or very logically.'
''p.20'' - No specified list of skills in Gilster's book, but this can be derived from the text (Bawden, 2001):
<<<
*"knowledge assembly," building a "reliable information hoard" from diverse sources
*retrieval skills, plus "critical thinking" for making informed judgements about retried information, with wariness about the validity and completeness of internet sources
*reading and understanding non-sequential and dynamic material
*awareness of the value of traditional tools in conjunction with networked media
*awareness of "people networks" as sources of advice and help
*using filters and agents to manage incoming information
*being comfortable with publishing and communicating information, as well as accessing it
<<<
//(That's quite a list for mere 'literacy'!)//
''p.20'' - Gilster summarizes the above by suggesting four core competencies of digital literacy:
#Internet searching
#hypertext navigation
#knowledge assembly
#content evaluation
//(this doesn't seem to summarize the above?)//
''p.20-21'' - Gilster's book didn't have much of an impact in years following its publication. Possible reasons:
*idiosyncratic writing style
*appeared as paperback
*reasonably 'popular' book rather than journal article
*phrase 'digital literacy' sounded 'technical'
''__Origins: Information and Computer Literacies__''
''p.21'' - Gilster's ideas didn't appear out of the blue. Look at following for detailed accounts of early history of 'information literacy' and 'computer literacy':
*Bawden (2001)
*Snavely & Cooper (1997)
* Behrens (1994)
...and then for accounts of later developments:
*Andretta (2005, 2007)
*Virkus (2003)
*Webber & Johnson (2000)
''p.21'' - 'Computer literacy' was most popular term in 1980s to describe sets of specific skills and competencies needed to find and handle information in computerised form. 'Information literacy' gained traction in the 1990s.
''p.21-22'' - 'Information literacy' was greatly influenced by a six-stage model developed by the American Library Association in 1989. They regarded information literacy as being a a linear progression through the following:
#recognizing a need for information
#identifying what information is needed
#finding the information
#evaluating the information
#organizing the information
#using the information
//(this is ''very'' simplistic, but apparently 'still forms the basis for most approaches to information literacy to the present day'.)//
''p.22-23'' - Alternative viewpoint to the above emerged in the 1990s - saw information literacy as 'a set of general knowledge and attitudes to be possessed by an information literate person. An example = Bruce (1994, 1997) and his seven key characteristics. The information literate person is one who:
*engages in independent self-directed learning
*uses information processes
*uses a variety of information technologies and systems
*has internalized values that promote information use
*has a sound knowledge of the world of information
*approaches information critically
*has a personal information style
//(not too sure about this - especially the last one!)//
''p.23'' - Shapiro & Hughes (1996) paint 'computer literacy' in even more broad-brush strokes than Bruce with seven components:
<<<
#tool literacy - competence in using hardware and software tools
#resource literacy - understanding forms of, and access to, information resources
#social-structural literacy - understanding the production and social significance of information
#research literacy - using IT tools for research and scholarship
#publishing literacy - ability to communicate and publish information
#emerging technologies literacy - understanding of new developments in IT
#critical literacy - ability to evaluate the benefits of new technologies
<<<
//(again, invoking some kind of 'umbrella term'!)//
''__Developing the Theme__''
''p.24'' - Difficult to track issues surrounding 'digital literacy':
<<<
Continuing confusion of terminology makes the development and use of the concept difficult to follow. Eshet-Alkalai (2004) suggests that "indistinct use of the term causes ambiguity, and leads to misunderstanding, misconceptions, and poor communication" and that there is particular inconsistency between those who regard digital literacy as primarily concerned with technical skills and those who see it as focused on cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of working in a digital environment.
<<<
//(I think this is the fundamental tension: is 'digital literacy' a skillset that can be taught, or does it consist of attitudes, dispositions and approaches? I tend towards the latter, I think...)//
''p.25'' - Some talk of 'e-literacy', although term is not widely used. One of the suggestions as to why this is so is 'because of the potential confusion with illiteracy in spoken disourse'. Martin (2003, 2005) as well as Kope (2006) discuss 'e-literacy'.
''p.26'' - Martin & Madigan (2006) //Digital literacies for learning// has a chapter contributed by Gilster:
<<<
The book's overall theme is summed up by saying "Digital literacy may have some merit as an integrating (but not overarching) concept that focuses upon the digital without limiting itself to computer skills and which comes with little historical baggage." (Martin, 2006a)
<<<
//(another choice - integrating or overarching concept? Many would say latter - 'umbrella concept' idea)//
''p.27'' - Definition of 'digital literacy' by the DigEuLit project, quoted by Martin (2006b):
<<<
the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesise digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process.
<<<
//(a rather clunky definition - would you ''really'' be able to say if someone was 'digitally literate' using this definition?)//
''p.27-28'' - Eshet-Alkalai (2004 - 'digital literacy' = a 'survival skill in the digital era' and is based on 5 other literacies:
<<<
*photo-visual literacy (the understanding of visual representations
*reproduction literacy (creative re-use of existing materials)
*information literacy (understood as largely concerned with the evaluation of information)
*branching literacy (essentially the ability to read and understand hypermedia
*social-emotional literacy (behaving correctly and sensibly in cyberspace)
<<<
//(Above quoted exactly, but set out in paragraph format rather than list in book. As Bawden says, 'This appears to have much in common with the ideas of Gilster and Martin.')//
''p.28'' - Digital literacy = a 'framework' for integrating other literacies & skill-sets. As Martin (2006a) puts it we do not need "one literacy to rule them all."
<<<
And, whilst it may be possible to produce lists of the components of digital literacy, and to show how they fit together, it is not sensible to suggest that one specific model of digital literacy will be appropriate for all people or, indeed, for one person over all their lifetime. Updating of understanding and competence will be necessary as individual circumstances change, and as changes in the digital information environment bring the need for new fresh understanding and new competencies; as Martin (2006a) puts it, digital literacy is "a condition, not a threshold."
<<<
//(If it is not a threshold and cannot be measured, then in what sense is it a ''literacy''. We couldn't say the same of traditional literacy, so why does digital 'literacy' deserve the title?)//
''p.29-30'' - Four general agreed components of digital literacy from the authors quoted by Bawden:
#Underpinnings (literacy //per se// & Computer/ICT literacy)
#Background knowledge (the world of information & nature of information resources)
#Central competencies (reading & understanding digital & non-digital formats, creating & communication digital information, evaluation of information, knowledge assembly, information literacy, media literacy)
#Attitudes & perspectives (independent learning, moral/social literacy)
//(So this is a blended approach - knowledge, competencies & attitudes? Is this the best or worst of all worlds? How is this still 'literacy'?)//
''p.30'' - Bawden believes that, 'It does not seem unreasonable to regard this kind of literacy, expressed appropriately according to the context, as an essential requirement for life in a digital age.'
//(Bawden has fallen foul of the same thing of which he accuses Gilster, namely having such a generalised and broad conception that it can't be refuted)//
''A.I. Goldman, //Knowledge in a Social World// (Oxford, 1999)''
__''Chapter 6: The Technology and Economics of Communication''__
*''p.161'' - Communication vital to new truths via knowledge acquisition
<<<
...new truths may be acquired by either independent or collaborative inquiry. Communication can play a critical role in both old knowledge dissemination and new knowledge acquisition. In the former case communication is needed to transmit the knowledge-engendering messages. In the latter case, at least where collaboration is featured, communication among collaborators is essential. ''In general, the social advance of knowledge hinges on communication.''
<<<
//(my emphasis - difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?)//
*''p.162'' - Goldman calls the realm of encoded message the ''//message infosphere//''
*''p.163'' - Goldman, writing in 1999, describes quite well what I would define as the situation in which a student would need to demonstrate his or her 'digital literacy':
<<<
Consider an inquirer who hopes to benefit veritistically from the messages of others, who hopes to find answers to one or more of her questions. Does the existing message infosphere contain any stored documents with clear and reliable answers, or at least evidence that is relevant, to her questions? If so, can the inquirer find these documents? Is the message infosphere so organized that there is a good probability that relevant documents will be identified and retrieved? Alternatively, can the learner direct a query to a pertinent source, and thereby elicit a newly constructed message that gives an answer or provides relevant evidence? This is not just a matter of technology, but of informational organization. The research library traditionally performed some of these functions for the world of scholarship, but for a variety of reasons the message infosphere is an increasingly complex and changing affair, which can no longer be handled exclusively by the traditional print-dominated library.
<<<
//(interesting angle can be gained from this: we all need to be 21st century digital librarians!)//
*''p.169'' - Silberg, Lundberg & Musacchio (1997:1244) talk about the problems inherent in anyone with a computer being able to become author, editor and publisher:
<<<
[In this environment] novices and savvy Internet users alike can have trouble distinguishing the wheat from the chaff.
<<<
//(perhaps follow up this quotation with one from Clay Shirky r.e. let network filter info/knowledge?)//
*''p.173'' - Gilster considers issue of privacy and networks:
<<<
A much-discussed topic connected with CMCs [computer-mediated communications] is privacy. By making networked knowledge so easy to acquire, cyberspace may encourage //too much// knowledge, or knowledge getting into the wrong hands.
<<<
//(c.f. Twitter? PLNs?)//
*''p.177'' - The issue, clearly put, when 'the network filters' instantly-published digital content rather than peer-reviewed traditional journals (for example):
<<<
Suppose that submitted papers come in four categories: (1) papers that make mistakes, that contain flat-out inaccuracies; (2) papers that are argumentatively weak in some fashion, for example, that draw poorly supported conclusions, or ignore obvious objections; (3) papers that avoid the first two types of flaws but add little new to the discipline; (4) papers that contain major new findings or theoretical reasonings, while avoiding any of the first two faults. A successful peer review process would weed out instances of the first three types and include instances of the fourth. In the absence of such a process, what will happen? Readers will have to decide for themselves, from among all papers available, which ones to read. Four possible losses, from a veritistic perspective, could result. First, unsuspecting readers might read papers of the first type and mistakenly believe their inaccurate statements. Second, insufficiently expert readers might be persuaded because (for example) they don't think of the objections that would be obvious to a more expert reader or referee. Third, readers might waste their time reading papers of the third type, with little or no veritistic gain.
<<<
//(does this make the role of trusted and respected 'gatekeepers' more important? egos involved now?)//
*''p.179'' - Goldman quotes Frank Quinn (1995:55) who expands on the above point:
<<<
People write carefully [in mathematics] because standards are high for acceptance into the literature. In turn, high standards are practical because people write carefully. This is a very beneficial equilibrium, but an unstable one, which could easily be disturbed.
A consequence of this equilibrium concerns the meaning of "publication". At present there is a relatively black-and-white distinction between published an unpublished work. This enforces standards. Authors must write carefully or remain unpublished. If there were a continuum of levels of publication, then standards would be less clear and would have less force. Authors would write to their own comfort level of quality and then negotiate the level of publication. Overall quality of the literature would decline, possibly dramatically. Unfortunately this strong published/unpublished distinction is an artifact of paper publication, and will disappear in the transition to electronic media unless it is deliberately maintained.
<<<
//(Probably already has been lost - Google Scholar? Some may argue that what Quinn is arguing for leads to the status quo being maintained instead of diversity and letting a hundred flowers bloom...)//
__''Chapter 11: Education''__
*''p.357'' - Goldman quotes Bruffee's (1993:3) rejection of the 'traditional' model of knowledge acquisition. Goldman disagrees with Bruffee.
<<<
Most of us, including most college and university teachers, assume a foundation (or cognitive understanding of knowledge. Knowledge is an entity that we transfer from one head to another - for example, from a teacher's head to a student's or from a staff member's head to the head of the boss. Collaborative learning assumes instead that knowledge is a consensus among the members of a community of knowledgeable peers - something people construct by talking together and reaching agreement.
<<<
//(this is constructivism, yes? or is it more like connectivism?)//
''G.E. Hawisher & C.L. Selfe, 'Reflections on computers and composition studies at the century's end' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.5'' - Word-processing not to do with //quality//:
<<<
...just as English professionals no longer ask whether typewriters improve students' writing, many regard the quality question in relation to word processing as wrong-headed.
<<<
//(must be the inherent ''usefulness'' of the tool then)//
''p.7'' - The //social// aspect of writing using a computer is often missed:
<<<
In seeking to elucidate the subtle influences of computers in social interactions among students and teachers, the qualitative research (case studies and ethnographies) suggests the importance of the cultural context in shaping writers' work and learning with word processing.
<<<
//(this is important as it is something often not understood)//
''p.12'' - Computers can maintain 'stasis' within educational systems by magnifying and reproducing complex social conditions. A conservatism prevails that worries computers will 'dehumanize' the classroom.
''J. Muller, //Reclaiming Knowledge: social theory, curriculum and education policy// (London, 2000)''
!Introduction
''p.1-2'' - The traditional hierarchies of knowledge have produced a 'crisis'. Knowledge needs to be defined in a different manner - the author believes that it is through self-reflective understandings of distinctions between perspectives (and information?)
<<<
Important branches of epistemology, philosophy of science and cognitive psychology have made schemes of classification their chosen domain for many decades. More recently, the classical disciplines of knowledge have run into a series of difficulties, which have produced a crisis for both knowledge and the disciplines studying it. The literatures naming these difficulties are technical and complex, but the problem, or paradox, can be simply if abstractly described. Systematicity is necessary for distinctions to become knowledge. This is because non-systematic 'knowledge' - practical knowledge and local wisdom of sorts - refers to the effects and uses of knowledge but does not provide the basis for reflection upon its bases, and therefore upon the possibility of alternative bases: 'the wise person observes himself, applies his wisdom to himself, and does not attempt to account for the perspectives of others or other possibilities of perspective' (Luhmann, 1998, p.37)
<<<
//(have found definition of Systematicity [[here|http://elgg.net/dougbelshaw/weblog/147542.html]])//
''p.2'' - How knowledge is created through distinctions:
<<<
Distinctions become knowledge when they become self-referential, when they attempt to deal with inconsistencies; in other words, when the become reflexive. And when they become self-referential and reflexive then the distinctions and their connections become open to destabilization because they become repeatable, transcribable and therefore revisable by the competent community at large. ''Reflexivity is thus both the condition for knowledge and the means for its motility and destabilization.''
<<<
(my emphasis)
(c.f. wikis? Author says in footnote that, "When it is said that knowledge is reflexive in this particular sense, it means that knowledge to be knowledge must operate in an institutionalized context, which in the case of science means, for example, peer review, publication and the like, where the method of gaining the results and the results themselves can be repeated or disputed with a community of scholars. It does not mean that individual scholars become more thoughtful.")
''p.2'' - Knowledge is not something external to society: knowledge is intrinsically social:
<<<
In the traditional sociology of knowledge, knowledge and society were considered to be external to one another, with society acting upon knowledge from outside, bringing interests or values or purposes to bear on it, acting upon knowledge as science might act upon nature, bending it to a superior will. With a better awareness of the reflexivity of knowledge, in both senses, this is harder to sustain. ''The //intrinsic// sociality of knowledge, the thoroughly social nature of schemes of classification, not just their vulnerability to outside influence, is what must now be accounted for.''
<<<
(my emphasis)
!Chapter 1 - The First and Last Interpreters
''p.9'' - Two forms of curricular knowledge:
#Official or codified knowledge packed in the school syllabus and taught to children (Young, 1976 - 'curriculum as fact')
#Passage of knowledge within the school system - process by which social knowledge becomes validated as school knowledge (Young, 1976 - 'curriculum as process')
''p.10'' - Problem r.e. curriculum = those best placed to critique it are too busy putting it into practice!
<<<
Part of the problem is that the people best placed to comment on the curriculum - teachers and curriculum planners among them - are locked into urgent practical tasks with very little time left for sober reflection and analysis.
<<<
''p.10 fn.2'' - Bourdieu (1990, p.143) - 'zones of cultural production' are structurally homogenous - tensions r.e. legitimate practice. Mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion exist:
<<<
One of the major issues at stake in the struggles that occur in the literary or artistic field is the definition of the limits of the field, that is, of legitimate participation in the struggles. Saying of this or that tendency in writing that 'it just isn't poetry' or 'literature' means refusing it a legitimate existence, excluding it from the game, excommunicating it. This symbolic exclusion is merely the reverse of the effort to impose a definition of legitimate practice.
<<<
(''My thought:'' this is what schools do with forms of knowledge which are important to kids but not on the curriculum, isn't it?)
''p.11'' - Hoggart (1957) - the 'everyday canons' of the British working class = primarily oral, whereas those of the middle class are largely written. (''My thought:'' schools go for the middle-class 'reality' to the exclusion of the working-class. This is the case even in schools in primarily working-class areas)
''p.11-12'' - The curriculum is the result of a struggle between social actors through 'restless processes of condensation and displacement'. Rorty (1989) says that 'Redescription often humiliates' meaning that changes result in power shifts to the detriment of the previously powerful social actors.
''p.12-13'' - In principle, each person is an interpreter, providing an 'eyewitness' account of lived experience. These then coagulate into shared understandings and then merge with authorization. However,
<<<
in the everyday world of modern society, everyday meanings are seldom total or hegemonic. Many of them are guided by serendipity where they are not simply driven by habit...
In summary, the process of establishing knowledge for practice (or guidelines for action) in the everyday world is, by and large, an informal and ever-shifting interpretive process, punctuated by formal moments of high tradition and ritual.
<<<
''p.15'' - Curriculum and knowledge shaped by middle-class and 'professionals'. Example of mathematics text books: authors more interested in theoretical concerns than providing practical knowledge relevant to everyday concerns.
''p.17'' - Teachers are only usually involved in the drawing up of the syllabus and textbooks as subject experts, not as teachers or representatives of the teaching profession:
<<<
The handing over of the finished products - syllabuses and textbooks - the teachers for implementation is based on a view of knowledge tha underlies all dominant forms of canonization. ''Syllabus plus textbook equals curriculum.'' The curriculum is presumed to be transparent: teachers (and in some instances pupils) should only have to read it for all to be clear.
<<<
(my emphasis)
(translating the knowledge into practice is supposed to be automatic)
(this model puts teachers second-from-bottom in a strict hierarchy)
''p.18'' - The 'objectification of knowledge as curriculum' = fundamental to the commodification of knowledge. This lends itself to easier marketization - drift towards 'packaged curricula' results.
''p.18'' - Giroux (1988) - 'hidden curriculum' =
<<<
the unstated norms, values and beliefs that are transmitted to students through the underlying structure of meaning.
<<<
''p,18'' - The traditional classroom is regulated by the teacher, so descriptions or redescriptions go through them:
<<<
Teacher monologue closes out the possibility of alternative meanings, while questions tend to open up meaning in different directions, depending on the type of questions asked. The conferral of authority by the teacher on rhetorical questions or student answers to teacher questions predisposes particular interpretations.
<<<
''p.19'' - Mechanisms to bring teachers into line to make sure they don't subvert the status quo:
#Examination procedures - teacher and school are judged according to the performance of the students in exams.
#School inspections - ensures maintenance of norms and canons.
#Teacher promotions - based on success rates in exams, etc.
!Chapter 2 - Globalization, Innovation and Knowledge
''p.25'' - Dahlman & Nelson (1993) - technology is not a 'thing':
<<<
We should not think of technology as a 'thing', say the economists, as either hardware or software, but rather as 'the use of knowledge, means, processes, and organisations to produce goods and services.'
<<<
''p.26'' - Dahlman & Nelson (1993) - technology = a driving force in our society (quotation from them):
<<<
Technology and technical change are one of the main driving forces behind the structure of production, the opportunities for trade, the increase in international competitiveness, and the growth of national income.
<<<
This means, says Muller:
<<<
The condition of 'knowledgeable deployment' [of technology] is education. Perhaps more tightly even than in the heyday of Bekker's 'human capital' hypotheses of the 1960s..., education (or knowledge) is, in the contemporary economic narrative, tied more tightly than ever into technology, productivity and development; one may add - to unplanned risk and uncertainty as well.
<<<
''p.27'' - Education = essential for globalization:
<<<
Globalization, or 'glocalisation' (Bauman, 1998), is simultaneously about the global and the local. Not being at the exclusive mercy of either is a definition of survival in these risky times. And education is somehow at the centre of most scenarios of survival.
<<<
''p.30'' - Polanyi (1958) on forms on knowledge:
<<<
Although the expert diagnostician, taxonomist and cotton-classer can indicate their clues and formulate their maxims, they know many more things than they can tell, knowing them only in practice, as instrumental particulars, and not explicitly, as objects. The knowledge of such particulars is therefore ineffable, and a pondering of a judgement in terms of such particulars is an ineffable process of thought. This applies equally to connoisseurship as the art of knowing and to skills as the art of doing, wherefore both can be taught only be aid of practiced example and never solely by precept.
<<<
(i.e people learn by doing, not just from being taught in an abstract way - and there is some knowledge that it is difficult (or impossible) to express in words - c.f. Wittgenstein?)
''p.32'' - Reason why we can't teach old dogs new tricks - Streek (quoted by Elam, 1993):
<<<
The reason why one cannot teach an old dog new tricks is not that the dog is old, but that he wants to remain the kind of dog he has grown to be.
<<<
(''My thought:'' could be applied to education system and some teachers)
''p.33'' - Castells (1997):
<<<
I think therefore I produce.
<<<
(''My thought:'' this is like new version of Bloom's Taxonomy with 'creation' at the top of the hierarchy of skills)
!Chapter 3 - What Knowledge is of Most Worth for the Millenial Citizen?
''p.43'' - Social organization of knowledge and learning is changing:
<<<
The globalization literature may differ on many points, but it is unequivocal in this respect: ''we are entering a new form of society in which the social organization of knowledge and the social organization of learning are dramatically changing.''
<<<
(my emphasis)
''p.43'' - Being successful in modern society means depending both on 'proliferating expert systems' and 'deepening reflexivity at both the individual and institutional level' - citizens increasingly 'monitor, question, demand justification', etc. This is the ''knowledge society''.
''p.43 fn.2'' - Definition of the 'knowledge society' by Stehr (1994):
<<<
I conceive of a knowledge society as a society in which science and technology have extensively heightened the capacities of society to act upon itself, its institutions and its relations to the natural environment.
<<<
''p.44'' - Pace of knowledge production and obsolescence = unprecendented:
<<<
To say that knowledge becomes more salient in modern society is not to deny that knowledge and its possession has always conferred power in every kind of society known to us. But in no other society has the sheer volume and, even more importantly, the //pace// of its production and obsolescence been so dramatic. So it is not merely a question of access to knowledge that becomes important to all citizens in late modern society, but access to and command of the //marginal additions// to knowledge that becomes key.
<<<
''p.44'' - Because of the number of institutions that traditionally employ knowledge workers, in the future those institutions that contribute to knowledge production via research-based activities will include NGOs, R&D units, research institutes, etc. Up until now, such activities have been the preserve of the universities.
''p.44'' - Difference between ''mode 1'' research and ''mode 2'' research:
*''Mode 1'' = disciplinary research (within universities, subjects, etc.)
*''Mode 2'' = 'new' form where research:
**arises in a //context of application//
**is //transdisciplinary//
**is //transinstitutional//
**is often //financed from more than one source//
**is less hierarchical and much more //collaborative//
**has a new field: //evaluation// (as different quality criteria evolve)
''p.45'' - Muller says that the mode 2 thesis is 'something of a fairy story' because:
<<<
It over homogenizes the evolution of a phenomenon that probably happened much earlier and it overdichotomizes it, presenting it as two discrete ideal types that probably never exist in their pure form in the real world. Nevertheless, I will claim that the distinction provides a few useful levers for educators grappling for changes in knowledge, in learning and in curriculum policy and planning, its overgeneralizations notwithstanding.
<<<
''p.46'' - Advantages of the mode 1 vs. mode 2 distinction:
*shows that simple opposition to the 'marketization' of education is misguided (needs context r.e. global economy)
*suggests an implicit relationship between two regimes of knowledge production that will have important implications for curricular formats
''p.46'' - The //replacement thesis// says that one era will replace the other - that we will jettison mode 1 ways in favour of mode 2. The //adjunct// or //supplementary// thesis (supported by Muller) says that mode 2 has actually been with us for a long time in some forms, but that recently it has become much more visible. Also, mode 1 could not disappear as mode 2 competence depends up on it.
''p.51'' - Mode 2 skills should be learned through //problem-based//, as opposed to //discipline-based// learning.
''p.52'' - There is an assumption by those who promote problem-based learning and the skills agenda that this can lead to higher-order thinking skills. However, Darling-Hammond (1997):
<<<
Active learning aimed at genuine understanding begins with disciplines, not with whimsical activities detached from core subjet matter concepts...
<<<
!Chapter 4 - Schooling and Everyday Life
''p.56'' - Central debate in cultural studies and the sociology of knowledge = that between //insulation// and //hybridity//
*''Insulation'' - stresses impermeable quality of cultural boundaries and of disciplinary autonomy (highlights differences between systems of knowledge)
*''Hybridity'' - stresses the essential identity and continuity of forms and kids of knowledge (promiscuity over domains)
<<<
In the cultural debates of the last 20 years or so, insulation has come to equal insularity and to be associated with conservatism and reaction, while hybridity, which as come to equal liberation, is associated with opposition to cultural imperialism and to the stultifying effects of tradition.
<<<
''p.57'' - Sleeter & Grant (1991) - the focus of the hybrid project is in,
<<<
...bridging school knowledge or public knowledge and the students' own cultural knowledge, and thus encourag(ing) students to analyse this interaction, and then use the knowledge learned to take charge of their lives.
<<<
''p.61'' - Boudieau (1993) - notion of //habitus//. Following by Muller:
<<<
Social reality exists in minds at the same time as it exists in things. The objective notion of a field is thus always complemented by the notion of //habitus//, which denotes the subjective system of dispositions, the practical sense of the game, the bodily schemata of perception and action that agents inhabit 'naturally' and that steers their strategic action. Each objectively structured //position// in the social field thus has its subjectively structured set of //dispositions// ontologically paired with it. Habitus is what gives social reality regularity and predictability because agents become habituated to their positional lot and act dispositionally in habitual ways, or 'naturally', from it.
<<<
''p.63'' - Berstein (1990) - knowledge passes through the educational system via a series of //recontextualizations//. A discourse (e.g. chemistry) is delocated from its context and relocated into a new discourse (e.g. Year 7 Science). This transforms the practice completely, and the recontextualization is a result of and will therefore, considerable symbolic power.
''p.63-4'' - Callon (1995) - 4 models of the knowledge production process:
*''Model 1'' - traditional //rational// model of scientists and philosophers (explains knowledge growth in terms of accretion of robust explanatory statements)
*''Model 2'' - a //competition// model which uses an economic metaphor: knowledge is always the outcome of competition for scarce resources (Bourdieu's approach)
*''Model 3'' - knowledge as the result of //sociocultural practice// (i.e. constructivist)
*''Model 4'' - //extended translation// - any knowledge statement = the contingent end point of an extended chain or network of inscriptions.
<<<
The great advance that model four has over models two and three is... that the social context is analysed by its effect on the body of knowledge itself: the explanation for translational proliferation is sought not in the context but //in the inscriptions themselves//.
<<<
(quotation by Muller)
!Chapter 5 - Intimations of Boundlessness
''p.81'' - Durkheim: difference between the sacred and the profane (binaries)
|!''Sacred''|!''Profane''|
|Future-oriented|Tradition-oriented|
|Collective|Individual|
|Ideal|Sensory|
|Speculative|Practical|
''p.82'' - How constructivism deals with sacred/profane distinction:
<<<
Constructivism deals with the 'great divide', the asymmetry of discourses, by collapsing the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Specialized knowledge ensembles are to be treated as, in principle, the same as everyday knowledge ensembles and are to be discussed in terms of their continuity with the latter.
<<<
!Chapter 6 - The Well-tempered Learner
''p.101'' - 'Constructivist psychology' - learners are projected as being 'active, creative individuals' and teachers are projected as 'self-governing professionals' whose professional competence is judged by the internalization and fusing of social professional and personal goals. The boundaries between a teacher's thoughts and feelings and professional practices in the classroom are therefore blurred. This is a more pervasive form of regulation than just regulating the //professional// actions of teachers - 'good' teachers have to feel personally involved and fulfilled to be professionally competent. (critique by Popkewitz, 1994, 1995)
''p.102'' - Constructivist epistemology part of a wider whole:
<<<
It strikes me here, though, that constructivist epistemology is but one part of a broader disciplinary constellation that looks not only at the formative dimensions of the form of knowledge but also principally at the form of acquisition or pedagogy that embraces it.
<<<
''p.102'' - Bernstein (1996) - there was a 'remarkable convergence' in the 1960s around the concept of competence:
*Linguistic competence (Chomsky)
*Cognitive competence (Piaget)
*Cultural competence (Levi-Strauss)
*Member competence (Garfinkle)
*Communicative competence (Dell Hymes)
All agreed that 'competence refers to a capacity tacitly possessed by all members, capable of generating creative variety'.
''p.103'' - Competence models 'stress regulative discourse' - the authority relations of transmission and acquisition are of particular concern. Democracy of relations is favoured: there are no rules to be followed. Personalization of learning is made important:
<<<
Classrooms relations are personalized, not position dependent. The ideal, personal, individual communication between the learner and the pedagogue is complex and multilayered, so that the learners are able to externalize their feelings, fantasies, fears and aspirations the better to actualize their competence.
<<<
Popkewitz (1995) - this puts far more of the learner's private world on display.
''p.104'' - Pedagogic models:
| |!Competence //(acquisition competence)//|!Performance //(transmission performance)//|
|''Learner''|Control over selection, sequence and pace of learning|Little control over selection, sequence and pace of learning|
|''Teacher''|Personal control, Transmission no pedagogically regulated, Rules implicit|Positional control, Pedagogically regulated|
|''Pedagogic Text''|Ungraded and unstratified performance, Competence read through the performance|Graded and stratified performance, The performance itself|
|''Learning sites''|Anywhere|Clearly marked learning sites|
|''Class sponsors''|Professional and educational middle class|The new information or knowledge middle class|
|''Costs''|Higher teacher-training costs, Hidden time-based costs, Less efficient with large classes|Lower teacher-training costs, Economies of external control, Can deal with large numbers|
''p.105'' - The whole nature of the teaching profession would have to change in order to make education more competence-based:
<<<
Competence pedagogies, especially of the radical or populist variety, are driven by an egalitarian project and are not geared to specialized futures. Performance pedagogies, on the other hand, are. These latter models move the focus from the learner to the learning course adn to the learning outcome. The learner here may still be active, but their activity is more goal directed rather than driven from within. The emphasis, in other words, is here more up on the instructional than upon the moral order; more upon the order of objects in the discourse acquired than upon the authority and autonomy relations of the process of transmission and acquisition.
<<<
!Chapter 7 - Critics and Reconstructors
(not relevant)
!Chapter 8 - Beyond Unkept Promises
(not relevant)
!Chapter 9 - Reason, Reality and Public Trust
''p.151'' - Definition of positivism:
<<<
For positivism, the scientific gaze must be separate from the world that it observes in order to create an objective true representation of reality. Truth then is the degree of correspondence between the representation and the reality. The degree of of correspondence is measured by evidence, by which certainty about the correspondence is generated. This operation depends in turn upon a certain self-reflexivity, a certain 'self-transparency', enabling the scientist to interrogate the representation methodically.
<<<
(''My thought:'' this is the dominant paradigm in schools, apart from in the Humanities!)
(follows on - new paragraph)
<<<
This view of knowledge and truth depends pre-eminently upon the idea of the //disengaged observer// as well as upon a notion of truth as representation. The most profound critiques of this view therefore all attempt to demonstrate that observers are always also agents and that, as such, are always also //engaged/// in the world they seek to depict as objectively as possible.
<<<
''p.157'' - Muller cites Hegel r.e. the owl of Minerva (goddess of wisdom) who always flies only at dusk (at the end of the event to be explained)
''N.C. Burbules, 'Rhetorics of the Web: hyperreading and critical literacy' (in I. Snyder, //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.102'' - Asking whether reading hypertext is similar or different from reading a page in a book is unhelpful:
<<<
This way of framing the question, as a choice between 'new' reading or 'the same' reading, is unhelpful from the start. Reading is a practice, and as such it partakes of the contexts and social relations in which it takes place' significant differences in those contexts and relations alter the practice.
<<<
//(e.g. things like speed of reading, concentration span, etc.)//
''p.103'' - Printed texts are selective and exclusive, whereas hypertexts are inclusive (links, etc.)
''p.109'' - Different 'orientations' towards using computers -> e.g. someone whose first experience of computers is playing games, vs. someone taught to use Internet effectively.
''p.117'' - Hyperreading like digital literacy?
<<<
Judging links, then, is a crucial part of developing a broader critical orientation to hyperreading: not simply to follow the links laid out for us, but to intepret their meaning and assess their appropriateness.
<<<
//(Is this a fundamental part of digital literacy - being able to ''critically engage'' with digitial content?)//
''p.118-9'' - Perhaps students ''do'' need to know how HTML works, the Internet, computers, etc.:
<<<
A crucial aspect of developing this capacity for critical hyperreading is, I suggest, to learn about the mechanics of Web design/authoring itself. Just as specialists in other fields (from poetry to acting to political speech writing) can be the sharpest critics of other practitioners because they know the conventions, tricks, and moves that establish a sense of style and elicit particular responses from an audience, so also should hyperreaders (whether or not they actually design/author material for the Web themselves) know what goes into selecting material for a page, making links, organising a cluster of separate pages into a hyperlinked Web site, and so forth. The more that one is aware of //how// this is done, the more one can be aware //that// it was done and that it //could// have been done otherwise.
<<<
//(I agree, some knowledge of the technology is needed for a full understanding, but is this really ''digital literacy'', or the next step?)//
''Hannon, P., //Reflecting on Literacy in Education// (London, 2000)''
__Chapter 2: History and Future of Literacy__
''p.21'' - Literacy just //different// in 21st century, not going to disappear:
<<<
It is sometimes suggested that reading and writing will not be very important in the future, particularly as the full impact of
information technology is felt... Yet we have to be careful about concluding that this means less writing and reading. The telephone has also led to the fax machine which reinstates written language. Television has also provided new reasons for reading (e.g. programme listings), new genres (mini-reviews of films, print in advertisements), new ways of reading (teletext), and has stimulated
new appetites for books (e.g. classic novels, cookery books). It is safer to conclude that literacy use is //different// rather than less than it was formerly.
<<<
''p.22'' - Four differences between printed & electronic texts - introduction of term 'electronic literacy':
<<<
David Reinking (1994) has suggested that there are four fundamental differences between printed and electronic texts. First, he points out that while it has often been suggested that readers interact with text in a metaphorical sense, in the case of electronic text this can be literally true, for example in the way readers can respond to sometexts by switching to other texts via 'hot links'. Second, it is possible for electronic texts to guide or restrict the reading path according to educational or other criteria, e.g. requiring re-reading of passages if comprehension querstions are not answered correctly. Third, the structure of electronic text can be radically different in 'hypertext'... Fourth, electronic texts often employ new symbolic elements - not just illustrations but video clips and other graphics, including next 'navigation' aids. One can argue about whether or not these features of electronic literacy are desirable but that they have arrived and that they represent a radical shift seems beyond argument.
<<<
//(I think you possibly ''can'' argue as to whether this involves 'literacy' or not, actually...)//
''p.22'' - Elaine Millard (1997:153) discusses how she came to rethink nature of literacy and interplay between print and electronic
literacy:
<<<
Literacy was a process that I associate only with immersion in books. As the enquiry progressed I changed my opions of the computer's distracting influence, and even modified my view of the role of computer games, as negative competitors with literacy activities. This was because I found that working with personal computers not only often involved on-screen reading activities, but that it also engaged young players in a secondary reading of complex texts in order to update their hardware or to progress onto higher levels of difficult games.
<<<
//(has she spotted a 'new' literacy here, or just existing literacy in an unexpected realm?)//
''p.22-3'' - Nature of literacy depends upon technology:
<<<
The nature of literacy in a culture is repeatedly redefined as the result of technological changes. Throughout history the introduction
of new materials (stone tablets, skins, papyrus, paper) and new mark making methods (scratching, chiselling, ink, the printing press,
typewriters, ball-points, laser printers, and so on) has meant both new users and new uses for written language. The consequences of such changes can be very complex - not just in terms of more literacy but different literacy (Eisenstein, 1982). ''Technology begins by making it easier to do familar things; then it creates opportunities to do new things. Our literacy today is consequently very different from that of medieval England not just because the printing press is more efficient than having scribes copy manuscripts, but also because printing and other technologies have stimulated entirely new uses for written language (e.g. tax forms, novels, postcards, advertisements) unimagined by medieval society. If the past is any guide to the future, we should information technology to transform literacy rather than eradicate it.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - this is an important point)//
''p.23'' - Need to consider two changes regarding writing - how text is produced and processed, and then how it is transmitted to others.
//(another good point - separates literacy into two dimensions: second part (transmission) = crucial change in 21st century)//
''p.23'' - Whereas in the past literacy has meant writing that involves making physical marks on paper, this is no longer the case -
Bolter (1990:42)
<<<
The bits of text are simply not on a human scale. Electronic technology removes or abstracts the writer and reader from the text.
If you hold a magnetic or optical disc up to the light, you will not
see text at all.
<<<
//(Indeed - word processing is a leveller; the Internet the ''great''
leveller...)//
''p.24'' - Author (Hannon) gives example of how literacy can change through technology - email removes barriers (printing work, envelope, posting, unopening, etc.)
<<<
Eliminating these stages not only speeds up the process of writing letters but also, like earlier technological developements in
literacy, changes the uses for written language. It encourages a casual, immediate style of communication and it becomes possible, for example, to sustain a research collaboration with people thousands of miles away.
<<<
//(Yes, the ''immediacy'' of the Internet leads to a cultural change. As literacy - at least in part - predicated upon society & culture, it
therefore changes)//
''p.26'' - 'Does hypertext eliminate the need for linearity in writing?' Enthusiasts would say 'yes' - frees reader from control of
the writer. E.g. Nelson (1987):
<<<
Imagine a new libertarian literature with alternative explanations so anyone can choose the pathway or approach that bests suits him or her; with ideas accessible and interesting to everyone, so that a new richness and freedom can come to the human experience; imagine a rebirth of literacy.
<<<
//(But does this necessarily lead to 'soundbite culture'?)//
''p.26-7'' - Author, writing in 2000, mentions fact that not everyone has a computer with Internet connection - any point in bothering about new forms of literacy? //Absolutely//, he says:
<<<
All our literacy students will end up using written language tomorrow in ways very different from those we can teach them today. This
applies... much more strongly to younger students and children who, if development proceeds in the next fifty years as it has in the past fifty, will use written language in ways which we cannot even imagine. What matters in this context is that we teach what is important about written language - those essentials which can be expected to endure in future contexts. These could include the ideas that the value of written language depends on what we want to do with it, that all texts can be read critically, that there are many genres, that literacy has a potential for liberation, that writing can aid thinking, that reading can be enjoyable, that public writing is for readers not writers, and so on.
<<<
//(What a great quotation - literacy may change, but 'new fundamentals' won't!)//
''p.28'' - Landow (1992) - 'almost all authors on hypertext who touch on the political implications of hypertext assume that the technology is essentially democratizing and that it therefore supports some sort of decentralized, liberated existence'. However, Apple (1986:171) - suggested that:
<<<
computers involve ways of thinking that are primarily technical. The more the new technology transforms the classroom in its own image, the more a technical logic will replace critical political and ethical understanding.
<<<
__Chapter 3: One Literacy or Many?__
''p.31'' - The 'unitary' view of literacy is predicated upon the assumption that literacy is a 'skill', that there is an 'it' to which
we can refer:
<<<
According to this view the actual uses which particular readers and writers have for that competence is something which can be separated from the competence itself.
<<<
''p.31'' - The 'pluralist' view of literacy points out the problems with the unitary view of literacy - for example, historically
speaking, diifferent marks could mean variations and therefore //different literacies//. 'Literacy pluralists' would point out that
literacy is embedded in culture - many cultures and therefore many literatures:
<<<
They can be distinguished, for example, in terms of region, ethnicity, occupation, social class, gender and possibly social or institutional context.
<<<
''p.32'' - Lankshear (1987:58) has challenged the unitary view of literacy:
<<<
There is no single, unitary referent for 'literacy'. Literacy is not the name for a finite technology, set of skills, or any other
'thing'. We should recognise, rather, that there are many specific literacies, each comprising an identifiable set of socially
constructed practices based upon print and organised around beliefs about how the skills of reading and writing may or, perhaps, should be used.
<<<
//(This would be a good quotation to introduce a section in favour of 'pluralist' view of literacy in my thesis)//
''p.33'' - Within pluralist view, Barton (1994:38) has argued for this definition of 'a literacy':
<<<
A literacy is a stable, coherent, identifiable configuration of practices such as //legal literacy//, or the literacy of specific workplaces.
<<<
//(italics in the original - could be a good starting point?)//
''p.33'' - Gee (1996:41) - being able to read or write means being able to read or write //something//:
<<<
There are obviously many abilities here, each of them a type of literacy, one of a set of literacies.
<<<
''p.33'' - Barton & Hamilton (1998:9) - results of detailed ethnographic study showed that literacy dependent upon culture and context:
<<<
Looking at different literacy events it is clear that literacy is not the same in all contexts; rather, there are different literacy...
within a given culture, there are different literacies associated with different domains of life. Contemporary life can be analysed in a
simple way into domains of activity, such as home, school, work-place.
<<<
//(Author - Hannon - goes onto say that this presumably means that some literacies can be regarded as more valuable than others - rethink of importance given to 'school literacy'?)//
''p.34'' - Pluralist view of literacy also rejects idea of literacy as a 'neutral' skill. Gee (1996:46):
<<<
the traditional view of literacy as the ability to read and write rips literacy out of its sociocultural contexts and treats it as an asocial
cognitive skill with little or nothing to do with human relationships. It cloaks literacy's connections to power, to social identity, and to
ideologies, often in the service of privileging certain types of literacies and certain types of people.
<<<
//(a great quotation that I could use when moving onto a section on literacy as being involved in political and hegemonic power)//
''p.35'' - Problem for proponents of 'pluralist literacy' = what should be taught at school? //Something// has to be taught, doesn't
it? Also may have legal implications (e.g. government notices written in particular style).
''p.36'' - Difficult for proponents of 'pluralist literacy' to be able to say where one starts and other stops - Barton & Hamilton (1998:188)
<<<
At first we imagined we would encounter a distinct home literacy which could be contrasted with work literacy or school literacy. To some extent this is true. There is a distinctiveness to many home literacy practices, but what is more striking is the range of different
literacies which are carried out in the home, including work and school literacies which are brought home where they mingle together.
<<<
//(Is this actually an issue?)//
''p.36'' - Author (Hannon) likens problems r.e. defining literacy to be similar to Wittgenstein's (1953, sections 66, 67) problem in
defining 'game'. Just because they are all different doesn't mean we can't categorise them:
<<<
And the result of this examination is: we see a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing: sometimes overall
similarities, sometimes similarities of detail. I can think of no better expression to characterize these similarities than 'family
resemblances' for the various resemblances between members of a family: build, features, colour of eyes, gait, temperament, etc.
overlap and criss-cross in the same way. And I shall say 'games' form a family.
<<<
//(good analogy - could substituted 'literacies' for 'games' here!)//
''p.37'' - Another analogy would be music. There are lots of different types of music, but we don't need to talk of 'musics'. Why, then,
'literacies'?
''p.37'' - Hannon suggests that whether theorists prefer unitary of pluralist conceptions of literacy depends upon whether they are
focusing on literacy as a //skill// (psychology) or as a //social practice// (sociology). This leads to him questioning (p.38) as to
whether we need to choose between these two conceptions: 'A full conception of literacy in education requires awareness of both.'
''p.38'' - Delgado-Gaitain (1990:29) appears to have attempted to integrate both unitary and pluralist conceptions of literacy:
<<<
The ability to interpret linguistine and graphic symbols associated with texts requires one type of ability. Literacy is a sociocultural
process, and it follows that another literate ability has to do with the sociocultural knowledge and cognitive skills that are necessary
for the child and the family to interpret text.
<<<
//(I don't how this 'integrates' the two - he just acknowledges them as being separate!)//
''p.40-42'' - 7 principles that govern - or //could// govern - what counts as 'school literacy':
#Family choice
#Workforce requirements
#Social differentiation
#Equal opportunities
#Personal development
#Citizenship
#Social change
''Prensky, M.'' (2001) [[Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants|http://bit.ly/2fvLi7]] (//On the Horizon//, NCB University Press, 9:5, October 2001)
*''p.1'' - Prensky believes that some type of complete disconnect with the past has taken place - presumably because of the Internet and 'hypermedia':
<<<
Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.
<<<
*''p.1'' - Prensky gives following comparison:
<<<
Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV).
<<<
''p.1'' - Prensky believes that these 'digital natives' have a different //brain structure// than people from other generations:
<<<
t is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. These differences go far further and deeper than most educators suspect or realize. “Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures, “ says Dr. Bruce D. Berry of Baylor College of Medicine. As we shall see in the next installment, it is very likely that our students’ brains have physically changed – and are different from ours – as a result of how they grew up. But whether or not this is literally true, we can say with certainty that their thinking patterns have changed. I will
get to how they have changed in a minute.
<<<
//(is part of the reason for this article's popularity and influence the informal style?)//
''p.2'' - Prensky again deals with assertion when describing 'Digital Natives' - no semblance of factual research, just rhetorical questioning:
<<<
Lest this perspective appear radical, rather than just descriptive, let me highlight some of the issues. Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (Does any of this sound familiar?)
<<<
''p.2'' - Prensky's whole argument rests on the assumption that learning things in the digital world is like learning a language - hence the following metaphor:
<<<
So what should happen? Should the Digital Native students learn the old ways, or should their Digital Immigrant educators learn the new? Unfortunately, no matter how much the Immigrants may wish it, it is highly unlikely the Digital Natives will go backwards. In the first place, it may be impossible – their brains may already be different. It also flies in the face of everything we know about cultural migration. Kids born into any new culture learn the new language easily, and forcefully resist using the old. Smart adult immigrants accept that they don’t know about their new world and take advantage of their kids to help them learn and integrate. Not-so-smart (or not-so-flexible) immigrants spend most of their time grousing about how good things were in the “old country.”
<<<
''p.6'' - Prensky says that ways of teaching need to change, but doesn't really explain how the following requires some type of 'Digital Nativeness' - isn't this just //good teaching//?
<<<
A frequent objection I hear from Digital Immigrant educators is “this approach is great for facts, but it wouldn’t work for ‘my subject.’” Nonsense. This is just rationalization and lack of imagination. In my talks I now include “thought experiments” where I invite professors and teachers to suggest a subject or topic, and I attempt– on the spot – to invent a game or other Digital Native method for learning it. Classical philosophy? Create a game in which the philosophers debate and the learners have to pick out what each would say. The Holocaust? Create a simulation where students role-play the meeting at Wannsee, or one where they can experience the true horror of the camps, as opposed to the films like Schindler’s List. It’s just dumb (and lazy) of educators – not to mention ineffective – to presume that (despite their traditions) the Digital Immigrant way is the only way to teach, and that the Digital Natives’ “language” is not as capable as their own of encompassing any and every idea.
<<<
*''Halliday'' (1985:101) (quoted in ''G. Kress & T. Van Leeuwen'', //[[Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OTxW7gE4_W0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&ei=_5-SSIuWAY74jgHmzezTBA&sig=ACfU3U27o9lRgn2bJf_q0UAkcs-6tdWHew#PPT12,M1]]//, 2nd ed., 2006, p.2):
<<<
Grammar goes beyond formal rules of correctness. It is a means of representing patterns of experience... It enables human beings to build a mental picture of reality, to make sense of their experience of what goes on around them and inside them.
<<<
//(Could there be a 'digital grammar'?//
*''G. Kress & T. Van Leeuwen'', //[[Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OTxW7gE4_W0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&ei=_5-SSIuWAY74jgHmzezTBA&sig=ACfU3U27o9lRgn2bJf_q0UAkcs-6tdWHew#PPT12,M1]]//, 2nd ed., 2006, p.17):
<<<
...the opposition to the emergence of the visual as a full means of representation is not based on an opposition to the visual as such, but on an opposition in situations where it forms an alternative to writing and can therefore be seen as a potential threat to the present dominance of verbal literacy among elite groups.
<<<
//(counterpoint to New York Time article [[Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?|http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html]])//
*''Kathleen R. Tyner'', //[[Literacy in a Digital World: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Information|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FukpXZ_JkZIC&pg=PA104&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&as_brr=3&ei=8KaSSMroDZzsiQGNjdnrBg&sig=ACfU3U1BFTVtgVzLyCkMu9mAAwdoVgufEQ]]//, 1998, p.104) - no need to separate out into various 'literacies':
<<<
The similarities between the stated competencies of information literacy, visual literacy, and media literacy are so close that separating them seems unnecessarily artificial.
...
The need to set one literacy apart from another can only be explained by a need to use the concepts for other reasons, that is, to strengthen the professional status of its constituencies, or to take issue with the approaches used by proponents.
<<<
//(is 'digital literacy' and umbrella term?//
*''Ric Lowe'', //[[Successful Instructional Diagrams|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P6M9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA24&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&as_brr=3&ei=8KaSSMroDZzsiQGNjdnrBg&sig=ACfU3U2jVbvwfv5xI1vkqZsadovErbkyQw#PPA24,M1]]//), 1993, p.24
<<<
...the idea that visual literacy is necessary for reading visual materials is not as widely accepted as the self-evident fact that textual literacy is required for reading text. This is partly because visual materials in general are typically not considered to pose any reading challenges to the viewer.
<<<
//(perhaps 'digital literacy' involves understanding both static and moving images - i.e. video?)//
*''Johnson'' (2001:1) (quoted in ''W. James Potter'' //[[Theory of Media Literacy|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rylqA4aI-9EC&pg=PA30&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=eLOSSJLXCYa4jgGcw_T5DA&sig=ACfU3U2XsXgaArhIytdcUuNl9On86-zPUg#PPA29,M1]]//), 2004, p.30-1)
<<<
The definition of literacy has recently been expanded to include the ideas of communication, functioning in society, and dealing with all forms of information in a technological age. Whereas the former definition of literacy regarded the print media as its focus, a discourse using an expanded view of literacy must include other forms of media.
<<<
*''W. James Potter'' - //[[Theory of Media Literacy|http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rylqA4aI-9EC&pg=PA30&dq=%22visual+literacy%22&lr=&as_brr=3&ei=eLOSSJLXCYa4jgGcw_T5DA&sig=ACfU3U2XsXgaArhIytdcUuNl9On86-zPUg#PPA29,M1]]//), 2004, p.33)
<<<
Reading literacy, visual literacy and computer literacy are not synonyms for media literacy; instead, they are merely components.
<<<
//(it would appear that everybody things one type of literacy is an umbrella term for all the others - depends on one's context?)//
*''Paul Messaris'', 'Visual Aspects of Media Literacy' (//The Journal of Communication//, vol. 48, issue 1, (1998), pp.70-80) - p.1
<<<
Verbal language is sometimes referred to as being "digital." This use of the term is not very precise, but the opposite label, "analogical," provides an apt encapsulation of the semantic features that most distinctly characterize visual language. The most obvious sense in which visual images can be called analogical forms of communication is illustrated by any clear, full-color photograph of a recognizable object. Here there is a more or less close analogy between the shapes, colors, and overall structure of the image, on the one hand, and the corresponding features of the real world, on the other.
<<<
//(the concept of verbal language being 'digital' is an interesting one and warrants further research)//
*''Suzanne Stokes'', 'Visual Literacy in Teaching and Learning: A Literature Perspective' (//Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education//, 2001):
<<<
A culture's predominant mode of literacy depends on the technology and mass media it embraces (Sinatra, 1986). In education's continuing mission of meeting the needs of learners, an apparent shift from the long-standing process of reading, writing, counting, and text memorization skills that may have been appropriate for the medieval clerk, are giving way to skills of analysis and innovation that are considered desirable in today’s modern cultures (West, 1997). Proficiency with words and numbers is insufficient and must be supplemented with additional basic skills as new and emerging technologies permeate activities of daily living. Viewing change with fear and skepticism often accompanies shifts such as these that can revolutionize society. Even Socrates portrayed the new technology of the written word as dangerous and destructive, artificial and rigid, and unresponsive and insensitive. As more visual elements are incorporated to achieve an optimal balance between verbal and visual cues in education, interdependence between the two modes of thought will be fostered. Kellner (1998) proposes that multiple literacies are necessary to meet the challenges of today's society, literacies that include print literacy, visual literacy, aural literacy, media literacy, computer literacy, cultural literacy, social literacy, and ecoliteracy.
<<<
//(useful for section on worldwide differences in conceptions of literacy)//
*''Koltko-Riviera, M.E.'', (2004). 'Personality Theory and Human Factors Research' (in Vincenzi, D., et al. (eds.), //Human performance, situation awareness and automation: Current research and trends, Vol. 1//, 2004, pp. 249-252)
<<<
[Dr. Schaab's] results are at least compatible with the notion that digital competence (i.e., competence in working within a highly computerized environment) is not equally distributed across personality types; rather, some personality types are simply more digitally competent than others. Such a finding, if replicated, would have profound consequences for human factors theory, research, and practice.
<<<
//(Interesting! So perhaps some personality types are more likely to be adept in digital environments? Potentially worth exploring...)//
*''Erstad, O.'', 'Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology'
(//Young//, Vol. 11(11), 2003, pp.11-28), p.11
<<<
‘Electracy’is a term that combines different forms of literacy related to the use of new technologies; for example ‘media or multimedia literacy’,‘computer literacy’, ‘information literacy’and ‘visual literacy’. It could be described as literacy for a post-typographic world (Reinking et al., 1998). Most often, these ‘changing literacies’ (Lankshear,1997) refer to skills in operating the technology or an ability to use technology to gather and reflect on the use of information for different purposes. Electracy is something young people develop by growing up in a digital culture,and their education is supposed to include their efforts to create knowledge and learning.
<<<
//(What an awful term! How is it different from 'digital literacy'?)//
*''Erstad, O.'', 'Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology'
(//Young//, Vol. 11(11), 2003, pp.11-28), p.17
<<<
In her book Literacy in a Digital World (1998), Kathleen Tyner studies some of the elements of a modern interpretation of literacy related both to what she terms ‘tool literacies’,which imply having the necessary skills to be able to use the technology,and ‘literacies of representations’,which relate to the knowledge of how to take advantage of the possibilities that different forms of representation give the users,especially the new information and communication technologies.
<<<
//(Distinguishes between procedural competencies and wider 'literacies' (i.e. understanding) of technology)//
*''Morrison'' (2001:145), quoted in ''Erstad, O.'', 'Electracy as empowerment: Student activities in learning environments using technology' (//Young//, Vol. 11(11), 2003, pp.11-28), p.17
<<<
Electracies involves the intersection of critical literacy with an interplay of praxis and the post-modern,as relating to electronic discourse and power,and an approach to multiliteracies which draws on situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice. Here students’own engagement,as readers and writers or ‘composers’of new media in learning is important.
<<<
//(Que?)//
*''Grov Almås, A. & Krumsvik, R.'' (2007) 'Digitally literate teachers in leading edge schools in Norway' (//Journal of In-service Education// 33(4), December 2007, pp. 479–497) p.481
<<<
It has been suggested that by the age of 21 the average person will have spent 15,000 hours in formal education, 20,000 hours in front of the TV, and 50,000 hours in front of a computer screen.
<<<
*''ICT Literacy Panel'' (2002) 'Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy', Technical Report (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, Center for Global Assessment, available at: http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/ICTREPORT.pdf), p.11
<<<
Teachers and industry currently have no reliable measures to understand the ICT literacy of their students or workers. Such tools will provide data to understand the effectiveness of current teaching strategies and curricula. Without these data and analyses, we have no understanding of what is working and not working.
<<<
*''Søby, M.'' (2003) //Digital Competence: from ICT skills to digital "bildung"// (available online: http://folk.uio.no/mortenso/Dig.comp.html)
Referencing 'fourth basic skill' (after reading, writing & mathematic calculation):
<<<
There is no clear international frame of reference for the field; however, three main directions or trends may be identified. One direction is linked to the definition of fundamental skills in ICT: text, spreadsheet, and presentation software, and Internet searching. A second trend is linked to concepts of a fourth basic skill and cultural practice, and is concerned with basic ICT skills in specific subjects. A third direction works toward developing the concept of bildung with a focus on broader digital bildung and competence.
...
In a knowledge society, digital competence, and bildung are more than an exclusive focus on the mastering of skills. Digital bildung expresses a more holistic understanding of how children and youths learn and develop their identity. In addition, the concept encompasses and combines the way in which skills, qualifications, and knowledge are used. As such, digital bildung suggests an integrated, holistic approach that enables reflection on the effects that ICT has on different aspects of human development: communicative competence, critical thinking skills, and enculturation processes, among others.
<<<
*[[Bennett, Maton & Kervin - The 'digital natives' debate: A critical review of the evidence]] (2008)
*[[Prensky - Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants]] (2001)
*[[Prensky - Do They Really Think Differently?]] (2001)
*[[Prensky - Listen To The Natives]] (2005)
''C. Beavis, 'Reading, Writing and Role-playing Computer Games' (in I. Snyder, //Silcon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.47'' - Critics say that a move to digital text is at the expense of rigour:
<<<
Fears attached to the redefinition of literacy to include visual and digital forms suggest such expansion will lead to the embrace of anything digital at the cost of critical thinking and of values associated with print literature and literacy.
<<<
//(But that's because the ''critics themselves'' are not literate in those domains...)//
''p.51'' - Durrant & Green (2000) - need '3D' model of literacy-technology learning, where students engage simultaneously with 'cultural, critical and operational dimensions'.
''Prensky, M.'' (2005) [[Listen To The Natives|http://bit.ly/4gfVK9]] (//Learning in the Digital Age//, 63:4, pp.8-13)
//(full of 'personalising learning' and 'student voice' rhetoric, but little in the way of justification - just tries to make it seem 'obvious' that educators should be doing this)//
*''p.8'' - Prensky arguing that we need to start education again from //scratch//?
<<<
Our students are no longer “little versions of us,” as they may have been in the past. In fact, they are so different from us that we can no longer use either our 20th century knowledge or our training as a guide to what is best for them educationally.
<<<
*''p.9'' - Prensky believes that teachers need to take cues from students on how to teach:
<<<
As educators, we must take our cues from our students' 21st century innovations and behaviors, abandoning, in many cases, our own predigital instincts and comfort zones. Teachers must practice putting engagement before content when teaching. They need to laugh at their own digital immigrant accents, pay attention to how their students learn, and value and honor what their students know. They must remember that they are teaching in the 21st century. This means encouraging decision making among students, involving students in designing instruction, and getting input from students about how they would teach. Teachers needn't master all the new technologies. They should continue doing what they do best: leading discussion in the classroom. But they must find ways to incorporate into those discussions the information and knowledge that their students acquire outside class in their digital lives.
<<<
//(why, if students are so good at this, do we need to run courses on 'learning how to learn'? how come they know how to teach better than seasoned professionals?)//
''p.10'' - Prensky believes that digital tools have become almost extensions of the brains of 'Digital Natives':
<<<
Today's students have mastered a large variety of tools that we will never master with the same level of skill. From computers to calculators to MP3 players to camera phones, these tools are like extensions of their brains. Educating or evaluating students without these tools makes no more sense to them than educating or evaluating a plumber without his or her wrench.
<<<
//(yes, but you can certainly test the plumber on ''how'' they'd go about doing something without their need for a wrench...)//
''Holme, R., //Literacy: an introduction// (London, 2004)''
__''Introduction''__
''p.1'' - Literacy seems to be fairly obvious - 'ability to read and write'. However, when we look more closely, two main questions arise:
<<<
#How much does one have to know about reading and writing to be literate?
#What does it really mean to read and to write?
<<<
//(simple questions, but very difficult to answer!)..//
''p.1-2'' - Refer to 'analogical' literacies (Wiley, 1996) as we refer to literacy in different ways in different spheres. Sometimes knowledge, sometimes skills, sometimes both:
<<<
For example, a core feature of literacy's meaning is 'a knowledge', often of the basic skills, of 'reading and writing'. Now we use the term to refer simply to basic knowledge as in 'computer literacy'. Though even more confusingly, computer literacy is also bound up with reading and writing skills. Some other extensions related to this idea of basic or survival knowledge are: 'historical literacy', 'emotional literacy', 'citizenship literacy', 'artistic literacy', 'scientific literacy' and 'geographical literacy'.
<<<
//(definitely want to avoid being able to put pretty much anything in front of the word 'literacy' - devalues the term)//
''p.3'' - Question of 'visual literacy' and convention:
<<<
More radically, it has been claimed that when illiterates in Madagascar were shown simple representations of objects they were often 'image-blind', seeing the picture 'not as a representation of reality but as an object in itself' or a collection of 'lines' (UNESCO 1973: 36). These people lived in communities that were almost totally deprived of visual images. How we perceive a picture is a product of our being literate in the visual conventions that operate at a given time. Pictorial representations depend upon the use of conventions that we have absorbed from birth and in which we are made literate by the fact of growing up in a visually-oriented culture.
<<<
//(this introduces a third aspect to literacy - other than knowledge and skills - that of ''procedure'' or ''habit'')//
''p.7'' - Holme uses analogy of light's wave/particle duality to refer to literacy:
<<<
After the development of quantum physics in the first half of the twentieth century, light came to be seen as having a dual nature. It was waves or particles according to the method by which it was captured. If a common feature of the physical universe can be perceived as having a two-fold nature, then it may not be stretching our imagination to allow an abstract phenomenon such as literacy to take some of the different forms that we can reasonably ascribe to it. Literacy can then hold these forms at one and the same time, revealing its complex nature.
<<<
//(not sure if this is a great idea in line with the Pragmatic method, or a cop-out?)//
__''Chapter 1 - Functional Literacy''__
''p.11'' - UNESCO report (1957) - indeterminate nature of being 'literate':
<<<
Literacy is a characteristic acquired by individuals in varying degrees from just above none to an indeterminate upper level. Some individuals are more or less literate than others but it is really not possible to speak of illiterate and literate persons as two distinct categories.
<<<
//(so there is a continuum? shades of grey? sounds about right!)//
''p.11'' - One way to decide what it means to be literate = what we want literacy //for//. For example, lawyers need different type of 'literacy' than soldiers. This is //functional literacy//.
//(but doesn't this pigeon-hole and stereoype people by occupation?)//
''p.12'' - Definition of 'functional literacy':
<<<
Functional literacy consists of some of the //basic skills// that the individual needs to fulfil their economic and social potential. The concept of functional literacy should therefore be associated with that of education and training as adding value through training in basic skills.
<<<
''p.13'' - Modern conception of 'functional literacy' may stem from US Army who, in 1942, had to introduce literacy education after they had to defer conscripting 433,000 people who could not understand basic written instructions.
''p.17-18'' - The advantage of the concept of 'functional literacy':
<<<
Functional literacy seems to have the advantage of assessing reading and writing skills according to a community's socio-economic needs. For example, an apprentice plumber now needs to do more than read a few words and decipher numbers. This is partly because plumbing is about more than just fitting pipes. Innovations in heating technology mean that a boiler will come with increasingly complicated installation instructions. These instructions will combine specialised texts and diagrams.
<<<
//(if 'digital literacy' was defined a functional literacy, this would explain why it changes and evolves)//
''p.19'' Literacy Trust 2001, defined literacy as:
<<<
the ability to read, write, and speak at a level necessary to //function// at work and in society in general.
<<<
''p.19'' - Concept of 'functionality' makes clear that nature of literacy changes because what we need it for changes. For example, Holmes gives case of 1914 literacy test that focuses on spellings. This is not such an important skill due to spellcheckers being commonplace these days.
''p.21'' - Problems with concept of 'functional literacy' - 3 core assumptions:
<<<
#Literacy has an economic impact (if it does not, it has no economic function).
#Literacy can be measured according to what it allows us to do.
#A literacy shaped by the socio-economic opportunities it affords us is a necessary and sufficient educational goal.
<<<
''p.23'' - 'Computerisation' doesn't necessarily mean increased literacy skills (Perie, et al, 1999):
<<<
One assumption is that computerisation requires new and even more advanced forms of literacy, but another outlook is that it deskills clerical work by reducing it to set routines such as data entry.
<<<
''p.29-30'' - Perie et al, 1999:6 - International Adult Literacy Survey (administered in US & Canada) - defined literacy as 'using printed and written information to function in society', but broke down these skills into:
<<<
*//prose literacy// - the knowledge and skills needed to understand and to use information from texts, including editorials, news stories, poems and fiction;
*//document literacy// - the knowledge and skill required to locate and to use information contained in various formats, including job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and graphics; and
*//quantitative literacy// - the knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a chequebook, figuring out a tip, completing an order form, or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement.
<<<
''p.31'' - Problem of treating literacy as set of competencies = an //affective// problem - when literacy reduced to set of skills, it is separated from individual's emotional engagement with culture. Becomes 'remote, automatist and demotivating.' Street (2001:293) - failure of many literacy campaigns to understand 'the cultural and conceptual nature of literacy'.
__Chapter 2 - Critical Literacy__
''p.39-40'' - Postmodernism in relation to literacy:
<<<
Post-modernism is a reaction against the single, controlling texts of the modernist ethos. The post-modernist mistrust of any singular, overarching idea takes root in a complicated view of meaning and language. This view does not just affect how we see the actions through which communities acquire literacy. It also affects the literacy that communities acquire. The belief that our lives are not governed by a singular set of principles extends into the way we view meaning and science. Most fundamentally, our literacy texts can no longer be treated as operating with a discourse of fixed and universal meanings.
<<<
//(this lends itself well to hypertext and the user making his or her own meaning out of texts)//
''p.53'' - Problem with functional literacy is that it has at its core the 'banking' concept of education:
<<<
The 'banking' concept of education treats the student as passive or as a cerebral vault in which the teacher simply deposits knowledge against the possibility of the student's future need. The student-teacher relationship implied by 'the banking concept' reflects the wider socio-economic and philosophical framework in which the teacher as banker must operate. ''A banking pedagogy is fatalistic, having a 'tamed' or domesticated view of the future'' (Freire 1992:101). This can be seen quite plainly in a functional model of literacy. A functional literacy derives its construction of what people will use literacy for from what people do with literacy now. Functionality commits students to a naive objectivism that 'banks' the future as a version of the present.
<<<
//(my emphasis - it is the fact that we really ''don't'' know what the future is for students that we need to embed 'learning to learn' within digital literacy skills)//
''p.55'' - Luke (1994) - //critical literacy// = acquisition of four types of competence:
#//Coding competence// - learning to 'break the code' to access the text (because literacy is encoded)
#//Semantic competence// - learning role as co-creator the meaning of the text (not just passive consumer)
#//Pragmatic competence// - understanding why the text was produced and what should be done with it
#//Critical competence// - understanding the manipulative purpose of the text and perhaps engage in deconstruction
__Chapter 3 - From Literacy to Literacies__
''p.64'' - Both 'functional' literacy and 'critical' literacy 'presuppose a dominant discourse which must be mastered at the expense of any other that exist.' Functional literacy 'how much' literacy an individual requires, whereas 'critical' literacy debates the quality of the 'possession'.
''p.65'' - Definition of 'literacy practices':
<<<
Literacy practices are the recurrent literacy activities of a community. They become practices because they unfold according to a repeated pattern... Sometimes the structure of the text reflects and controls the structure of the practice.
<<<
//(why 'literacy practices', why not ''habits''?)//
''p.67'' - Holme sees literacy as hierarchical:
|Literacy|
|Literacy practices|
|Literacy events|
//(and therefore because there are many different types of 'literacy events', there must be many types of 'literacy practices' and therefore many different 'literacies')//
''p.70'' - Idea of literacy being 'local':
<<<
When literacies are perceived as 'local' (Street 1996:85), this is not simply in a straightforward geographic sense. Literacies are 'local' to their context of use and they cannot be understood outside this context. Context and literacy, as a form of linguistic practice are 'bound together, existing as two mutually constitutive components of systems of action' (Hall 2002: 128).
<<<
//(Really? So literate practices reside inside narrowly-defined domains?)//
__Chapter 6 - Writing__
''p.123'' - Difference between texts texts that represent meaning and texts that represent language (diagram):
*Text: Image of cocktail and car with red line through it -> Meaning -> Lagnuage: Don't drink and drive. If you drive don't drink. //(Semasiographic system)//
*Text -> Language -> Meaning //(Linguistic system)//
__Chapter 8 - The Nature of Writing__
''p.145'' = 3 central points with respect to writing that involve considerable controversy:
<<<
#whether writing systems are simply technological solutions to the problems of language representation or larger semiotic systems which both reflect and influence the larger nature of the practices by which they are employed;
#whether a successful writing system is defined by its ability to represent speech;
#the question of phonocentrism. How far writing is parasitic upon speech, and simply a system of metasigns.
<<<
//(Indeed. Are, for example, all images and videos reducible to words?)//
''p.145-6'' - Street (1984) - technologies arise from socio-economic need, but also arise from cultural process of experimentation. 'Social practices and their supporting technologies are clearly bound up, one with the other.' (Holme gives example of Reformation - cheaper reading materials + dissatisfaction with corrupt practices of Catholic church)
__Chapter 9 - Basic Differences between Speech and Writing__
''p.153'' - Baron (2000:21) compiles a list showing differences between speech and writing. Holme adds one:
<<<
|//''Writing is:''//|//''Speech is:''//|h
|objective|interpersonal|
|a monologue|a dialogue|
|durable|ephemeral|
|decontextualised|contextualised|
|scannable|only linearly accessible|
|planned/highly structured|spontaneous/loosely structured|
|syntactically complex|syntactically simple|
|concerned with past and future|concerned with the present|
|formal|informal|
|expository|narrative|
|argument-oriented|event-oriented|
|abstract|concrete|
|syntactically and morphologically complete|syntactically and morphologically incomplete|
|mediational|communicative|
<<<
//(Certainly wouldn't agree with this dichotomy with online space. Which side would something like [[Twitter|http://twitter.com]] go, for example?)//
__Chapter 13 - Great Divide Theory__
''p.216'' - A Vygotskian model of 'accomodating a social practice view of literacy within a socio-historical model of mind':
[img[Figure 13.1 Accommodating a social practice view of literacy within a socio-historical model of mind|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/social_practice_literacy.jpg]]
__Chapter 15 - The Social Nature of Literacy__
''p.235'' - Literacy function and literacy states defined:
<<<
The only literacy function is the practices in which we engage and the only literacy state is the level of knowledge that such an engagement requires.
<<<
//(I'm not too sure what to make of this - is this a small or large view of literacy)//
''p.236'' - Can't just expect students to 'get on with it' - need apprenticeships when it comes to literacy practices:
<<<
Yet all complicated social activity requires an apprenticeship, establishing the necessary rites of passage. We cannot, like the subjects' of some ill-applied whole-book method of literacy acquisition, simply plunge students into a complicated practice such as novel reading, and leave them to swim through the problems of interpretation it poses. In other words, we need to wed the literacy function to our ability to engage in the practices that may constitute our wider existence. We also need to learn how to understand these zones of activity, appraise what these students need to know or question how they came to be.
<<<
//(Substitute 'navigating online spaces' for 'novel reading' and his right on the money!)//
''p.236'' - Continues train of thought from previous quotation:
<<<
But pedagogy is not only about a straightforward induction to accepted forms of activity; it is also about a parallel development of a stronger critical disposition, and, hence, a more creative engagement with the practices to which we are inducted. Only then does the literacy student become a practitioner in the real sense of entering into a critical dialogue with a prevailing cultural ethos and thereby developing its future forms.
<<<
//(interesting potential definition of literacy in there - ability to understand literacy practices to an extent that individual can help shape future forms)//
''p.239'' - Example of how to come to a definition:
<<<
In a given community we agree on what constitutes a fairy story, for example, because the practices of reading and writing such texts are consolidated by a collective, tacit understanding of what the fairy story genre is.
<<<
//(I'm not entirely sure that this makes sense - to come to a definition we have to ''not'' talk about what something is?!)//
''McCormick, R., 'Practical Knowledge: A View from the Snooker Table' (in R. McCormick & C. Paechter (eds.), //Learning and Knowledge//, OUP, 1999)''
''p.112'' - Teachers tend to teach theoretical knowledge rather than practical knowledge because it is more widely applicable:
<<<
One of our premises as teachers is that we teach academic or theoretical knowledge because it is applicable in all situations, unlike practical knowledge that is limited to particular situations. We assume that theoretical knowledge is decontextualised, and therefore it can be transferred from the classroom and used in practical situations outside schools and colleges.
<<<
(McCormick wants to argue that this is not the case)
''p.113'' - Snooker players need to have both theoretical //and// practical knowledge in order to be successful. The difference between snooker players and mathematicians/physicists illustrates McCormick's thinking.
''p.123-4'' - Even if people are taught things abstractly, they do not store them (as knowledge) as such:
<<<
The reason we teach Newton's laws of motion and not, for example, snooker, in science lessons is that these laws are general and not bound by any particular context. It is assumed that the science knowledge is abstract and therefore independent of context, in other words it is 'decontextualised knowledge'... That we need abstract and symbolic knowledge such as science and mathematics is beyond dispute but that people understand it in some abstract and symbolic form in their heads, is more difficult to sustain.
<<<
''p.126'' - Knowledge isn't just 'in the head', it is bound up with //activity//:
<<<
Most of us no doubt assume that knowledge is in the head, and that we dig it out of our memory banks to use it for some task (whether that task is of the kind we find in schools or colleges, or ones that are part of daily life). There are a collection of approaches to cognition and learning that argue that knowledge is integrated with activity, along with the tools, sign systems and skills associated with the activity. In this sense knowledge guides action, and action guides knowledge. This is not just an individual affair, as some of th eknowledge may be accumulated social knowledge.
<<<
(c.f. my thinking about needing to be exposed to many tokens of the same type to gain //true// knowledge of something)
''Sloane, S. & Johnstone, J. (2000) 'Reading sideways, backwards, and across: Scottish and American literacy practices and weaving the Web' (in Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L., //Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web//)''
''p.156-7'' - 'Borrowing' ideas and re-writing them, etc. is not something new with dawn of the Internet. Many examples in print-based media (e.g. C.S. Lewis' //Narnia Chronicles// borrowing from George Macdonald's //Lilith//)
''p.158'' - Authors quote Street (1995: 45)
<<<
In the field of literacy neither theory nor practice can be divorced from their ideological roots.
<<<
//(A great quotation that should go in the section of my concept map for 'reasons why there are different conceptions of digital literacy')//
''p.160'' - Definition of 'culture' from publicity for Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, 1978, p.19, quoted in Street, 1995, p.59:
<<<
the lived experience, the consciousness of a whole society; that particular order, pattern, configuration of valued experience, expressed now in imaginative art of the highest order, now in the most popular and proverbial forms, in gesture and language, in myth and ideology, in modes of communication and in forms of social relationship and organisation.
<<<
//(does this actually get a handle on anything?)//
''S. Stoll Dalton & R.G. Tharp, 'Standards for Pedagogy: Research, Theory and Practice' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton, //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002)''
''p.181'' - Dominant pedagogy in industrialized countries is whole-class instruction, yet research shows that the most effective forms of learning involve:
<<<
...the learner's interaction with materials and activity [occurring] primarily in a social context of relationships. In fact, that social context is the major constituent of the activity itself. As people (adults and children) act and talk together, minds are under constant construction, parituclarly for the novice and the young. The social processes by which minds are formed must be understood as the very stuff of education.
<<<
(goes on to talk r.e. Vygotskian ZPD)
''p.182'' - 5 standards of the CHAT (Cultural Historical Activity Theory) programme:
#Joint Productive Activity - teachers and student producing together (JPA)
#Developing Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum (LLD)
#Making Meaning - connecting school to students' lives (MM)
#Teaching Complex Thinking - Cognitive Challenge (CC)
#Teaching Through Instructional Conversation (IC)
''p.183-192'' - (examples of the 5 standards)
''Prensky, M.'' (2001) [[Do They Really Think Differently?|http://bit.ly/2fvLi7]] (//On the Horizon//, NCB University Press, 9:6, December 2001)
*''p.7-8'' - Prensky presents 'latest research' on //neuroplasticity// showing that the brain can change physically throughout our life:
<<<
Based on the latest research in neurobiology, there is no longer any question that stimulation of various kinds actually changes brain structures and affects the way people think, and that these transformations go on //throughout life//. The brain is, to an extent not at all understood or believed to be when Baby Boomers were growing up, //massively plastic//. It can be, and is, constantly reorganized. (Although the popular term //rewired// is somewhat misleading, the overall idea is right—the brain changes and organizes itself differently based on the inputs it receives.) The old idea that we have a fixed number of brain cells that die off one by one has been replaced by research showing that our supply of brain cells is replenished constantly. The brain //constantly// reorganizes itself all our child and adult lives, a phenomenon technically known as //neuroplasticity//.
<<<
//(doesn't this blow his Digital Native/Immigrant distinction out of the water?)//
''p.9'' - Prensky only //assuming// that the brains of 'Digital Natives' will be 'wired' differently:
<<<
We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently, and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds them think differently. And while we haven’t yet directly observed Digital Natives’ brains to see whether they are physically different (such as musicians’ appear to be) the indirect evidence for this is extremely strong.
<<<
''p.10'' - Prensky believes that 'Digital Natives' are bored in class with old ways of learning and therefore //choose// not to pay attention:
<<<
As a result of their experiences Digital Natives crave interactivity—an immediate response to their each and every action. Traditional schooling provides very little of this compared to the rest of their world (one study showed that students in class get to ask a question every //10 hours//) So it generally isn’t
that Digital Natives can’t pay attention, it’s that they //choose not to//.
<<<
//(doesn't ''everyone'' crave interactivity?)//
''p.11'' - Prensky admits that 'Digital Natives' are likely to be less good at critical thinking and reflection:
<<<
Still, we often hear from teachers about increasing problems their students have with reading and thinking. What about this? Has anything been lost in the Digital Natives’ “reprogramming” process?
One key area that appears to have been affected is reflection. Reflection is what enables us, according to many theorists, to generalize, as we create “mental models” from our experience. It is, in many ways, the process of “learning from experience.” In our twitch-speed world, there is less and less time and opportunity for reflection, and this development concerns many people. One of the most interesting challenges and opportunities in teaching Digital Natives is to figure out and invent ways to include
reflection and critical thinking in the learning (either built into the instruction or through a process of instructor-led debriefing) but still do it in the Digital Native language. We can and must do more in this area.
<<<
//(wouldn't this seem to argue ''against'' aligning education with the 'hypermedia' and fast-paced, parallel world of the 'Digital Native'?//
''p.13'' - Prensky believes that because there's been success with game-based learning with handicapped children and those signing up for the military, that it's a good idea for all:
<<<
So, today’s neurobiologists and social psychologists agree that brains can and do change with new input. And today’s educators with the most crucial learning missions— teaching the handicapped and the military—are already using custom designed computer and video games as an effective way of reaching Digital Natives. But the bulk of today’s tradition-bound educational establishment seem in no hurry to follow their lead.
<<<
//(perhaps that's because they're dealing with the academic lower-end where they ''need'' much visually-led stuff?)//
''A. Bryman, //Social Research Methods// (Oxford, 2004)''
''p.17'' - Becker (1982) - culture is not a static thing:
<<<
People create culture continuously... No set of cultural understandings... provides a perfectly applicable solution to any problem people have to solve in the course of their day, and they therefore must remake those solutions, adapt their understandings to the new situation in the light of what is different about it.
<<<
//(I like this quotation as it shows how users of technology are also __creators__)//
*''G. Lakoff & M. Johnson'' - //Metaphors We Live By// (cited by [[http://bit.ly/3nDK2|http://bit.ly/3nDK2]]), 2003, p.273:
<<<
If conceptual metaphors are real, then all literalist and objectivists views of meaning and knowledge are false. We can no longer pretend to build an account of concepts and knowledge on objective, literal foundations. This constitutes a profound challenge to many of the traditional ways of thinking about what it means to be human, about how the mind works, and about our nature as social and cultural creatures.
At the same time, what we have discovered is fundamentally at odds with certain key tenets of postmodernist thought, especially those that claim that meaning is ungrounded and simply an arbitrary cultural construction. What has been discovered about primary metaphor, for example, simply does not bear this out. There appear to be both universal metaphors and cultural variation.
<<<
*''Cosma Rohilla Shalizi'' - //[[Social Construction of Reality|http://bit.ly/1ofSkJ]]// (University of Michigan, Center for the Study of Complex Systems), 2000:
<<<
We do not, //pace// Durkheim, ever actually deal with society; we deal with other people --- our parents, our playmates, our bosses, our enemies, our spawn, etc., etc. It's certainly true that we acquire many concepts, ideas and ways of thinking from these people, through formal instruction, through shared experience, through conversation and conviviality, and through direct imitation, but it by no means follows that we acquire a //coherent system of thought// from them, much less that we all //share// the same system by virtue of getting in each other's hair. This doesn't make it impossible to talk about (e.g.) which conceptions are //common// in a certain population, but it does or should warn us against laying out elaborate conceptual systems and saying "This is what the English aristocracy thought in 1900" or the like.
<<<
*''P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann'', 'The Social Construction of Reality' (in Calhoun, C., et al., //[[Contemporary Sociological Theory|http://bit.ly/2gSM8G]]//, 2002), p.42
<<<
All human activity is subject to habitualization. Any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern, which can then be reproduced with an economy of effort and which, //ipso facto//, is apprehended by the performer //as// that pattern.
<<<
*''P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann'', 'The Social Construction of Reality' (in Calhoun, C., et al., //[[Contemporary Sociological Theory|http://bit.ly/2gSM8G]]//, 2002), p.42
<<<
Institutionalization occurs whenever there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized actions by types of actors. Put differently, any such typification is an institution.
...
Institutions always have a history, of which they are the products. It is impossible to understand an institution adequately without an understanding of the historical process in which it was produced.
<<<
*''P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann'', 'The Social Construction of Reality' (in Calhoun, C., et al., //[[Contemporary Sociological Theory|http://bit.ly/2gSM8G]]//, 2002), p.46
<<<
The objective power of institutions is not diminished if the individual does not understand their purpose or their mode of operation. He may experience large sectors of the social world as incomprehensible, perhaps oppressive in their opaqueness, but real nonetheless. Such institutions exist as external reality, the individual cannot understand them by introspection. He must "go out" and learn about them, just as he must to learn about nature.
<<<
*''P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann'', 'The Social Construction of Reality' (in Calhoun, C., et al., //[[Contemporary Sociological Theory|http://bit.ly/2gSM8G]]//, 2002), p.49
<<<
Theories also have to be taken into account, of course. But theoretical knowledge is only a small and by no means the most important part of what passes for knowledge in a society. Theoretically sophisticated legitimations appear at particular moments of an institutional history. The primary knowledge about an institutional order is knowledge on the pretheoretical level. It is the sum total of "what everybody knows" about a social world, an assemblage of maxims, morals, proverbial nuggets of wisdom, values and beliefs, myths, and so forth, the theoretical integration of which requires considerable intellectual fortitude in itself, as the long line of heroic integrators from Homer to the latest sociological system-builders testifies.
<<<
*''P.L. Berger & T. Luckmann'', 'The Social Construction of Reality' (in Calhoun, C., et al., //[[Contemporary Sociological Theory|http://bit.ly/2gSM8G]]//, 2002), p.49-50
<<<
What is taken for granted as knowledge in the society comes to be coextensive with the knowable, or at any rate provides the framework within which anything not yet known will come to be known in the future.
...
Knowledge about society is thus a //realization// in the double sense of the word, in the sense of apprehending the objectivated social reality, and in the sense of ongoingly producing this reality.
<<<
//(this is a great quotation in support of continued use of 'literacy' even within digital sphere - like car being 'horseless carriage', etc.)//
''Roszak, T., //The Cult of Information: the folklore of computers and the true art of thinking// (Cambridge, 1986)''
//(remember that he's talking pre-WWW)//
''p.ix-x'' - Technology has been inextricably linked in the public mind to information:
<<<
Information has taken on the quality of that impalpable, invisible, but plaudit-winning silk from which the emperor's ethereal gown was supposedly spun. The word has received ambitious, global definitions that make it all good things to all people.
<<<
''p.22'' - Information is not the same as knowledge, even though some assume it to be. John Naisbett, //Megatrends//:
<<<
we now mass-produce information the way we used to mass-produce cars. In the information society, we have systematized the production of knowledge and amplified our brain-power. To use an industrial metaphor, we now massproduce knowledge and this knowledge is the driving force of our economy.
<<<
//(this is probably why people talk of 'knowledge societies' now, rather than 'information societies)//
''p.49'' - quotes the 'creator of a British computer literacy program':
<<<
in the future, our children will be thinking in ways that we can't even envision at the moment. The computer is providing them with an intellectual tool that they can drive and control to achieve mental feats which we would probably consider absurd - if we knew what they were likely to be!
<<<
''p.51'' - Joseph Weizenbaum of MIT - the computer is 'a solution in search of problems'
''p.156'' - quotes Mr Gradgrind in //Hard Times// by Charles Dickens:
<<<
Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. you can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them.
<<<
''p.161'' = quotes John Naisbett's //Megatrends//:
<<<
The new power is not money in the hands of the few, but information in the hands of the many.
<<<
//(c.f. Web 2.0?)//
''P. Hogan & R. Smith, 'The Activity of Philosophy and the Practice of Education' (in N. Blake, et al. (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education, Oxford, 2003)''
''p.166'' - Education - "part of the machinery of some higher office, or dominant outlook, whether authoritarian or democratic, religious or secular, or other in character". Cannot tackle these assumptions through logical argument.
''p.167'' - Problem of thinking about education rather than simply getting on an doing it:
<<<
In short, to //theorize// about human experience is to render it lucid at the cost of wresting it from its embeddedness in social and historical circumstance. It is to obscure the particularity, the contextuality, the embodiment in language and idiom, that is essential to experience itself. The gain in understanding is secured at the cost of recasting experience as something else, of losing what is particular to experience //qua// experience, as distinct from experience as the object of theoretical explanation.
<<<
''Bigum, C. & Green, B., (1993) 'Technologizing literacy: or, interrupting the dream of reason' (in Luke, A. & Gilbert, P. (eds.) //Literacy in Contexts: Australian Perspectives and Issues//)''
''p.4'' - Authors discuss increasing talk (in 1993) of link between technology and literacy:
<<<
Increasingly one find reference to 'technologizing literacy', conceived as the next important phase in literacy pedagogy. This is usually understood in terms of the application of computer-based technologies in literacy practice - that is, the computerization of literacy, or the articulation of literacy and computing. It is something commonly understood as a //progressive// feature, a way of moving into the future: the epitome of human progress.
<<<
//(authors want to put forward alternative view)//
''p.5'' - Useful to distinguish between various discourses when referring to 'technology' in association with 'literacy' [have put what they go on to say about them in squared brackets]
<<<
*technology //for// literacy ['relating the new information technologies to literacy']
*literacy //for// technology [functional literacy]
*literacy //as// technology [how literacy pedagogy has been traditionally conceived and constructed]
*technology //as// literacy [using 'literacy' as a term essentially synonymous with knowledge]
<<<
//(authors say they're primarily concerned with first of these - i.e. 'technology ''for'' literacy')//
''p.6'' - Authors talk of "the largely discredited term 'computer literacy'"
//(interesting - especially when looking at history of 'literacies')//
''p.7'' - Danger of technology producing 'orthodoxies' - political implications spelled out by Franklin (1990: 24-25):
<<<
[W]e are ever more condiioned to accept orthodoxy as normal, and to accept that there is only one way of doing 'it'. [...] The ordering that prescriptive technologies has caused as now moved from ordering at work and the ordering of work, to the prescriptive ordering of people in a wide variety of social situations.
<<<
//(Absolutely! So, perhaps an facet of 'digital literacy' is subversive - not just accepting the reality of confines of what a computer-based system currently allows you to do? Would link to idea of 'digital literacy' involving an aspect of creating new literacy as you go...)//
''p.8'' - Authors mention adage, "any teacher who can be replaced by a machine should be."
//(I like this!)//
''p.9'' - Winner (1986) talks of 'mythinformation' - jumping on bandwagon requires justification in retrospect and ever-increasing investment and ties.
''p.10'' - Authors believe it is surprising that computer still in schools:
<<<
What is perhaps surprising is how well the myths that have sustained computers in schools have survived, and with so little challenge. In the particular case of technologized literacy pedagogy, it is based on a mix of various economic-rationalist claims about the importance of developing literacy skills and the value of computer experience for future employment.
<<<
//(I think things may have changed, just a little...)//
''p.11'' - Does 'digital literacy' entail a 'production model' instead of a 'growth model' as a guiding principle? Franklin (1990):
<<<
A production model is different in kind [from a growth model]/ Hence things are not grown but made, and made under conditions that are, at least in principle, entirely controllable. If in practice such control is not complete or completely successful, then there is an assumption, implicit in the model, that improvements in knowledge, design, and organization can occur so that all essential parameters will become controllable. Production, then, is predictable, while growth is not.
<<<
//(Authors go on to talk about the 'legacy of educational science' - I think that legacy is now leaving us)//
''p.12-13'' - Authors quote de Castell and Luke (1987: 425) about orthodoxy of technology:
<<<
What happens in many modern classrooms, then, is a mechanistic reduction of literacy into a hierarchy of constituent skills. In order to become 'skilled', students must suspend their own particular worldview, background knowledge, and existing linguistic competence. As important is the fact that teachers must undergo a parallel transformation, sacrificing technique to the directives of technology. Both teachers and students are 'deskilled' and 'reskilled' by technology, as previously acquired knowledge and competence are replaced by externally defined, transmitted, and tested skills [...]
<<<
//(This is a good quotation to use if I want to have a nuanced view between, for example, 'digital literacy' and 'digital competence'. Latter = being able to use computer to produce something, whereas former = bending the technology to your own whims)//
''p.14'' - 3 distinct discourses on literacy and literacy pedagogy that authors have identified and observed:
*Functional literacy
*Cultural literacy
*Critical literacy
//(go on to say that these terms have emerged 'relatively recently')//
''p.16'' - Levine (1986) - functional literacy is a political concept and:
<<<
...at an early stage adopted by parties in a series of political arenas, military, educational and diplomatic, who needed a label for their convictions regarding the economic potential of, and justification for, mass training for adults in basic literacy skills.
<<<
//(links to quotations I found r.e. 1940's military term)//
''p.24'' - Two separate fields being brought together with 'technologizing literacy':
<<<
Technologizing literacy is not a simple, straightforward matter of bringing the new technologies to bear on literacy pedagogy, as the latest development in the inexorable advance of human reason and the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. Rather, it involves bringing together two complex and contradictory discursive fields, each of which is thoroughly imbricated in the maintenance and renewal of social power and the structured forms of privilege and subordination which characterize our society.
<<<
''p.24-25'' - What is needed in the future (i.e. from 1993 onwards) in terms of synthesizing literacy and technology practices:
<<<
What is needed now is a cultural-critical perspective on both literacy and technology, and a holistic view of the nexus between literacy pedagogy and the new technologies which brings together the //operational//, the //cultural// and the //critical// dimensions of both literacy and what we might call 'computency'
<<<
//('Computency'?! What a horrible term!)//
''A.Stetsenko & I. Arievitch, 'Teaching, Learning, and Development: A Post-Vygotskian Perspective' (in G. Wells & G. Claxton, //Learning for Life in the 21st Century//, Oxford, 2002)
''
''p.87'' - Learning of language opens up "new levels of thinking, self-regulation and mentality" - changes a child's //being// - c.f. technological literacy?
''p.89'' - __Gal-perin__: need for 'cultural tools' for children to be able to develop mentally. In most schools,
<<<
...children are not given tools that enable them to construct their actions in a form that is most conducive to the efficient transformation of [their] actions into the instruments of mind. Instead, school children are often faced with fragmented, poorly generalized phenomena that are supposed to be learned by simply memorizing them.
<<<
''p.95'' - Children not only need to acquire rules and facts //(declarative knowledge)// but also 'procedures of how and where to apply knowledge' //(procedural knowledge)//
''B. Levin & J.A. Riffel, //Schools and the Changing World: struggling toward the future// (London, 1997)''
!Chapter 1 - Social Change and Organizational Response
''p.7'' - Hargreaves (1994) - 7 key areas of change that affect the needs of students and the situation of schools:
#The flexible economy
#Globalization
#The decline of certainty in knowledge
#The need for organizations that are less rigidly structured
#Changes in people's sense of self and the increasing pressure on individuals to define and create themselves (c.f. Giddens, 1994)
#The growth of technological imagery and simulation
#The compression of time and space
''p.7'' - Beniger (1986) - identified more than 50 different claimed 'transformations' of society since 1945 (suggests that our readiness to embrace grand schemes of change may be greater than the changes themselves)
''p.8-9'' - Grant & Murray (1996) - school change has not be revolutionary since its inception:
<<<
The age-graded, centrally controlled and highly bureaucratized system of public schools has survived largely in the form in which it was invented in the late nineteenth century. Virtually all of the successful changes in the system could be classified as those that helped the system to expand, to extend its services or to become more efficient.
<<<
(I think this is 'public schools' in the American sense)
''p.9'' - Larry Cuban (1988) - so many reforms, so little change:
<<<
so much school reform has take place over the last century yet schooling appears to be pretty much the same as it has always been.
<<<
''p.14'' - We can talk of wide trends, but change will always be local:
<<<
In an important sense, identification or understanding of issues and changes is always local. The literature on schools and change may talk in terms of macro trends - changing technology, changing patterns of work, changing modes of organizing. But what people actually see in their daily lives are local and concrete manifestations of larger trends. We may all agree that 'the global economy' is an important change affecting education, but the meaning of this phrase will be quite different in a large urban centre and in a small rural community.
<<<
''p.15'' - David Cohen (1992, 1995) - changes must be voluntary, meaning no-one is in a position to change anything:
<<<
He argues that schools are highly decentralized, with the capacity to make changes distributed not only among levels of government but also within the school among administrators, teachers and students. Changes in learning require changes in people's behaviour that must largely be voluntary, so that nobody is in a position to impose change in practice even when there is agreement on changes in policy. Changes in educational practice depend on changes in teachers' knowledge, their professional values and commitments and the social resources of teaching practice, yet these are not often the focus of reforms, which are themselves didactic in approach.
<<<
''p.16'' - Powell & Dimaggio (1991) - schools constrain options for change:
<<<
Institutionalized arrangements are reproduced because individuals often cannot even conceive of appropriate alternatives (or because they regard as unrealistic the alternatives they can imagine). Institutions do not just constrain options: they establish the very criteria by which people discover their preferences. In other words, some of the most important sunk costs are cognitive.
<<<
(quotation from P&D)
''p.18'' - 'Logic of confidence' - schools can remain pretty much unchanged so long as they are seen as embodying the right kind of activities and processes. 'Testing students becomes a substitute for actually taking steps to improve learning.' (c.f. Meyer & Rowan, 1977)
''p.17'' - March & Olsen (1989) - paradox that effective adaptation to change will lead to less effective adaptation in future. The strategy introduced is effective, people commit to it and the organization adopts it as standard practice. However, conditions then change, and the strategy becomes less effective. Kaufman (1985) - making the organization more 'flexible' doesn't help necessarily as 'it is a paradox that maintaining flexibility can itself shut off options and impose limits to flexibility.'
''p.17'' - Cuban (1988) - difference between ''first order'' and ''second order'' changes:
*''First order changes'' - practices or activities change
*''Second order changes'' - organization's sense of itself and its fundamental approach are altered
!Chapter 4 - Learning about the Changing World
''p.46'' - Schools and social change:
<<<
In our view, the way school systems learn about social change may be suitable for understanding the local manifestations of change, but seem unlikely to help people achieve the bigger picture they need and want. Individuals are often thoughtful and outward-looking, but the school systems themselves were generally not. The ways that problems are addressed, that information is generated, that ideas are circulated, and that meaning is cultivated seem more likely to lead to a fragmented than a coherent understanding of the emerging place of education in a changing world... ''social change tends to be seen as interfering with the work of schooling rather than being seen as the backdrop that should give education its meaning and focus.''
<<<
(my emphasis)
''p.58-59'' - Senge - //The Fifth Discipline// (1990) - we are indoctrinated against seeing the 'big picture':
<<<
From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay an enormous hidden price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lost our intrinsic sense of connection to the larger whole. When we then try to 'see the big picture' we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize the pieces... the task is futile... similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection.
<<<
''p.61'' - We need to rethink education and change:
<<<
To find the intellectual keys to respond appropriately to social change, we need to broaden, not narrow, how we think of education and social change.
<<<
!Chapter 5 - How School Systems Respond to Social Change
''p.64'' - West & Hopkins (1995) - UK schools do not have the power to create their own futures:
<<<
...the majority of schools are unprepared to exercise control over their own futures. They simply do not have the structures, the experience or the strategies necessary to move the school systematically in a given direction, even where there is increased clarity about what the direction should be.
<<<
(quotation from W&H)
''p.65'' - Change in schools often relies on a group of committed volunteers. This results in many changes not being institutionalized and them dying if key staff leave.
''p.65'' - March (1991) - schools don't have the structures to use new ideas and technologies:
<<<
Schools and other educational institutions have invested rather little in absorptive capacity... they have the capability of using new ideas that are close to their existing technologies, but they have not built an inventory of prior knowledge that would permit them to use radically new ideas intelligently. As a result, they tend to adopt the form but not the substance of new concepts.
<<<
(quotation from March)
''p.71'' - Most educators don't want schools to change because they like it the way it is/was:
<<<
Most educators are people who liked school and were successful at it. They are not, then, oriented towards change, but towards preservation of what worked for them... Educators tend to believe that their real wisdom is found in practice, so that formal education, perhaps especially if it is unconventional, is often seen as impractical and of limited value - an irony in view of the daily commitment of educators themselves to formal education and prescribed curricula.
<<<
(''My thought:'' does this actually make sense? don't they contradict themselves?)
''p.72'' - Schools are 'stuck' due to the number of stakeholders involved:
<<<
One can think of schools as caught in nets or webs; no single srand may be especially strong, but the overall effect is to prevent anything from moving very much. Moreover, the strands of the web are not only physical, but become internalized by those schools until they seem natural and inevitable. The limts may be more permeable than anyone imagines, but if they are not tested they remain real.
<<<
(follows on, new paragraph)
<<<
Establishing a clear direction for change is also difficult because schooling is an activity with multiple, sometimes inconsistent, goals and few clear outcomes. Analytical processes are hard to apply in such situations because it isn't clear what should be analysed, or from what perspective.
<<<
! Chapter 6 - The Impact of a Changing Labor Market
''p.78'' - OECD (1993):
<<<
Only a well-trained and highly adaptable labour force can provide the capcity to adjust to structural change and seize new employment opportunities created by technological progress. Achieving this will in many cases entail a re-examination, perhaps radical, of the economic treatment of human resources and education.
<<<
''p.79'' - The reasonably well-paying industrial jobs open to school leavers at 16 with no further education have vanished in the UK. Not clear that moden economies actually require much higher numbers of educated workers - rate of increase in skilled jobs is slower than the rise in education levels (Berryman, 1992; Levin, 1995)
''p.80'' - Can't motivate students to stay in school because of a job at the end of it any more:
<<<
Insofar as finishing high school has less impact that it used to on labor market outcomes, schools can expect serious problems of motivation for students. If the traditional promise of schooling - Stay in School and Get a Job - fails, it seems likely that it will be increasingly difficult to control students and to keep them interested for extrinsic reasons. Given the history especially of secondary schooling, the potential problem is very great indeed.
<<<
(''My thought:'' this is why schools need to change radically and appeal much more to/develop the //intrinsic// motivation of students)
! Chapter 7 - Schools Coping with the Impact of Information Technology
''p.97'' - Schools view technology as efficient means of doing traditional things, instead of changing pedagogy - David (1992):
<<<
The primary reason technology has failed to live up to its promise lies in the fact that it has been viewed as an answer tothe wrong question. Decisions about technology purchases and uses are typically driven by the question of how to improve the effectiveness of what schools are already doing - not how to transform what schools do... Moreover, as has been typical with innovations of the past, scant attention has been paid to preparing teachers and administrators to use new technology well and even less to their preferences about hardware and software.
<<<
(''My thought:'' trying to develop School 1.5 instead of School 2.0?)
''p.104'' - Suburban district administrator, quoted by the authors from an interview:
<<<
The teacher previously was the depository of information, if not the sole one, certainly the main one. Now that is no longer the situation. The teacher is now a facilitator - not a reservoir of knowledge. Students are allowed to discover. In that respect the computer has had a significant effect on how we see teaching and learning.
<<<
''p.105'' - Rural district school administrator, quoted by the authors from an interview:
<<<
If we use it teachers are going to have to change their style of teaching and allow students to be turned loose on projects. That shouldn't be too far in the future, I hope. I think we're making a big mistake by trying to hold the kids in classrooms and teach them stuff. There is some stuff you need to teach them, but I think they should be taught more about systems than stuff. They can always look the stuff up. I'm not sure how that applies to Science, but I'm sure that's the case with Social Studies.
<<<
''p.112-113'' - Reasons why technology doesn't transform schools instantly:
<<<
Technology can transform the work of people, but often doesn't. One reason for this is that it is often used first to do old tasks; it takes time to discover new possibilities. Secondly, there are significant barriers to inquiry oriented instruction in schools - traditional models of teaching and learning are deeply embedded in the structure and culture of schools as well as in the minds of parents and policy makers in education (Cohen, 1987). Old ideas about practice die hard. For example, in contrast to North American reform initiatives, recent education policy in Britain has given much less emphasis to technology than to vehicles such as examinations and inspection systems as means of improving education.
<<<
(''My thought:'' c.f. that Apple programme from the 1990s where pedagogy changed when students had access to computers each?)
!Chapter 11 - Coping with Social Change: Themes and Suggestions
''p.161'' - Halpin (1996) - how schools can react to 'threat' of technology:
<<<
Confronted by this wave of uncertainty, schools can respond, broadly speaking, in either one of two ways: they can imitate a particular version of the past in order to protect against chronic contingency, or they can engage with and anticipate change through innovation and risk-taking.
<<<
''p.161-165'' - Conclusions from authors' research:
#Social change is seen as having powerful and often negative effects on schools, the appropriate responses to which are not at all evident.
#School systems are not sufficiently oriented towards learning about the nature and implications of social change. When a learning stance is adopted, it seems more due to fortuitous circumstances than because of a deliberate desire to adopt such a stance.
#Strategies for responding to change seemed limited and unimaginative.
#Learning and change in systems are different than learning and change in individual organizations. Learning processes in educational systems are seriously inhibited by the dominance of conventional wisdom about the nature and purposes of schooling.
#Some of the problems are intractable and many of the solutions are beyond the reach of schools alone. Nevertheless it seems reasonable to expect a more outward looking stance and more innovation on the part of schools and school systems. ''Moving beyond inherited ideas about the nature of learning, teaching and schooling will be a struggle. Still, we need to do better. People can achieve a lot more than they think, in much simpler ways than they believe.''
(my emphasis)
''Burnett, R., Technology, Learning and Visual Culture (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silicon Literacies: Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age//, London, 2002)''
''p.141-2'' - Felman (1982) - quotes Socrates and Freud both talking at different times about the 'radical impossibility of teaching'. Burnett - recognition of this 'enables and encourages the development of new and innovative approaches to pedagogy and learning'. Felman (1982) - learning never progresses along a 'simple one-way road from ignorance to knowledge.'
''p.141'' - Importance of popular culture:
<<<
Popular culture provides a central if not crucial foundation for the lives of students. Often, in not recognising the centrality of popular culture, teachers may be missing some of the most important elements in students' understanding of their own lives.
<<<
''p.142'' - The classroom is not necessarily the best place to understand what motivates students:
<<<
The history of education is full of experiments and noble efforts at change. My intuition has always been that learning comes about when we understand what motivates or attracts us to a particular set of ideas or practices. The difficulty for the teacher is that the classroom is not necessarily the best place to discover those motivations. The classroom as an environment often does not easily facilitate the type of personal interaction that permits students and teacher to recognise the elliptical nature of the communication processes in which they are engaging. This would apply to environments in which technology is embedded as well as to classrooms in which technology is not the essential characteristic.
<<<
''p.142'' - In 1913 Thomas Edison predicted that textbooks would 'soon be obsolete in the schools' because of motion pictures. Similar predictions accompanied the diffusion of radio in the 1920s and 1930s and television in the 1950s.
''p.143-4'' - Teachers need to understand popular culture - including the Internet:
<<<
If classrooms are to be places of exchange, then students and teachers need to feel comfortable about their relationship to popular culture. THis also means rethinking how the Web operates, because it is fundamentally a window into the concerns and narratives of popular culture. If we factor in th role that computer and online games have in defining a cultural orientation, then th urgency of developing creative tools to critique visual cultures is all the more central to the task of teaching and learning. ''Somewhere between the classroom, the home and the street, we will find that learning has moved far beyond the conventional competencies that teachers look for in their students. Driven by a combination of new and old technologies as well as social and economic change, learning now takes place in so many different ways and venues, that we need a far more integrative and holistic approach to pedagogy.''
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.144'' - Fundamental guidelines that provide a foundation for an integrative pedagogical approach:
<<<
#Popular and visual cultures are immersed in technology. ''Learners are both the progenitors and creators of technological innovation.''
#Resistance and acquiescence drive learning. Cultural phenomena are part of a complex system through which a variety of central narratives are constructed. These narratives are the content of the media and if we are to connect learning to context, we need to know and understand these stories.
#''Classrooms are public arenas of exchange''. Networked learning does not eliminate the contradictions, potential and pitfalls of the classroom experience. Technology is never a substitute for interpersonal exchange and I say this even as Internet technologies are redefining what we mean by public discourse and public spaces as well as interactivity and human conversation.
#''The search for meaning occurs through patterning''; learners construct meaning through creating patterns of connections (Marshall 2000).
#Connections mean connectivity, which cannot be achieved unless there is a genuine understanding of how the process of communications works. This means that students must participate in the creation of the learning experience. This is not only for themselves, but also for the teachers who teach them. ''Communication is about an exchange among equals and/or those who strive for equality''.
#An interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach is needed if a new paradigm of learning is to be created and the use of technologies must be factored at all levels (Stephens 2000).
<<<
//(my emphases)//
''p.145'' - Technologies are not the answer to everything - they are //tools//:
<<<
Ultimately, new technologies are instruments of communication and are helping to create what might best be described as an ecology where the ways in which we interact with each other will be increasingly mediated by machines.
<<<
Difference between data, information & knowledge:
<<<
"'Data' is a series of disconnected facts and observations. These may be converted to information by analysing, cross-referencing, selecting, sorting, summarising or in some other way organising the data. It take work to convert data into information... knowledge consists of an organised body of information, such information patterns form the basis of insights and judgements."
<<<
Stonier (1983) - quoted in S. Dunn & V. Morgan, //The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers// (London, 1987)
----
Difference between ''education'' & ''training'':
<<<
"Training provides skills. Education provides meta-skills. Meta-skills are a sort of super-skill which allow one to acquire other skills more easily... Meta-skills allow one to obtain needed information and assimilate it readily even though the information is outside one's own expertise. The more educated one becomes, the more versatile one becomes."
<<<
Stonier (1983) - quoted in S. Dunn & V. Morgan, //The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers// (London, 1987)
----
Definitions of ''educational technology'':
''National Council for Educational Technology for the United Kingdom (NCET)'' - "Educational technology is the development, application and evaluation of system, techniques and aids to improve the process of human learning." (p.9)
''National Centre for Programmed Learning, UK'' - "Educational technology is the application of scientific knowledge about learning, and the conditions of learning, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning." (p.9)
''Commission on Instructional Technology, USA'' - "Educational technology is a systematic way of designing, implementing and evaluating the total process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research in human learning and communication..." (p.9)
*these all mention improving the efficiency of the learning process (p.10)
H. Ellington, F. Percival & P. Race, //Handbook of Educational Technology// (London, 1993)
----
Schein (1985) - definition of ''culture'':
<<<
"a pattern of basic assumption that the group learned as it solved its problems... that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems."
<<<
quoted in C.T. Yip, P.S. Cheung & C.Sze, //Towards a Knowledge-creating School: a research project on paradigm shift of teaching and learning in IT education// (Hong Kong, 2004), p.40
----
A ''paradigm'' = the opposite of ''syntagm'' in linguistics and communication studies. A 'syntagm' is the actual manifestation of communication from a paradigm. All messages involve selection from a paradigm and combination into a syntagm (the idea of a university = a paradigm, the actual university = a syntagm).
J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.13
----
Beer (1992) - definition of ''paradigm'':
<<<
"I define a paradigm as a model that exhibits a closed logic. It means that our attempt to break out of a fixed pattern of thinking are constantly defeated by running headlong into our own premise."
<<<
quoted in J. Tiffin & L. Rajasingham, //The Global Virtual University// (London & New York, 2003), p.83
----
Definition of ''culture'':
<<<
"By the culture of an educational institution we mean, as do social anthropologiests, the shared beliefs, attitudes and ways of behaving that give a social group its identity."
<<<
S. Ryan, et al, //The Virtual University: the Internet and Resource-Based Learning//; London, 2000), p.156
----
Difference begween ''sustainability'' and ''institutionalisation'':
<<<
"The term sustainability is often used interchangably with institutionalisation, and their meanings are similar. Institutionalization addreses the permanent use of a certain innovation such that it loses its identity and becomes a normative part of the organisation and its culture (Miles, 1983)... Sustainability is similar to institutionalisation and typically refers to an innovation that endures over time. With sustainability, the innovation typically does not lose its identity: rather, it becomes valued and supported as part of the institution's culture. (Schneider, Brief & Guzzo, 1996)"
<<<
Billig, Sherry & Havelock, 'Challenge 98: sustaining the work of a regional technology integration initiative' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005), p.987
----
''Paradigm'' comes from Greek word 'paradeigma' meaning 'pattern'.
G.F. Hoban, //Teacher Learning for Educational Change: a systems thinking approach// (OUP, 2002), p.6
----
''Technocratic discourse'' - "A discourse is considered “technocratic�? when it focuses on means without taking into account the most fundamental question: “What are the aims (or visions) that these means are supposed to serve?�?"
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.346
----
Donald D. Quinn:
<<<
If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job.
<<<
Horace Mann:
<<<
A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.
<<<
Anonymous:
<<<
A good teacher is like a candle: he consumes himself to light the way for others.
<<<
//(I disagree with this one!)//
Bob Talbert:
<<<
Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more.
<<<
William Arthur Ward:
<<<
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
<<<
Anonymous:
<<<
A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image.
<<<
Karl Menninger:
<<<
What a teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.
<<<
Anonymous:
<<<
Teaching should be full of ideas rather than stuffed with facts.
<<<
John Cotton Dana:
<<<
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.
<<<
''OECD, //The Curriculum Redefined: schooling for the 21st century// (Paris, 1994)''
''p.195'' - Schools in the 21st century are caught between the fact that:
<<<
Science and technology tend to //unify// whereas culture tends to //diversify//.
<<<
Therefore...
<<<
The school curriculum will have to represent the best balance between both trends, a wise choice in favour of universalism allowing both unity and difference.
<<<
''p.196'' - Need to harness the power of the tools available to us as educators:
<<<
Children spend on average 25 per cent more of their time watching television than they spend in the classroom. Television sets, video recorders, radios, and home computers form the most impressive paraphernalia of disseminated instructional opportunities in the modern world.
<<<
''p.197'' - Schools are not the only places people learn:
<<<
To inform is no longer the school's monopoly not even even its privilege.
<<<
''p.204'' - Dr Ed Bales:
<<<
The present model of education is preparing students for a society and workplace which no longer exists. The private sector (business) has moved from the industrial model of work to the information age where the strategic resource is knowledge and the energy source is the mind.
<<<
''I. Snyder, 'Silicon Literacies' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silcon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.3'' - Digital literacy = to do with //meaning//:
<<<
In an electronically mediated world, being literate is to do with understanding how the different modalities are combined in complex ways to create meaning. People have to learn to make sense of the iconic systems evident in computer displays - with all the combinations of signs, symbols, pictures, words and sounds. Language is no longer just grammar, lexicon and semantics: language now comprises a wider range of semiotic systems that cut across reading, writing, viewing and speaking (Snyder 2001b; Street 2001). What looks like the same text or multimedia genre on paper or on screen is no functionally the same. It follows different meaning conventions and requires different skills for its successful use. Further, it operates in different social networks for different purposes as part of different human activities (Lemke 1997). Understanding these multimodal texts requires an interdisciplinary range of methods of analysis: linguistic, semiotic, social, cultural, historical and critical.
<<<
//(This is a fairly high-falutin but useful definition of 'silicon literacy' or, as I'm going to refer to it, ''digital literacy'')//
''p.3-4'' - There are difficulties in ensuring students are 'literate' for the future:
<<<
However, preparing the current generation of students to become literate is difficult, not only because it is uncertain what the literacies of the future will be, but also because the task falls to educators who are not fully literate themselves in the use of these new technologies.
<<<
//(This is a major difficulty, when teachers themselves don't realise they are illiterate in particular domains - or even worse, think that it's unimportant)//
''p.5-6'' - Literacy is about deciphering and //situating// texts:
<<<
Literacy practices in the age of the new information and communication technologies are highly complex phenomena: they are not just about deciphering texts; they are also about understanding how culturally significant information is coded.
<<<
//(This is quite a big ask of digital literacy - are we adding to much to it?)//
''p.8'' - Literacy is no longer something mainly developed in schools:
<<<
Clearly, educational institutions, clinging to print-based literacy practices, need to rethink the ways in which they function. The print-based industrial model of education needs to be redesigned to take account of the reality that young people are more likely to develop complex literacy repertoires outside educational institutions. Rather than adapting the old ways, the new technologies invited, indeed demand, the conceptualisation of new ways to suit the new conditions.
<<<
//(Is ''technology'' driving this? And if so, why are we letting it?)//
''p.11-12'' - ICT is no longer merely just a 'new tool' - needs to be embedded to radically change education:
<<<
Education is at a crossroad. As literacy educators, we have within our power the opportunity to shift our own and our students' beliefs about the new technologies - about the place of the technologies in education as well as their wider cultural importance... It is no longer tenable to dismiss ICTs simply as new tools, using them to do what earlier technologies did, only faster and more efficiently. Such as a response perpetuates acceptance of a limited notion of the technologies' cultural consequences; it overlooks their material bases and the expanding global economic dependence on them. However, when the technologies are recognised as a crucial part of the cultural and communication landscape - indeed, as part of a new communication order - we render a more realistic conception of the technologies' significance and of our own and our students' place in an information and knowledge-based society.
<<<
//(Need to understand the ''cultural impact'' of new technology and how it relates to literacy)//
Need to temper technologically-inspired innovators who have short historical focus when looking at education with 'long, humanistic' view:
<<<
"The current ferment about computers, combined with an evangelistic and uncritical enthusiasm, makes it necessary to be vigilant. There is already some evidence that the takeup of the computer has added haste to an existing movement which sees education as a process of training in technical skills and employment related functionalism."
<<<
S. Dunn & V. Morgan, //The Impact of the Computer on Education: a course for teachers// (London, 1987), p.8-9
----
<<<
"Effective use of information technology, like any other tool, has to be acquired. You have to learn how to use a knife to cut a notch in a stick."
<<<
*computers are complex tools and may be difficult to justify time spent learning __how__ to use ICT rather than learning __with__ ICT
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.22
----
ICT can be used in boring ways:
<<<
"teachers can use information technology to create a new set of mundane tasks which negate the opportunities for quality learning."
<<<
*effective use depends on the teacher
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.25
----
Introduction of computers into classrooms = like US policy of 'de-institutionalizing' the mentally-ill in 1960s and 70s - drugs insufficient to cope with psychoses, etc. - rise in homeless 'street people':
<<<
"Many of those patients who left state hospitals never should have done so. We psychiatrists saw too much of the old snake pit, saw too many people who shouldn't have been there and we overreacted. The result is not what we intended, and perhaps we didn't ask the questions that should have been asked when developing a new concept, but psychiatrists are human too, and we tried out damndest."
<<<
Former director of National Institute of Mental Health, quoted in L. Cuban, //Teachers and Machines: the classroom use of technology since 1920// (London, 1986), p.101-2
----
A.N. Whitehead - Danger of pupils learning a myriad of disconnected 'inert' ideas:
<<<
"Let the main ideas that are introduced into a child's education be few and important, and let them be thrown into every combination possible. The child should mke them his own, and should understand their application here and now in the circumstances of his actual life."
<<<
(Could probably also be quoted in //support// of ICT...)
quoted in M. Bonnett, 'Computers in the Classroom: some values issues' (in A. McFarlane (ed.), //Information Technology and Authentic Learning: realising the potentials of computers in the primary classroom//; London, 1997), p.155
----
ICT is not a neutral tool - used in the service of hegemonic power:
<<<
"Elites not only use technology as a club, but also to conceal tht there is any clubbing going on at all. It provides the perfect weapon, effective yet invisible. And the more value-neutral we regard it, the more invisible it becomes."
<<<
D. Blacker & J. McKie, 'Information and Communication Technology' (in N. Blake, et al. (eds.), //The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education//; Oxford, 2003), p.241
----
Technological needs of the economy need techologically literate labour force? - could lead to 'proletarianization' and deskilling of jobs - recent study of new technologies on future labour market:
<<<
"...while many more workers will be using computers, automated office equipment, and other sophisticated technical devices in their jobs, the increased use of technology may actually reduce skills and discretion required to perform many jobs."
<<<
M. Apple, 'Is the New Technology part of the solution or part of the problem in education?' (in A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R.D. Torres, The Critical Pedagogy Reader; London, 2003), p.443
----
How can we be sure that ICTs are a good thing for education?:
<<<
"It is more than a little important that we question whether the wagon we have been asked to ride on is going in the right direction. It's a long walk back."
<<<
M. Apple, 'Is the New Technology part of the solution or part of the problem in education?' (in A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R.D. Torres, The Critical Pedagogy Reader; London, 2003), p.456
----
Bowers (1988) - most important question is r.e. ICT's neutrality:
<<<
"...the most fundamental question about hte new technology... has to do with whether the technology is neutral; that is, neutral in terms of accurately representing, at the level of the software program, the domains of the real world in which people live."
<<<
quoted in E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.7
----
Teachers and pupils can be distracted by superficiality of ICT:
<<<
"[The computer] can contribute much to improving classroom instruction. But it can also be a limiting technology that ultimately distracts teachers and students from their primary purpose by imposing a set of assumed values that do not advance the purpose of instruction or individual and group development."
<<<
(What are these 'assumed values'?)
E.F. Provenzo, Jr., A. Brett G.N. McCloskey, //Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: an introduction for teachers// (London, 1999), p.14-15
----
Pace of change has psychological effect - the tyranny of what Joyce (1999) calls 'an anticipatory state of constant nextness'.
I. Snyder, 'Hybrid Vigour': Reconciling the verbal and the visual in electronic communication (in A. Loveless & V. Ellis (eds.), //ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: subject to change//; London, 2001), p.42
----
Papert - arguments against ICT adoption are not good ones:
<<<
"There was serious opposition to this new-fangled technology [pencils], because the thinking was that if children became dependent on writing they would lost their memory power. That serious argument was advanced by Plato."
<<<
in OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.107
----
Joseph Weizenbaum (MIT) - the computer is "a solution in search of problems."
quoted in - T. Roszak, //The Cult of Information: the folklore of computers and the true art of thinking// (Cambridge, 1986), p.51
----
<<<
"Finally, we must resist the temptation to use technology just because it is available. We human beings are fascinated with new technology - nowadays especially with the new educational technology. And those responsible for inventing and developing the technology are even more fascinated with it than the rest of us are. We must resist the temptation to climb Mount Everest just because it is there."
<<<
H.A. Simon, 'Cooperation between Educational Technology and Learning Theory to Advance Higher Education' (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.63
----
<<<
"There has been much talk about the information superhighways, but little talk about traffic jams and the lack of parking space."
<<<
*technology can produce a glut of information which can crowd out more important stuff.
H.A. Simon, 'Cooperation between Educational Technology and Learning Theory to Advance Higher Education' (in P.S. Goodman (ed.), //Technology Enhanced Learning: opportunities for change//; London, 2001), p.64
----
The Alliance for Childhood in the USA argues that parents & teachers have been distracted from children's basic needs:
*contact with other human beings
*contact with natural world
*space to grow & develop
*time to be children
The use of ICT introduces them to "adult mode of seated, intellectually oriented approach." Suggestions that ICT use leads to obesity. (p.153)
<<<
"our national infatuation with computers in early childhood and elementary education... is fuelled by adults' fears about their own ability to keep up with the pace of technological and cultural change." (p.154)
<<<
Reynolds, Treharne & Tripp, //ICT - the hopes and the reality// (British Journal of Educational Technology, 34:2, 2003)
----
Postman (1985) - ICT shouldn't be used just to make learning 'fun':
<<<
"And in the end, what will the students have learned? They will, to be sure, have learned something about (the content in question), most of which they could have learned just as well by other means. Mainly, they will have learned that learning is a form of entertainment or, more precisely, that anything worth learning can take the form of entertainment, and ought to."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.258
----
Okan, et al (2001) - using technology can damage serious learning:
<<<
"So although technology often fascinates students, it has an unintented effect of battering habits congruent with serious learning."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.258
----
Primary reason for using technology shouldn't be to make it 'fun' for students - no higher-order tasks:
<<<
"If the primary advantage of using the technology is that is will be fun for students or more 'motivating', seriously consider why this is so. We think you will find that technology often diminishes the need to attend seriously to prior knowledge, to use metacognitive strategies, question prior ideas, generate examples, compare alternative solutions, grapple with experience, make sense of these new experiences, make new connections and analyze whether prior connections make sense."
<<<
quoted in Okan, 'Edutainment: is learning at risk?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:3, 2003), p.260
----
Difficulty of technology-based learning is the reality of development costs:
<<<
"There is little doubt that highly interactive learning programmes that use extensive branching to tailor the material to the evolving needs of the learner are very effective. But they are also usually very complex and require significant resources to design and develop. Thi smakes them expensive and cost effective only for situations where there is a large number of potential learners or where the costs of not getting the learning right are unacceptable."
<<<
<<<
"If the main determinant is the cost of producing learning that covers a given set of topics, then producers will deliver solutions to that criterion and will not seek to maximise effectiveness."
<<<
Rushby, 'Editorial: where are the new paradigms?' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:3, 2005), p.359
----
Investment in ICTs in education since 1970s:
<<<
"Rarely in the history of education has so much been spent by so many for so long, with so little to show for the blood, sweat and tears expended."
<<<
Nichol & Watson, 'Editorial: Rhetoric & reality: the present and future of ICT in education' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 34:2, 2003), p.132
----
Reasons for ICT in education:
Nunan (1983) - clamour for ICT = offshoot of behaviourist psychology - trying to push students into learning standardized content in standard ways. (p.1006)
Others have seen it as a conspiracy by educational hardware/software producers (p.1007)
Kerr, 'Why we all want it to work: towards a culturally based model for technology and educational change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology//, 36:6, 2005)
----
Franklin (1992) - advantages always come with concomitant disadvantages:
<<<
"Whenever someone talks to you about the benefits and costs of a particular project, don't ask 'what benefits?' ask '//whose// benefits and //whose// costs?' At times it helps to rephrase an observation in line with a perspective from the receiving end of technology."
<<<
Rumble, 'Just How Relevant is E-education to Global Educational Needs?', (//Online Learning//, 16:3, 2001)
----
Danger of 'soundbite-ism' - most children expect entertainment from ICT - teachers therefore under pressure to give into them - leads to practically //any// use of ICT being seen as a 'good thing'.
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.114
----
[img[Henry VIII|http://www.newgenevacenter.org/portrait/henry-viii.jpg]]
__Why was Henry VIII so fat?__
//To compare and contrast the young Henry with the old.//
__Why did Henry VIII chop his wives' heads off?__
//To be able to name three reasons why Henry VIII grew dissatisfied with his wives.//
''Kellner, D.M., 'Technological Revolution, Multiple Literacies, and the Restructuring of Education' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silicon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.154'' - We need to use the power of new technologies to transform our world for the better:
<<<
As new technologies are altering every aspect of our society and culture, we need to comprehend and make use of them both to understand and to transform our worlds. By introducing new literacies to empower individuals and groups traditionally excluded, education could thus be reconstructed to make it more responsive to the challenges of a democratic and multicultural society.
<<<
''p.155'' - We are undergoing a technological revolution:
<<<
Just as the transition to print literacy and book culture involved a dramatic transformation of education, so too does the current technological revolution demand a major restructuring of education today with new curricula, pedagogy, literacies, practices and goals.
<<<
''p.155'' - Education is currently a 'preparation for industrial civilisation and minimal citizenship in a passive-representative democracy', whereas it should be preparing people for 'a more informed, participatory and active citizenship':
<<<
Modern education, in short, emphasises submission to authority, rote memorisation, and what Freire called the 'banking concept' of education in which learned teachers deposit knowledge into passive students, inculcating conformity, subordination and normalisation. These traits are becoming obsolete in a global post-industrial and networked society with its demands for new skills for the workplace, participation in new social and political environs, and interaction with novel forms of culture through everyday life.
<<<
''p.157'' - Some attempts to use technology for education will fail, and some attempts will have unforeseen negative side-effects.
''p.157'' - Definition of literacy:
<<<
Literacy involves gaining the skills and knowledge to read and interpret the text of the world and to successfully navigate and negotiate its challenges, conflicts, and crises. Literacy is thus a necessary condition to equip people to participate in the local, national and global economy, culture, and polity.
<<<
''p.158-9'' - We need to understand that there are many different types of literacy - //critical media literacy//, for example, is more important than ever.
''p.161'' - Kellner's definition of 'computer literacy':
<<<
Computer literacy comprises the accessing and processing of diverse sorts of information proliferating in the so-called 'information society'. It encompasses learning to find sources of information ranging from traditional sites like libraries and print media to new Internet websites and search engines. Computer-information literacy involves learning where information is found, how to access it, and how to organise, interpret, and evaluate the information that ones seeks.
<<<
''p.162'' - Computer literacy is //about communication// as well as knowledge and skills:
<<<
Genuine computer literacy involves not just technical knowledge and skills, but refined reading, writing, research, and communicating ability. It involves heightened capacities for critically accessing, analysing, interpreting, processing, and storing both print-based and multimedia material. In a new information/entertainment society, immersed in transformative multimedia technology, knowledge and information come not merely in the form of print and words, but through images, sounds and multimedia material as well. Computer literacy thus also involves the ability to discover and access information and intensified abilities to read, to scan texts and computer databases and websites, and to access information and images in a variety of forms, ranging from graphics, to visual images, to audio and video materials, to good old print media.
<<<
''p.163'' - Overarching 'literacy' involves many different sub-literacies:
<<<
As technological convergence develops apace, individuals need to combine the skills of critical media literacy with traditional print literacy and new forms of multiple literacies to access and navigate the new multimedia environments. ''Literacy in this conception involves the abilities to engage effectively in socially constructed forms of communication and representation.'' Reading and interpreting print was the appropriate mode of literacy for books, while critical media literacy entails reading and interpreting discourse, images, spectacle, narratives, and the forms and genres of media culture.
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.163'' - The pedagogies behind 'multiple literacies' are still evolving:
<<<
While traditional literacies concern practices in contexts that are governed by rules and conventions, the conventions and rules of multiliteracies are currently evolving so that their pedagogies comprise a new although bustling and competitive field.
<<<
''p.164'' - Technology means we need to re-examine the //purpose// and //structure// of education:
<<<
Indeed, the new technologies and cultural spaces require us to rethink education in its entirity, ranging from the role of the teacher, teacher-student relations, classroom instruction, grading and testing, the value and limitations of books, multimedia, and other teaching material, and the goals of education itself.
<<<
''p.164'' - Technology not only provides us with practical problems, but philosophical ones as well:
<<<
Online education and virtual learning also confront us with novel problems such as copyright and ownership of educational materials; collaborations between computer programmers, artists and designers, and teachers and students in the construction of teaching material and sites; and the respective role of federal and local government, the community, corporations, and private organisations in financing education and providing the skills and tools necessary for a new world economy and global culture. Furthermore, the technological revolution forces a rethinking of philosophical problems of knowledge, truth, identity, and reality in virtual environments. Both philosophy and philosophy of education must be reconstructed to meet the challenges of democracy and a new high tech economy.
<<<
''p.165-6'' - We mustn't allow technology to decontextualise learning:
<<<
Further, creating multiple literacies must be contextual, engaging the life-world of the students and teachers participating in the new adventures of education. Learning involves developing abilities to interact intelligently with the environment and other people, and calls for vibrant social and conversational environments. Education requires doing and can be gained from practice and social interaction. One can obviously spend too much time with technologies and failt o develop basic social skills and competencies.
<<<
''p.166'' - The current time is a time to //experiment// with new technologies:
<<<
This is a time of challenge and a time for experiment. It is a time to put existing pedagogies, practices, and educational philosophies in question and to construct new ones. It is a time for new pedagogical experiments to see what works and what doesn't work. It is a time to reflect on our goals and to discern what we want to achieve with education and how to achieve it.
<<<
!Who were the Romans?
!How did the Romans think of themselves?
!How did the Roman empire expand and decline?
!Why was the Roman Army so important?
//Aim: To create a job advert for a Roman soldier.//
''Resources:'' Schoolhistory.co.uk - [[KS3 Romans resources|http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year7links/romans_worksheets.shtml]] - //The Roman Army//, //Join the Army// worksheet, //Join the Army cards//, and //Roman Army wordsearch//
*Starter = Brainstorm/mind-map of what makes a good soldier
*Q&A - why did the Romans need good soldiers?
*Show Powerpoint and go through different types of Roman soldier, etc.
*Think, Pair, Share r.e. how to 'sell' the Roman army to new recruits (use //Join the Army cards// for ideas)
*Students come up with job advert for Roman soldier (can use //Join the Army// resource for this if necessary)
*If finished, give Roman Army wordsearch
*Plenary = [[Save the Simpsons|http://www.historyshareforum.com/index.php?topic=37.0]] or similar Q&A-style game
!How do Roman numerals work?
//Aim: To be able to count to 1000 in Roman numerals.//
''Resources:'' Powerpoint, Roman numerals sheets
*Starter = Brainstorm all the places Roman numerals are found (end of BBC TV programmes, watches, etc.)
*Give out Roman numeral sheets and go through with class - how does it work? (I goes before V to make IV = 4, etc.)
*Students write out some rules to help them remember how Roman numerals work.
*Set students some simple sums using Roman numerals.
*Extension = poster showing how Roman numerals work.
*Plenary = Penalty Shootout
!What was life like as a Roman gladiator?
//Aim: To develop skills of empathy for historical figures.//
''Resources:'' [[Gladiator Interview worksheet|http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year7links/romans_worksheets.shtml]], Powerpoint
*Starter =
*Show video clip(s) of Roman gladiators
*Q&A - what do students want to know about gladiators?
*Introduce 'Interview with a Gladiator' activity
*Students complete interview prompt sheets and then write up neatly
*Can act out if time (as if on 'Roman TV')
*Plenary =
!Why are there Roman remains left in Britain?
!Why was Latin spoken throughout Europe?
!What was England like before 1066?
!Why did the Roman empire collapse?
//To be able to show how and why the Roman Empire was taken over and fell apart.//
*Starter =
*Refer back to original map showing Roman Empire at its height - Q&A r.e. how Romans had taken over. What would some of the problems have been with an empire of that size?
*Show maps of how the Barbarians, Goths, etc. took over.
*Introduce activity - using map similar to original one + info sheet, students plot movement of various tribes.
*
!Why were the Saxons farmers?
*[[Thesis - books, articles & blog posts]]
*[[Definitions of terms]]
*[[Books & articles to find]]
*[[Discussions relating to digital/computer/information/media literacy]]
*[[Seminal articles]]
*[[Pragmatism]]
*[[Social construction of reality]]
''J. Abbott & T. Ryan, //The Unfinished Revolution: learning, human behaviour, community and political paradox// (2000)''
''p.31'' - Authors quote 'a leading American expert on computer information technology':
<<<
It's not that literacy and numeracy aren't worthy goals, it's simply a fact that they along aren't enough for children to be productive and satisfied citizens and workers in the digital economy.
<<<
//(I think this is quite sinister - vocational 'digital' skills for the workplace, as defined by the government, etc.)//
''p.35'' - Tension between behaviourist model of education and needs for 21st century:
__Behaviourist model of educational success__
#mastery of basic skills
#largely solitary study
#generally uninterrupted work
#concentration on a single subject
#much written work
#a high analytical ability
__21st century model of educational success__
#mastery of basic skills
#the ability to work with others
#being able to deal with constant distractions
#working at different levels across different disciplines
#using mainly verbal skills
#problem-solving and decision-making
Educational reform tends to deal only with mastery of basic skills - leaving the other essential skills up to chance.
''R. Carneiro, 'The New Frontiers of Education' (in UNESCO, //Learning Throughout Life: challenges for the twenty-first century//, Paris, 2002)''
''p.64'' - Tensions in education:
#The interplay between tradition and modernity
#The trade-offs involved in public policy-making
#Strains between the long and the short term
#The search for increased equity in a world dominated by fierce competition
#The need to reconcile global (universal) approaches with local (individual) needs
#An ever-growing expansion of knowledge with limited human capacity to assimilate it
#The delicate interplay between the spiritual and the material
''p.66'' - Knowledge is always changing:
<<<
New knowledge is undergoing constant metamorphosis. The most important change concerns the transition from objective knowledge (codified and scientifically organized) to subjective knowledge (a personal construct, intensely social in its processes of production, dissemination and application).
<<<
''p.66-7'' - Education will need to adapt to changes in knowledge:
<<<
Education and training strategies will need to adapt to the new knowledge patterns contained in the immense variety of human mindsets, accepting that knowledge is very much a personal construct implicitly recognizing a variety of roads leading to its timely appropriation. The major impacts on education and training in knowledge-based societies are moves from objective to constructive knowledge, an industrial to a learning society, instruction to personal learning, communication to knowledge acquisition and schooling to non-formal modes of learning.
<<<
''p.67'' - Four ways of knowing:
[img[Four ways of knowing diagram|http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/wiki/images/carneiro_types_of_knowledge.gif]]
<<<
Knowing 'what' and 'why' corresponds to traditional visions surrounding teaching: objective knowledge constructed and rotely transmitted around the notions of causal effects. Knowing 'who' and 'how' pays justice to the softer aspects of knowledge production, which appear to be highly contingent on social and cultural environments.
<<<
''N.C. Burbules, 'The Web as a Rhetorical Place' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Silcon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.83'' - Critical interaction is part of digital literacy:
<<<
Finally, I want to suggest, in a very open-ended way, that we conceive of learning in the context of the Web as the achievement of a certain kind of //mobility//: an ability to move within, but also across and even against the pathways that seem to determine users' options for navigation and meaning-making.
<<<
//(So being digitally literate involves being ''mobile'' - and perhaps ''agile'' across domains?)//
* Everyone in the edublogosphere at the moment seems to be either eating their own tail or someone else's. Original thoughts - where?
* Need an RSS reader which can deal with every type of enclosure
__Thesis__
*Teachers need to be more like PhD supervisors - know the //area// but not necessarily the specific topic inside out. No real problem with that - why should today's learners only learn what was available and around yesterday when teachers were at school/university?
*Schools moving towards Rorty's ethnocentrism? (i.e. something is true for that particular community, but not for others)
*Dewey rejected subject-based schooling in favour of problem-solving. Find some decent quotations, etc.
*Aristotle - 'we should not expect more precision than the subject-matter admits' - how can this be applied to school change, models of learning and curriculum development/change/revolution?
*What kind of Hegelian thesis-anthesis-synthesis is going on in education at the moment?
*What exactly //is// a 'balanced curriculum? (c.f. Carr, p.136)
*Mustn't confuse //forms of knowledge// with school //subjects// (c.f. Carr, p.139)
*Quasi-pragmatist approach to education = best way forward? (synthesis of instrumentalism and teleological views) - c.f. Carr, ch.8
*''Wisdom'' is a kind of //meta-knowledge//, a way of applying ideas across subject boundaries and disciplines. How does our definition of wisdom change in an era of connectivism? Can wisdom reside in networks instead of groups?
''P. Dalin & V.D. Rust, //Towards Schooling for the Twenty-First Century// (London, 1996)''
''p.1'' - quotation from planning session of an international meeting to determine the future of teacher education - problem of long-term changes:
<<<
We are confronted with an almost impossible task. There are some of us here today, who are just beginning their careers as instructors at the teacher training college, and at the end of their careers they will be teacher candidates, who will be instructing young children, who will still be active in their own chosen careers in society one century from now, in 1994. We know from past experience how fast our socities have been changing and we must assume that our societies will change just as rapidly in the coming century. It would be wonderful if we knew at least a little about the changes that will take place, so that we can prepare the new generations for the next century.
<<<
''p.9'' - New technology, therefore new skills needed:
<<<
Schools must be able to respond to the pragmatic demands that are increasingly being placed on them. For example, new technology requires students with more education, but it is not reasonable to demand that the young receive more and more conventional schooling to prepare them for the work world, because there is less and less need for people to enter the work force.
<<<
//(hence the problem of 'what shall we teach them?')//
''p.9'' - Schools are not guaranteed to be in existence in the future:
<<<
It is no longer certain what role schooling will play in the coming century. The notion of organizing a protected environment where children and youth develop educationally is a relatively new phenomenon in human history.
<<<
//(flies in face of assumptions that schools are the best places to learn...)//
''Hoyles, M. (ed.), //The Politics of Literacy//, London, 1977)''
__Martin Hoyles - 'The History and Politics of Literacy'__
''p.21'' - Hoyles compares and contrasts 'Script' with 'Print'
<<<
| !Script | !Print |h
| Feudal | Bourgeois |
| International | National |
| Latin | National Language |
| Varied Orthography | Accuracy |
| Changeable Texts | Permanence and Authority |
| Reading Aloud | Private Silent Reading |
| Authorship Unimportant | Authorship and Copyright |
| Copying Approved | Idea of Plagiarism |
| Books Bequeathed in Wills | Books Commonplace |
| Illiteracy | Middle-class Literacy |
<<<
//(could perhaps add 'Screen' column?)//
''p.29'' - Literacy is a 'two-edged sword'
<<<
Literacy is a two-edged sword. It can be repressive or liberating: 'Literature and literary practice... are weapons in maintaining or transforming the received order of social relations. Kampf and Lauter go on to acknowledge that 'in our culture the reading of literature is pacifying, it often separates people from action instead of leading them into it.' But they add, 'This is by no means necessary.'
<<<
//(same with 'digital literacy'? or does the digital world make 'action' easier? c.f. publishing to the world at touch of a button)//
__Quintin Hoare - Education: Programmes and People__
''p.34'' - Four elements of schooling:
<<<
The educational process cannot be reduced to any single function. It is at the same time:
#A process of //socialization// of internalization of dominant social //norms// and //values//. This process can be considered from the viewpoint of the whole society, or from that of the developing individual personality.
#A process of //acculturation// of the rising generation, in which it inherits a common repertory of //ideas// and //symbols// (of which the most important aspect is literacy).
#A system of //vocational training//, which transmits specific skills for use later in life.
#The process by which in any society //intellectuals// and //culture// are formed.
<<<
//(but Hoare doesn't address what 'culture' is - presumes we all know; I suspect he means 'high' culture)//
''p.48-9'' - Hoare proposes a 'revolutionary alternative' - which is a socialist theory of education.
<<<
#As opposed to the conservative tradition, it would stress education as the development of //critical// reason (in Marcuse's sense of the word) in the child - a questioning attitude towards all existing reality.
#As opposed to the romantic school it would embody a full acceptance of the //social// character of humanity, rejecting for ever the notion of a pre-social dimension of human existence - the image of Emile.
#As opposed to rationalizers it would insist on the //active// nature of the child's participation in the learning process, and contest the mechanist conception of education as the transmission of fixed skills.
#As opposed to the democratic tradition, it would be //dialectical//, treating all human reality as radically historical, refusing to consider programmes outside of men to execute, emasculate or refuse them.
<<<
//('the image of Emile' is presumably a reference to Rousseau's work of the same name. How much of this applies to online, digital stuff?)//
__Bertolt Brecht - The Plum Tree__
<<<
In the yard stands a small plum tree
Though you'd hardly believe it was one.
It has a railing round it
So no-one can knock it over.
It can't grow any bigger
Though that's what it wants to do.
That's out of the question -
It gets too little sun.
You'd hardly believe it was a plum tree
For it never bears a plum.
But it is a plum tree
You can tell by the leaves.
<<<
//(this could be applied to a range of contexts - not least holding children back through filters and unncessary clampdowns on creativity)//
__Martin Hoyles - Cultural Deprivation and Compensatory Education__
''p.178'' - Hoyles talks about 'polycultural input' - quotes Baratz & Baratz (1970)
<<<
If different cultures are of equal worth and value, what should the schools be doing? The answer comes that they should be designed for a polycultural input. But what about the output? - 'Education for culturally different children should not attempt to destroy functionally viable processes of the sub-culture, but rather should use these processes to teach additional cultural forms. The goal of such education should be to produce a bicultural child who is capable of functioning in his sub-culture and in the mainstream.'
<<<
//(although this is talking about class and/or race, it applies equally to digital sub-cultures - i.e. we need to use and understand the sub-culture to explain and teach majority, 'mainstream' culture)//
__Ken Worpole - Beyond the Classroom Walls__
''p.184'' - quotes Sartre who conceives writing in school as 'firing merely for the pleasure of hearing the shot go off.'
//(similar to difference when publishing online to potentially huge audience?)//
__Harold Rosen - Out There or Where the Masons Went__
''p.202'' - Language only describes reality - Lefebvre (1968):
<<<
Thus it is not language which generates what people say. Language does not possess this magical power or possess it only fitfully and dubiously. What people say derives from praxis from the performance of tasks, from the division of labour - arises out of real actions, real struggle in the world. What they actually do, however, enters consciousness only by way of language, by being said.
<<<
//(although something is only 'real' when described by language? quotation comes from Marxist book)//
''J. Delors, //Teachers in search of new perspectives//, in J. Delors (ed.), //Learning:The Treasure Within// (UNESCO, France, 1996)''
''p.142'' - School has to compete for attention with the media, which focuses on instant gratification:
<<<
The entertainment, news and advertising put out by the media convey messages that compete with or contradict what children learn at school. The organization of all those messages in brief sequences by the media has in many parts of the world detrimentally affected pupils' attention spans and, consequently, relationships within the classroom. When pupils spend less time in school than in front of a television set, the effortless and instant gratification offered by the media contrast starkly, in their minds, with what is required to succeed at school.
<<<
''p.143'' - Many problems and tensions in 21st century education come from the world outside:
<<<
Furthermore, the problems of the social environment can no longer be left behind at the school gates: poverty, hunger, violence and drugs enter classrooms with the children, whereas in the not so distant past they were kept outside with the unschooled. Teachers are expected not only to cope with those problems and to help develop understanding of a whole range of social optics, from promoting tolerance to birth control, but also to succeed where parents and the religious and secular authorities tend to fail. Moreover, they must find appropriate balances between tradition and modernity, and between the ideas and attitudes the child brings to school and the content of the curriculum. Thus, as the separation between the classroom and the outside world becomes less rigid, teachers also need to make efforts to take the learning process outside the classroom: physically, by practical learning experiences at sites outside schools, and from the content point of view by linking subject-matter to daily life.
<<<
-> Carr argues that this is implausible, as it is fallacious to think that instead of introducing children into physics, chemistry, biology and psychology it is possible to "introduce them to one of these subjects construed as a token of the general type of scientific inquiry." (-I disagree with Carr, as I believe that there are many skills which are cross-curricular. After all, subjects are human constructs!-)
''p.145'' - Role of the teacher is more than just disseminating knowledge:
<<<
The teacher's work is not confined simply to transmitting information or even knowledge; it also entails presenting that knowledge in the form of a statement of problems within a certain context and putting the problems into perspective, so that the learner can link their solution to broader issues. The teacher-pupil relationship aims at the full development of the pupil's personality, with emphasis on self-reliance; from this point of view the authority vested in teachers is always paradoxical, since it is not based on the assertion of their power but on the free recognition of the legitimacy of knowledge.
<<<
!Thesis
!!Thoughts to expand upon
*What is the average age of a teacher in the UK?
*Do notions of 'digital literacy' favour the white middle-classes?
*How much of 'digital literacy' is procedural?
*Intentionality = necessary but not sufficient condition for digital literacy, whereas understanding of processes = sufficient but not necessary condition.
*What is 'rhizomatic knowledge' (seem to remember Dave Cormier talking about this - has he a paper on it?)
!!Things to find
!!To get done
__Possible structure__
#Possible structure of argument:
#What is literacy?
#Literacy = dynamic
#Why does literacy change (reflecting society vs. something 'out there' to be revealed)
#Government policy still informed by Victorian model of schooling.
#Emergence of term 'digital literacy'.
#What did it mean to be 'literate' before and after a new technology (e.g. printing press)
#'Functional' aspect of literacy -> is 'digital literacy' just another aspect of this?
#What do people mean when they talk of being 'literate'?
#What measures and tests are used for gauging whether someone is literate/'digitally literate'?
#It makes sense for the government to want to improve 'literacy' -> but what do we mean by this?
#Go back to literature -> what do we mean by 'digital literacy'?
#Are there/can there be consistent measures for 'digital literacy'?
*Try to define pre-industrial literacy, then consider whether 'digital literacy' is fundamentally different. How can it be shown to be different?
*Make international comparisons -> curriculum (competency-based, etc.)
*Look at Larry Cuban & Neil Postman's arguments against technology
*Is 'digital literacy' economically and educationally important (difficult to distinguish in govt. pronouncements)
*Tackle assumption that using computers = important, therefore 'digital literacy' is important -> counter-example of Nissan factory, Burger King etc.)
*Literacy = powerful concept -> at heart of education since ancient times -> appear to be a numer of lines of argument as to how to measure or define 'digital literacy'
*Major implications for schools -> digital literacy impossible to dismiss because linked to powerful notions of 'literacy' and 'technology'
*Is 'digital literacy' a 'skill'? Does it threaten the teaching profession?
''T.L. Friedman, //The World is Flat: the globalized world in the twenty-first century// (London, 2005)''
''p.302-7'' - Four skills sets and attitudes to prepare young people for the 'new middle':
*Learning how to learn
*Passion & curiosity (CQ+PQ>IQ)
*Playing well with others
*Nurturing the right-brain
''p.307'' - Quotes Daniel Pink r.e. need to develop right-brain approaches so that you don't become redundant as a computer, robot or talented robot can't do what you do cheaper or better:
<<<
Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged by data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.
<<<
''Foucault, M., //The Archaeology of Knowledge// (transl. by A.M. Sheridan Smith, London, 1972)''
*''p.136'' - Great quotation r.e. has Foucault (or I, for that matter) actually found something //new//?
<<<
And now a suspicion occurs to me. I have behaved as if I were discovering a new domain, as if, in order to chart it, I needed new measurements and guide-lines. But, in fact, was I not all the time in that very space that has long been known as 'the history of ideas'? Was it not to that space that I was implicitly referring, even when on two or three occasions I tried to keep my distance? And if I had not forced myself to turn away from it, would I not have found in it, already prepared, already analysed, all that I was looking for? Perhaps I am a historian of ideas after all.
<<<
//(This would be a great way to link my literature analysis with the main bit of my thesis!)//
*''p.139'' - Steve Higgins suggested that this section would be useful to my thesis - deconstruction of power relations in digital literacies:
<<<
...[the] problem is to define discourses in their specificity; to show in what way the set of rules that they put into operation is irreducible to any other; to follow them the whole length of their exterior ridges, in order to underline them the better. It does not proceed, in slow progression, from the confused field of opinion to the uniqueness of the system or the definitive stability of science; it is not a 'doxology'; but a differential analysis of the modalities of discourse.
<<<
*''p.155-6'' - Foucault discusses how 'archaeological analysis can accept contradictions:
<<<
Archaeological analysis... erects the primacy of a contradiction that has its model in the simultaneous affirmation and negation of a single proposition. But the reason for this is not to even out oppositions in the general forms of thought and to pacify them by force, by a recourse to a constructing //a priori//. On the contrary, its purpose is to map, in a particular discursive practice, the point at which they are constituted, to define the form they assume, the relations that they have with each other, and the domain that the govern.
<<<
//(Could combine this 'archaeological' approach with Pragmatic method?)//
*''p.160-1'' - 5 'distinct tasks' for the archaeological method:
**To show how different discursive elements can be formed on the basis of similar rules (or as Foucault puts it 'to show, between different formations, the //archaeological isomorphisms//)
**To show how rules apply or do not apply and how they are arranged in relation to different types of discourse - i.e. 'to define the //archaeological model// of each formation.
**To show how different concepts can occupy a similar conceptual space, despite their historical origins.
**To show how a single notion can cover two distinct elements (or as Foucault would put it, 'to indicate the //archaeological shifts//)
**To show relations (or '//archaeological correlations//') between one 'positivity' and another - i.e. to show how one thing (e.g. language) is related to something else (e.g. analyses of new literacies)
//(Could these 5 tasks be useful to hang some of my analysis on?)//
*''p.167'' - Foucault explains how the archaeological method can explain how discourse arises in a given area:
<<<
Archaeology defines the rules of formation of a group of statements. In this way it shows how a succession of events may, in the same order in which it is presented, become an object of discourse, be recorded, described, explained, elaborated into concepts, and provide the opportunity for a theoretical choice. //Archaeology analyses the degree and form of permeability of a discourse: it provides the principle of its articulation over a chain of successive events; it defines the operators by which the events are transcribed into statements.//
<<<
//(my emphasis - this is important in terms of things such as 'digital literacy' being defined and then having an impact on successive thinking)//
*''p.169'' - Archaeological histories of discourse have to free themselves from two dominant models: linear model of speech and model of stream of consciousness:
<<<
To constitute an archaeological history of discourse... one must free oneself of two models that have for so long imposed their image: the linear model of speech (and partly at least of writing), in which all events succeed one another, without any effect of coincidence and superposition; and the model of the stream of consciousness whose presence always eludes itself in its openness to the future and its retention of the past. Paradoxical as it may be, discursive formations do not have the same model of historicity as the flow of consciousness or the linearity of language... It is a practice that has its own forms of sequence and succession.
<<<
*''p.172'' - Foucault does not believe it is good enough just to discuss 'change' as if it were something external and unstoppable force:
<<<
In order to analyse such events [e.g. the appearance of a new positivity], it is not enough simply to indicate changes, and to relate them immediately to the theological, aesthetic model of creation..., or to the psychological model of the act of consciousness..., or to the biological model of evolution. We must define precisely what these changes consist of: that is, substitute for an undifferentiated reference to //change// - which is both a general container for all events and the abstract principle of their succession - the analysis of //transformations//. The difference of one positivity and the emergence of another implies several types of transformation.
<<<
*''p.172'' - In order to go from the particular to the more general, one can and must describe:
<<<
**how the different elements of a system of formation were transformed
**how the characteristic relations of a system of formation were transformed
**how the relations between different rules of formation were transformed
**how the relations between various positivities were transformed
<<<
''p.173'' - When one 'positivity' or complete set of ideas is replaced by another, it is not as if a whole new world comes into being:
<<<
To say that one discursive formation is substituted for another is not to say that a whole world of absolutely new objects, enunciations, concepts, and theoretical choices emerges fully armed and fully organized in a text that will place that world once and for all; it is to say that a general transformation of relations has occurred, but that it does not necessarily alter all the elements; it is to say that statements are governed by new rules of formation, it is not to say that all objects or concepts, all enunciations or all theoretical choice disappear. On the contrary, one can, on the basis of these new rules, describe and analyse phenomena of continuity, return, and repetition: we must not forget that a rule of formation is neither the determination of an object, nor the characterization of a type of enunciation, or the form or content of a concept, but the principle of their multiplicity and dispersion. One of these elements - or several of them - may remain identical (preserve the same division, the same characteristics, the same structures), yet belong to different systems of dispersion, and be governed by distinct laws of formation.
<<<
//(This really makes sense when you consider a concept such as 'literacy')//
''p.174'' - Job of archaeological method is not to deny existence of concepts across 'positivities', but to try to explain them:
<<<
The problem for archaeology is not to deny such phenomena, nor to try to diminish their importance; but, on the contrary, to try to describe and measure them: how can such permanances or repetitions, such long sequences or such curves projected through time exist?
<<<
//(If I've got this right, the 'archaeologist' of discourse should be as amazed by a concept within a positivity lasting so long as when a new positivity comes along)//
''p.175'' - There is never a sudden break between different positivities - great idea of transformations having 'viscosity':
<<<
The idea of a single break suddenly, at a given moment, dividing all discursive formations, interrupting them in a single moment and reconstituting them in accordance with the same rules - such an idea cannot be sustained. The contemporaneity of several transformations does not mean their exact chronological coincidence: each transformation may have its own particular index of temporal 'viscosity'.
<<<
//(I love this idea of the 'viscosity' of transformations within and between positivities)//
''G. Graham, //The Internet: a philosophical inquiry// (London, 1999)''
''p.16'' - Fundamental question about the Internet:
<<<
Is information technology just another tool - more complex and sophisticated, no doubt, but nevertheless not fundamentally different to the flint arrowheads with which people of the Stone Age were enabled to turn from gathering food to hunting it?
<<<
//(this is an important point if I am to get a handle on 'digital literacy' - if information technology isn't fundamentally different, then digital literacy is unlikely to be anything radically different to traditional conceptions of literacy)//
''p.25-26'' - Why should we draw a distinction between something that transforms as opposed to extends (like the Internet) - revolution rather than evolution? Motor cars replaced the horse-drawn carriage, which in turn... Why shouldn't we just go back to the wheel and see everything as evolving from that. Graham mentions that the wheel was //fundamental// to everything that came afterward and therefore was completely transformative. It could be argued, therefore, that the Internet is not transformative as it depends on the 'written' word.
However, just because the history of something can be cut up into discrete segments it does not follow that this is a seamless evolutionary process.Newton and Darwin worked within a continuous tradition stretching back thousands of years, yet they are picked out as having significant importance.
''p.40'' - Neil Postman offers a test by which we should assess the usefulness of a technological innovation: ''what is the problem to which this is a solution?''
''p.89'' - There is a different quality of experience when going from a book to the Internet:
<<<
To 'find' something on the Internet is not like finding something in the //Encyclopaedia Britannica//. Wherein lies the difference? It lies in the fact that the //Encylopaedia Britannica// has been constructed for a certain purpose, comes from an identifiable source and has a long history by which it has been accredited. None of this is true of the Internet as such, which contains what it contains for every and any purpose and comes from any and every source, identifiable and unidentifiable.
<<<
//(to be able to distinguish between these and weigh up the pros and cons may be something to do with 'digital literacy')//
''p.91'' - Internet is a medium:
<<<
The Internet... is not, properly speaking, a source of information at all, but only a medium.
<<<
*[[Toot Hill School|http://www.toothill.notts.sch.uk/html/dept/hist/gcserev.asp]] - PDFs of useful resources for medicine
*[[Brooke Weston City Technology College|http://www.bwctc.northants.sch.uk/html/schwork/revision/gcse/history/contents.html]] - useful notes r.e. medicine
''William James, //Pragmatism// (Dover Thrift Editions, 1995)''
__Lecture II - What Pragmatism Means__
*''p.17'' - The 'squirrel problem'. A problem often rests on your definition of the term being employed. Point out this difference and the problem or argument dissapates.
*''p.20'' - There can be no differences that don't make a difference in practice:
<<<
There can //be// no difference anywhere that doesn't //make// a difference elsewhere - no difference in abstract truth that doesn't express itself in a difference in concrete fact and in conduct consequent upon that fact, imposed on somebody, somehow, somewhere and somewhen.
<<<
*''p.21'' - No 'end to enquiry' with Pragmatism:
<<<
But if you follow the pragmatic method, you cannot look on any such word [such as 'God' or 'the Absolute'] as closing your quest. You must bring out of each word its practical cash-value, set it at work within the stream of your experience. It appears less as a solution, then, as a program for more work, and more particularly as an indication of the ways in which existing realities may be //changed//.
<<<
(follows on)
*''p.21'' - Theories are not answers to questions:
<<<
//Theories thus become instruments, not answers to enigmas, in which we can rest.//
<<<
*''p.22-3'' - Laws are merely a conceptual shorthand
<<<
[The great use of 'Laws'] is to summarize old facts and to lead to new ones. They are only a man-made language, a conceptual shorthand, as someone calls them, in which we write our reports of nature; and languages, as is well known, tolerate much choice of expression and many dialects.
<<<
*''p.23'' - Definition of 'truth':
<<<
...//ideas (which themselves are but parts of our experience) become true just in so far as they help us to get into satisfactory relation with other parts of our experience//...
<<<
*''p.25'' - Phenomena 'just are' - we impose categories (e.g. 'truth'):
<<<
The new contents themselves are not true, they simply //come// and //are//. Truth is //what we say about// them, and when we say that they ave come, truth is satisfied by the plain additive formula.
<<<
*''p.25'' - 'Truth' binds old and new experiences together:
<<<
A new opinion counts as 'true' just in proportion as it gratifies the individual's desire to assimilate the novel in his experience to his beliefs in stock. It must both lean on old truth and grasp new fact; and its success... in doing this, is a matter for the individual's appreciation. When old truth grows, then, by new truth's addition, it is for subjective reasons.
<<<
*''p.25-6'' - Society (communities?) determine what is or is not true, in order to marry the old and the new:
<<<
The reasons why we call things true is the reason why they //are// true, for 'to be true' //means// only to perform this marriage-function.
<<<
*''p.30'' - Truth is whatever is good in the way of belief:
<<<
//The true is whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief, and good, too, for definite, assignable reasons.//
<<<
__Lecture V - Pragmatism and Common Sense__
*''p.64'' - Knowledge does not grow evenly and equally:
<<<
To begin with, our knowledge grows //in spots//. The spots may be large or small, but the knowledge never grows all over: some old knowledge always remains what it was.
<<<
*''p.64'' - How beliefs spread:
<<<
Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it. Our past apperceives and co-operates; and in the new equilibrium in which each step forward in the process of learning terminates, it happens relatively seldom that the new fact is added //raw//. More usually it is embedded cooked, as one might way, or stewed down in the sauce of the old.
<<<
*''p.65'' - Interplay of new and old ideas ('truths') = 'common sense':
<<<
My thesis now is this, that //our fundamental ways of thinking about things are discoveries of exceedingly remote ancestors, which have been able to preserve themselves throughout the experience of all subsequent time.// They form one great stage of equilibrium in the human mind's development, the stage of //common sense//.
<<<
*''p.65'' - Experience doesn't come neatly packaged - we have to interpret it using categories, etc.
<<<
Experience merely as such doesn't come ticketed and labeled, we have first to discover what it is.
<<<
//(this could be a good opening quotation!)//
*''p.74'' - 'Common sense' is a collection of extraordinarily successful hypotheses:
<<<
[Common sense] may after all be only a collection of extraordinarily successful hypotheses (historically discovered or invented by single men, but gradually communicated, and used by everybody) by which our forefathers from time immemorial unified and straightened the discontinuity of their immediate experiences...
<<<
__Lecture VI - Pragmatism's Conception of Truth__
*''p.77'' - Popular conception = that true ideas 'copy reality':
<<<
The popular notion is that a true idea must copy its reality. Like other popular views, this one follows the analogy of the most usual experience. Our true ideas of sensible things do indeed copy them. Shut your eyes and think of yonder clock on the wall, and you get just such a true picture or copy of its dial. But your idea of its 'works' (unless you are a clock-maker) is much less of a copy, yet it passes muster, for it in no way clashes with the reality. even tho it should shrink to the mere word 'works,' that word still serves you truly; and when you speak of the 'time-keeping function' of hte clock, or of its spring's 'elasticity,' it is hard to see exactly what your ideas can copy.
<<<
''p.77'' - Definition of Pragmatism:
<<<
Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the beliefs were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?
The moment pragmatism asks this question, it sees the answer: //True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify. False ideas are those we cannot.// That is the practical difference it makes to us to have true ideas; that, therefore, is the meaning of truth, for it is all that truth is known-as.
<<<
*''p.77-8''- Truth is not a 'stagnant property' of an idea:
<<<
Truth //happens// to an idea. It //becomes// true, is //made// true by events.
<<<
*''p.79'' - Truth involves a verification process:
<<<
True is the name for whatever idea starts the verification-process, useful is the name for its completed function in experience.
<<<
*''p.80'' - True ideas 'work':
<<<
Indirect as well as direct verifications pass muster. Where circumstantial evidence is sufficient, we can go without eye-witnessing. Just as we here assume Japan to exist without ever having been there, because it //works// to do so...
<<<
*''p.80'' - We 'trade' verifications:
<<<
You accept my verification of one thing, I yours of another. We trade on each other's truth. But beliefs verified concretely by //somebody// are the posts of the whole superstructure.
<<<
//(c.f. Connectivism, Wikipedia?)//
*''p.82'' - Any idea that helps us to deal with reality = 'true':
<<<
To 'agree' in the widest sense with a reality, //can only mean to be guided either straight up to it or into its surroundings, or to be put into such working touch with it as to handle either it or something connected with it better than if we disagreed...// Any idea that helps us to //deal//, whether practically or intellectually, with either the reality or its belongings, that doesn't entangle our progress in frustrations, that //fits//, in fact, and adapts our life to the reality's whole setting, will agree sufficiently to meet the requirement/ It will hold true of that reality.
Thus //names// are just as 'true' or 'false' as definite mental pictures are. They set up similar verification-processes, and lead to fully equivalent practical results.
<<<
//(useful for seeing 'digital literacy', etc. as constructs that are either useful or not in the way of belief - what does it lead to?)//
*''p.83'' - Terms such as 'energy' are just a shorthand for subjective experiences:
<<<
The term 'energy' doesnt even pretend to stand for anything 'objective'. It is only a way of measuring the surface of phenomena so as to string their changes on a simple formula.
<<<
*''p.83'' - Not easy to find a theory that marries the old and the new:
<<<
We must find a theory that will //work//; and that means something extremely difficult; for our theory must mediate between all previous truths and certain new experiences. It must derange common sense and previous belief as little as possible, and it must lead to some sensible terminus or other that can be verified exactly.
<<<
//(definite link here to Popper's falsifiability thesis)//
*''p.84'' - Truth is a collective name for verification processes:
<<<
Truth for us is simple a collective name for verification-processes, just as health, wealth, strength, etc., are names for other processes connected with life, and also pursued because it pays to pursue them. Truth is //made//, just as health, wealth and strength are made, in the course of experience.
<<<
*''p.86'' - 'The True' = expedient way of thinking:
<<<
//'The true,' to put it very briefly, is only the expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only the expedient in the way of our behaving.//
<<<
*''p.86'' - There is an end to the verifiability process that 'truth' must aim at:
<<<
The 'absolutely' true, meaning what no farther experience will ever alter, is that ideal vanishing-point towards which we imagine that all our temporary truths will some day converge... Meanwhile we have to live to-day by what truth we can get to-day, and be ready to-morrow to call it falsehood.
<<<
*''p.86'' - Verifiability only works forwards:
<<<
The present sheds a backward light on the world's previous processes. They may have been truth-processes for the actors in them. They are not so for one who knows the later revelations of the story.
<<<
*''p.87'' - Truths //emerge// from facts, but facts //just are//:
<<<
Truths emerge from facts; but they dip forward into facts again and add to them; which facts again create or reveal new truth (the word is indifferent) and so on indefinitely. The 'facts' themselves meanwhile are not //true//. They simply //are//. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and terminate among them.
<<<
*''p.89'' - Truth is similar in kind to 'health' and 'wealth':
<<<
Truth makes no other kind of claim and imposes no other kind of ought than health and wealth do. All these claims are conditional; the concrete benefits we gain are what we man by calling the pursuit a duty.
<<<
<<<
"The suggestion that there might come a day when schools no longer exist elicits strong responses from many people. There are many obstacles to thinking clearly about a world without schools. Some are highly personal. Most of us spent a larger fraction of our lives going to school than we care to think about... The concept of a world without school is highly dissonant with out experiences of our own lives. Other obstacles are more conceptual. One cannot define such a world negatively, that is by simply removing school and putting nothing in its place. Doing so leaves a thought vacuum thatthe mind has to fill one way or another, often with vague but scary images of children 'running wild', 'drugging themselves' or 'making life impossible for their parents'. Thinking seriously about a world without schools cll for elaborated models of the non-school activities in which children would engage."
<<<
Papert (1993) - quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.4
----
Dangers of thinking one technology will change everything:
<<<
"Books will soon be obsolete in the schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed in ten years."
<<<
//New York Dramatic Mirror//, 1913 - quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.5
----
Learning does not come primarily from teaching:
<<<
"A... major illusion on which the school system rests is that most learning is the result of teaching. Teaching, it is true, may contribute to certain kinds of learning under certain circumstances. But most people acquire most of their knowledge outside school, and in school only in so far as school, in a few rich countries, has become their place of confinement during an increasing part of their lives."
<<<
Illich (1973) - quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.29
----
Schools can be changed, despite faults:
<<<
"The institution we call 'school' is what it is because we made it that way. If it is irrelevant, as Marshall McLuhan says; if it shields children from reality, as Norbert Wiener says; if it does not develop intelligence, as Jerome Bruner says; if it is based on fear, as Carl Rogers says; if it punishes creativity and independence, as Edfar Friedenberg says; if, in short, it is not doing what needs to be done, it can be changed; it must be changed."
<<<
Postman & Weingartner (1971) - quoted in C. Abbott, //ICT: changing education// (London, 2001), p.46
----
Learning in a school environment is not natural (e.g. of real 'natural' learning = healthy relationship between mother and baby, or getting to know another person):
<<<
"The institution of school, with its daily lesson plan, fixed curriculum, standardized tests, and other such paraphernalia, tends constantly to reduce learning to a series of technical acts and the teacher to the role of a technician."
<<<
S. Papert, //The Children's Machine: rethinking school in the age of the computer// (London, 1993)
----
Piaget - the aim should be to teach without a general curriculum:
<<<
"But 'teaching without curriculum' does not mean spontaneous, free-form classrooms or simply 'leaving the child alone.' It means supporting children as they build their own intellectual structures with materials drawn from the surrounding culture."
<<<
S. Papert, //Mindstorms: children, computers, and powerful ideas// (London, 1980), p.31-2
----
Classrooms not best places to learn:
<<<
"Classrooms are not ideal learning environments; they are working compromises in mass education systems"
<<<
- Having to deal with classroom dynamics makes teachers "managers of learners" rather than "managers of learning".
N. Davis, et al, 'Can quality in learning be enhanced through the use of IT?' (in B. Somekh, G. Whitty & R. Coveney, //IT and the politics of institutional change// (in B. Somekh & N. Davis, //Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning//; London, 1997), p.21
----
Papert (1984):
<<<
"There won't be schools in the future... I think the computer will blow up the school. That is, the school defined as something where there are classes, teachers running exams, people structured in groups by age, following a curriculum - all of that. The whole system is based on a set of structural concepts that are incompatible with the presence of the computer... But this will happen only in communities of children who have access to computers on a sufficient scale."
<<<
L. Cuban, //Teachers and Machines: the classroom use of technology since 1920// (London, 1986), p.72
----
Technology should end schools:
<<<
"Technology can and should end schooling as we know it. For educators, there is not even really a choice: eitehr we tag along as closely as we can, or we lost individuality and nationality in a global marketplace."
<<<
D. Blacker & J. McKie, 'Information and Communication Technology' (in N. Blake, et al. (eds.), //The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Education//; Oxford, 2003), p.235
----
Learners learning outside the classroom:
<<<
"In the world outside the classroom the young consumer is gradually being educated in ways a school does not begin to recognise. Using entertainment technology, the young user can develop hand-eye co-ordination, spatial relations, graphical awareness, parallel reading from non-linear scripts, multi-line plots and problem solving."
<<<
J. Sanger, 'ICT, the demise of UK schooling and the rise of the individual learner' (in A. Loveless & V. Ellis (eds.), //ICT, Pedagogy and the Curriculum: subject to change//; London, 2001), p.10
----
Papert - metaphor of boats and planes r.e. ICT:
<<<
"Back in the 50s the United States was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that the fastest transatlantic ocean liners beonged to European countries... So American resources of technology and money were mobilised and led to triumph. They made the fastest boat in the world, the S.S. United States. In the very same year the first commercial jet plan flew and it became totally irrelevant which boat could travel faster across the Atlantic... Are we trying to perfect an obsolete system or are we trying to make an educational jet plane?"
<<<
in OECD, //Learning to Change: ICT in Schools// (2001), p.112
----
As younger teachers enter the teaching profession who are closer to the tech. culture, likely to challenge the current definition of 'school'.
J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998), p.226
----
Mass schooling losing legitimacy:
<<<
"As mass schooling loses its legitimacy, educational understanding seems less about grand theories of teaching and learning or indeed 'society' and more to do with how individual children create identities with a plethora of cultural materials and, indeed, with how 'we' come to know ourselves as constrained or liberated."
<<<
J. Johnson-Eilda, 'Living on the surface: learning in the age of global communication networks' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era//; London, 1998), p.230
----
Education likely to be marginalized if doesn't adapt to new cultures:
<<<
"The field of education is likely to come under even more intense pressure. It will be further marginalized in most people's experience by common culture. In so far as educational practices are still predicated on traditional liberal humanist lines and on the assumed superiority of high art, they will become almost totally irrelevant to the real energies and interests of most young people and no part of their identity formation."
<<<
P. Willis, //Common Culture// (OUP, 1990), p.147
----
Need new approach to education:
<<<
"We need an altogether new approach to education. Let us give the deveil of work what is due, let us pay necessary homage to the goddess of technology, but then why not use the rest of humanity's currency for the widest possible imaginative exchanges and sensuous purposes."
<<<
P. Willis, //Common Culture// (OUP, 1990), p.147
----
Idea of 'school' will only die if society gives up on its idea of 'society'.
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.114
----
Revolution in educaiton will reverse roles of home and school:
<<<
"Children will go to school because they need to play with other children, to acquire social skills, engage in sports, go on field trips, fiddle with machinery, perform experiments, dance, put on plays, etc. In short, home will become the place to go to learn - school, where you go to play."
<<<
T. Stonier & C. Conlin, //The Three C's: children, computers, communication// (Chichester, 1985), p.31
----
<<<
"Practically, the most meaningful development accompanying the ICT revolution has taken place outside schools as reflected in the impressive leap in the number, both absolute and relative, of students who study at home and do not belong to any formal educational system. In the United States the number rose from a few tens of thousands in the 1980s to one million in 1994, or about two percent of the total number of children of compulsory education age (Aiex, 1994), to somewhere between two and four millions at the end of the ’nineties. A similar leap has taken place in other countries including Australia, Canada and the U.K. (Meighan, 1997)."
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.334-5
----
<<<
"Breaking the glass ceiling is no small matter, however. It amounts to pulling the carpet from under the most essential characteristics of the
prevailing system of schooling. If students and teachers were allowed to perform a large part of their learning activities flexibly from distance and at varying times; if greater emphasis were to be placed on non-disciplinary, research-oriented learning based on authentic problems; and if, on the organizational level, there was to be flexibility in the definition of roles such that a teacher for a certain issue/problem can also choose to deal with a totally different subject or to become a learner, and a learner if satisfying relevant requirements can become a teacher – will there be anything left of the modern educational system as we have known it since the late nineteenth century?
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.341
----
Not just end of schools as we know them, but end of society as we know it:
<<<
"The ICT revolution is... a defining revolution that is all encompassing, irreversibly affecting every aspect of our lives, for good and for bad. It also threatens the most basic assumptions of schooling. It threatens the linear, authoritarian, disciplinary structure of knowledge, the distinction between valid knowledge and superstitions, the importance of literacy and of the written text, all of which have been basic to the
western liberal curriculum over the past 2500 years and to the modern educational system in the last century. It rapidly erodes the advantage that adults have over children in “life experience�?, wisdom and understanding of the world – another basic presupposition of western education since its earliest origins. It extinguishes the importance of a shared geographical place and time structure for the transmission or production of knowledge – the most basic characteristic of modern educational systems in the past century.
<<<
A. Aviram, 'From "Computers in the Classroom" to mindful radical adaptation by education system to the emerging cyber culture' (//Journal of Educational Change//, 1, 2000), p.344
----
''G. Claxton, //Wise Up: learning to live the learning life// (1999)''
''p.313'' - Quotation from Royal Society of Arts (RSA) about educational change as a bolt-on:
<<<
The incessant [world-wide] educational reforms of the 1980s and 1990s have simply bolted change on to a system which is essentially a nineteenth-century one, serving the social and cultural norms of that period. That will not do for the knowledge society... The education system must develop in students... the personal skills that will be needed, at much higher levels, to cope successfully with a more complex world characterised by uncertainty... ''There can be no question about the importance of literacy and numeracy [for example]... but they are only a start.''
<<<
//(my emphasis: good quotation to use r.e. schools missing the point of digital literacy)//
''p.226'' - Definition of ability:
<<<
Ability is person plus the opportunities for assistance which their environment affords, plus their skill at detecting, creating and managing these resources.
<<<
//(could literacy therefore be an element of 'ability' - perhaps the 'skill at detecting, creating and managing' resources within a given domain?)//
''M. Tuman, //Word Perfect: literacy in the computer age// (London, 1992)''
''p.vii'' - Allan Luke - definition of literacy (introduction):
<<<
Literacy is a social technology. That is, literate communities develop varied social, linguistic and cognitive practices with texts. These require the development and use of implements, ranging from plumes and ball point pens to keyboards. the objects and products of such practices and tools are recoverable texts arrayed on tablets, notebooks or other visual displays.
<<<
''p.viii'' - Allan Luke - debate r.e. computers in education (introduction):
<<<
Much of the current debate on computers and education is built upon technological determinist arguments, often in the form of recycled industrial-era claims about print literacy. Teachers have had to deal with two broad premises about the advent of computer technology: first, the human capital rationale that 'high tech' societies... demand ever higher levels of 'computer literacy' from all; and second, the claim that microchip technology is alternately a threat to traditional print based schooling, and a 'magic bullet' for alleviating many of the longstanding problems of that same system.
<<<
''p.x'' - Tuman (introduction) - cites Durkheim's claim that major debates about pedagogy are always an indicator of underlying social change.
''p.2'' - Cannot simply define literacy as the 'ability to read and write' as the notions of 'reading' and 'writing' are unstable. Their meanings shift in response to technological change.
''p.5'' - Communications technologies are not important socially until they are consciously developed for a particular purpose:
<<<
It is usually a mistake to assume that a new technology will be used to extend, rather than transform, and existing practice.
<<<
(p.6 - e.g. of telephone initially designed to be a one-way transmission device, but now carries two-way voice and data)
''p.66'' - Argument for making learning more visual (with help of technology) - Ron Fortune (1989, p.160):
<<<
By developing visual abilities in conjunction with verbal, we may be providing students with a special means of extending their critical thinking and writing abilities more efficiently and more effectively than is possible if we restrict writing instruction to verbal expression alone.
<<<
''p.89'' - Virtual classrooms transform the traditional notion of 'text' (and therefore 'literacy'). When dealing text on paper the original maintained, even if notes, etc. are added to it. When swapping and annotating are done in electronic formats the clear distinctions between text and commentary become 'less stable'.
//(c.f. wikis, etc.)//
''p.92'' - There is a //political// element at work in using technology to communicate and collaborate - Handa (1990, p.168):
<<<
choosing to keep a traditional, noncollaborative classroom could mean choosing to run the risk of preventing students from realizing their own power as writers and from challenging the competition, chauvinism, and class structure that have played such a major role in capitalistic societies and academia.
<<<
''p.93'' - Impossible to consider the notion of technology in education by itself:
<<<
Advocacy of the networked classroom... often cannot be separated from a broader and more thorough-going rejection, not just of teacher-centred instruction, but of print literacy itself and, more often than not, the entire social apparatus it supports.
<<<
//(ironically, those trying to get rid of the system are symbols of its success)//
''p.96'' - What is means to be 'knowledgeable' depends on your definition of 'knowledge'. Gere (1987, p.72-3):
<<<
Knowledge conceived as socially constructed or generated validates the 'learning' part of collaborative learning because it assumes that interactions of collaborative learning can lead to new knowledge or learning. A fixed and hierarchical view of knowledge, in contrast, assumes that learning can occur only when a designated 'knower' imparts wisdom to those less well informed.
<<<
''p.120'' - Marx: new modes of production - whether 19th century industrialism or 21st century information management - control most aspects of social life:
<<<
In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations. The handmill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with teh industrial capitalist.
<<<
''C, Abbott, 'Writing the Visual: the use of graphic symbols in onscreen texts' (in I. Snyder, //Silcon Literacies: communication, innovation and education in the electronic age//, London, 2002)''
''p.43'' - ICT has actually //increased// the amount of printed text - Hanon (2000):
<<<
[A] great deal of this technology is devoted to the storage, organisation and processing of text... information technology apears to generate a huge amount of ancillary printed material.
<<<
//(That's because people are using old paradigms - 'horseless carriage', etc.)//
''p.44'' - Electronic texts are open-ended and don't give young people 'closure':
<<<
Websites differ from books in other ways that just their greater reliance on the image as communication. In particular, they do not offer that sense of completeness and terminus that books normally indicate by their fixed limits, what Bolter has called 'the sense of closure that the codex and printing have fostered' (Bolter 1991: 87)
<<<
//(This means students have to be ''co-creators'')//
''J. Delors, //The Four Pillars of Education//, in J. Delors (ed.), //Learning:The Treasure Within// (UNESCO, France, 1996)''
''p.85'' - Fundamental tension for education in the 21st century:
<<<
Education must transmit, efficiently and on a massive scale, an increasing amount of constantly evolving knowledge and know-how adapted to a knowledge-driven civilization, because this forms the basis of the skills of the future. At the same time, it must find and mark the reference points that will make it possible, on the one hand, for people not to be overwhelmed by the flows of information, much of it ephemeral, that are invading the public and private domains and, on the other, to keep the development of individuals and communities as its end in view. Education must, as it were, simultaneously provide maps of a complex world in constant turmoil and the compass that will enable people to find their way in it.
<<<
-> This means that traditional, quantitative, knowledge-based responses to the demand for education are no longer appropriate:
<<<
Each individual must be equipped to seize learning opportunities throughout life, both to broaden her or his knowledge, skills or attitudes, and to adapt to a changing, complex and interdependent world.
<<<
''p.86'' - Education needs to be organized around four fundamental types of learning:
*''//Learning to know//'' ("acquiring the instruments of understanding")
*''//Learning to do//'' ("so as to be able to act creatively on one's environment")
*''//Learning to live together//'' ("so as to participate and co-operate with other people in all human activities")
*''//Learning to be//'' ("an essential progression which proceeds from the previous three")
-> Traditional education has focused on //learning to know// and - to a lesser extent - on //learning to do//. The other two are left to change or assumed to be the natural product of the first two.
''p.87'' - Education in the 21st century should not be merely about specialization:
<<<
As knowledge is manifold and constantly changing, however, it is increasingly futile to try to know everything - after basic education, omnidisciplinarity is an illusion - but specialization, even for future researchers, must not exclude general knowledge... A general education bring a person into contact with other languages and areas of knowledge, and in the first instance makes communication possible... In addition, general education bonds societies together in time and space, and fosters receptiveness to other areas of knowledge, enabling fruitful synergies to develop between disciplines.
<<<
''p.90'' - Advanced economies are becoming increasingly 'dematerialized' in that services within these economies are best defined by what they are not - i.e. "neither industrial nor agricultural and, despite their variety, have in common the fact that they do not produce material goods."
-> Many services defined mainly by the interpersonal relationships they involve. Almost impossible to train for this as you can for a factory job:
<<<
The development of services therefore makes it essential to cultivate human qualities that are not ncessarily inculcated by traditional training and which amount to the ability to establish stable, effective relationships between individuals.
<<<
''p.94'' - //Learning to Be//, a report by UNESCO in 1972 expressed the fear that the world would be dehumanized as a result of technical change. Edgar Faure, et al:
<<<
...the risk of personality-alienation involved in the more obsessive forms of propaganda and publicity, and in the behavioural conformity which may be imposed on him from the outside, to the detriment of his genuine needs and his intellectual and emotional identity. Meanwhile machines... are ousting him from a certain number of areas in which he used to feel able, at least, to move freely and pursue his ends after his own fashion.
<<<
-> even more of a concern in the 21st century:
<<<
In the twenty-first century, these phenomena may loom even larger. The problem will then on longer be so much to prepare children for a given society as to continuously provide everyone with the powers and intellectual reference points they need for understanding the world around them and behaving responsibly and fairly. More than ever, education's essential role seems to be to give people the freedom of thought, judgement, feeling and imagination they need in order to develop their talents and remain as much as possible in control of their lives.
<<<
''p.95'' - Risk of standardization in face of burgeoning nature of knowledge:
<<<
In an ever-changing world in which social and economic innovation seems to be one of the main driving forces, a special place should doubtless be given to the qualities of imagination and creativity, the clearest manifestations of human freedom, which may be at risk from a certain standardization of individual behaviour. The twenty-first century needs this variety of talents and personalities; it also needs the exceptional individuals who are also essential in any civilization.
<<<
''p.95'' - Education is development of the self:
<<<
Individual development, which begins at birth and continues throughout life, is a dialectical process which starts with knowing oneself and then opens out to relationships with others. In that sense, education is above all an inner journey whose stages correspond to those of the continuous maturing of the personality. Education as a means to the end of a successful working life is thus a very individualized process and at the same time a process of constructing social interaction.
<<<
''J.L. Douglas, 'Will the most reflexive relativist please stand up: hypertext, argument and relativism' (in I. Snyder (ed.), //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.150'' - Plato in //Phaedrus//:
<<<
[O]nce a thing is committed to writing it circulates equally among those who understand the subject and those who have no business with it; a writing cannot distinguish between suitable and unsuitable readers. And if it is ill-treated or unfairly abused it always needs its parent to come to its rescue; it is quite incapable of defending or helping itself.
<<<
//(yes, but this is why a multiplicity of views is important)//
''p,160'' - Interesting angle on the difference between standard text and hypertext:
<<<
When you spin an argument in hypertext, you can choose to represent a world that is strictly 'either/or' or one that is 'and/and/and'.
<<<
//(a postmodern multiplicity of views?)//
''G. Kress, 'Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication: the potentials of new forms of text' (in I. Snyder, //Page to Screen//, London, 1998)''
''p.53'' - Common and serious error to treat technology as a 'causal phenomenon in human, social and cultural affairs'. Technologies only flourish because something is both //known// and //possible// - e.g. gunpowder's use in China before 'discovery' in West.
''p.53-4'' - Social conditions make all the difference to technology:
<<<
Technology is socially applied knowledge, and it is social conditions which make the crucial difference in how it is applied.
<<<
//(i.e. use of technology in schools is not ''inevitable'')//
''p.55'' - Visualisation is a new form of literacy:
<<<
Visualisation is seen as an unproblematic kind of 'translation' from one semiotic mode into another - as a simplistic kind of translation from one language to another. But just as English makes available certain forms of expression which are not available in the very closely related language of German, and vice versa, so also with 'translations' from the verbal (written or spoken to the visual. The sequentially, temporally organised medium of sound is vastly different it its potentials of representation and communication to the simultaneously, spatially organised medium of graphic substance, as expressed in 'lettered representation' in 'literacy'. Each makes possible certain kinds of things, in its particular way, and each prohibits certain things.
<<<
//(so 'digital literacy' in terms of having a visual aspect is ''qualitatively'' different?)//
''p.65-66'' - It's not just a shift in technology, it's how we //use// things:
<<<
Whereas the old-fashioned book was read from beginning to end, this new book is not //read// at all, it is //used//. The shift here has been from an older organisation of //text// to a newer organisation of //resource//; from an older concern with knowledge, to a newer concern with gathering information to manage a task demanded by, or set, in a unit of work. The book now makes //resources// available.
<<<
//(technology shapes us, but it also reflects the way we see the world and the way we interact with things)//
''p.74'' - Semiotic landscape changing because other landscapes changing:
<<<
My argument is that the semiotic landscape is changing in fundamental ways, and that this change relates to other changes in social, cultural, economic and technological domains.
<<<
//(So, language would change even without new technologies such as hypertext?)//
''p.75'' - Text-based representations limit human creativity and expression:
<<<
Or, to put it provocatively: the single, exclusive, intensive focus on written language has dampened the full development of all kinds of human potentials, in all kinds of respects, cognitively and affectively, in two- and three-dimensional representation.
<<<
''p.76'' - Means of expression are segregated in Western society:
<<<
The school, in Western societies, says that writing is serious and most highly valued; music is for the aesthetic development of the individual, as it visual art. These structures, pressures, and actions have shaped not only the representational landscape, but also the cognitive and affective potentials of individuals.
<<<
-> need to have a more developed understanding of these in the 'electronic age'
''p.78'' - Curricula shape individuals of the future:
<<<
Curriculum is a design for the future. The contents and processes put forward in curriculum and in its associated pedagogy are the design for future human dispositions. They provide one set of important means, one important set of resources, for the individual's transformative, shaping action in making him or herself as social humans.
<<<
//(i.e. we need to change curricula for the 21st century...)//
Schools exist for the 'common good':
<<<
"Schools are social institutions whose rationales must be subsumed under a theory of social benefit. Children are educated not only for their parents and not only for their own sakes but for a common good. How this good is to be understood is exactly what is at issue."
<<<
M. Golby, 'The Multiple Functions of Education' (in N. Entwistle (ed.), //Routledge Handbook of Educational Ideas and Practices// (London, 1990), p.133
----
Paternalist vision for education - social democratic outlook - e.g. standard curriculum to enhance social cohesion
*problem with this vision = stride towards authoritarianism - drive for high standards becomes standardization, monitoring becomes surveillance, etc.
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.111
----
ICT central to libertarianism as it is individualist - c.f. Ilich (1971) - deschooling of society.
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.113
----
Postman - education is not about amusement (involves //restraint//)
Conlon, 'Visions of Change' (//British Journal of Educational Technology// 31:2, 2000), p.115
----
''[[John Simkin|http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=1350#]] quoting James Kay Shuttleworth - education is a means to rear:''
<<<
the population in obedience to the laws, in submission to their superiors, and to fit them to strengthen the institutions of their country.
<<<
----
''Peter Wilby - //Where Did It All Go Wrong?// (New Statesman, 6 March 2006) - instrumentalism of New Labour's view of the purpose of education:''
<<<
For new Labour, the purpose of education is almost entirely instrumental. It is about individual ambition and aspiration - and, through that, national economic competitiveness. Blair believes in meritocracy, not equality or solidarity.
Education is described in ministerial speeches as "a driver of social mobility" or "a locomotive". Schools must "add value" to children. They must not "coast along"; they must aim to improve year by year, as must the nation as a whole. This is the language of the boardroom, not of a public project designed, in the words of the cultural critic Raymond Williams, "to express and create values of an educated democracy and a common culture".
<<<
----
''Prime Minister James Callaghan talking about the lack of discussion about the purpose of education in 1976:''
<<<
It is almost as though some people would wish that the subject matter and purpose of education should not have public attention focused on it; nor that profane hands should be allowed to touch it. I cannot believe that this is a considered reaction. The Labour movement has always cherished education: free education, comprehensive education, adult education. Education for life. There is nothing wrong with non-educationalists, even a prime minister, talking about it again.
<<<
(quoted in [[What's new?|http://education.guardian.co.uk/thegreatdebate/story/0,9860,574638,00.html]], //The Guardian//, 16 October 2001 - full text on the [[http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page11326.asp|Number 10 website]])
----
''Futurelab - mention of OECD's vision of the purpose of schooling:''
<<<
We need to start, then, by asking not ‘what buildings do we want?’ but instead ‘what sort of education do we want to see in future?’ We need to ask not ‘how many classrooms do we need?’ but ‘what sorts of learning relationships do we want to foster? What competencies do we want learners to develop? What tools and resources are available to us to support learning?’ Indeed, the OECD Schooling for Tomorrow4 group identified several dynamics that need to be taken into account when considering alternative models of learning and school systems. Immediate contextual dimensions, such as new partnerships with the community, wider cultural influences, as well as establishing clarity about critical learning factors, such as the role of the learner, the organisation and pedagogy, were all thought to be crucial.
<<<
([[What if...? Re-imagining learning spaces|http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/opening_education/learning_spaces_01.htm]], October 2006)
----
Futurelab - insufficient debate r.e. the purpose of education. They suggest:
<<<
In more detail, the purpose of an education system is to:
*validate and recognise diverse sites of expertise and diverse forms of expertise that learners and communities bring into the educational system
*widen awareness of different ways of living and knowing - and provide opportunities to explore these different ways
*offer the tools to learners and families and communities to engage with the resources of an education system and a wider community:
**communication
**confidence
**negotiation
**networking
**collaboration
**planning
**prediction
*offer multiple communities and strategies for engaging with knowledge - towards pluralisation of options
*offer tools to collate, reflect upon and link different learning experiences.
*Donald Rumsfeld model of lifelong learning - preparing children to deal with the unknown unknowns.
''Basic formatting:''
| !To get | !Type this |h
| ''Bold'' | {{{''Bold''}}} |
| ==Strikethrough== | {{{==Strikethrough==}}} |
| __Underline__ | {{{__Underline__}}} (that's two underline characters) |
| //Italic// | {{{//Italic//}}} |
| Superscript: 2^^3^^=8 | {{{2^^3^^=8}}} |
| Subscript: a~~ij~~ = -a~~ji~~ | {{{a~~ij~~ = -a~~ji~~}}} |
| @@highlight@@ | {{{@@highlight@@}}} |
''Images:''
{{{
[img[title|filename]]
[img[filename]]
[img[title|filename][link]]
[img[filename][link]]
}}}
Images can be included by their filename or full URL. It's good practice to include a title to be shown as a tooltip, and when the image isn't available. An image can also link to another tiddler or or a URL
[img[Romanesque broccoli|fractalveg.jpg][http://www.flickr.com/photos/jermy/10134618/]]
{{{
[img[Fractal vegetable|fractalveg.jpg]]
[img[This is shown as a tooltip|http://example.com/image.jpg]]
[img[http://example.com/image.jpg]]
[img[http://example.com/image.jpg][ExampleDotCom]]
}}}
''Monospaced text:''
{{{
Done like this!
}}}
''Subheadings:''
!Header 1
!!Header 2
!!!Header 3
!!!!Header 4
!!!!!Header 5
''Links''
You can link to [[other sites|http://dougbelshaw.com]] or [[ordinary tiddlers|TiddlyWiki]] with ordinary words, without the messiness of the full URL appearing. Edit this tiddler to see how. You can also LinkToFolders.
''Bullets:''
* Just add an asterisk
* at the beginning of a line.
** If you want to create sub-bullets
** start the line with two asterisks
*** And if you want yet another level
*** use three asterisks
''Numbered List:''
# Use a single '#' at the start of each line
# and the tiddler will automatically
# start numbering your list.
## If you want a sub-list
## within any bullets
## add two '#'s at the start of the lines.
# When you go back to a single '#'
# the main numbered list will start up
# where it left off.
''Horizontal Rules:''
You can divide a tiddler into
----
sections by typing four dashes on a line by themselves
''Tables:''
*sample:
|!th1111111111|!th2222222222|
|>| colspan |
| rowspan |left|
|~| right|
|bgcolor(#a0ffa0):colored| center |
|caption|c
''Blockquotes:''
You can have multiple levels of Block Quotes. Just edit this tiddler to see how it's done.
>level 1
>level 1
>>level 2
>>level 2
>>>level 3
>>>level 3
>>level 2
>level 1
''Popups:''
<<tag formatting>>
''Tony Blair (1999) - the purpose of schools must change:''
<<<
Education is critical to both the economic and the social, and the implications are profound. For the nation as a whole, it means shifting from a low skill average to a high skill average - or as I put it, excellence for the many, not just the few. The wider purpose of schools must also change, in a society where rights and duties need to be justified and accepted, not inherited and imposed. Yet most important of all is the implication for the type of education we need. On the one hand, universal competence in the basic skills, including ICT. On the other, diversity with excellence - an education meeting the full range of individual needs beyond the basics, both the innate abilities too often neglected at present, and the specific training and skills suited to people's aptitudes, which requires a far more flexible system of secondary and post-16 education.
<<<
(Romanes Lecture at Oxford, 2 December 1999 - http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1465.asp)
''Is personalising learning and the use of ICT all about cost at the end of the day? Tony Blair (1999):''
<<<
We are the beginning of the end of an era of education - an era where the issue for most part was how to achieve the maximum amount of learning within limited teaching resources. Entering the 21st century with the new technology, our goal is to become 'learning bound' not 'teacher bound' - not to replace teachers, but to enhance and supplement them - in and out of school - with the vast interactive resources of ICT. It has been estimated that the full cost of one school teacher-hour is £50 and, rightly for our teachers, it is rising; but the full cost of one school ICT-hour is about 75p, and dropping at 20% year, at the same time as the inherent capability of the technology is rising. And as it rises, in the hands of skilled teachers as learning managers, so too does the capacity for ICT to personalise learning - to provide the tailored support for different aptitudes and needs which is critical to the future. This is one of the most exciting and important implications of ICT.
<<<
(Romanes Lecture at Oxford, 2 December 1999 - http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1465.asp)
[img[That's all very well in practice, but how will it work in theory?|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/wiki_image.gif]]
This is a space for me to get things down quickly in a way which isn't necessarily fully formed but at the same time is accessible to me pretty much wherever I am. Whilst I //used// to use it for lesson planning, it's now mainly used by me for my Ed.D. notes and ideas and in support of my role as Director of E-Learning. :-)
Below is my Ed.D. thesis concept map that took me //ages.// [[Click here|http://share.xmind.net/_embed/dajbelshaw/digital-literacy/]] to see a zoomable version!
[img[Ed.D. thesis concept map|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/edd_concept_map.jpg]]
This part of dougbelshaw.com uses [[TiddlyWiki|http://www.tiddlywiki.com/]], a great solution for a personal wiki that you can use online or offline. You can also get a hosted version for free at [[tiddlyspot|http://tiddlyspot.com/]] :-)
''Rantala, L. & Suoranta, J. 'Digital Literacy Policies in the EU - Inclusive Partnership as the Final Stage of Governmentality?' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.91'' - Authors talk of how it's 'almost as if digitalization not only promises salvation from servitude and impoverishment but also brings a solution to the haunting problems of innovation and creativity in the global competition between nation states and state unions, and between the west and the rest.'
''p.92'' - Digital literacy is ''not'' to do with using hardware:
<<<
Questions concerning digital literacies have almost nothing to do with information and communication technologies, with those electronic and invisible binary strings of ones and zeros... but they certainly have to do with the technocratic apparatus of governing people in the world of governing economic competition and teaching individual "networking" competences.
<<<
//(so digital literacy about social networking?)//
''p.95'' - 'Double meaning' of literacy:
<<<
Literacy has long had a double meaning. On one hand it has been viewed as a prime "tamer" in the hands of rulers and the church. On the other hand, conversely, it has been seen as one of the cornerstones of individual and social emancipation.
<<<
//(is the same true of 'digital' literacy?)//
''p.96'' - Street (1984) - two different models of literacy:
<<<
The autonomous model construes literacy as existing independently of specific contexts of social practice; having autonomy from material enactments of language in such practices; and producing effects independently of contextual social factors. Accordingly, literacy is seen as independent of and impartial towards trends and struggles in everyday life - a "neutral" variable.
<<<
//(I would reject this point of view - it's an important distinction that I should discuss in my thesis)//
''p.96'' - Regarding the 'autonomous' model, Dighe and Reddi (2006) claim that:
<<<
In this model, language is conceptualized as a separate, reified set of 'neutral' competencies, autonomous of the social context. With regard to schooled literacy as well as of most adult literacy programmes, it is the autonomous model of literacy that has generally dominated curriculum and pedagogy.
<<<
//(great point to mention in thesis)//
''p.96-7'' - 'Ideological' model of literacy is opposed to the 'autonomous' model:
<<<
On the other hand, the ideological model "rejects the notion of an essential literacy lying behind actual social practices involving texts. What literacy //is// consists in the forms textual engagement takes within specific material contexts of human practice" (Lankshear, 1999, no page; our emphasis). Literacy is thus seen as ben inextricably and contextually linked to cultural, political and hegemonic power structures. In this sense it has been argued that because people's relationships with media in the digital age are necessarily tied to social and cultural contexts, it is important to get beyond individual, skills-based literacy learning and approach literacy as a sociocultural phenomenon... Accordingly, reading and writing are not only based on individual skills; literacy is an active relationship or a way or orienting to the social and cultural world. Furthermore, reading and writing do not happen in social isolation but, in some fundamental respect, are inherent attribute of social practices.
<<<
//(great summary of the difference between what I think ('Ideological') versus what others may think)//
''p.97'' - Development of idea of 'multiple literacies':
<<<
Recent developments inthe theory of literacy have in various ways emphasized the multiplicity of literacies. This idea has its theoretical grounds in the sociocultural tradition and its empirical base lies partly in the proliferation of digitalized information and communication channels in the past few decades. Alongside language, as James Paul Gee (2003, pp.13-14) writes, these new information and communication systems involve many other visual symbols, such as images, graphs and diagrams, and the skills to use and interpret them. In addition, these "texts" are multimodeal, that is, they mix words, images and other forms of information. Hence, multiple literacies are needed because there are different ways of reading and writing diverse multimodal texts.
<<<
//(a justification for having many 'literacies'? what would Kress say?!)//
''p.98'' - Cynthia Lewis (2007) 'creative' nature of multiple (new) literacies that:
<<<
allow writers (users; players) a good deal of leeway to be creative, perform identities, and choose affiliations within a set of parameters that can change through negotiation, play, and collaboration.
<<<
//(this is an important element - although what about 'identity'? is literacy tied to identity?)//
''p.102-3'' - EU's 'Lisbon Strategy' produced the eLearning Initiative, which states on p.3-4 that citizens should be 'properly versed in the three Rs' and:
<<<
the emergence of the knowledge-based society implies that every citizen must be 'digitally literate' and [possess] basic skills in order to be on a better footing in terms of equal opportunities in a world in which digital functions are proliferating. This is high on the list of priorities if we are to enhance cohesion and employability in our societies as opposed to creating fresh divisions.
<<<
//(mention of the 'digital divide' here - but related to digital literacy. Seems to be separate from 'functional skills')//
''p.105'' - Would seem that EU make frequent reference to 'digital literacy' without really defining what it means:
<<<
Digital literacy is one of the essential skills and competencies needed to take an active part in the knowledge society and the new media culture. Digital literacy also relates to media literacy and social competence, as they have in common objectives such as active citizenship and the responsible use of ICTs.
<<<
//('social competence'?!)//
''p.107'' - Education and Training 2010 program - Working Group's Report (2003: 8, 20-21):
<<<
Digital literacy is increasingly defined in terms of intellectual capacities and not just in terms of physical access. In the same manner, the digital divide is increasingly related to the equity access to information in the educational, scientific, economic, social, political and cultural fields. Obviously, 'accessing' to information does not mean 'mastering' related knowledge, but access already appears as being a political goal for many countries or regions of Europe.
<<<
''p.108'' - Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning. A European Reference Framework (2004: 4) - discussion of what is a 'basic' mastery of a competence:
<<<
the term 'basic' refers to something that depends on the requirements of the situation and circumstance: mastering a skill well enough to solve a problem in one situation might not be enough in another situation. In a constantly changing society, the demands faced by an individual vary from one situation to another and from time to time. Therefore, in addition to possessing the specific basic skills for accomplishing a certain task, //more flexible, generic// and //transferable// competences are needed to provide the individual with a combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes that are appropriate to particular situations.
<<<
//(but these 'higher' or 'advanced' levels wouldn't be 'literacies' - would they?)//
(follows on from quotation, now authors)
<<<
Digital literacy is seen to be a good example of the situational nature of key competences because there are only relatively few situations where basic ICT skills are sufficient. In most cases the effective use of ICT requires an appropriate level of critical thinking and a wider understanding of media.
<<<
//(so 'digital literacy' being fairly narrowly defined as a functional skill?)//
''p.109'' - Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council (2006) - defining 'digital competence' (which authors believe can be read as proxy for 'digital literacy'):
<<<
Digital competence involves the confident and critical use of Information Society Technology (IST) for work, leisure and communication. It is underpinned by basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet.
<<<
//('digital competence' therefore a higher level skill than the functional 'basic skills in ICT' mentioned here? how?)//
''p.112'' - Tornero (2004) - ability of 'digital literacy' to transform social relations:
<<<
Accordingly, digital literacy has to enable us to rethink social relations, duties and rights and pave the way for learning new values; values that are more solid and steadfast in their equity and solidarity, respectful of human dignity. With respect to this social dimension of digital literacy, the incorporation of ICT in institutions and society must provide opportunities not only to increase efficiency and accelerate certain existing processes, but also to rethink such processes and change them, adapting them to human and social needs.
<<<
//(is this relating to literacy or policy?)//
''A. Martin, 'Towards e-literacy' (in A. Martin & H. Rader (eds.), //Information and IT literacy: enabling learning in the 21st century//, London, 2003)''
''p.3'' - Information and IT literacy essential to be a successful learner in the 21st century:
<<<
Over the past few decades, the view of teaching and learning has changed dramatically. The emergence of student-focused learning models has led to re-examination of the activities of learning. At the same time, information technology (IT) has enabled new ways of setting up learning activities. In the IT-rich learning environment, students' achievement of IT (information technology) and information literacy becomes essential to their success as learners.
<<<
''p.3'' - Shift in last 3 decades in way which teaching and learning in higher education are perceived:
* Up to 1960s - imparting of academic knowledge (lectures, tutorials & essays)
* 1960s/70s - student-centred theories started to be adopted (c.f. Vygotsky, Piaget & Bruner - learning as an interactive process)
* 1970s onwards - constructivist theories of learning
''p.4'' - Scott, Dyson & Gater (1987) - summary of key elements of a constructivist view of learning in science:
# Learning outcomes depend not only on the learning environment but also on the prior knowledge, attitudes and goals of the learner.
# Learning involves the construction of knowledge through experience with the physical environment and through social interaction.
# Constructing links with prior knowledge is an active process involving the generation, checking and restructuring of ideas or hypotheses.
# Learning science is not simply a matter of adding to and extending existing concepts, but may involve their radical re-organization.
# Meanings, once constructed, can be accepted or rejected.
# Learning is not passive. Individuals are purposive beings who set their own goals and control their own learning.
# Students frequently bring similar ideas, about natural phenomena, to the classroom. This is hardly surprising when one considers the extent of their shared experiences.
''p.5'' - Perry (1970) - move from //dualistic// perspective (problems essentially right or wrong) to a //relativisitic// perspective (problems = complex, not necessarily a 'correct' solution)
''p.5'' - Students are not empty vessels to be 'filled':
<<<
As theories of learning have developed, so has the model of the learner, from a model of an empty pot to be filled with knowledge or a //tabula rasa// to be inscribed upon by the teacher.
<<<
''p.7'' - New types of students in the 21st century - Langlois (1997):
<<<
A new type of student, computer-literate, will expect that his university and its teaching staff are equally familiar and equipped with new technologies. As a service to their students, universities have to enhance Information Technologies as, in future years, it will be widely spread in all areas of the labour market. Information literacy will be essential for all future employees. Modern students are now looking for more flexible learning patterns and universities must commit themselves to creating new learning environments.
<<<
''p.7'' - Langlois (1997) - 6 ways in which teaching and learning will benefit from ICT:
# Expansion and increased efficiency of the instructional process
# Development of new teaching materials and distance learning modules
# Increased cost-effectiveness
# Changes in the role of the teacher to facilitator and guide (rather than provider of knowledge)
# Changes in learning styles to more student-focused modes
# Improvements in communication
''p9'' - McFarlane report (COSUP, 1992) - holistic view of nature of the learning environment needs to be maintained, even with proliferation of IT tools:
<<<
Students will have to be taught how to manage their own learning processes to an unprecedented degree. They will have to learn how to swim in a sea of information, to use the rich resources of a supportive learning environment, to self-pace and self-structure their programmes of learning. They will have to choose from a spectrum of learning styles ranging from virtual self instruction under support to group working of various types.
<<<
''p.11'' A key challenge = re-conceiving the role of the educator. IT does not mean the end of face-to-face encounters, but various methods have to be employed as geography becomes less important. Teachers should view IT facilities as 'enhancements rather than threats'.
''p.12-17'' - 3 different phases in usage of computers & technology:
* ''Mastery phase'' (up to mid-1980s) - emphasis placed on gaining skills and knowledge to be able to harness the power of the computer by understanding how it works and being able to program it.
* ''Application phase'' (mid-1980s to late 1990s) - graphical user interface (e.g. Windows) taken for granted and the computer was perceived as an everyday tool that can be applied to a wide range of activities in education, work & leisure. Focus for computer literacy = how to use applications - practical competencies rather than specialist computing knowledge. Certification schemes arises and computers started to appear in schools.
* ''Reflective phase'' (late 1990s onwards) - stimulated by need for students to become autonomous learners. IT facilities taken for granted and IT skills taken for granted as competencies that should learned when young. Move towards using best application for the task in hand and upon interpreting information generated.
''p.12'' - Early definition of computer literacy (Nevison, 1976):
<<<
It is reasonable to suggest that a peson who has written a computer program should be called //literate in computing//. This is an extremely elementary definition. Literacy is not fluency.
<<<
''p.14'' - In the 'Mastery' phase of computers in education, programming was seen as an important meta-skill, just as learning Latin was "once recommended as a stimulator of orderly thinking." (c.f. Papert's //Logo//)
''p.16'' - In the 'Reflective' phase, being computer-literate means acquiring skills, not knowledge. US National Council Report (1999):
<<<
Generally, 'computer literacy' has acquired a 'skills' connotation, implying competency with a few of today's computer applications, such as word processing and e-mail. Literacy is too modest a goal in the presence of rapid change, becuase it lacks the necessary 'staying power'. As the technology changes by leaps and bounds, existing skills become antiquated and there is no migration path to new skills. A better solution is for the individual to plan to adapt to changes in the technology.
<<<
*Abbott, C., [[Writing the Visual]]
*Abbott, J. & Ryan, T., [[The Unfinished Revolution]]
*Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. [[Literacy Practices]]
*Bawden, D. [[Origins and Concepts of Digital Literacy]]
*Beavis, C., [[Computer games, culture and curriculum]]
*Beavis, C., [[Reading, Writing and Role-playing Computer Games]]
*Biesta, G.J.J. & Burbules, N.C., [[Pragmatism and Educational Research]]
*Bigum, C., [[Design Sensibilities, Schools and the New Computing and Communication Technologies]]
*Bigum, C. & Green, B., [[Technologizing literacy: or, interrupting the dream of reason]]
*Bredo, E., [[Philosophies of Educational Research]]
*Bryman, A., [[Social Research Methods]]
*Buckingham, D., [[Defining Digital Literacy]]
*Burbules, N.C. & B.R. Warnick, [[Philosophical Inquiry]]
*Burbules, N.C., [[Rhetorics of the Web]]
*Burbules, N.C., [[The Web as a Rhetorical Place]]
*Burnett, R., [[Technology, Learning and Visual Culture]]
*Burniske, R.W. & Monke, L., [[Breaking Down the Digital Walls]]
*Carneiro, R., [[The New Frontiers of Education]]
*Carr, D., [[Making Sense of Education]]
*Chaiklin, S., [[A Developmental Teaching Approach to Schooling]]
*Claxton, G., [[Education for the Learning Age]]
*Claxton, G., [[Wise Up: learning to live the learning life]]
*Connelly, F.M. & D.J. Clandinin, [[Narrative Inquiry]]
*Cromer, A. [[Connected Knowledge: Science, Philosophy, and Education]]
*Dalin, P. & Rust, V.D., [[Towards Schooling for the Twenty-First Century]]
*Davis, A. & K. Williams, [[Epistemology and Curriculum]]
*Delors, J. [[Choices for education: the political factor]]
*Delors, J. [[Education: the necessary Utopia]]
*Delors, J. [[The Four Pillars of Education]]
*Delors, J. [[Teachers in search of new perspectives]]
*Douglas, J.Y., [[Will the most reflexive relativist please stand up]]
*Empson, W. [[7 Types of Ambiguity]]
*Eraut, M. (ed.), [[Education and the Information Society]]
*Erstad, O., [[Trajectories of Remixing]]
*Eyman, D., [[Digital Literac(ies), Digital Discourses, and Communities of Practice]]
*Fieldhouse, M. & Nicholas, D., [[Digital Literacy as Information Savvy]]
*Freire, P. & Macedo, D., [[Literacy: reading the word & the world]]
*Friedman, T.L., [[The World is Flat]]
*Gee, J.P., [[New Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Area and "Worked Examples" as One Way Forward]]
*Genishi, C. & T. Glupczynski, [[Language and Literacy Research: Multiple Methods and Perspectives]]
*Gilster, P., [[Digital Literacy]]
*Glaser, R. [[Expert Knowledge and Processes of Thinking]]
*Goldman, A.I., [[Knowledge in a Social World]]
*Graham, G., [[The Internet: a philosophical inquiry]]
*Grossman, P.L. & Stodolsky, S.S., [[Content as Context: the role of school subjects in secondary school teaching]]
*Gurak, L.J., [[Cyberliteracy: navigating the Internet with awareness]]
*Hannon, P., [[Reflecting on Literacy in Education]]
*Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L., [[Reflections on computers and composition studies at the century's end]]
*Hawisher, G.E. & Selfe, C.L., [[Conclusion: inventing postmodern identities]]
*Hogan, P. & R. Smith, [[The Activity of Philosophy and the Practice of Education]]
*Holme, R. [[Literacy: an introduction]]
*Hoyles, M. (ed.), [[The Politics of Literacy]]
*Johnson, G.M., [[Functional Internet Literacy]]
*Johnson-Eilola, J., [[Living on the surface]]
*Kellner, D.M., [[Technological Revolution, Multiple Literacies, and the Restructuring of Education]]
*Knobel, M. & Lankshear, C., [[Digital Literacy and Participation in Online Social Networking Spaces]]
*Kress, G., [[Literacy in the New Media Age]]
*Kress, G., [[Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication]]
*Lankshear, C. & Bigum, C., [[Literacies and New Technologies in School Settings]]
*Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M., [[Introduction: Digital Literacies - Concepts, Policies and Practices]]
*Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. [[Digital Literacy and the Law]]
*Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M., [[New Literacies: Everyday Practices & Classroom Learning]]
*Lemke, J.L., [[Becoming the Village]]
*Levin, B. & Riffel, J.A., [[Schools and the Changing World]]
*Luke, A. & Kaptizke, C. [[Literacies and Libraries: archives and cybraries]]
*Martin, A., [[Towards e-literacy]]
*Martin, A., [[Digital Literacy and the "Digital Society"]]
*McLuhan, M., [[The Gutenberg Galaxy]]
*McCormick, R., [[Practical Knowledge: A View from the Snooker Table]]
*Muller, J., [[Reclaiming Knowledge]]
*OECD, [[The Curriculum Redefined: schooling for the 21st century]]
*Ong, W., [[Orality and Literacy]]
*Rantala, L. & Suoranta, J., [[Digital Literacy Policies in the EU]]
*Reffell, P., [[IT Skills are not enough]]
*Rheingold, H., [[Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies]]
*Rodríguez Illera, J.L., [[Digital Literacies]]
*Sloane, S. & Johnstone, J., [[Reading sideways, backwards, and across]]
*Smith, R. & Curtin, P., [[Children, computers and life online]]
*Snyder, I., [[Beyond the hype: reassessing hypertext]]
*Snyder, I., [[Communication, Imagination, Critique - Literacy Education for the Electronic Age]]
*Snyder, I., [[Page to Screen]]
*Snyder, I., [[Silicon Literacies]]
*Søby, M., [[Digital Competence - from education policy to pedagogy]]
*Stetsenko, A. & I. Arievitch, [[Teaching, Learning and Development]]
*Stoll Dalton, S. & R.G. Tharp, [[Standards for Pedagogy]]
*Street, B.V., [[New Literacy Studies and Literacies across Educational Contexts]]
*Sugimoto, T. & Levin, J.A., [[Multiple Literacies and Multimedia]]
*Taylor, T. & Ward, I., [[Literacy theory in the age of the internet]]
*Thomas, S., et al., [[Transliteracies: crossing divides]]
*Town, J.S., [[Information Literacy: definition, measurement, impact]]
*Trayner, B., [[Multiliteracies: a theoretical overview]] (blog post)
*Tuman, M., [[Word Perfect: literacy in the computer age]]
*Tusting, K., [[The New Literacy Studies and Time]]
''Thomas, Sue, et al. '[[Transliteracy: Crossing divides|http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2060/1908]]' (First Monday, 12:12. December 2007)''
*Definition of 'transliteracy':
<<<
Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.
<<<
*Origin of word 'transliteracy':
<<<
The word ‘transliteracy’ is derived from the verb ‘to transliterate’, meaning to write or print a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language. This of course is nothing new, but transliteracy extends the act of transliteration and applies it to the increasingly wide range of communication platforms and tools at our disposal. From early signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV and film to networked digital media, the concept of transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present.
<<<
*'Transliteracy' //contains// other literacies:
<<<
Our current thinking (although still not entirely resolved) is that because it offers a wider analysis of reading, writing and interacting across a range of platforms, tools, media and cultures, transliteracy does not replace, but rather contains, “media literacy” and also “digital literacy.”
<<<
*Henry Jenkins (MIT, 2001) - problem with talking about media convergence:
<<<
Part of the confusion about media convergence stems from the fact that when people talk about it, they’re actually describing at least five processes.
<<<
//(Jenkins names these processes as: technological, economic, social or organic, cultural, and global)//
*Transliteracy is about 'all communication types':
<<<
[T]ransliteracy is not just about computer–based materials, but about all communication types across time and culture. It does not privilege one above the other but treats all as of equal value and moves between and across them.
<<<
//(wouldn't this be better described as 'meta-literacy' - it has no real definition, does it?)//
*Marshall McLuhan (1964) - technology is almost an extension of ourselves:
<<<
[I]n this electric age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of information, moving towards the technological extension of consciousness.
<<<
//(I think this feeds in well to questions about literacy and identity - c.f. avatars as aspirational or more representative)//
*Authors try to compare online interactions with those of cavemen:
<<<
Transliteracy is an inclusive concept which bridges and connects past, present and, hopefully, future modalities. The chitchat of a blog is not dissimilar to campfire stories after a day’s hunting, and the auction fever of eBay is not unlike the haggling that went on in an Iron Age marketplace. The literacies (digital, numerate, oral) may be different, but the transliteracies (social, economic, political) often transect them in similar ways, depending on cultural context.
<<<
//(Erm... I really think this is stretching a point too far!)//
*Transliteracy explains changes in human interaction due to technology?
<<<
The philosopher Bernard Stiegler suggests that past technologies have always involved a change in our phenomenological experience of the world. Transliteracy engages with new innovations in participatory media even as it recognizes that part of what such media enables is a recovery of an older plurality of literacies with possibly ancient provenances. Stiegler’s work draws attention to the degree to which theorizing about technology is often polarized between anxiety and euphoria. His response is to refuse to distance technology from life; and to suggest that human individuation and technology have always had a transductive relationship. Our sense of transliteracy is informed by such a relationship.
<<<
//(I think this is just a complex way of saying that technology means we can interact in different ways - which is somewhat obvious...)//
*Idea of a 'lifeworld':
<<<
A lifeworld is the combination of physical environment and subjective experience that makes up everyday life.
<<<
Explained by Agre and Horswill (1997):
<<<
A lifeworld, then, is not just a physical environment, but the patterned ways in which a physical environment is functionally meaningful within some activity.
<<<
//(Could be a useful concept and explains how immersion in same digital and/or physical space can lead to different conceptions and outputs)//
*'Transliteracy' was coined by Sue Thomas.
*The authors believe that the following image ('The Problem of Script' by Alan Halsey) is a metaphor for 'transliteracy':
[img[http://bayimg.com/image/iamamaabh.jpg]]
*Importance of 'phsical' element when expressing oneself in literate discourse:
<<<
The “patterned ways” of transliteracy are multiple, varied, and often physical. A sense of how it feels to hold a feather quill, chisel a stone, type on a keyboard, or take a photograph, is important and helps connect the material product — a letter, photo, etc. — to the means of production. For those fond of 2.0 expressions, perhaps this is Physicality 2.0. And then there is the issue of cognition. Behaviors hitherto seen as dysfunctional, such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, and even synaesthesia, may actually be useful literacies in less textual environments like computer games (and, indeed, real life) which privilege multimodality over fixed–type print. It appears that flexibility is certainly an essential part of being transliterate.
<<<
//(Fascinating question r.e. 'dysfunctionality' and new literacies)//
*'Cultural production' is usually analyzed from one of two perspectives: the //how// ('practical issues of media and digital literacy, particularly access to and use of the tools and skills of production') or the //why// ('social, economic and cultural determinants'). A //transliterative// approach would consider //both//.
''Søby, M. 'Digital Competence - From Education Policy to Pedagogy: The Norwegian Context' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.119-20'' - 'Knowledge Promotion Reform' in Norway means Norway is the first country in Europe with a curriculum based on digital skills. 'Digital competence' defined in //A Learning Culture// - White paper no.30 (2003-2004) as:
<<<
[...] the sum of individual ICT skills, such as reading, writing and maths, and more advanced skills ensuring a creative and critical use of digital tools and media. ICT skills include making use of software, searching, finding, processing and controlling information from various digital sources, while critical and creative ability also requires ability to evaluate information and sources, interpretation and analysis of digital genres and media types. Thus, digital competence can be regarded as a very composite form of competence. (2003-2004, p.48)
<<<
//(I like that - 'digital competence' as a 'composite form of competence'!)//
''p.120-1'' - In the Norwegian Knowledge Promotion Reform, digital skills = '5th basic skill' along with reading, writing, basic maths, and spoken word.
//(are these others 'competences' or 'skills'?)//
''p.122'' - 'Digital competence' = concept whose status is "essentially contested" (Connolly, 1993) - vague conceptual core similar to 'democracy'. Discussions around 'digital skills', 'digital competence' and 'digital bildung' are "numerous and complex in Scandanavian public debate."
//(this is what's missing in UK and US - public debate!)//
''p.122-3'' - Ong, //Orality and Literacy// (1982) - technologies transform consciousness:
<<<
According to Ong, writing becomes interiorized. That makes it difficult to see writing as a technology. There is a close connection between the philosophy of the Enlightenment and printing techniques. For example, in seeing a book's print as "natural" - something that has lost its technical character - pedagogy has forgotten how technology and culture are interwoven. (Søby, 1998)
<<<
//(what a fantastic point - interplay of technology and culture)//
''p.124'' - Snow (1959) warned against separating technology and culture as it "would lead to technology developing into a form of rationality with a basis in science without cultural knowledge and that cultural analyses in the fields of the humanities and social science lacked technical knowledge." (Søby)
''p.129'' - Three different trends in frames of international frames of reference for 'digital competence':
#Definition of basic skills within ICT (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.)
#Concepts such as 'fourth basic skill' and about 'fundamental ICT skills as a basis for professional use'
#Updated version of //Bildung// with focus on broader digital competence & expertise
//(interesting - I presume first is informs debates in UK?)//
''p.129-30'' - 'Digital competence' related to 'ICT literacy' and 'digital literacy' (as well as 'media literacy'). Literacy used to be a basic skills, but has been extended:
<<<
Traditionally, //literacy// in English literature has been regarded as basic skills in reading and writing independent of social context. Recent //literacy// research has extended the meaning of //literacy// to include the writing technology in social and cultural practice.
<<<
//(an important point - perhaps talk in thesis about whether it's valid to make literacy socially and culturally situated?)//
''p.131'' - 'Digital literacy' involves confident use of tools:
<<<
//Digital literacy// involves the ability to develop the potential inherent in ICT and use it innovatively for learning and for work. This requires a certain level of confidence with digital media and is considered a key concept for lifelong learning. The concept of //digital literacy// has a central place in several of the EU's research and education programs.
<<<
//(digital literacy as confidence and brick in wall of 'lifelong learning'?)//
''p.131-2'' - EU's //eLearning program// from 2003 - justification of 'digital literacy' as being part of e-citizenship:
<<<
The ability to use ICT and the Internet becomes a new form of literacy - "digital literacy." Digital literacy is fast becoming a prerequisite for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship and without it citizens can neither participate fully in society nor acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to live in the 21st century.
<<<
//(that's going a bit far - at present, anyway! what about different cultures, societies, etc.?)//
''p.133'' - OECD on building competence of the whole person:
[img[The Categories of Basic Competencies (from OECD, 2002, no page)|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/categories_basic_competencies.jpg]]
''p.133'' - OECD: competence is about 'meeting challenge through action':
<<<
Competence is the ability and readiness to meet a challenge through action, when it is often implicit that the challenge is not a given, but depends on context; that it is not a routine challenge, but novel and not judged by given criteria for success, but by the outcome which form is not known in advance. (Hermann, 2005, p.9)
<<<
//(how does this relate to 'digital competence'?)//
''p.133-4'' - OECD report (above) influenced Norwegian policy - digital competence regarded as having equal weight with 3R's - part of 'integrated perspective encompassing learning strategies and social competence.'
''p.135'' - Examples of 'digital competence' embedded in Norwegian curriculum:
<<<
As part of their Norwegian studies in the second year, pupils have to use a "computer to create text"..., while in 4th year they have to "perform information searches, creating, storing and retrieving texts using digital tools"... After the 7th year the pupils have to "use digital writing tools in an authoring process and for the production of interactive texts"... In secondary school the pupils have to work with multimodal texts via digital media for their project study for the general studies qualification.
<<<
//(how different is this from what students do in the UK? is it just using fancy words?!)//
''p.140'' - ITU Monitor ('longitudinal study to survey digital competence in basic education') found three different forms of 'digital competence' among pupils:
<<<
*//accessing// information,
*//integrating// information where the information is previously known from before or comes from other sources,
*//creating//, which concerns their digital texts being understandable and, for example, ensuring that illustrations and text fit together.
<<<
//(relation to Bloom's taxonomy?)//
''p.141-2'' - Characteristics of a 'digitally competent school':
<<<
The digitally competent school is characterized by its framework, infrastructure, leadership, culture, and educational practice being marked by openness and systemacity.
<<<
//(can't you be 'digitally competent' and 'closed'? why not?)//
''p.142'' - 'Digital competence' needs planning for on a long-term basis:
<<<
Digital competence for all is a long-term social project, which requires comprehensive understanding of how to integrate digital tools into schools on a daily basis. It will require adaptability, strategy plans and more resources from central education authorities, school owners and schools.
<<<
//(need to get community involved!)//
''p.145'' - Justification for 'digital competence' being in school curricula:
<<<
Digital competence at school is necessary to educate children and young people for a working life characterized by innovation and value creation. Digital competence is important to the development and continuation of a democratic and inclusive information society.
<<<
//(so it's all about work and citizenship?!)//
''Martin, A., 'Digital Literacy and the "Digital Society"' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.151'' - Although we are surrounded by 'digital tools' we don't live in a 'digital society':
<<<
Yet it would be wrong to think that we live in "The Digital Society," for this suggests that society is //made// by the digital, and that its essential characteristics have been created because of the development of digital technology.
<<<
//(I'm not so sure that one means the other?)//
''p.152-3'' - Terms such as 'technological revolution' and 'information society' are misleading for three reasons:
#Creates the impression that social change = determined by technology (doesn't mention context in which these developments took place nor decisions behind them)
#It allows human actions to be blamed on technology rather than human choice.
#Terms such as 'technological revolution' infer that social change happens as sudden shift rather than continuity of the social, economic and political order.
//(These are all good points! Perhaps mention Kuhnian paradigms here and mention why irrelevant?)//
''p.153'' - Great metaphor for social change - solids & liquids:
<<<
Society is being transformed by the passage from the "solid" to the "liquid" phases of modernity, in which all social forms melt faster than new ones can be cast. They are not given enough time to solidify and cannot serve as the frame of reference for human actions and long-term life-strategies because their allegedly short life expectation undermines efforts to develop a strategy that would require the consistent fulfillment of a "life-project." (Bauman, 205, p.303)
<<<
//(What a fantastic metaphor - could use this for Flickr image and should //definitely// go into thesis somewhere!)//
(continues r.e. consumption as attempt in 'creating meaning')
<<<
For those who do not belong to the global elite, life has become an individual struggle for meaning and livelihood in a world that has lost its predictability... Consumption has become the only reality, the main topic of TV and of conversation, and the focus of leisure activity. The modes of consumption become badges of order, so that to wear a football strip of a certain team (themselves now multinational concerns) or a logo of a multinational company become temporary guarantors of safety and normality.
<<<
(continues r.e. construction of identity - p.153-4)
<<<
In this society, the construction of individual identity has become the fundamental social act. The taken-for-granted structures of modern (i.e., industrial) society - the nation state, institutionalized religion, social class - have become weaker and fuzzier as providers of meaning and, to that extent, of predictability. Even the family has become more atomized and short term. Under such conditions individual identity becomes the major life-project. You have to choose the pieces (from those available to you) rather than having them (largely) chosen for you. In this context, awareness of the self assumes new importance, reflexivity is a condition of life; a life that needs to be constantly active and constantly re-created. And care is needed, because each individual is responsible for their own biography. Risk and uncertainty have become endemic features of the personal biography, and individual risk-management action is thus an essential element of social action (Beck, 1992, 2001). The community can be no longer regarded as a given that confers aspects of identity, and the building of involvement in communities has become a conscious action-forming part of the construction of individual identity. Individualization has positive as well as negative aspects: the freedom to make one's own biography has never been greater, a theme frequently repeated in the media. But the structures of society continue to distribute the choices available very unequally, and the price of failure is greater since social support is now offered only equivocally.
<<<
//<sound of nail being hit firmly on the head!>//
''p.154'' - Digital tools invented to make us more efficient but actually helped bring about globalization:
<<<
Althouth it has not created it, digital technology is nonetheless complicit in the enablement of a global society, and has become essential to the accomplishment of most official and commercial activities, and many personal ones too. The digital, which was initially a tool to achieve faster and more efficiently activities we already performed, has enabled activities previously considered unimaginable, including globalization itself.
<<<
//(unintended consequences of technology - important r.e. digital literacy as need to be 'reflective' and 'critical' users)//
(follows on)
<<<
The causes of this direction of social change are many and, as with all social changes, technology is simultaneously its tool, its medium and its reflection. ''Digital technology is thus both means and symptom of social change.''
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.155'' - The following could almost be used as a statement as to why such a concept of 'digital literacy' should be taught or encouraged:
<<<
The digital is (almost) ubiquitous, and its possibilities are both creative and destructive in the quest for identity. Digital tools enable the individual to present him/herself to the rest of society by creating and broadcasting statements (developing blogs or personal websites, contributing to online fora, sending email, texting, presenting a curriculum vitae, etc.) or multi-media objects (mounted on social collection sites). They also enable social identity development, making oneself in interaction with others, members of "strong" groups such as family or friends, or "weak" groups such as online "communities."
<<<
//(perhaps use this in section as to why schools may need to teach skills which could constitute digital literacy?)//
''p.156'' - Claire Bélisle (2006) - evolution of literacy concepts in terms of three models:
#//Functional model// - "literacy as the mastery of simple cognitive adn practical skills" (favoured by UNESCO)
#//Socio-cultural practice model// - takes as its basis that "the concept of literacy is only meaningful in terms of its social context and that to be literate is to have access to cultural, economic and political structures of society" (i.e. literacy is //ideological// - c.f. Brian Street, 1984)
#//Intellectual empowerment model// - quote from Bélisle (below)
<<<
Literacy not only provides means and skills to deal with written texts and numbers within specific cultural and ideological contexts, but it brings a profound enrichment and eventually entails a transformation of human thinking capacities. This intellectual empowerment happens whenever mankind endows itself with new cognitive tools, such as writing, or with new technical instruments, such as those that digital technology has made possible. (Bélisle, 2006, pp.54-55)
<<<
//('intellectual empowerment' or new way of viewing the world? heuristics?)//
''p.156-167'' - Author identifies 'literacies of the digital':
*Computer, IT or ICT Literacy
*Technological Literacy
*Information Literacy
*Media Literacy
*Visual Literacy
*Communication Literacy
*Digital Literacy
//(are these actually all 'literacies'?)//
''p.156-7'' - Martin (2003) identified concepts of computer literacy as passing through three phases:
#//Mastery// phase (up to mid-1980s) - computer perceived as 'arcane and powerful' with emphasis on gaining specialist knowledge on how to program it.
#//Application// phase (mid-1980s to late-1990s) - dawn of simple graphical user interfaces opened up computers to mass usage - led to computer as a tool for education, work, leisure & the home. Mass certification schemes based on IT competence.
#//Reflective// phase (late-1990s onwards) - 'awareness of the need for more critical, evaluative and reflective approaches'.
//(has this been tested by anyone? what does Martin base this upon?)//
__''Technological Literacy''__
''p.158'' - Idea of //Technological Literacy// emerged in 1970s - response to growing awareness of potential danger of technological developments to teh environment, and fears r.e. competition to USA and Britain by technologically more adept nations. Uneasy marriage of two concerns - one skills-based, the other an 'academic' approach. Reflected in //Technology for All Americans// funded by US government:
<<<
Technological literacy is the ability to use, manage, and understand technology:
*The ability to use technology involves the successful operation of the key systems of the time. This includes knowing the components of existing macro-systems, or human adaptive systems, and how the systems behave.
*The ability to manage technology involves insuring that all technological activities are efficient and appropriate.
*Understanding technology involves more than facts and information but also the ability to synthesize the information into new insights. (ITEA, 1996, p.5)
<<<
//(I'm not sure I understand what the first bullet point means!)//
__''Information Literacy''__
''p.159'' - //Information Literacy// has developed in the US since the late 1980s 'in the light of the trend towards student, centred learning, and thus arose in a largely pre-digital context.' The US Association of College & Research Libraries presents a set of performance indicators based on five 'standards':
<<<
The information literate student:
i. determines the nature and extent of the information needed;
ii. accesses needed information effectively and efficiently;
iii. evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system;
iv. uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose;
v. understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally. (ACRL, 2000, pp.8-13, passim)
<<<
//(Is Information Literacy necessary or sufficient for literacy in a digital context, then?)//
''p.160'' - Librarians worldwide have taken onboard concept of //Information Literacy// - it is also seen as important by national and international bodies. UNESCO's 'Prague Declaration' of 2003 stresses the importance of information literacy in the context of the 'Information Society':
<<<
Information Literacy encompasses knowledge of one's information concerns and needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues of problems at hand; it is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the Information Society, and is part of the basic human right of life long learning.
<<<
//(what is this 'Information Society' in any real sense? does 'information literacy' change in any way?)//
''p.160'' - Johnston & Webber (2003): media-independent nature of information literacy in their own definition of 'information literacy':
<<<
the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, together with critical awareness of the importance of wise and ethical use of information in society. (http://dis.shef.ac.uk/literacy/project/about.html)
<<<
//(such broad definitions! could include almost anything, really...)//
__''Media Literacy''__
''p.160'' - Tyner (1998) defines media literacy as follows:
<<<
Media literacy attempts to consolidate strands from the communication multiliteracies that correspond with the convergence of text, sound and image, including the moving image. It has been associated with the ability to make sense of all media and genre, from the more classic educational fare to popular culture.
<<<
//(what does this ''mean''?)//
''p.161'' - Based on media literacy movement, Hobbs (1998) proposes a new definition of 'literacy':
<<<
Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms. Embedded in this definition [are] both a process for learning and an expansion of the concept of "text" to include messages of all sorts. This view of literacy posits the student as being actively engaged in the process of analyzing and creating messages and as a result, this definition reflects some basic principles of school reform which generally include:
*inquiry based education
*students centred learning
*problem solving in cooperative teams
*alternatives to standardized testing
*integrated curriculum
<<<
//(so literacy is actually predicated upon a new definition of education and learning? sounds reasonable.)//
''p.161'' - Many similarities between definitions of media literacy and information literacy - former focused on ways in which messages are constructed and interpreted, whereas focus of latter upon ways in which information is accessed and the evaluation of this content.
__''Visual Literacy''__
''p.161-2'' - The term 'visual literacy' developed out of art criticism and art education and was coined in 1969 by John Debes, founder of the Internet Visual Literacy Association (IVLA):
<<<
Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication. (http://www.ivla.org/org_what_vis_lit.htm)
<<<
//(surely what is being described here is an ability to process information rather than anything specifically ''visual''?)//
''p.162'' - Dondis (1973) - sees visual literacy as paralleling 'classical literacy':
<<<
Literacy means that a group shares the assigned meaning of a common body of information. Visual literacy must operate somewhat within the same boundaries... Its purposes are the same as those that motivated the development of written language: to construct a basic system for learning, recognizing, making, and understanding visual messages that are negotiable by all people, not just those specially trained, like the designer, the artist, the craftsman, and the aesthetician.
<<<
//(I'm not sure I agree with the opening statement of this quotation as literacy being about sharing meaning)//
__''Communication Literacy''__
''p.163'' - Website of Winnipeg School Division defines 'Communication Literacy' in following way:
<<<
Learners must be able to communicate effectively as individuals and work collaboratively in groups, using publishing technologies (word processor, database, spreadsheet, drawing tools...), the Internet, as well as other electronic and telecommunication tools. (http://www.wsd1.org/techcont/introduction.htm)
<<<
//(why are databases and spreadsheets important for communication?)//
''p.164'' - Overlap between various conceptions of literacies:
<<<
It is clear that there is considerable overlap between the literacies outlined above. In some cases, the definitions of the different literacies are almost identical and are only nuanced in different directions, as a result of their pathways from pre-digital foci and their sense of the concerns of the particialr community they have developed to serve. ''Part of the convergence also involves the evolution of literacies from a skills focus through an applications focus'' towards a concern with critique, reflection and judgment and the identification of generic cognitive abilities or processes, or meta-skills. In this way the digital literacies define themselves as being concerned with the application of similar critical/reflective abilities in slightly different fields of activity. Alongside this has been an identification of student-centred pedagogy as the appropriate vehicle for literacy activities.
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
__''Digital Literacy''__
''p.165'' - Canadian SchoolNet National Advisory Board (SNAB) focuses on mastery of skills AND ability to use them in future circumstances:
<<<
Digital literacy presupposes an understanding of technical tools, but concerns primarily the capacity to employ those tools effectively. Hence, digital literacy begins with the ability to retrieve, manage, share and create information and knowledge, but is consummated through the acquisition of enhanced skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. (SNAB, 2001, p.3)
<<<
//(so there are different ''levels'' of 'digital literacy'?)//
''p.165'' - Author uses 'eLiteracy' as synthesizing concept in earlier paper, defining it as:
<<<
the awarenesses, skills, understandings, and reflective-evaluative approaches that are necessary for an individual to operate comfortably in an information-rich and ICT-supported environments. An individual is eLiterate to the extent that they have acquired these awarenesses, skills and approaches...
<<<
//(can there be ''different'' forms of 'eLiteracy' then, depending on context?)//
''p.165'' - Key elements of 'digital literacy' synthesized by author:
<<<
i. Digital literacy involves being able to carry out successful digital actions embedded within work, learning, leisure, and other aspects of everyday life;
''ii. Digital literacy, for the individual, will therefore vary according to his/her particular life situation and also be an ongoing lifelong process developing as the individual's life situation evolves;''
iii. Digital literacy is broader than ICT literacy and will include elements drawn from several related "digital literacies";
iv. Digital literacy involves acquiring and using knowledge, techniques, attitudes and personal qualities and will include the ability to plan, execute and evaluate digital actions in the solution of life tasks;
v. It also include the ability to be aware of oneself as a digitally literate person, and to reflect on one's own digital literacy development.
<<<
//(my emphasis - this seems correct, yet problematic when trying to get to a definition! Can't see how last point can be a necessary condition...)//
''p.167'' - Author believes there to be three levels to digital literacy - but actually //literacy// can only be spoken of from second level onwards:
[img[Levels of Digital Literacy|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/levels_of_digital_literacy.jpg]]
''p.167'' - Digital literacy's relation to identity:
<<<
Digital literacy is conceived as an attribute of the person in a socio-cultural context; it is an element of that person's identity.
<<<
//(what relation does 'digital literacy' have to personality types, then?)//
''p.168'' - Author backs up above assertion with quotation from Mayes & Fowler (2006:27)
<<<
Just as the field of educational technology has matured from a 'delivery of content' model to one that emphasizes the crucial role of dialogue, so the field of digital literacy, we suggest, should shift its emphasis from skill to //identity//. Digital literacy therefore varies between individuals, as their life situations vary - it is a quality of the person, not an externally-defined threshold to be attained. There is no "one size fits all."
<<<
//(very difficult to define under this conception - key concepts?)//
''p.168'' - Bottom of system = 'digital competence':
<<<
This will span a wide range of topics and will encompass also a differentiation of skill levels from basic visual recognition and manual action skills to more critical, evaluative and conceptual approaches and will also include attitudes and awarenesses.
<<<
//(how is the latter part of this statement a lower-level skill?!)//
''p.169'' - European Commission 'Education and Training 2010' Programme - identifies //digital competence// as one of the eight domains of key competences. Trouble is that 'competence' sometimes seen as application of skills in specific contexts and sometimes synonymous with higher level skills. Working group addressed this:
<<<
The terms 'competence' and 'key competence' are preferred to 'basic skills' which was considered too restrictive as it was generally taken to refer to basic literacy and numeracy and to what are known variously as 'survival' or 'life' skills. 'Competence' is considered to refer to a combination of skills, knowledge, aptitudes and attitudes, and to include the disposition to learn in addition to know-how. (European Commission, 2004, p.3)
<<<
//(so competence is over and above basic skills?)//
''p.169'' - Definition of 'key competencies' by working group:
<<<
Key competences should be ''transferable'', and therefore applicable in many situations and contexts, and ''multifunctional'', in that they can be used to achieve several objectives, to solve different kinds of problems and to accomplish different kinds of tasks. Key competences are a ''prerequisite'' for adequate personal performance in life, work and subsequent learning. (European Commission, 2004, p.6)
<<<
//(so what actually //are// these competencies - seem a bit vague to me!)//
''p.169'' - Author takes the above definition of 'competence' and applies it to 'digital competence':
<<<
We can regard digital competence, as conceptualized in the work of the Key Competences working group, as an underpinning element in digital literacy. In moving from competence to literacy, however, we take on board the crucial importance of //situational embedding//. Digital literacy must involve the successful usage of digital competence within life situations.
<<<
//(surely it's the other way around? digital competence is dependent upon context whereas digital literacy isn't to as great an extent?)//
''p.169-70'' - Author produces table with sequential components. Rationale:
<<<
We have ordered digital competence around thirteen processes... These are more-or-less sequential functions carried out with digital tools upon digital resources of any type, within the context of a specific task or problem.
<<<
[img[Processes of Digital Literacy|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/processes_of_digital_literacy.jpg]]
//(how and why has he come up with this?)//
''p.171'' - Digital competence is highly contextual:
<<<
Elements of digital competence for the individual involve instantiations of the processes in a relevant domain... Instantiations of digital competence will vary from person to person as their situations vary and will change over time as new tools and facilities are developed.
<<<
//(so no 'levels' of competence? presumably then move onto 'literacy'?)//
''p.171'' - Author believes 'digital usage' to be a key level to achieve for individuals:
<<<
The central and crucial level is that of //digital usage//: the application of digital competence within specific professional or domain contexts, giving rise to a corpus of digital usages specific to an individual, group or organization.
...
Digital usages are shaped by the requirements of the situation: they are focused upon solution of a problem, completion of a task, or achievement of some other outcome within the professional, discipline, or other domain context... The drawing upon digital competence is determined by the individual's existing digital literacy and the requirements of the problem or task.
<<<
//(this is just defining a term for the sake of it!)//
''p.171'' - Digital usages fully embedded within the activities of communities - become part of what Wenger (2002) has called 'communities of practice':
<<<
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.
<<<
//(as with Twitter, presumably! Author goes on to talk about learning as a communal activity)//
''p.172'' - Author believes that the process in which digital literacy is put into action is shown in the following diagram:
[img[Digital Literacy in Action|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/digital_literacy_in_action.jpg]]
''p.173'' - Author states that 'digital transformation' is the final stage of digital literacy:
<<<
The ultimate stage is that of //digital transformation// and is achieved when the digital usages which have been developed enable innovation and creativity and stimulate change within the professional or knowledge domain... ''Whilst many digital literate persons may achieve a transformative level, transformation is not a necessary condition of digital literacy. Activity at the level of appropriate and informed usage would be sufficient to be described as digitally literate.''
<<<
//(my emphasis - is this the case?)//
''p.173'' - Author re-states that digital literacy to do with identity:
<<<
Furthermore, digital literacy is itself an element in the ongoing construction, in a social context, of individual identity.
<<<
''p.174'' - Digital literacy involves resisting threats to digital identity
<<<
Part of being digitally literate is to be aware of an to resist the digital threats to identity and to be able to use digital means to secure and support one's own identity.
<<<
//(i.e. having the tools and knowledge to be able to do this?)//
''Erstad, O., 'Trajectories of Remixing: Digital Literacies, Media Production, and Schooling' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.177'' - Kind of a definition of digital literacy:
<<<
One of the key challenges in [developments of everyday practices] is the issue of digital literacy. This relates to the extent to which citizens have the necessary competence to take advantage of the possibilities given by new technologies in different settings. In a fundamental way it raises discussions about what it means to be able to "read" and "write" as part of our cultural developments today...
<<<
//(so literacy ''just'' about reading & writing?)//
''p.178'' - 'Remix culture' represents shift from teacher-led to student-led learning:
<<<
Remixing activities as an essential part of digital literacy represent processes of change in our schools today, from knowledge development being based on predefined content in school books and the reproduction of knowledge provided by the teacher, towards a situation where students take available content and create something new, something not predefined.
<<<
//(is the ability to 'remix' and transform something part of literacy, competence, fluency or all of them?)//
''p.179'' - Norwegian national curriculum from 2006 talks of the 'skill to use digital tools' being as important as reading, writing, numeracy & oral skills. Implication: "all students on all levels and in all subjects should use and relate to digital media in their learning processes in Norwegian schools."
''p.180-1'' - Wertsch (1998:43) - impact on social & psychological processes of technology:
<<<
One could focus on the emergence and influence of a new mediational sociocultural history where forces of industrialization and technological development come into play. An important instance of the latter sort is what has happened to social and psychological processes with the appearance of modern computers. Regardless of the particular case or the genetic domain involved, the general point is that the introduction of a new mediational means creates a kind of imbalance in the systemic organization of mediated action, an imbalance that sets off changes in other elements such as the agent and changes in mediated action in general.
<<<
//(an important point, confusingly put - basically that all interaction is mediated and involves social and psychological processes; this is transformed when technology is used to do the communicating)//
''p.181'' - Rassool (1999) - //Literacy for Sustainable Development in the Age of Information// - presents overview of different debates on literacy during recent decades:
<<<
Her point is that research perspectives on technology and literacy need to reconceptualize power structures within the information society, with an emphasis on "communicative competence" in relation to democratic citzenship. Digital technology create new possibilities for how people relate to each other, how knowledge is defined in negotiation between actors and how it changes our conception of learning environments in which actors make meaning. ''Empowerment is related to the active use of different tools, which must be based upon the prerequisite that actors have the competence and critical perspective on how to use them for learning. Literacy, seen in this way, implies processes of inclusion and exclusion.'' Some have the skills and know how to use them for personal development, others do not. Schooling is meant to counteract such cultural processes of exclusion.
<<<
//(my emphasis - interesting! literacy as cultural capital and potentially socially divisive)//
(follows on - new paragraph)
''p.181-2'' - Literacy = fuzzy concept:
<<<
What exactly should be included within the conceptual domain of literacy has become increasingly fuzzy, ''especially among those educators and researchers whose professional interests are tied to how literacy is understood.'' This is, of course, due to the fact that literacy is not a static term but relates to technological innovations, and cultural and political strategies and developments.
<<<
//(my emphasis - important point that literacy = fluid concept and that people trying to boost reputations by coming up with new terms!)//
''p.183'' - ETS report (2002) - //Digital Transformation. A framework for ICT Literacy// - consisted of 'general competencies that are not connected to specific subjects in school or specific technologies. They can be taught and are related not only to what is learned in school settings but also to situations outside the school."
//(does teaching 'digital literacy' automatically lead to breakdown of traditional subjects?)//
''p.183'' - Tyner (1998) - difference between 'tool literacies' (necessary skills to be able to use the technology) and 'literacies of representation' (knowledge of how to take advantage of tools)
//(great distinction to make - which one pertains to 'digital literacy'?)//
''p.184'' - Distinction between Kellner (2002) who uses the term 'multiple literacies' and Kress (2003) who argues against this:
<<<
He believes that instead of taking this path, it is necessary to develop a new theoretical framework for literacy which can use a single set of concepts to address the various aspects of literacy.
<<<
//(literacy as an over-arching concept?)//
''p.184'' - Lankshear & Knobel (2006:64) - literacy defined without reference to technology:
<<<
Socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses (or, as members of Discourses)
<<<
//(I like this definition!)//
''p.186'' - Manovich (2007, no page) - 'remixing' defines early 21st century:
<<<
if post-modernism defined 1980s, remix definitely dominates 2000s, and it will probably continue to rule the next decade as well.
<<<
//remixing can be defined narrowly or broadly - hmm...)//
''p.188'' - Diakopoulos (2005:no page) - graph representation of different modes of remix as they relate to people & media elements:
[img[Remix diagram|http://dougbelshaw.com/wiki/images/remix_diagram.jpg]]
''p.189'' - Diakopoulos (2005:no page) - talks about Barthes and his discussion of a text being a 'tissue of citations' born of a multitude of sources in culture (Barthes, 1978)
''p.189'' - Mimi Ito (2006:50) - study of Japanese youth involved in 'media mixes' within digital culture. Argues that:
<<<
children's engagement with these media mixes provides evidence that they are capable not only of critical engagement and creative production, but also of entrepreneurial participation in the exchange systems and economies that they have developed around media mix content.
<<<
//(creative production, yes - but 'critical engagement' and 'entrepreneurial participation'?)//
''p.200'' - Footnote 1 r.e. Norwegian not having the English term 'literacy':
<<<
In Norwegian there is no word for the English term "literacy." Traditionally it has been translated with alphabetization, but during the last 20 years the term "competence" has been used instead, with a broader conception of reading and writing.
<<<
//(is this important in how/why Norwegians have moved forward so quickly with this?!)//
''Knobel, M. & Lankshear, C., 'Digital Literacy and Participation in Online Social Networking Spaces' (in Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.249'' - Authors define 'digital literacy':
<<<
socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content as members of Discourses through the medium of encoded texts.
<<<
//('texts' meant in its widest sense, presumably?)//
''p.251'' - 3 defining characteristics of Social Networking Sites (Boyd & Ellison, 2007:2)
<<<
[They] allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within a system.
<<<
//(are these elements of ''literacy''?)//
''p.255-7'' - 4 main elements to authors' definition of literacy:
*Socially Recognized Ways
*Meaningful Content
*Encoded Texts
*Participating in Discourses
//(authors go on to explain these)//
''p.255'' - Authors explain that their idea of digital literacy involving 'socially recognized ways' is similar to Scribner & Cole's (1981) idea of 'practice'. The latter defined practices as "socially developed and patterned ways of using technology and knowledge to accomplish tasks." (p.236) A practice is a "recurrent, goal-directed sequence of activities using a particular technology and a particular system of knowledge."
Authors go on to say discuss interface of knowledge & technology:
<<<
Applying knowledge in conjunction with some technology to accomplish tasks always involves "co-ordinated sets of actions," which Scribner and Cole refer to as "skills." Practices, then, comprise technology, knowledge and skills organized in //ways// that participants recognize, follow, and modify: they are organized (or co-ordinated) and deployed in //socially recognized ways//.
<<<
//(seems a spot-on definition to go on the mindmap!)//
''p.255-6'' - Given the above, Scribner & Cole (1981:236) approach literacy as:
<<<
a set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbol system and a technology for producing and disseminating it.
<<<
//(this is a ''very'' broad-brush approach literacy as 'a family of practices')//
''p.256'' - In terms of the 'meaningful content' aspect of Knobel & Lankshear's definition of 'digital literacy', it can be as much about identity and relationships as about information:
<<<
When looking at somebody's weblog one might well find that much of the meaning one makes from the content has to do with who one thinks the blog writer //is//: what they are like, how they want to think of themselves, and how they want us to think of them. Likewise, a particular text that someone produces might well be best understood as an expression of wanting to feel "connected" or "related" right now rather than as a statement of literal information. The meaning we make of the content might hardly be literal at all. It might be almost entirely //relational//, in the sense of being about expressing solidarity or affinity with certain other people.
<<<
//(this is important as it suggests digital literacy is as much to do with identity & relationships as information & knowledge...)//
''p.257'' - Authors explain what they mean by 'encoded texts':
<<<
By "encoded texts" we mean texts that have been "frozen" or "captured" in ways that free them from their immediate context and origin of production, such that they are "(trans)portable" and exist independently of the presence of human beings as bearers of the text.
<<<
//(an interesting definition - what about texts in flux such as wikis?)//
''p.257'' - Authors talk about the importance of 'Discourses' when it comes to digital literacy:
<<<
Discourse can be seen as the underlying principle of meaning and meaningfulness.
...
Part of the importance of defining literacies explicitly in relation to Discourses... is that it speaks to the meanings that insiders and outsiders to particular practices can and cannot make respectively. It reminds us that texts evoke interpretation on all kinds of levels that my only partially be "tappable" or "accessible" //linguistically//.
<<<
//(an important idea that digital literacy transcends linguistic boundaries - much more visual than that!)//
''p.258'' - Need for various classification within 'literacies' due to social aspect:
<<<
The complexity of literacy practices as myriad social phenomena invites useful forms of classification. From this perspective, //digital// literacies, quite simply, involve the use of digital technologies for encoding and accessing texts by which we generate, communicate and negotiate meanings in socially recognisable ways.
<<<
//(so 'digital literacy' very straightforwardly literacy in a digital environment? seems too simplistic!)//
''p.258'' - Cope &* Kalantzis (2005:201) - move away from dominance of alphabetical language with 'digital literacy':
<<<
Give human beings the capacity to communicate in any way and they'll take it up. We are witnessing a huge turn away from the dominance of alphabetical language; a turn away from privileging isolated written language; and a turn towards the visual. This turn towards the visual can partly be understood in terms of the fact that in the current context of globalization, when languages are not mutually intelligible, you have to carry things visually.
<<<
//(examples given = manuals for digital cameras and signs around airports)//
''p.259-69'' - Authors discuss 'digital literacy' and Facebook.
//(I'm not sure that Facebook constitutes 'literacy' - maybe 'competence' as working within a closed, proprietary system?)//
''p.269'' - Authors talk of not being able to 'dissect' literacies:
<<<
Literacies come "whole" and any attempt to dissect them into constitutive elements runs the risk of distorting the seamlessness and intricacy of literacy practices.
<<<
//(is this because they are 'situated' and very much depend on context? if so, how can they be abstracted to even be called 'literacies' in the first place?)//
''p.275'' - Much easier to participate within a social network such as Facebook than traditionally on the Internet:
<<<
Social networking "work" gets done by means of encodification that is significantly different from more more familiar literacy practices in physical-print space (e.g., letter writing) as well as in digital media spaces like weblogs, email clients, conventional websites, and so on.
It is easy to participate in Facebook's social networks witout knowing a great deal about hypertext mark-up language or other programming scripts. Moreover, because so much of the encoding needed to display texts online is automated within Facebook, it is possible for users to send each other complex texts like video clips, sound files and images without having to hand-code the interface display, worry about internet protocols for storing and sending bits and bytes, and so on.
<<<
//(if this is 'literacy' then there needs to be another layer for those who ''can'' manipulate underlying protocols, etc. - 'fluency'?)//
''p.275-6'' - 'Digital literacy' as bound up with identity and social practices:
<<<
Construed as digital literacy //practice//, social networking pursues "socially recognized goals" by means of using "a shared technology and knowledge syste" (Scribner & Cole, 1981, p.236). Goals include presenting and constituting oneself as a particular kind of person; performing an identity that is partly defined by the friendship network that develops around each user at the center of his or her network.
<<<
//(so digital literacy all about identity formation?)//
''p.276'' - Literacy as generating meanings and participating in Discourses with social networking sites:
<<<
As digital //literacy// practice, social networking involves recognized ways of using the encoding affordances of services like Facebook to generate, communicate and negotiate personally significant meanings from the standpoint of participants who come to Facebook as members of varying Discourses whose integral way sof doing, thinking, valuing, acting, believing, speaking, gesturing, appreciating, etc., constitute participants respectively as particular kinds of persons and situated selves (Gee, 2004).
<<<
//(it would seem that the authors conceive Facebook as some type of modern miracle!)//
''Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M., 'Digital Literacy and the Law: Remixing Elements of Lawrence Lessig's Ideal of "Free Culture"' (in Lankshear & Knobel, //Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices//, 2008)''
''p.282'' - Literacy is tied to writing (historically):
<<<
We have a literacy that comes through the practice of writing: "writing" meaning "taking these different objects and constructing or creating with them."
<<<
//(this is only ''one'' side of literacy, yes?)//
''p.282'' - Remix and culture go hand-in-hand:
<<<
We could say that knowledge is remix, that politics is remix, and so on. Always and everywhere this is how culture have been made - by remixing; taking what others have created, remixing it, and sharing it with other people again. This is what cultures are.
<<<
//(can I think of any counter-examples to this? in what sense is 'remix' just 'change'?)//
''p.285'' - There is a 'grammar of the media':
<<<
Just as there is a grammar for the written word, so, too, is there a grammar for the media. Just as young people learn how to write by writing lots of what is often at first terrible prose, so they (and we) learn how to write media by constructing lots of (what, at least, at first may be) terrible media.
<<<
//(an interesting concept - 'digital grammar')//
''p.285'' - Lessig - process of learning to use media similar to learning to write:
<<<
As Lessig (2004) states, we learn to write by writing and then reflecting upon what we have written. In parallel ways, "one learns to write with images by making them and then reflecting upon what one has created" (p.36). This grammar has changed in tandem with changes in media.
<<<
//(so literacy is more static than grammar?)//
''p.286'' - 'Digital divide' not about access but about empowerment - Daley (in Lessig, 2004:37):
<<<
probably the most important digital divide is not access to a box. It's the ability to be empowered with the language that the box works in. Otherwise only a very few people can write with this language, and all the rest of us are reduced to being read-only.
<<<
//('Read-only'! What a great metaphor!)//
''p.286'' - Lessig - 'read-only' is the 20th century world of media, whereas 21st century = read/write.
*Seth Godin - [[Tribes]]
Godin, S. (2008) //Tribes//
''p.15'' - There's opportunity in //not// relying on the status quo:
<<<
The old rule was simple: The best way to grow an organiztion was to be reliable and consistent and trusted, and bit by bit, gain market share. The enemy was rapid change, because that led to uncertainty and to risk and to failure. People turned and ran.
...
The business world has a long history of conservative tribes, of groups of people who relish the status quo. The big news is that this has changed. People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement, and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring.
<<<
''p.19'' - The difference between managers and leaders:
<<<
Managers manage by using the authority the factory gives them. You listen to your manager or you lose your job. A manager can't make change because that's not his job. His job is to complete tasks assigned to him by someone else in the factory.
Leaders, on the other hand, don't care very much for organizational structure or the official blessing of whatever factory they work for. They use passion and ideas to lead people, as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them. Leaders must become aware of how the organization works, because this awareness allows them to change it.
<<<
''p.21'' - How to improve a 'Tribe':
<<<
[I]t takes only two things to turn a group of people into a tribe:
*A shared interest
*A way to communicate
The communication can be one of four kinds:
*Leader to tribe
*Tribe to leader
*Tribe member to tribe member
*Tribe member to outsider
So a leader can help increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members by
*transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change;
*providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications; and
*leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.
<<<
//(Godin says too many focus on the 3rd one and assume bigger = better)//
''p.23'' - There are three elements to a movement (according to Senator Bill Bradley):
<<<
#A narrative that tells a story about who we are and the future we're trying to build
#A connection between and among the leader and the tribe
#Something to do - the fewer limits, the better
<<<
''p.27-8'' - Mediocrity is exhausting:
<<<
[M]any people (many really good people) spend all day trying to defend what they do, trying to sell what they've always sold, and trying to prevent their organizations from being devoured by the forces of the new. It must be wearing them out. Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
<<<
''p.38-39'' - Need to share ideas worth mentioning:
<<<
A remarkable product or service is like a purple cow. Brown cows are boring; purple ones are worth mentioning. Those ideas spread; those organization grow. The essence of what's happening in the market day revolves around making purple cows.
<<<
''p.41'' - Leaders need to be doing something that's worth commenting upon:
<<<
How was your day? If you answer is "fine," then I don't think you were leading.
So the challenge, as you contemplate your next opportunity to be boring or remarkable, is to answer these two questions:
1. "If I get criticized for this, will I suffer any measurable impact? Will I lose my job, get hit upside the head with a softball bat, or lose important friendships?" If the only side effect of the criticism is that you will feel bad about the criticism, then you have to compare that bad feeling with the benefits you'll get from actually doing something worth doing. Being remarkable is exciting, fun, profitable, and great for your career. Feeling bad wears off.
And then, once you've compared the bad feeling and the benefits, and you've sold yourself on taking the remarkable path, answer this one:
2. How can I create something that critics will criticize?
<<<
''p.47'' - Leadership involves discomfort:
<<<
Leadership is scarce because ew people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. This scarcity makes leadership valuable. If everyone tries to lead all the time, not much happens. Its the discomfort that creates the leverage that makes leadership worthwhile.
...
If you're not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it's almost certain you're not reaching your potential as a leader.
<<<
''p.54'' - //Curious// people are important to your Tribe:
<<<
A curious person embraces the tension between his religion and something new, wrestles with it and through it, and then decides whether to embrace the new idea or reject it.
...
Curious people count. Not because there are a lot of them, but because they're the ones who talk to people who are in a stupor. They're the ones who lead the masses in the middle who are stuck. The masses in the middle have brainwashed themselves into thinking it's safe to do nothing, which the curious can't abide.
<<<
''p.55'' - No rules as to how many percent need to be in your Tribe to 'win' the organization:
<<<
In order to win an election, you need more than half the votes. Ideally, more than half of the population will support you, but you win if you get more than half the voters.
In order to lead a tribe, no such rule applies, All you need to do is motivate people who choose to follow you. The rest of the population is free to ignore you or disagree with you or move on.
<<<
''p.57'' - Great leaders don't try to please everyone or water down their message:
<<<
[G]reat leaders don't try to please everyone. Great leaders don't water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger. Instead, they realize that a motivated, connected tribe in the midst of a movement is far more powerful that a larger group ever could be.
<<<
''p.58'' - You don't 'win' by pitching to 'most people':
<<<
You're not going to be able to grown your career or your business or feed the tribe by going after //most people//. Most people are really good at ignoring new trends or great employees or big ideas.
You can wrry about most people all day, but I promise you that they're not worried about you. They can't hear you, regardless of how hard you yell.
<<<
''p.59'' - Be a heretic:
<<<
Heretics are too numerous to burn at the stake. So we celebrate them.
<<<
''p.60'' - Act first, ask forgiveness later:
<<<
Nobody is going to listen to your idea for change, sagely shake his head, and say, "Sure, go do that."
No one anoints you as leader.
...
Change isn't made by asking permission. Change is made by asking forgiveness, later.
<<<
''p.66-7'' - Unusual ways sometimes succeed:
<<<
Obe Carrion, former U.S. rock-climbing champion, won a tournament in an unusual way. Obe was one of four finalists, and each had to climb a very difficult route up a steep wall. The first three finalists did the same thing. They entered the roped-off area, inspected the route, and then slowly began climbing, one hold at a time, working their way up to the top. Two made it (with a slip or two); one fell.
Obe was scheduled to go last. He came out of the isolation area, inspected the route, took twenty steps back and he //ran// up the wall. He didn't hesitate or intepolate or hedge his bets. He just committed.
It turns out that this was the easiest way up the wall. Leaning into the problem made the problem go away.
<<<
''p.78'' - Balloon factory metaphor (no-one wants to pop the balloons)
<<<
Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong.
The status quo is persistent and resistant. It exists because everyone wants it to. Everyone believes that what they've got is probably better than the risk and fear that come with change.
<<<
''p.87'' - Metaphors of thermometer and thermostat:
<<<
A thermostat is far more valuable than a thermometer.
The thermometer reveals that something is broken.
...
Organizations are filled with human thermometers. They can criticize or point out or just whine.
The thermostat, on the other hand, manages to change the environment in sync with the outside world. Every organization needs at least one thermostat. These are leaders who can create change in response to the outside world, and do it consistently over time.
<<<
''p.88-90'' - 5 things to do and 6 principles to create a 'micromovement':
*Things to do:
#Publish a manifesto
#Make it easy for your followers to connect with you
#Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another
#Realize that money is not the point of a movement
#Track your progress
*Principles
#Transparency really is your only option
#Your movement needs to be bigger than you
#Movements that grow, thrive
#Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction
#Exclude outsiders
#Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up
''p.101'' - Biggest enemy to change is 'not yet':
<<<
The largest enemy of change and leadership isn't a "no." It's a "not yet." "Not yet" is the safest, easiest way to forestall change. "Not yet" gives the status quo a chance to regroup and put of the inevitable for just a little while longer.
''Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.''
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.107'' - The Elements of Leadership
<<<
Leaders challenge the status quo.
Leaders create a culture around their goal and involve others in that culture.
Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they're trying to change.
Leaders use charisma (in a variety of forms) to attract and motivate followers.
Leaders communicate their vision of the future.
Leaders commit to a vision and make decisions based on that commitment.
Leaders connect their followers to one another.
<<<
''p.114'' - Not opportunities, //obligations//
<<<
Flynn Berry wrote that you should never use the word "opportunity." It's not an opportunity, it's an obligation.
I don't think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe is possible.
<<<
''p.115'' - Credit doesn't matter
<<<
If it's about your mission, about spreading the faith, about seeing something happen, not only do you not care about credit, you actually //want// other people to take credit.
...
There's no record of Martin Luther King, Jr., or Gandhi whining about credit. Credit isn't the point. Change is.
<<<
''p..117'' - Stories about change are important:
<<<
People don't believe what you tell them
They rarely believe what you show them
They often believe what their friends tell them
They always believe what they tell themselves.
What leaders do: they give people stories they can tell themselves. Stories about the future and about change.
<<<
''p.124'' - It's a //choice// to lead
<<<
You can choose to lead, or not. You can choose to have faith, or not. You can choose to contribute to the tribe, or not.
Are there thousands of reasons why you, of all people, aren't the right one to lead? Why you don't have the resources or the authority or the genes or the momentum to lead? Probably. So what? You still get to make the choice.
Once you choose to lead, you'll be under huge pressure to reconsider you choice, to compromise, to dumb it down, or to give it up. Of course you will. That's the world's job: to get you to be quiet and follow. The status quo is the status quo for a reason.
But once you choose to lead, you'll also disover that it's not so difficult. That the options available to you seem really clear, and that yes, in fact, you can get from here to there.
Go.
<<<
''Ong, W. (1982, 2002) //Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word// (Routledge, London & New York)'' - 379.2 @ Durham Uni Library
!1. The orality of language
''p.1'' - Certain things are not 'native to human existence' but are functions of literacy and orality:
<<<
Many of the features we have taken for granted in thought and expression in literature, philosophy and science... are not directly native to human existence as such but have come into being because of the resources which the technology of writing makes available to human consciousness. We have had to revise our understanding of human identity.
<<<
//(Interesting point - need to build on the fact that ''any'' form of writing is a 'technology')//
''p.2'' - Literacy is a new thing in human evolution:
<<<
Human society first formed itself with the aid of oral speech, becoming literate very late in its history, and at first only in certain groups. //Homo sapiens// has been in existence for between 30,000 and 50,000 years. The earliest script dates from only 6000 years ago.
<<<
//(Is digital literacy a shift in the same way orality -> literacy was?)//
''p.2'' - Difficult to see an 'oral universe' when we are //so// literate:
<<<
We - readers of books such as this - are so literate that it is very difficult for us to conceive of an oral universe of communication or thought except as a variant of a literate universe.
<<<
//(Good point - and not just backwards to orality, but forwards as well to 'digital literacy'?)//
''p.3'' - Secondary orality:
<<<
The electronic age is also an age of 'secondary orality', the orality of telephones, radio, and television, which depends on writing and print for its existence.
<<<
''p.7'' - Language is 'overwhelmingly oral':
<<<
Indeed, language is so overwhelmingly oral that of all the many thousands of languages - possibly tens of thousands - spoken in the course of human history only around 106 have ever been committed to writing to a degree sufficient to have produced literate, and most have never been written at all. Of the some 3000 languages spoken that exist today only some 78 have a literature (Edmonson 1971, pp.323, 332).
<<<
''p.7'' - Difference between human languages and computer languages = role of consciousness and grammar:
<<<
W are not here concerned with so-called computer 'languages', which resemble human languages... in some ways but are forever totally unlike human languages in that they do not grow out of the unconscious but directly out of consciousness. Computer language rules ('grammar') are stated first and thereafter used. The 'rules' of grammar in natural human languages are used first and can be abstracted from usage and stated explicitly in words only with difficulty and never completely.
<<<
//(This may be something I wish to address in my thesis - digital 'grammar'?)//
''p.8'' - Orality is primary:
<<<
Oral expression can exist and mostly has existed without any writing at all, writing never without orality.
<<<
//(Is digital literacy a form of 'secondary orality'?)//
''p.11'' - Difference between primary and secondary orality:
<<<
...I style the orality of a culture totally untouched by any knowledge of writing or print, 'primary orality'. It is 'primary' by contrast with the 'econdary orality' of present-day high-technology culture, in which a new orality is sustained by telephone, radio, television, and other electronic devices that depend for their eixstence and functioning on writing and print.
<<<
//(We'd have to include the internet in there too - Ong is writing before such things...)//
''p.11'' - Difficulty of separating communication from writing:
<<<
Writing makes 'words' appear similar to things because we think of words as the visible marks signaling words to decoders: we can see and touch such inscribed 'words' in texts and books. Written words are residue. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit.
<<<
//(Interesting - so the important thing is the communication of which writing is the 'left over bit'?)//
!4.Writing restructures consciousness
''p.77'' - Writing is inextricably linked with human consciousness:
<<<
Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness.
<<<
//(Ong in Ch.1 gives an interesting thought-experiment where a literate is asked to think of a word - e.g. 'nevertheless' - without visualizing the word as it is written. Shows how far removed literate people are from wholly oral cultures)//
''p.77'' - Writing is 'context-free' and detached from authorship:
<<<
Writing established what has been called 'context-free' language (Hirsch 1977, pp.21-3, 26) or 'autonomous' discourse (Olson 1980a), discourse which cannot be directly questioned or contested as oral speech can be because written discourse has been detached from its author.
<<<
//(Is this true? See next point)//
''p.78'' - Can't refute a text - still exists after refutation:
<<<
There is no way to directly refute a text. After absolutely total and devestating refutation, it says exactly the same thing as before.
<<<
//(Surely in oral cultures people could keep on saying the same thing even when proved wrong?!)//
''p.78-9'' - Same arguments trotted out against computers were used by Plato in the //Phaedrus//:
<<<
Most persons are surprised, and many distressed, to learn that essentially the same objections commonly urged today against computers were urged by Plato in the //Phaedrus// (274-7) and in the //Seventh Letter// against writing. Writing, Plato has Socrates say in the //Phaedrus//, is inhuman, pretending to establish outside the mind what in reality can be only in the mind. It is a thing, a manufactured product. The same of course is said of comptuers. Secondly, Plato's Socrates urges, writing destroys memory. Those who use writing will become forgetful, relying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources. Writing weakens the mind... Thirdly, a written text is basically unresponsive. If you ask a person to explain his or her statement, you can get an explanation; if you ask a text, you get nothing except the same, often stupid, words which called for your question in the first place. In the modern critique of the computer, the same objection is put, 'Garbage in, garbage out'. Fourthly, in keeping with the agnostic mentality of oral cultures, Plato's Socrates also holds it against writing that the written word cannot defend itself as the natural spoken word can: real speech and thought always exist in a context of give-and-take between real persons. Writing is passive, out of it, in an unreal, unnatural world. So are computers.
<<<
//(But we've moved ''beyond'' this, haven't we - to a world where we ''can'' come back at the author and represent our thoughts in ways other than speech)//
''p.79'' - Some will defend elite access to artefacts of literate culture, whereas others want equity of access:
<<<
Hieronomio Squarciafico,... argued in 1477 that already 'abundance of books makes men less studious' (quoted in Lowry 1979, pp.29-31): it destroys memory and enfeebles the mind by relieving it of too much work..., downgrading the wise man and wise woman in favour of the pocket compendium. Of course, others saw print as a welcome leveler: everyone becomes a wise man or woman (Lowry 1979, pp.31-2).
<<<
//(When updated, and related to the internet, it's clear to see how the latter is correct - leads to new form of literacy?)//
''p.79'' - Irony of criticizing latest technology when related to writing:
<<<
Writing and print and the computer are all ways of technologizing the word. Once the word is technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available. Moreover, the new technology is not merely used to convey the critique: in fact, it brought the critique into existence.
<<<
//(i.e. the technology prompted changes in thought and consciousness)//
''p.80-1'' - Reason it's useful to look back to Plato is that at that time writing was a new technology in same way computer is (for some) today:
<<<
Plato was thinking of writing as an external, alien technology, as many people today think of the computer. Because we have by today so deeply interiorized writing, made it so much a part of ourselves, as Plato's age had not yet made it fully a part of itself (Havelock 1963), we find it difficult to consider writing to be technolgoy as we commonly assume printing and the computer to be. Yet writing (and especially alphabetic writing) is a technology, calling for the use of tools and other equipment: styli or brushes or pens, carefully prepared surfaces such as paper, animal skins, strips of wood, as well as inks or paints, and much more.
<<<
//(Good quotation to wheel out in my thesis!)//
''p.81'' - Writing is a massive break with oral cultures:
<<<
Writing is in a way the most drastic of the three technologies. It initiated what print and computers only continue, the reduction of dynamic sound to quiescent space, the separation of the word from the living present, where along spoken words can exist.
<<<
//(How does this relate to online, collaborative, multimedia-enabled spaces?)//
''p.81'' - Writing is artificial, unlike oral speech:
<<<
By contrast with natural, oral speech, writing is completely artificial. There is no way to write 'naturally'. Oral speech is fully natural to human beings in the sense that every human being in every culture who is not physiologically or psychologically impaired learns to talk.
...
Writing or script differes as such from speech in that it does not inevitably well up out of the unconscious.
...
To say writing is artificial is not to condemn it but to praise it. Like other artificial creations and indeed more than any other, it is utterly invaluable and indeed essential for the realization of fuller, interior, human potentials. ''Technologies are not mere exterior aids, but also interior transformations of consciousness, and never more than when they affect the word.'' Such transformations can be uplifting. Writing heightens consciousness.
<<<
//(My emphasis - goes on to say that writing provides the 'distance' needed to be a reflective human being)//
''p.83'' - (Written) scripts are more than memory aids:
<<<
Even when it is pictographic, a script is more than pictures. Pictures represent objects. A picture of a man and a house and a tree of itself //says// nothing.
<<<
//(Could be interesting to look at the difference between de-''coding'' and de-''ciphering''?)//
''p.83-4'' - Importance of 'visible marking' - i.e. words:
<<<
[E]ncoded visible markings engage words fully so that the exquisitely intricate structures and references evolved in sound can be visibly recoded exatly in their specific complexity and, because visibly recoded, can implement production of still more exquisite structures and references, far surpassing the potentials or oral utterance. Writing, in this ordinary sense, was and is the most momentous of all human technological inventions. It is not a mere appendage to speech. Because it moves speech from the oral-aural to a new sensory world, that of vision, it transforms speech and thought as well.
<<<
//(Writing as multi-sensory?)//
''p.85'' - Stimulus to literacy was urbanization:
<<<
Urbanization provided the incentive to develop record keeping. Using writing for imaginative creations, as spoken words have been used in tales or lyric, that is, using writing to produce literature in the more specific sense of this term, comes quite late in the history of script.
<<<
//(What is the stimulus to digital literacy - the internet?)//
''p.85-6'' - Pictographs and codes:
<<<
Out of pictographs (a picture of a tree represents the word for a tree), scripts develop other kinds of symbols. One kind is the ideograph, in which the meaning is a concept not directly represented by teh picture but established by code: for example, in the Chinese pictorgraph a stylized picture of two trees does not represent the words 'two trees' but the word 'woods'; stylized pictures of a woman and child side-by-side represent the word 'good' and so on.
<<<
//(This links to my (potential) investigation into the difference between de-''coding'' and de-''ciphering'')//
''p.86-7'' - Pictographic systems have their advantages - c.f. Chinese:
<<<
One advantage of a basically pictographic system is that persons speaking different Chinese 'dialects' (really different Chinese languages, mutually incomprehensible, though basically of the same structure) who are unable to understand one another's speech can undestand one another's writing.
<<<
//(Does this relate in some way to internet communications, text message language, etc.?)//
''p.87'' - Many writing systems are hybrids:
<<<
Many writing systems are in fact hybrid systems, mixing two or more principles... [T]he ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic system was hybrid (some symbols were pictographs, some ideographs, some rebuses)... Indeed, because of the tendency of scripts to start with pictographs and move to ideographs and rebuses, perhaps most writing systems other than the alphabet are to some degree hybrid. And even alphabetic writing becomes hybrid when it writes //1// instead of //one//.
<<<
//(Check to make sure I know what these three terms are if I use this quotation!)//
''p.94'' - Importance of previous traditions in organizing what newer tools produce:
<<<
St Thomas Aquinas, who wrote his own manuscripts, organizes his //Summa theologiae// in quasi-oral format: each section or 'question' begns with a recitation of objections against hte position Thomas will take, then Thomas states his position, and finally answers the objections in order. Similarly, an early poet would write down a poem by imagining himself declaiming it to an audience... High literacy fosters truely written composition, in which the athor composes a text which is precisely a text, puts his or her words together on paper. This gives thought different contours from those of orally sustained thought.
<<<
//(So with 'digital literacy' is there a difference between using old ways and what does/will come about through 'high' digital literacy?)//
''p.96'' - Literacy as some kind of 'alignment' with those outside immediate (oral) sphere?
<<<
before writing was deeply interiorized by print, people did not feel themselves situated every moment of their lives in abstracted computed time of any sort. It appears unlikely that most persons in medieval or even Renaissance western Europe would ordinarily have been aware of the number of the current calendar year - from the birth of Christ or any other point in the past. Why should they be?
<<<
//(Move to literate culture necessitated fixed point of reference - similat to clocks after trains introduced into 19th century England. What about in the digital hyper-connected realm?)//
''p.102'' - All language and thought is an attempt to make sense of the world:
<<<
Of course, all language and thought are to some degree analytic: they break down the dense continuum of experience, William James's 'big, blooming, buzzing confusion', into more or less separate parts, meaningful segments. But written words sharpen analysis, for the individual words are called on to do more. To make yourself clear without gesture, without facial expression, without intonation, without a real hearer, you have to foresee circumpectly all possible meanings a statement may have for any possible reader in any possible situation, and you have to make your language work so as to come clear all by itself, with no existential context. The need for this exquisite circumspection makes writing the agnoizing work it commonly is.
<<<
//(Good link here to William James - seeing as I'm using his Pragmatist methodology - digital literacy to do with more than just words?)//
''p.106'' - No such thing as something being 'ungrammatical'?
<<<
Where grapholets exist, 'correct' grammar and usage are popularly interpreted as the grammar and usage of the grapholet itself to the exclusion of the grammar and usage of other dialects... But when other dialects of a given language besides the grapholect vary from the grammar of the grapholet, they are not ungrammatical: they are simply using a different grammar, for language is structure, and it is impossible to use language without a grammar.
<<<
//(Good point c.f. l33t speak and text-message language!)//
!5. Print, Space and Closure
''p.118-9'' - Example of Sir Thomas Elyot's //The Boke Named the Gouernour// - set out to 'look' could, rather than read well:
<<<
Inconsequential words may be set in huge type faces: on the title page... the initial 'THE' is by far the most prominent word of all. The result is often aesthetically pleasing as a visual design, but it plays havoc with our present sense of textuality.
<<<
//(Link to online space?)//
''p.120'' - Different focus r.e. manuscript vs. print:
<<<
Manuscript culture is producer-oriented, since every individual copy of a work represents great expenditure of an individual copyist's time... Print is consumer-oriented, since hte individual copies of a work represent a much smaller investment of time: a few hours spent in producing a more readable text will immediately improve thousands upon thousands of copies.
<<<
//(How much more so online - e.g. Wikipedia editing for style considerations?)//
''p.130'' - Print is the 'final form' of an author's thoughts:
<<<
The printed text is supposed to represent the words of an author in definitive or 'final' form. For print is comfortable only with finality... Print is curiously intolerant of physical incompleteness. It can convey the impression, unintentionally and subtly, but very really, that the material the text deals with is similarly complete or self-consistent.
<<<
//Contrast this with wikis, etc.?)//
''p.133-4'' - Electronic transformation of verbal expression = new age of 'secondary orality':
<<<
The electronic transformation of verbal expression has both deepened the commitment of the word to space initiated by writing and intensified by print and has brough consciousness to a new age of secondary orality.
...
This new orality has striking resemblances to the old in its participatory mystique, its fostering of a communal sense, its concentration on the present moment, and even its use of formulas (Ong 1971, pp.284-303; 1977, pp.16-49, 305-41). But it is essentially a more deliberate and self-conscious orality, based permanently on the use of writing and print, which are essential for the manufacture and operation of the equipment and for its use as well.
<<<
//(So 'digital literacy' predicated upon literacy -> need latter before can gain former? Or is secondary orality different from digital literacy?)//
!7. Some Theorems
Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2006) //New Literacies: Everyday Practices & Classroom Learning// (2nd ed., London)
''p.2'' - Difference between 'ontologically' new and 'chronologically' new literacies.
!Chapter 1 - From 'Reading' to 'New' Literacies
''p.12'' - Reading treated as psychological whereas 'literacy' = sociological:
<<<
[Whereas 'reading' has traditionally ben conceived in //psychological// terms, 'literacy' has always been much more a //sociological// concept. For example, 'illiteracy' and 'illiterate' usually carried social class or social connotations. Being illiterate tended to be associated with being poor, being or marginal status, and so on... From a sociocultural perspective, literacy is a matter of social practices. Literacies are bound up with social, institutional and cultural relationships, and can only be understood when they are situated within their social, cultural and historical contexts. ''Moreover, they are always connected to social identities - to being particular kinds of people.''
<<<
//(my emphasis - society decides which kinds of literacies are meaningful/desirable?)//
''p.15'' - Hirsch: //Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know// (1987) - argued that students 'need to be able to negotiate their social context effectively':
<<<
This canon comprises relevant cultural information that has high status in the public sphere. It is assumed that all members of society share this knowledge as part of their cultural heritage. Hirsch discerned cultural //illiteracy// among growing numbers of students who could not contextualize information or communicate with their fellows within the context of a larger national culture because they lacked the common cultural stock presumed to make such communication and meaning making possible.
<<<
//(Is this one step on from 'digital literacy' - digitial 'culture'?)//
''p.15'' - '3D' model of literacy from a sociocultural perspective:
<<<
An interesting account that builds on a sociocultural perspective to develop a robust conception of literacy can be found in a 'three-dimensional' model (Green 1988, 1997). This view argues that literacy should be seen as having three interlocking dimensions of learning and practice: the operational, the cultural and the critical. These dimensions bring together language, meaning and context (Green 1988), and no one dimension has any priority over the others. In an integrated view of literate practice and literacy pedagogy, all dimensions need to be taken into account simultaneously.
<<<
//(How does this related to digital literacy? Is it is useful metaphor?)//
''p.15-16'' - Aspects of Green's 3D model of literacy:
*//Operational// - 'focuses on the language aspect of literacy... includes but also goes beyond competence with the tools, procedures and techniques involved in being able to handle the written language system proficiently.'
*//Cultural// - 'focuses on understanding texts in relation to contexts. This means knowing what it is about given contexts of practice that makes for appropriateness or inappropriateness of particular ways of reading and writing.'
*//Critical// - 'involves awareness that al social practices, and thus all literacies, are socially constructed and 'selective': they include some representations and classifications... and exclude others... The critical dimension of literacy is the basis for ensuring that individuals... are able to transform and actively produce [texts].'
''p.20'' - Almost anything seems to count as a 'literacy' these days:
<<<
[S]ince the 1980s and 1990s the term 'literacy' has been applied to an ever increasing variety of practices. It has reached the point today where it seems that almost any knowledge and learning deemed educationally valuable can somehow or other be conceived as a literacy.
<<<
//(Is 'digital literacy' one of these?)//
''p.20'' - Sometimes 'literacy' is conflated with 'competence':
<<<
Sometimes... 'literacy' [is] a metaphor for 'competence', 'proficiency' or 'being functional'. Concepts like 'being computer literate' or being 'technologically literate' are sometimes used to mean that someone is more or less proficient with a computer or some other device like a video recorder: they can 'make sense of' and 'use' computers, or can program their video player or mobile phone.
<<<
//(Any definition of digital literacy needs to deal with this issue)//
''p.20'' - Hirst (1974) and 'fields of knowledge':
<<<
[W]e nowadays hear frequent references to 'oral literacy', 'visual literacy', 'information literacy', 'media literacy', 'science literacy' and even 'emotional literacy'... [These are] close to the idea advanced in the 1970s by philosophers like Paul Hirst (1974) with respect to knowledge and the academic disciplines. Hirst spoke of 'forms and fields of knowledge' - systematic ways of understanding the world, epitomized by academic disciplines - as having their own discrete 'languages and literatures'. To 'be on the inside' of a form or field of knowledge meant being able to 'speak' its language and 'read and write its literature'.
<<<
//(Digital literacy as something one can 'get on the inside' of?)//
''p.21'' - Two kinds of 'digital literacy':
<<<
Definitions of digital literacy are of two main kinds: conceptual definitions and standardized sets of operations intended to provide national and international //normalizations// of digital literacy.
<<<
//(My thesis is - potentially - looking at both of these in lit. review & 3rd section?)//
''p.21-2'' - Lanham on digital literacy:
<<<
Lanham (1995:198) claims that 'literacy' has extended its semantic reach from meaning 'the ability to read and write' to now meaning 'the ability to understand information however presented'. He emphasizes the multimediated nature of digital information, and argues that to be digitally literate involves 'being skilful at deciphering complex images and sounds as well as the syntactical subtleties of words' (ibid.: 200)... Digital literacy enabled us to match the medium we use to teh kind of information we are presenting to the audience to whom we are presenting it.
<<<
//(Isn't this a bit vague and general? How is it specifically ''digital''?)//
''p.23-4'' - Difference between 'paradigmatic' and 'ontological' versions of 'new literacies':
<<<
The //paradigmatic// sense of 'new'... refers to a particular sociocultural approach to understanding and researching literacy. [It is] a new theoretical and research //paradigm// for looking at literacy: a new alternative to the previously established paradigm that was based on psycholinguistics... [T]he proponents think of their project as comprising a new and different paradigm relative to an existing orthodoxy or dominant approach.
...
To say that 'new' literacies are ontologically new i to say that they consist of a different kind of 'stuff' from conventional literacies we have known in the past. It is the idea that changes have occurred in the character and substance of literacies that are associated with larger changes in technology, institutions, media and the economy, and with the rapid movement toward global scale in manufacture, finance, communications, and so on.
<<<
//(One top-down, the other bottom-up?)//
''p.24-5'' - Two parts to idea of 'ontologically' new literacies:
<<<
The first part has to do with the rise of digital-electronic technologies and, with this, the emergence of 'post-typographic' forms of texts and production... Established social practices have been transformed, and new forms of social practice have emerged and continue to emerge at a rapid rate. Many of these new and changing social practices involve new and changing way sof producing, distributing, exchanging and receiving texts by //electronic// means... what Richard Lanham (1994) calls 'the rich signal' - as sound, text, images, video, animations, and any combination of these.
...
The second part of the idea of new literacies is a little more complex... [and involves] a different kind of '//technical// stuff' from conventional literacies: for example, screens and pixels rather than paper and type, digital code rather than material print... What we want to say here is that in addition to being made of different 'technical' stuff from conventional literacies, new literacies are also made of what we might call different '//ethos// stuff' from what we typically associate with conventional literacies. For example, the are often more 'participatory', more 'collaborative', and more 'distributed', as well as less 'published', less 'individuated' and less 'author-centric' than conventional literacies... [We think of new literacies] as a different //mindset// from the stuff of which conventional literacies are largely composed.
<<<
//(Need to pick up on 'hardware/software' distinction)//
!Chapter 2 - New Literacies and the Challenge of Mindsets
''p.29'' - Literacy as dialectic:
<<<
[T]he idea of 'new' literacies is a useful way to conceptualize what might be seen as one component of an unfolding 'literacy dialectic'. By a //dialectic// we mean a kind of transcendence, in which two forced that exist in tension with one another 'work out their differences', as it were, and evolve into something that bears the stamp of both, yet is qualitatively different form each of them
<<<
//(Hegelian synthesis?)//
''p.30'' - As a society, we don't know how to deal with new literacies in an educational context:
<<<
We are presently at a point in the historical-cultural development of literacy where we don't really know how to deal educationally with these new literacies. What seems to be happening is that the day-to-day business of school is still dominated by conventional literacies, and engagement with the 'new' literacies is largely confined to learners' lives in spaces outside of schools and other formal education settings. Insofar as schools try to get to grips with the changing world of literacy and technology... they often simply end up reproducing familiar conventional literacies through their uses of new technologies. Learners who have access to //both//realms of literacy - the conventional and the 'new' - experience parallel 'literacyscapes' (Leander 2003). At school they operate in one literacy 'universe', and out of school they operate in another
<<<
//('Literacyscapes' as another word for 'literacy ecosystem'?)//
''p34'' - Native/immigrant dichotomy:
<<<
[John Perry Barlow] distinguished between people who have been born into and have grown up within the context of cyberspace, on one hand, and those who come to this new world from the standpoint of a life-long socialization in physical space, on the other. Barlow refers to the former as 'natives' and the latter as 'immigrants'.
<<<
//(Lankshear & Knobel say they prefer 'newcomer' and 'outsider')//
''p.36'' - Jeff Bezos & Amazon.com - not interested in 'first-phase automation' (i.e. 'doing the same process you've always done, but just more efficiently'). Instead:
<<<
He wanted to do more than simply transfer life as it is done in a physical space to the online world of the internet. He preferred to think in terms of second-phase automation. This is 'when you can fundamentally change the underlying... process' - in his case, a business process - 'and do things in a completely new way'. For Bezos, second-phase information is 'more of a revolution instead of an evolution' (Spector 2006:16).
<<<
//(Digital literacy as 'revolutionary'? Link to 'secondary orality'?)//
''p.42'' - Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0
<<<
''Web 1.0'' -> ''Web 2.0''
Ofoto -> Flickr
Britannica Online -> Wikipedia
Personal websites -> Blogging
Publishing -> Participation
Content management systems -> Wikis
Directories (taxonomy) -> Tagging
Netscape -> Google
<<<
''p.49'' - Schrage (2001) - to say that the internet is about 'information' is a bit like saying that cooking is about oven temperatures - 'technically accurate but fundamentally untrue':
<<<
While it is true that digital technologies have completely transformed the world of information into readily manipulable bits and bytes, it is equally true that the genuine significance of these technologies isn't rooted in the information they process and store...
The biggest impact these technologies have had, and will have, is on ''relationships between people and between organizations.''
<<<
//(My emphasis)//
''p.51'' - Interview of 'Violetta', a teenager, interviewed by Thomas (2006):
<<<
I am talking to you but at the same time I am talking to this cool guy Matt who I know from school, and trying to do some homework - an essay, for which I am hunting some info on the web - you know, throw in some jazzy pics from the web and teachers go wild about your 'technological literacy' skills. Big deal. If they ever saw me at my desk right now, ME, the queen of multi-tasking, they'd have no clue what was happening.
<<<
//(This sounds slightly made-up?)//
''p.52'' - Book as textual paradigm:
<<<
[D]uring the age of print the book comprised the text paradigm. It shaped conceptions of layout, it was the pinnacle of textual authority, and it played a central role in organizing practices and routines in major social institutions. The book mediated social relations of control and power... Textual forms and formats were relatively stable and were 'policed' to ensure conformity.
...
The book in no way comprises the text paradigm in the emerging digital media space. Indeed, there is //no//text paradigm. Text types are subject to wholesale experimentation, hybridization, and rule breaking. Conventional social relations associated with roles of author/authority and expert have broken down radically under the ove from 'publishing' to participation, from centralized authority to mass collaboration, and the like... While people who grew up under the hegemony of the book and a stable 'generic order' may ponder whether it is 'proper' to write this kind of way in a blog, or to focus on this kind of theme, digital insiders seem much less preoccupied by such concerns.
<<<
//(Go on to say there are 'norms' in digital space, but these are more fluid and always somewhere where one's 'ways' will be acceptable)//
''p.53'' - Lankshear & Knobel's 'working hypothesis':
<<<
[O]ur working hypothesis... is that the world is now significantly different fro how it was two or three decades ago, and that this difference has a lot to do with the emergence of new technologies and changes in social practices associated with these... the changes are part of a move from what we have called 'industrial' values and ways of doing things toward and increasing embrace of 'post-industrial' value and ways of doing things.
<<<
//(Not ground-breaking, but useful to have as a quotation)//
''p.54-5'' - Old wine, new bottles:
<<<
It does not follow from the fact that so-called new technologies are being used in literacy education that //new literacies// are being engaged with. Still less does it imply that learners are developing, critiquing, analysing, or even becoming technologically proficient with new literacies.
<<<
//(Literacy 1.5 vs. 2.0?)//
''p.56'' - Teachers not ready to engage with new literacies:
<<<
The ongoing agenda to technologize learning still encounters a teaching workforce that is largely un(der)prepared for the challenge of //directing// computer-mediated learning in the role of teacher as authority. That is, most teachers (let alone teacher educators) still lack insider-like experience and expertise with new technologies and contemporary social practices associated with their technical ans social evolution as cultural tools and processes. Not surprisingly, teachers often look for ways of fitting new technologies into classroom 'business as usual'.
<<<
//(Leads to students being taught how to 'operate' new technologies - no transformation takes place)//
''p.57'' - School learning and 'deep grammar':
<<<
School learning is for school; school as it has always been. The burgeoning take-up of new technologies simply gives us our latest 'fix' on this phenomenon. It is the 'truth' that underpins many current claims that school learning is at odds with authentic ways of learning to be in the world, and with social practice beyond the school gates... It is precisely this 'deep grammar' of schooling that cuts schools off from the new (technological) literacies and associated subjectivities that Bill Green and Chris Bigum (1993) say educators are compelled to attend to.
<<<
//('Deep grammar' is an interesting concept to described entrenched ways of doing things)//
''p.60'' - What makes a 'new' literacy 'new'?
<<<
[T]he more a literacy practice privilege participation over publishing, distributed experience over centralized expertised, collective intelligence over individual possessive intelligence, collaboration over individuated authorship, dispersion over scarcity, sharing over ownership, experimentation over 'normalization', innovation and evolution over stability and fixity, creative-innovative rule breaking and evolution over generic purity and policing, Phase 2 automation over Phase 1 automation, relationship over information broadcast, and so on, the more we should regard it as a 'new' literacy.
<<<
//(Goes on to say that is not that conventional literacies are no important)//
''p.62'' - Effect of 'new' literacies on schools:
<<<
It seems likely that schools, with their established grounding in a mindset associated with status and value attaching to scarcity, and with literacy comprising a key instrumentality for unlocking advantage and status through achievements at level wilfully preserved for te few, will increasingly face a challenge to maintain student engagement in conventional literacies conceived and implemented from the perspective of the newcomer mindset.
<<<
//(Schools 'based on scarcity' - interesting (and true!) - 19th century model?)//
!Chapter 3 - 'New Literacies': Concepts and practices
''p.64'' - Lankshear & Knobel's definition of literacies:
<<<
We define literacies as 'socially recognized ways of generating, communicating and negotiating meaningful content through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participating in Discourses (or as members of Discourses)'.
<<<
//(Lankshear & Knobel go on to take each part of the definition and explain it in detail between p.65 and p.73)//
''p.65-6'' - Scribner & Cole - 'family' of literacies:
<<<
Scribner and Cole... approach literacy as 'a set of socially organized practices which make use of a symbols system and a technology for producing and disseminating it'. They say that literacy is not a matter of knowing how to read and write a particular kind of script but, rather, a matter of 'applying this knowledge for specific purposes in specific contexts of use' . This means that literacy is really like a family of practices - literacies - that will include such 'socially evolved and patterned activities' as letter writing, keeping records and inventories, keeping a diary, writing memos, posting announcements, and so on. These all vary to some extent from one another in terms of the technologies used (pencil, typewriter, pen, font options, the kind of surface 'written' on); the knowledge drawn upon (formatting conventions, use of register, information about the topic), and their skill requirements (hand-eye coordination, using a mouse).
<<<
//(Can digital literacy be broken down thus?)//
''p.67'' - Kress: two forms of 'making meaning':
<<<
Kress argues that meaning involves two kinds of work. One is //articulation//, which is performed in the production of 'the outwardly made sign' (e.g., writing). The other is //interpretation//, which involves producing 'the inwardly made sign' in reading.
<<<
//(So literacy involves sense-making for oneself ''and'' for others?)//
''p.68-9'' - What 'encoded texts' means for Lankshear & Knobel:
<<<
By defining literacies in relation to 'encoded texts' we mean texts that have been rendered in a form that allows them to be retrieved, worked with, and made available independently of the physical presence of another person. 'Encoded texts' are texts that have been 'frozen' or 'captured' in ways that free them from their immediate context of production so that they are 'transportable'. From a cultural point of view the most salient point about literacy concerns the scope and scale of cultural production that encoded texts enable (by comparison with 'unencoded' texts that 'expire' at the point and time of production other than in the extent they live on in the memories of people who were there at the time). Encoded texts give (semi) permanence, transcendence, and transportability to language that can 'travel' without requiring particular people to transport them. They can be replicated independently of needing other human being to host the replication.
<<<
//(Very interesting - need examples of 'unencoded texts'!)//
''p.71'' - Gee (1997) - definition of 'Discourses':
<<<
[A Discourse] is a way of 'being together in the world' for humans, their ways of thinking and feeling (etc.), and for non-human things, as well, such that coordinations of elements, and elements themselves, take on recognizable identities. 'Discourse' names the patterning of coordinations, their recognizability, as well as that of their elements.
<<<
//(So 'Discourses' = the social part of literacies?)//
''p.78'' - Examples of 'enabling capacity' of binary code that makes new literacies possible:
*Blog templates, etc. that automate the 'look' of text.
*Writing & publishing tools (e.g. word processing software) that make it easy to play around with text.
*Opening multiple programs at once - and being able to copy & paste between them.
*Instant messaging, including emoticons and conversation transcripts.
*Email interfaces (ways of reading, responding and storing messages)
*Online forms (editable webpage interfaces)
*Encoding of usernames/passwords for standardized subscription processes.
*Online standardized forum interfaces that allow posting, reading and responding
*Real-time text-based chat interfaces that can be embedded (no need for 'client' software)
''p.93'' - Lankshear & Knobel's commentary on the distinction between 'paradigm' and 'peripheral' new literacies:
<<<
We see the 'technical stuff' and the 'ethos stuff' that for us constitutes what is //new// about new literacies as being closely related to one another. A certain kind of technical stuff - digitality - facilitates the kinds and qualities of collaboration, participating, distributedness that we have described. Equally, however, a certain kind of ethos stuff - an insider mindset/a Web 2.0 orientation - will shape the take-up and development of technical stuff in some directions.... The kinds of practices we regard as //paradigm// cases of new literacies are characterized both by the new technical stuff of digitalization and the new ethods stuff of the second mindset and, more specifically, a Web 2.0 orientation.
...
[W]here literacies participate in the second mindset but are not (necessarily) mediated by digital technologies, we can nonetheless plausibly regard them as 'new' literacies - albeit as more //peripheral// cases of new literacies than cases that //also//involve the new technical stuff. '' In other words, having new ethos stuff is a sufficient condition for being a new literacy. By contrast, having new technical stuff is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for being a new literacy. It might just amount to a digitized way of doing 'the same old same old'.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - very interesting and builds on idea of School 1.5 vs School 2.0)//
''p.98-9'' - Flickr as involving literacies:
<<<
Flickr [a photo-sharing website] presents a tricky case so far as... //literacy// is concerned. From conventional standpoints it might look like a //smorgasbord// of literacies from which different participants select their particular 'mixes'.
...
Part of the issues here has to do with what one takes as the 'unit of analysis' for literacy. The nearer one is to a view of literacy that is exhausted by //text//, or some //mode// of text, the less plausible it is to view photo sharing as a literacy. The nearer one is, however, to holding a full-fledged 'sociocultural practice' view of literacy, the less implausible it seems... ''Whatever we are doing at any point in time within this practice we are generating, communicating or negotiating meaningful content in recognized ways through the medium of encoded texts within contexts of participation in Discourses (or, as members of Discourses). That is, photo sharing is a literacy.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - specific instance of Lankshear & Knobel applying their definition directly)//
!Chapter 4 - New Literacies as Remix
''p.105-6'' - 'Remix' no longer a term only applied to music:
<<<
Until recently the idea of 'remix' as a practice of taking cultural artefacts and combining and manipulating them into a new kind of creative blend was associated almost entirely with recorded music... Whilst this remains the dominant conception of remix, its conceptual life has expanded recently in important and interesting ways within the context of increasing activism directed at copyright and intellectual property legislation. This conceptual expansion is particularly interesting from the standpoint of new literacies.
<<<
//(To what extent do ''all'' forms literacy involve 'remixing'?)//
''p.118'' - Manga as example of non-digital 'new literacy':
<<<
Manga are complex texts requiring English-language readers to learn to read comic frames from right-to-left and to recognize the significance of different-sized frames. For example, a narrow, page-length frame can denote time passing or direction in a journey, a thin frame spanning the width of the page is often used as a space in which to convey emotion, while a two-page single frame can signal something momentous is about to happen, or is in the process of happening, etc. The illustrator can also shift the reader's point of view or stance from that of 'outsider, looking in' to 'viewing the scene from the perspective of the different characters in the story' and the reader needs to be able to keep up with changing points of view within the story itself as the author moves along 'showing' the story through the eyes of different characters (Allen and Ingulsrud 2003:679).
<<<
//(Link to 'paradigm' vs. 'peripheral' literacies?)//
''p.128'' - Photoshopping & memes:
<<<
Memes (pronounces 'meems') are contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and that directly shape and propagate key actions and mindsets of a social group. Memes include popular tunes, catch-phrases, clothing fashions, architectural styles, ways of doing things, and so on... Although meme-ing - the practice of generating and/or passing on memes - has always been part of human practice (Blackmore 1999), 'meme-ing' that makes sue of relatively well-defined affinity spaces and electronic networks can be seen as a new literacy practice.
<<<
//(Need to do more research on 'affinity spaces')//
!Chapter 5 - News, Views, and Baby's Got the Blues: Weblogging and Mediacasting as Participation
''p.151'' - Texts as 'nodes on a network' - Wikipedia entry for 'Blog fiction' accessed 10 March 2006):
<<<
Each entry is a node in a network, connected to other nodes at the whim of the author. The result is a branching structure based on semantics rather than a linear chronology.
<<<
//(c.f. Siemens & connectivism?)//
!Chapter 6 - Planning Pedagogy for i-mode: Learning in the Age of 'the Mobile Net'
''p.184'' - Problem of mobile technology in traditional classrooms (Roschelle 2003:265-6):
<<<
The most common [mobile] Internet applications can be quite problematic in classrooms. Schools, for example, have been tempted to ban instant messaging because it enables cheating and disruptive behaviour (Pownell and Bailey 2001). Further, attention is a teacher's most precious commodity, and no teacher wants her students' attention focused on messaging with friends outside class (Schwartz 2003).
<<<
//(How to move from one state of affairs to the other?)//
''p.187'' - Vavoula & Sharples (2002:152) - learning is //mobile//:
<<<
[L]earning is mobile in terms of //space//, i.e. it happens at the workplace, at home, and at places of leisure; it is mobile between //different areas of life//, i.e. it may relate to work demands, self-improvement, or leisure; and it is mobile with respect to //time//, i.e. it happens at different times during the day, on working days or on weekends.
(cited in Naismith //et al//. n.d.: 7, emphases ours)
<<<
//(Digital literacy = end of 'school literacy'?)//
''p.188'' - Should schools still be 'consumers' of knowledge? (Bigum 2002:135). New technologies are used in schools to provide access to information - this is not surprising:
<<<
[S]chools have always acted largely as //consumers// of knowledge and information. From text books, to material available on the Internet, information flows into schools far outweight the information that flows out. The relationships that schools have with the world outside is therefore largely framed by their consumption of information and knowledge.
<<<
//(A great point - is there an infographic for that?!)//
''p.189'' - Naismith, et al. have developed a classification of mobile devices along two axes: 'Portable-Static' and 'Personal-Shared'. PDAs, mobile phones, games consoles, tablet PCs & laptops plotted. Most tools falling into 'Static-Shared' quadrant do not qualify as mobile technologies.
''p.196'' - 'Efficacious learning':
<<<
[F]or learning to be efficacious it is necessary that what somebody learns //now// is connected in meaningful and motivating ways to mature or insider versions of //Discourses//. Discourses are understood as sets of related social practices composed of particular ways of using language, acting and interacting, believing, valuing, gesturing, using tools and other artefacts within certain (appropriate) contexts such that one enacts or recognizes a particular social identity or way of doing and being in the world (Gee //et al//. 1996:4). ''This involves thinking of education and learning in terms not of schools and children (place-related and age -specific) but, instead, in terms of human lives as //trajectories// through diverse social practices and institutions (ibid.). To learn something is to progress toward a fuller understanding and fluency with doing and being in ways that are recognized as proficient relative to recognized ways of 'being in the world'.''
<<<
//(My emphasis. This sounds like I should be looking at digital 'learning'?)//
''p200-1'' - Knowledge Producing Schools:
<<<
A key premise underlying the development of knowledge-producing schools (KPS) is that school uses of communication and computing technologies are based on a mindset that understands new technologies in terms of information (Bigum 2002; Schrage 2001). Bigum (2003b) notes that the many changes associated with communication and computing technologies (CCTs) that we have witnessed in such spheres as business, entertainment and commerce have been described as a result of 'the information revolution'.
...
The model of knowledge-producing schools builds on the idea that, as knowledge //producers// in a new and significant sense, schools can develop and consolidate new kinds of relationships within and outside the school.
The concept of knowledge producers/production in question here needs clarifying. There is a sense in which students have always been involved in producing knowledge within the classroom. But this is almost always in an artificial, 'pretend', non-expert-like production of 'knowledge'. It is dominated by what Bigum calls a 'fridge door' mindset of student work - the idea that the teacher sets a task, students complete it, the teacher assesses it, and the student takes it home where it might be 'published' temporarily on the fridge door. There is not real problem, no real demand, no real need, no real knowledge //product//.
<<<
//(KPS is a fascinating idea - does 'digital literacy' underpin what goes on in them?)//
!Chapter 7 - Memes, L/literacy and Classroom Learning
''p.212'' - Definition of memes:
<<<
Memes are... usually defined as contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind by means of selection, infection and replication. An idea or information pattern is not a meme until someone replicates it by passing it on to someone else, and, as previously noted, the probability of a meme being contagious within a group is directly tied to the values, beliefs and practices of that group (cf. Grant 1990).
<<<
//(Memes reside within groups - to what extent does digital literacy depend upon memes?)//
''p.233'' - difference between 'Literacy' and 'literacy':
<<<
//L//iteracy, with a 'big L' refers to making meaning in ways that are tied directly to life and to //being// in the world (cf., Freire 1972, Street 1984). That is, whenever we use language, we are making some sort of significant or socially recognizable 'move' that is inextricably tied to someone bringing into being or realizing some element or aspect of their world. This means that //l//iteracy, with a 'small l', describes the actual process of reading, writing, viewing, listening, manipulating images and sound, etc., making connections between different ideas, and using words and symbols that are part of these larger, more embodies //L//iteracy practices. ''In short, this distinction explicitly recognizes that L/literacy is always about reading and writing //something//, and that this something is always part of a large pattern of being in the world (Gee //et al//. 1996). And, because there are multiple ways of being in the world, then we can say that there are multiple L/literacies.''
<<<
//(My emphasis. Perhaps an important distinction - Digital L/literacy? Is this a distinction that others acknowledge/recognize?)//
''p.235'' - 'Artefactual' approach to new technologies:
<<<
At the dawn of the mass internet, Ursula Franklin cautioned against taking an 'artefactual approach' to examining new technologies. She argued for focusing instead on technology use as part of a 'system of social practice' (Franklin 1990). Franklin's advice applied to studying new L/literacies, as well. When we examine memes as //L//iteracy practices we see they involve much more than simply passing on and/or adding to written or visual texts or information //per se// (i.e., //l//iteracy). Rather, they are tied directly to ways of interacting with others, to meaning making, and to ways of being, knowing, learning and doing.
<<<
//(So memes about ''Literacy'' as opposed to ''literacy'' - impact?)//
''p.236'' - Gee & 'affinity spaces':
<<<
[Affinity spaces are] specially designed spaces (physical and virtual) constructed to resource people [who are] tied together... by a share dinterest or endeavor... [For example, the] many many websites and publications devoted to [the video game, //Rise of Nations//] create a social space in which people can, to any degree they wish, small or large, affiliate with others to share knowledge and gain knowledge that is distributed and dispersed across many different people, places, Internet sites and modalities (magazines, chat rooms, guides, recordings).
<<<
//(Interesting idea - so 'affinity spaces' presumably always in flux with no fixed rules?)//
''p.242-3'' - Challenge of 'digital epistemologies':
<<<
[A] seemingly increasing proportion of what people do and seek within practices mediated by new technologies - particularly computing and communications technologies - has nothing directly to do with true and with established rules, procedures and standards for knowing. That is most emphatically //not// to say that these matters are no longer important. Rather, it is to draw attention to the fact that today's learners are increasingly recruited to other values and priorities.
<<<
//(Perhaps ''this'' is the fundamental shift in education - we're just not seeking the transmission of 'Truth' (with a capital 'T') any more?)//
''p.243'' - Memes challenge tradition conceptions of 'digital literacy':
<<<
[T]he phenomenon of online memes challenges the growing dominance of 'digital literacy' conceptions of what it means to be a competent user of new technologies and networks. Increasingly, digital literacy is defined by policy groups and others in terms of technical or operational competence..., and/or as the ability to evaluate information... Many of the successful memes included in this study would be discounted or ignored by digital literacy advocates because they do not carry 'useful' information or otherwise confirm to the epistemological priorities of digital literacy... ''Digital literacy mindsets do not pay sufficient attention to the importance of social relations in developing, refining, remixing and sharing ideas in fecund and replicable ways, or to the important role that memes play in developing culture and creativity (cf., Lessig 2004).''
<<<
//(My emphasis. Great point - people play about with technologies in a social way that then get more formalised!)//
!Chapter 8 - So What?
''p.246'' - Jennifer Stone & 'out-of-school literate lives':
<<<
Jennifer Stone (2006:5) observes that a burgeoning body of research into popular websites and other online spaces is contributing to deeper understandings of 'young people's out-of-school literate lives'. At the same time, she argues that this work harbours some important limitations. Apart from mainly focusing only on individual sites associated with some particular affinity space or other, they also 'tend not to deal in depth with how these sites support school-based literacies' (ibid.). Stone cites Hull and Schultz's (2001) belief that it is important to begin applying insights from study of such literacies to educational contexts.
<<<
//(Could juxtapose with Obama's claim about the 'magic threshold' of libraries?)//
''p.249-50'' - Steven Johnson, //Everything Bad Is Good for You// - comparison between books and 'networked texts':
<<<
[Johnson] begins by observing that far from spelling the death of alphabetic writing and its replacement by the image, the growth of the internet has resulted in peple reading written text 'as much as ever' and writing more text than ever before. At the same time, however, he accepts the oft made observation that in the US 'a specific, historically crucial kind of reading has grown less common'. This is the practice of sitting down with a lengthy book for a lengthy stretch of time 'and following its argument or narrative without a great deal of distraction.'
With networked texts, says Johnson, we operate 'in shorter bursts' than with books, across a wider breadth of information, and in much more participatory ways. Networked texts are 'more connective' and more 'abbreviated' than are books'.
<<<
//(Conclusion = that networked texts and books serve different purposes)//
''p.252'' - Constructivism, rhetoric & game-playing:
<<<
School-based curriculum has over-emphasized content and under-emphasized tools of thinking analysis for generations - educational rhetoric notwithstanding. (For all the current espousals of 'constructivist learning approaches', how often do we find tenets of constructivism enacted in classrooms with anything like the depth, consistency, and sheer efficacy we routinely find when good gameware intersects with gamer energies and participation in online gaming affinity spaces?)
<<<
//(Great point r.e. games and learning - motivation, etc.)//
''p.254'' - Contemporary challenges and the ascription of problems to technology, etc.
<<<
The 'sense' that gets made all too often of contemporary challenges is at the banal level of 'ADHD', 'the difference between boys' and girls' brains' (or 'maturation rates'), 'no books in the home', and children 'not being ready to learn'. This is fatuous, and insulting to young people.
<<<
//(What a quotation - needs to be mashed up with an image for Flickr group on 'Great Quotations about Learning & Change')//
''p.256'' - Example of fanfiction -> could be used in formal learning:
<<<
A genuine strength of fanfiction practices consists in the ways participants support each other and provide fanfic 'guides' and tips for writing better fics. It is precisely through such participation, collaboration and mobilization of collective intelligence that expertise is developed in new literacies domains... Yet such qualities and practices of collaboration, support and sharing designed to mutually produce 'insiders' are often conspicuous by their absence in formal learning. Various forms of collaboration are frowned upon, especially in the upper grades. Individuals are required to 'earn their own grades' and produce 'their own' work.
<<<
//(How does this fit in to digital literacy - tangential?)//
''p.258'' - Difference between educators' tokenistic gestures and //really// understanding new literacies:
<<<
Educators who spend serious time hanging out and practising new literacies in online spaces devoted to interests they are passionate about are likely to understand how and why so much classroom appropriation of new technologies is ineffective, wasteful, and wrongheaded. For a start, they are likely to see that effective use of the internet calls for sustained continuous periods online with minimal constraints. They will come to understand the extent to which the purported risks associated with online environments are overstated and overplayed by 'concerned' groups within and outside education arenas... [T]hey are also likely to understand the extent to which potentially powerful educational appropriations of the internet are compromised and marginalised by a cult of fear operating in conjunction with conservative interpretations of 'duty of care'.
<<<
//(Great point r.e. 'conservative interpretation of 'duty of care'' - actually ''not'' preparing them for the real world!)//
''Taylor, T. & Ward, I (1998) //Literacy Theory in the Age of the Internet// (Columbia University Press, New York)''
''p.xii'' - //Electracy// as a mindset/literacy:
<<<
A new name such as //electracy// helps to distinguish this epochal possibility that what is at stake is not only different equipment but also different institutional practices and different subject formations from those we now inhabit.
<<<
//(I really don't like this term at all - very clunky!)//
''p.xvii'' - Technology not used to transform education:
<<<
Computer technologies currently present significant possibilities for improving education, but too often these have gone unrealized. For instance, ''many view computer technology as a means to enhance lectures through more sophisticated visual aids and to automate delivery. Such methods may be valuable in some cases; however, they tend to suppress the potential of computer networks to improve communicative interaction among students, teachers, and even texts, interactions that are fundamental in most contemporary visions of literacy and literacy instruction.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - very well put. And in 1998!)//
!Chapter 1 - Literacy After the Revolution: 1996 CCCC Chair's Address (Lester Faigley)
''p.13'' - Sven Birkets & decline of reading due to electronic media:
<<<
In //The Gutenberg Elegies//, Sven Birkets asks, "What is the place of reading... in our culture?" (15), and he answers that it is increasingly shrinking, with the attendant effects of the loss of deep thinking, the erosion of language, and the flattening of historical perspective. Birkets calls on us to resist the tide of electronic media, and his last words in the book are "refuse it."
<<<
//(He's got a point, but it is the fault of the electronic media or the culture that is/has been formed around it?)//
!Chapter 2 - Negative Spaces: From Production to Connection in Composition (Johndan Johnson-Eilola)
''p.17'' - Writing is about making connections:
<<<
Writing has always been about making connections: between writer and readers, across time, and through space (Eisenstein; Ong). At another level, writing connects ideas and people.
<<<
//(This is a good point and one that I should raise in relation to conceptions 'digital literacy')//
''p.18'' - Education faces a problem in training students to enter new communities:
<<<
One of the problems of education is that students seek to enter new communities (the workplace or the academy) but do not yet have the knowledge necessary to act as "knowledgeable peers" in the community conversation. Collaboration between students can begin to bridge these gaps because "pooling the resources that a group of peers brings with them to the task may make accessible the normal discourse of the new community they together hope to enter." (Bruffee, 1973:644)
<<<
//(Schools as scaffolds - the way it should be!)//
''p.19'' - 'Heuritics' and the relation between print & post-print worlds:
<<<
[Spaces] which follow an associational rather than accumulative or circulating economy (Johnson-Eilola), are "written" by the mere act of linking together preexisting materials, something Gregory Ulmer has termed a "heuritics" of multimedia. In his attempts to rethink the concept of invention in a postprint world, Ulmer intends heuritics as part of the transition from print logics (linear/indexical) to hypermedia logics (associational) (//Heuritics// 36). A primary aspect of heuritics is chorography, a rethinking of space. The roots of chorography are numerous, including geography (where it describes a method of historicizing spaces) and Plato via Derrida (where it describes an //inventio// founded on geography). Chorography operated through "function[s] by means of pattern making, pattern recognition, pattern generation. It is not that memory is no longer thought of as 'place,' but that the notion itself of spatiality has changed" (36).
<<<
//(Hmm... quite confusing, but I think it means that the ways in which multimedia can involve hyperlinks and the like means that the reader conceives of their 'spatial' properties in a different way)//
''p.21'' - (E-)portfolios perpetuate an old way of thinking:
<<<
[T]he process paradigm perpetuates the idea that the text is a product, a concrete, relatively bounded object for viewing, even through it develops through a process of critical inquiry and may enact or reflect social changes. Portfolio systems of assessment, for example, perpetuate the idea of text-as-product. Portfolio methods actually refine and strengthen notions of the text as relatively coherent and bounded through a historicization of the concrete activities of writing and revision... [T]he portfolio points only //implicitly// to other voices, to social and political forces that determine the value of the text in the portfolio.
<<<
//What can schools do then - can't focus on product ''or'' process?//
''p.22'' - Lyotard: move to postmodernist society through attitude towards texts:
<<<
The movement to valuing connection or arrangement over production is not limited to composition; as Jean-Francois Lyotard points out, this shift is characteristic of an increasingly postmodernist society. Indeed, composition is behind the curve on this transition: connection is already as valuable or more valuable that simple production in a number of areas, including such diverse places as information design, architecture, art, and finance. These other fields show that while composition may still be able to think of writing as the production of text, doing so lowers the status of writing and writers.
<<<
//(The main thrust seems to be that 'texts' aren't produced in a vacuum)//
!Chapter 5 - We Are Not Just (Electronic) Words: Learning the Literacies of Culture, Body, and Politics (Beth E. Kolko)
''p.63'' - Poster (1996:24) - 'second media age' in the 20th century, where:
<<<
electronic media are supporting an equally profound transformation of cultural identity. Telephone, radio, film, television, the computer and now their integration as "multimedia" reconfigure words, sounds, and images so as to cultivate new configurations of individuality. ''If modern society may be said to foster an individual who is rational, autonomous, centered, and stable... then perhaps a postmodern society is emerging which nurtures forms of identity different from, even opposite to, those of modernity. And electronic technologies significantly enhance those postmodern possibilities.''
<<<
//(My emphasis. An interesting notion - that postmodern society is ''consciously'' opposed to modernist societies: fragmentation valued, etc.?)//
''p.64'' - Sherry Turkle - //Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet// (1995) - fragmentation of life online:
<<<
[In] computer mediated worlds, the self is multiple, fluid, and constituted in interaction with machine connections.
<<<
//(Identity is an important aspect of literacy - fragmentated texts and links leads to fragmentation of personality?)//
''p.64-5'' - The self as //rewritable// online:
<<<
[T]hese critics propose a disturbing theme: that the self in cyberspace is not just multiple, but //re-writable//, somehow separate from the situated self behind the typist.
<<<
//(Is this actually the case - next quotation may help)//
''p.65'' - Body affected by mind, therefore mental affects physical & vice-versa:
<<<
It seems we have at least reached this consensus: that while physical characteristics that mark our bodies are not immediately visible in computer-mediated communication, the traces of this physical self are not inconsequential.
<<<
//(Explains why traditional literacy needed for digital literacy?)//
!Chapter 6 - [email protected] (Cynthia Haynes)
''p.83'' - //Vivogenic// model - 'computers as tools of empowerment in the teaching of writing'. Haynes calls it this because' it tends away from pathology, because it seeks to vivify, nurture, create, regenerate, and empower.
!Chapter 11 - Writing Teachers, Schools, Access, and Change (Patricia Fitzsimmons-Hunter and Charles Moran)
''p.160'' - 'Access' isn't just the ratio of computers to students or computers to teachers:
<<<
Institutions and organizations most often define access as the ratio between people/users and computers... [But] the issues of access... cannot be fully or even appropriately defined by numbers of computers per student or computers per classroom. We therefore expand our definition of access to include these factors:
#Numbers of computers available to students at to teachers;
#Teachers' and students' perceptions of their access to technology;
#Teachers' and students' understanding of the ways in which appropriate technology can help them achieve their goals for their own teaching and learning;
#Teachers' and students' willingness to exploit the technologies available to them; and
#Teachers' and students' willingness to fight for the technologies they need to pursue their goals for their own teaching and learning.
<<<
//(This seems to be conflating a few separate issues, to be honest...)//
''McLuhan, M. (1962) //The Gutenberg Galaxy: the making of typographic man// (London)''
Before prologue, McLuhan explains his approach:
<<<
The present book develops a mosaic or field approach to its problems. Such a mosaic image of numerous data and quotations in evidence offers the only practical means of revealing causal operations in history.
The alternative procedure would be offer a series of views of fixed relationships in pictorial space. Thus the galaxy or constellation of events upon which the present study concentrates is itself a mosaic of perpetually interacting forms that have undergone kaleidoscopic transformation - particularly in our own time.
<<<
//(I like the way he puts this - and goes on to quote at length throughout the book)//
!Prologue
''p.1'' - We live in a similar time to the Elizabethans r.e. change:
<<<
We are today as far into the electric age as the Elizabethans had advanced into the typographical and mechanical age. And we are experiencing the same confusions and indecisions which they had felt when living simultaneously in two contrasted forms of society and experience. Whereas the Elizabethans were poised between medieval corporate experience and modern individualism, we reverse their pattern by confronting an electric technology which would seem to render individualism obsolete and the corporate interdependence mandatory.
<<<
//(Really good analogy - perhaps quote some Elizabethan angst in thesis?)//
''p.3'' - Changes in awareness in 'electronic age':
<<<
In the electronic age which succeeds the typographic and mechanical era of the past five hundred years, we encounter new shapes and structures of human interdependence and of expressions which are "oral" in form even when the components of the situation may be non-verbal... Such a change of modes of awareness is always delayed by the persistence of older patterns of perception. The Elizabethans appear to our gaze as very medieval. Medieval man thought of himself as classical, just as we consider ourselves to be modern men. To our successors, however, we shall appear as utterly Renaissance in character, and quite unconscious of the major new factors which we have set in motion during the past one hundred and fifty years.
<<<
//(Given that this was written in 1962, McLuhan is ''already'' in this position!)//
''p.4'' - Link between anthropology & technology:
<<<
Today man has developed extensions for practically everything he used to do with his bodies. The evolution of weapons begins with the teeth and the fist and ends with the atom bomb... In fact, all man-made material things can be treated as extensions of what man once did with his body or some specialized part of his body.
<<<
//(What do we do online that we used to do with parts of our bodies - relay messages? Old way of thinking - replacement rather than augmenting and transforming?)//
''p.5'' - Can't classify technology as 'closed systems':
<<<
Our extended senses, tools, technologies, through the ages, have been closed systems incapable of interplay or collective awareness. Now, in the electric age, the very instantaneous nature of co-existence among our technological instruments has created a crisis quite new in human history. Our extended faculties and senses now constitute a single field of experience which demands that they become collectively conscious... As long as our technologies were as slow as the wheel or the alphabet or money, the fact that they were separate, closed systems was socially and psychically supportable. This is not true now when sight and sound and movement are simultaneous and global in extent.
<<<
//(Goes on to say that historians tend to isolate technological events - unsupportable)//
''p.8'' - McLuhan quotes Karl Popper about the 'strain of civilization' felt by the Greeks:
<<<
This strain, this uneasiness, is a consequence of the breakdown of the closed society. It is still felt even in our day, especially in times of social change. It is the strain created by the effort which life in an open and partially abstract society continually demands from us... We must, I believe, bear this strain as the price to be paid for every increase in knowledge, in reasonableness, in co-operation and in mutual help... It is the price we have to pay for being human.
<<<
//(Well put - if by 'open' he means collaborating via the internet, etc.)//
''p.24'' - Technology affects the 'ratios' of our senses:
<<<
If a technology is introduced either from within or from without a culture, and if it gives new stress or ascendancy to one or another of our senses, the ratio among all of our senses is altered. We no longer feel the same, nor do our eyes and ears and other senses remain the same. The interplay among our senses is perpetual save in conditions of anesthesia. But any sesnse when stepped up to high intensity can act as an anesthetic for other senses... The result is a break in the ratio among the senses, a kind of loss of identity. Tribal, non-litereate man, living under the intense stress on auditory organization of all experience is, as it were, entranced.
<<<
//(gives example of dentists using 'audiac' - induced noise - to remove tactility, and hypnosis)//
''p.29-30'' - Example of 'the danger of the machine' from 2,500 years ago (Chinese sage Chuang-Tzu):
<<<
As Tzu-Gung was travelling through the regions north of the river Han, he saw an old man working in his vegetable garden. He had dug an irrigation ditch. The man would descend into the well, fetch up a vessel of water in his arms and pour it out into the ditch. While his efforts were tremendous the results appeared to be very meagre.
Tzu-Gung said, "There is a way whereby you can irrigate a hundred ditches in one day, and whereby you can do much with little effort. Would you not like to hear of it?" Then the gardener stood up, looked at him and said, "And what would that be?"
Tzu-Gung replied, "You take a wooden lever, weighted at the back and light in front. In this way you can bring up water so quickly that it just gushes out. This is called a draw-well."
Then anger rose up in the old man's face, and he said, "I have hear my teacher say that whoever uses machines does all his work like a machine. He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine, and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul. Uncertainty in the strivings of the soul is something which does not agree with honest sense. It is not that I do not know of such things; I am ashamed to use them.
<<<
//(An interesting non-Luddite response to technology integration?)//
''p.36-7'' - McLuhan cites a study with non-literate tribes in Africa being shown a film. They couldn't understand that it was telling a story and picked out details:
<<<
Literacy gives people the power to focus a little way in front of an image so that we take in the whole image or picture at a glance. Non-literate people have no such acquired habit and do not look at objects in our way. Rather they scan objects and images as we do the printed page, segment by segment. Thus they have no detached point of view. They are wholly //with// the object. They go emphatically into it. The eye is used, not in perspective but tactually, as it were.
<<<
//(Interesting in relation to digital literacy - ability to 'stand back' and take things in a prerequisite of having such a literacy?)//
''p.74'' - Only a fraction of the history of literacy has been typographic:
<<<
From the fifth century B.C. to the fifteenth century A.D. the book was a scribal product. Only one third of the history of the book in the Western world has been typographic.
<<<
//(Not 'mass' literacy, therefore, and the written word is something very different in manuscript form than when printed or put online)//
''p.131'' - 'Authorship':
<<<
Oddly enough, it is a consumer-oriented culture that is concerned about authors and labels of authenticity. Manuscript culture was producer-oriented, almost entirely a do-it-yourself culture, and naturally looked to the relevance and usability of items rather than their sources.
<<<
//(Relates to idea of 'scarcity' - first of all scarcity of authors, then of printed matter - all to do with money?)//
''p.145'' - People in the 16th century faced same challenges and problems related to books as we do r.e. electronic media:
<<<
Had any of our current testers of media and various educational aids been available to the harassed sixteenth century administrator they would have been asked to find out whether the new teaching machine, the printed book, could do the full educational job. Could a portable, private instrument like the new book take the place of the book one made by hand and memorized as one made it? could a book which could be read quickly and even silently take the place of a book read slowly aloud? Could students trained by such printed books measure up to the skilled orators and disputants produced by manuscript means? Using the methods the testers now use for radio, film, and TV, our testers would have reported in due course: "Yes, strange and repugnant as it may sound to you, the new teaching machines enable students to learn as much as before. Moreover, the seem to have more confidence in the new method as giving them the means of acquiring many new kinds of knowledge.
<<<
//(Interesting - similar response to podcasts instead of lectures at uni? Should find reference r.e. success in learning retention)//
''p.155'' - Jacques Lafitte, engineer and architect:
<<<
Because we are their makers, we have too often deluded ourselves into believing that we knew all there was to know about machines.
<<<
//(Will we ever really be able to define 'digital literacy' - do we know what we ''mean'' by it?)//
''p.158'' - Print is the technology of individualism:
<<<
Print is the extreme phase of alphabet culture that detribalizes or decollectivizes man in the first instance. Print raises the visual features of alphabet to highest intensity of definition. Thus print carries the individuating power of the phonetic alphabet much furhter than manuscript culture could ever do. ''Print is the technology of individualism. If men decided to modify this visual technology by an electric technology, individualism will also be modified.'' To raise a moral complains about this is like cussing a buzz-saw for lopping off fingers... It is a problem, but not a moral problem; and it would be nice to clear away some of hte moral fogs that surround our technologies. It would be good for morality.
<<<
//(McLuhan things technological questions are not - necessarily - moral questions. My emphasis)//
''p.238'' - McLuhan says, quite rightly, that "Nobody ever made a grammatical error in a non-literate society."
''p.253'' - The 'Gutenberg galaxy' ended at the start of the 20th century:
<<<
With [the] recognition of curved space in 1905 the Gutenberg galaxy was officially dissolved. With the end of lineal specialisms and fixed points of view, compartmentalized knowledge became as unacceptable as it had always been irrelevant.
<<<
//(The 'space had already been invaded' through the invention of the telegraph - led to multiplicity and plurality of views and approaches)//
The debate that you've identified below is one that's run - in various guises - for years. I guess that whenever the status quo shifts, debates about validity rage. More than ten years ago I was looking at changes in the ways that young people worked, and the fact that they didn't see things as new, or embodying a change - they were just things that they did. http://tinyurl.com/yg2xsa3
One of the passages below points out that technology doesn't change education: true, but then technology does change the way that we do things - reading, writing, creating stuff - and it changes the ways that we talk about these things. It's not a long stretch from that to thinking differently about things.
I guess that the root of the problem for education is that, because it's a social construct, it's less susceptible to the shifts that we demonstrate in our personal behaviour, speaking and thinking. Any shift in education tends to happen as a result of top-down initiatives that reify and legitimate some things and exclude others.
John
''Empson, W., (1930. 2004) //Seven Types of Ambiguity// (Pimlico, London)''
!Ambiguity #1
''p.5'' - First type of ambiguity:
<<<
[A] word may have several distinct meanings; several meanings connected with one another; several meanings which need another to complete their meaning; or several meanings which unite together so that the word means one relation or one process. This is a scale which might be followed continuously.
<<<
//('Digital Literacy', I feel, has 'several distinct meanings' in the literature)//
''p.6'' - Just because you know what goes into the stew doesn't mean that you know everything about the juice:
<<<
[B]ehind this notion of the word itself, as a solid tool rather than as a collection of meanings, must be placed a notion of the way such a word is regarded as a member of the language; this seems still darker and less communicable in any terms but its own. ''For one may know what has been put into the pot, and recognise the objects in the stew, but the juice in which they are sustained must be regarded with a peculiar respect because the are all in there too, somehow, and one does not know how they are combined or held in suspension. One must feel the respect due to a profound lack of understanding for the notion of a potential, and for the poet's sense of the nature of a language.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - great quotation to kick of section r.e. ambiguity!)//
!Ambiguity #2
''p.48'' - Three axes on which to plot ambiguities:
<<<
There are three possible scales or dimensions, that seem of reliable importance, along which ambiguities may be spread out: the degree of logical or grammatical disorder, the degree to which the apprehension of the ambiguity must be conscious, and the degree of psycholological complexity concerned.
<<<
//(Could plot 7 types on 3D framework?)//
''p.48'' - Second type of ambiguity:
<<<
An example of the second type of ambiguity, in word or syntax, occurs when two or more meanings are resolved into one. There are alternatives, even in the mind of the author, not only different emphases as in the first type; but an ordinary good reading can extract one resultant from them.
<<<
//(Empson says this is the most common form of ambiguity//)
''p.57'' - Different forms of second type of ambiguity:
<<<
Ambiguities of this sort may be divided into those which, once understood, remain an intelligible unit in the mind; those in which the pleasure belongs to the act of working out and understanding, which must at each reading, though with less labour, be repeated; and those in which the ambiguity works best if it is never discovered.
<<<
//(Is 'digital literacy' an 'intelligible unit' or must it be worked out at each reading?)//
!Ambiguity #3
''p.102'' - Third type of ambiguity:
<<<
An ambiguity of the third type, considered as a verbal matter, occurs when two ideas, which are connected only by being both relevant in the context, can be given in one word simultaneously.
<<<
//(Is this the case with the 'literacy' AND the 'digital' aspects of 'Digital Literacy'?)//
''p.120'' - The reader needs to be //aware// of this type of ambiguity:
<<<
But of an ambiguity of the third type, whether special or general,the reader needs to be conscious...
<<<
//(I'm not sure people ''are'' aware of the elision, actually, when dealing with 'Digital Literacy' - perhaps with 'Electracy' though?)//
''p.125'' - This type of ambiguity can also be related to judgement and feeling:
<<<
So far I have dealt with the ambiguity of this type which talks about several things at once; there is also the ambiguity which talks about one thing and implies several ways of judging or feeling about it. This tends to be less rational and self-conscious, therefore less strictly fitted to the third type; it is more dramatic and more aware of the complexities of human judgment.
<<<
//(This makes the third type much more generally applicable, as it can encompass people's ''attutides'' towards digital literacy)//
!Ambiguity #4
''p.133'' - Fourth type of ambiguity:
<<<
An ambiguity of the fourth type occurs when two or more meanings of a statement do not agree among themselves, but combine to make clear a more complicated state of mind in the author.
<<<
//(So, holding two or more ideas in tension brings some form of clarity - i.e. more than the sum of their parts?)//
!Ambiguity #5
''p.155'' - Fifth type of ambiguity:
<<<
An ambiguity of the fifth type occurs when the author is discovering his idea in the act of writing, or not holding it all in his mind at once, so that, for instance, there is a simile which applies to nothing exactly, but lies half-way between two things when the author is moving from one to the other.
<<<
//(I think this applies to a lot of definitions - especially something like 'Electracy')//
!Ambiguity #6
''p.176'' - Sixth type of ambiguity:
<<<
An ambiguity of the sixth type occurs when a statement says nothing, by tautology, by contradiction, or by irrelevant statements; so that the reader is forced to invent statements of his own and they are liable to conflict with one another.
<<<
//(Surely the case with Gilster's conception of 'Digital Literacy'?)//
''p.184-5'' - Sixth type of ambiguity is mid-way between first and seventh type:
<<<
Ambiguity of the sixth type by irrelevant statements maintains a precarious existence between the first type and the seventh. It is not merely a statement with various implications, but a statement with various implications which conflict; nor is it an essential contradiction, but a contradiction on matters not central to the writer's interests at the moment, or a contradiction which is thought of as capable of being resolved. Like the first type it may be hunted among similes. Thus to say a thing is like //gold// may mean that it is glittering, strong, lifegiving, like the sun, young , virtuous, untrammelled, like the Golden Age, expensive and hence aristocratic, capable of being drawn and beaten into delicate ornaments, a worthy setting for jewels; or it may mean simply 'mercenary,' and a heavy symbol of wealth, suitable for storage.
<<<
//(Each element of 'digital literacy' is like this)//
!Ambiguity #7
''p.192'' - Seventh type of ambiguity (the MOST ambiguous):
<<<
An example of the seventh type of ambiguity, or at any rate of the last type of this series, as it is the most ambiguous that can be conceived, occurs when the two meanings of the word, the two values of the ambiguity, are the two opposite meanings defined by the context, so that the total effect is to show a fundamental division in the writer's mind.
<<<
//(This would be difficult to find, wouldn't it, in peer-reviewed articles, etc.?)//
''p.195'' - Words become polarized:
<<<
It seems likely... that words uniting two opposites are seldom or never actually formed in a language to express the conflict between them; such words come to exist for more sensible reasons, and may then be used to express conflict... [P]eople much more often need to mention the noticeable than the usual, so... a word which defines a scale comes to be narrowed down more and more to its two ends; the English 'temper' is an example of this.
<<<
//(Is 'literacy' an example of this, too?)//
''p.206 fn.1'' - New ways of emphasizing the negative have to be found:
<<<
In many languages new forms for expressing the negative have been introduced, because the old form being unstressed becomes progressively harder to hear. Hence the French //pas// etc. and the English //do// with the negative. This is clear evidence that the unstressed negative gets lost inconveniently often. For that matter press correspondents regularly cable the quaint and expensive grammatical form NOT REPEAT NOT.
<<<
//(Not strictly relevant here - but interesting and potentially useful?)//
''Godin, S., //Linchpin// (2010)''
''p.vii'' - Linchpins are people who 'own their own means of production'.
''p.5''- Where does average come from?
<<<
It comes from two places:
#You have been brainwashed by school and the system into believing that your job is to do your job and follow instructions. It's not, not anymore.
#Everyone has a little voice inside of their head that's angry and afraid. That voice is the resistance - your lizard brain - and it wants you to be average (and safe).
<<<
''p.6'' - Quotation from David Mamet about becoming 'indispensable':
<<<
//Do not internalize the industrial model.// You are not one of the myriad of interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if you've got something to say, //say// it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better.
<<<
''p.14'' - The old model doesn't apply any more:
<<<
The system we grew up with is based on a simple formula: Do your job. Show up. Work hard. Listen to the boss. Stick it out. Be part of the system. You'll be rewarded.
...
If you've been playing that game, it's no wonder you're frustrated. That game is over.
//There are no longer any great jobs where somebody else tells you precisely what to do.//
<<<
''p.23'' ABC = 'Attendance Based Compensation' (fewer and fewer good jobs where you can get paid merely for showing up)
''p.25'' - The hierarchy of value:
<<<
Create/invent
Connect
Sell
Produce
Grow
Hunt
Lift
<<<
''p.29'' - Schools and creativity:
<<<
A great school experience won't keep you from being remarkable, but it's usually not sufficient to guarantee that you will become so. There's something else at work here.
Great schools might work; lousy schools definitely stack the deck against you. Why is society working so hard to kill our natural-born artists? When we try to drill and practice someone into subservient obedience, we're stamping out the artist that lives within.
Let me be really clear: Great teachers are wonderful. They change lives. We need them. ''The problem is that most schools don't like great teachers. They're organized to stamp them out, bore them, bureaucratize them, and make them average.''
<<<
//(my emphasis)//
''p.31'' - Choosing to be indispensable may lead to a loss of 'love':
<<<
It's entirely possible that once you choose to become indispensable, you will no longer be loved. Not by the same people who love you now, perhaps, nor for the same reasons.
But (and I know it's a big but) either those people will come around, or they never loved you in the first place, did they?
<<<
''p.33'' - How to become 'impossibly good' at your job:
<<<
If your organization wanted to replace you with someone far better at your job than you, what would they look for? I think it's unlikely that they'd seek out someone willing to work more hours, or someone with more industry experience, or someone who could score better on a standardized test.
No, the competitive advantage the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature. Someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities as she makes useful decisions without angst. Flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion.
All of these attributes are choices, not talents, and all of them are available to you.
<<<
''p.36'' - How stupid it is that we train people to follow instructions rather than use their common sense and talents:
<<<
Go into a McDonald's. Order a Big Mac. Order a chocolate milkshake.
Drink half the milkshake.
Eat half the Big Mac.
Put the Big Mac into your milkshake and walk up to the counter.
Say, "I can't drink this milkshake... there's a Big Mac in it."
The person at the counter will give you a refund. Why? Because it's easier to give her a rule than it is to hire people with good judgment. The rule is, "When in doubt, give a refund."
<<<
//(unbelievable!)//
''p.41'' - Schools are training grounds for factory workers:
<<<
The launch of universal (public and free) education was a profound change in the way our society works, and it was a deliberate attempt to transform our culture. And it worked. We trained millions of factory workers.
<<<
//(I need to revisit my MA thesis to look at how education was organized before 1871)//
''p.42'' - Schools might as well have the following sign outside them:
<<<
WE TRAIN THE FACTORY WORKERS OF TOMORROW. OUR GRADUATES ARE VERY GOOD AT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS. AND WE TEACH THE POWER OF CONSUMPTION AS AN AID FOR SOCIAL APPROVAL.
<<<
//(This would be funny were it not true)//
''p.45-6'' - What we teach kids at school:
<<<
Fit in
Follow instructions
Use #2 pencils
Take good notes
Show up every day
Cram for tests and don't miss deadlines
Have good handwriting
Punctuate
Buy the things the other kids are buying
Don't ask questions
Don't challenge authority
Do the minimum amount required so you'll have time to work on another subject
Get into college
Have a good résumé
Don't fail
Don't say anything that might embarrass you
Be passably good at sports, or perhaps extremely good at being a quarterback
Participate in a large number of extracurricular activities
Be a generalist
Try not to have the other kids talk about you
Once you learn a topic, move on
<<<
//(Some slightly less relevant to current UK school situation, but he still makes a good point)//
''p.47'' - "I am good at school" is a fundamentally different statement than "I did well in school and therefore I will do a great job working for you." Godin believes we should teach the following in schools:
<<<
#Solve interesting problems
#Lead
<<<
//(Interesting problems are not questions for which the answers can be found on Wikipedia - they're questions like 'What shall I do next?')//
''p.51'' - Brilliance comes in bursts. Godin talks about Sir Richard Branson who creates billions of dollars' worth of value in the space of 5 minutes every day:
<<<
''The law of linchpin leverage:'' The more value you create in your job, the fewer clock minute of labor you actually spend creating that value. In other words, most of the time, you're not being brilliant. Most of the time, you do stuff that ordinary people could do.
<<<
//(Godin explains that you ''need'' to do the ordinary stuff to become brilliant, but the latter only shows through in small bursts)//
''p.54'' - Mediocrity is exhausting:
<<<
Finding security in mediocrity is an exhausting process. You can only work so many hours, fret only so much. Being a slightly better typist or slightly faster coder is insufficient. You're always looking over your shoulder, always trying to be a little less mediocre than the guy next to you. It wears you out.
<<<
//(Godin says instead you need to focus on doing ''great'' work)//
''p.55'' - Just knowing things isn't enough:
<<<
//Depth of knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot...// Knowledge alone, though, I'd rather get faster and cheaper from an expert I find online.
<<<
''p.56-7'' - You need to understand the status quo in order to break it ("Beginners luck is dramatically overrated")
''p.58-9'' - Marissa Mayer is indispensable at Google, but if you wrote her duties into a manual, you wouldn't need her.
<<<
But the minute you wrote it down, it wouldn't be accurate anyway. That's the key. She solves problems that people haven't predicted, sees things people haven't seen, and connects people who need to be connected.
<<<
//(I think this is known as being the 'go-to' person)//
''p.64'' - Definition of 'fearless':
<<<
Fearless doesn't really mean "without fear." What it means in practice is, "unafraid of things that one shouldn't be afraid of"... Reckless, on the other hand, means rushing into places that only a fool would go... Feckless? Feckless is worst of all. Ineffective, indifferent, and lazy.
<<<
//(Sounds a bit like Aristotle's idea of ''eudaimonia'')//
''p.73'' - A Google search is the new resumé:
<<<
If your Google search isn't what you want (need) it to be, then change it.
Change it through your actions and connections and generosity. Change it by so over-delivering that people post about you. Change it by creating a blog that is so insightful about your area of expertise that others refer to it. And change it by helping other people online.
<<<
''p.87'' - "A day's work for a day's pay" is not a good idea:
<<<
A day's work for a day's pay (work <=> pay). I hate this approach to life. It cheapens us.
This simple formula bothers me for two reasons:
#Are you really willing to sell yourself out so cheap? Do you mortgage and entire (irreplaceable) day of your life for a few bucks? the moment you are willing to sell your time for money is the moment you cease to be the artist you're capable of being.
#Is that it? Is the transaction over? if we're even at the end of the day as the formula says, then you owe me nothing and I owe you nothing in return. If we're even, then there is no bond, no ongoing connection between us... You have become a day laborer and I have become a day boss.
<<<
''p.89'' - The digital world changes stuff - Godin believes we need to break out of the 'poverty mentality':
<<<
If I give you something, it costs me what I gave you.
The more you have, the less I have.
The more I share, the more I lose.
How long have you had an approach to stuff or ideas or time that sounds like this? We've been taught it for a long time.
Digital goods call our bluff. If you read my e-book, we both win. If you share it, so do your friends. Attention is precious, and if you're willing to trade your attention for my idea, we both thrive.
But it goes far beyond that. When you give something away, you benefit more than the recipient does. The act of being generous makes you rich beyond measure, and as the goods or services spread through the community, everyone benefits.
<<<
//A kind of secular version of what Christianity promotes)//
''p.92'' - Passion isn't topic-related:
<<<
Passion isn't project-specific. It's people-specific. Some people are hooked on passion, deriving their sense of self from the act of being passionate.
Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen.
<<<
''Biesta, G.J.J. & Burbules, N.C. (2003) //Pragmatism and Educational Research//''
Durham University Education Library - 370.1 BIE
!Chapter 1 - What is Pragmatism?
''p.1'' - John Dewey (1929)
<<<
No conclusion of scientific research can be converted into an immediate rule of educational art.
<<<
''p.6'' - Peirce - all that 'hard' means is that it will not be scratched by many other substances. The whole conception of this quality is in its conceived effects. There is no difference between a 'hard' thing and a 'soft' thing //so long as they are not brought to the test//:
<<<
Different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise. If beliefs do not differ in this respect... then no mere differences in the manner of consciousness of them can make them different beliefs.
<<<
//(So, what are the differences ''in practice'' between different forms of 'new literacies'?)//
''p.7'' - Quine: 'The Two Dogmas of Empiricism' (1951) - impossible to make a fundamental distinction between analytic and synthetic truths. There are no truths independent of human experience.
//(On this conception, 'digital literacy' is a truth if it makes some difference in practice)//
''p.7'' - Quine: idea of a 'web of beliefs' - observation never gives us knowledge as it has to be interpreted (assumptions, theory, etc.)
//(Find diagram for this!)//
''p.8'' - Donald Davidson (student of Quine's) - criticized a 'third dogma' of empiricism ('assumption that it is possible to make a distinction between experience and the conceptual schemes in which we interpret and organize our experience'). Also stressed the social (or 'intersubjective') nature of meaning.
''p.8'' - Rorty: stressed practical nature of all our knowledge and indispensable role of language in knowledge-acquisition.
''p.9'' - Lovejoy (1908) - critic of pragmatism - published essay in which he argued there were at least 13 different pragmatisms ('logically independent')
//(Need to find this again from 3rd-year uni notes)//
''p.9'' - Dewey's ideas about knowledge are //not// an 'epistemology' if we consider epistemology as 'the branch of philosophy that tries to give an answer to the question of how our (immaterial) mind can acquire knowledge of a (material) world outside our mind.' For Dewey, this would only make sense if one assumes the distinction between mind and matter, inside and outside.
//(Another mention that pragmatists don't have an epistemology - c.f. Rorty)//
''p.10'' - Dewey: reality only 'reveals' itself as a result of the activities of the organism. This is what is known as ''transactional realism''. Some call it ''transactional constructivism'' as 'it can be argued that our knowledge is at the very same time a construction //and// based on reality.'
//(A nuanced view - is it defensible in my thesis, though?)//
''p.13'' - Dewey's theory is a 'practical fallibilism' as it means we can never be certain about our knowledge. This uncertainty is not because of a gap between mind and matter, however, but 'stems from the fact that we can never be certain that the patterns of action that we have developed in the past will be appropriate for the problems that we will encounter in the future.' (//practical// not structural fallibilism)
!Chapter 2 - From Experience to Knowlege
''p.25'' - Dewey (1929)
<<<
We do not have to go to knowledge to obtain an exclusive hold on reality. The world as we experience it is the real world.
<<<
//(An interesting quotation as it shows Dewey's view of the relation between knowledge and experience)//
''p.29'' - Dewey: ideas of 'modes of experience'. Knowledge is only one of these - others include the practical mode, ethical mode, aesthetic mode and religious mode.
''p.37'' - Summary of Dewey's theory of action:
<<<
One way to summarize Dewey's theory of action is to say that it amounts to //a theory of experimental learning//. Dewey characterized living organisms - including the human organism - as capable of establishing and maintaining a dynamic, coordinated transaction with its environment. ''Through this process the predispositions of the organism become more focused and specific, which is another way of saying that through the tentative, experimental way of establishing coordinated transaction, the organism has //learned//. This learning, is, however, not the acquisition of information about how the world "out there" really is. It is learning in the sense of the acquisition of a complex set of predispositions to act.''
<<<
//(My emphasis - this 'transaction' in a digital environment could amount to 'digital literacy', or similar?)//
''p.38'' - Dewey and habits - believed that they were "not of reason nor yet of instinct" (1928) - he used the word 'impulse' instead of 'instinct' because latter suggests organization and adaptation. Dewey believed that it is important to transform habits into //intelligent habits// by thinking.
''p.45'' - Important conceptual shift in terms of our relation to the world for Dewey:
<<<
The shift from understanding knowledge as being concerned with the world "as it is" to understanding knowledge as being concerned with //conditions and consequences//, is a very important element of Dewey's theory of knowledge... It represents a shift from a concern with things as they are to a concern with "the history to which a given thing belongs" (Dewey 1925...). It is, to put it differently, a shift from "knowing as an aesthetic enjoyment of the properties of nature as a world of divine art, to knowing as a means of secular control - this is, a method purposefully introducing changes which will alter the direction of the course of events" (Dewey, 1929...).
<<<
//(Pragmatism very much a secular endeavour)//
''p.50'' - Dewey and correspondence theories of truth:
<<<
Truth and falsity are not properties of any experience or thing, in and of itself or in its first intention; //but of things where the problem of assurance consciously enters in. Truth and falsity present themselves as significant facts only in situations which specific meanings are intentionally compared and contrasted with reference to the question of worth, as to the reliability of meaning.// (Dewey 1906b, 118, emphasis in original)
<<<
//(Truth is therefore 'temporal' - has to do with the correspondence between ''suggested'' meaning and ''realized'' meaning - i.e. the putting into practice)//
!Chapter 3 - The Process of Inquiry
''p.57'' - Dewey: inquiry is a serial or sequential process. There is no absolute end to inquiry - we will never be at a situation where we know all there is to know because every settlement of a situation institutes //new// conditions that, in turn, occasion //new// problems (cycle then begins again)
''p.59'' - Dewey on inquiry:
<<<
//Inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole.//
<<<
//(Emphasis in original - 'digital inquiry skills'?)//
''p.60'' Great quotation from Dewey r.e. problem-solving:
<<<
A problem well put is half-solved.
<<<
//(Need to put the problem of 'digital literacy' well!)//
!Chapter 4 - Consequences of Pragmatism
''p.87'' - Dewey thought that any problems to do with the relationship between science and common sense should be understood as //social// problems - not //epistemological// problems.
''p.91'' - Dewey: knowledge is always knowledge of relationships:
<<<
Dewey's temporal-transactional understanding of the process of knowing and coming to know implies that knowledge is not the agreement between our ideas or reality and how reality "as such" is, but that knowledge is always //knowledge-of-relations//.
<<<
//(Is 'digital literacy' like this - knowledge and skills based around relationships between concepts?)//
''p.98'' - Critics such as Bertrand Russell (1940) argued that Dewey's pragmatism reduces truth to 'individual satisfaction'. Dewey can be cleared of subjectivism if his 'transactional' account is kept in mind.
''p.99'' - Dewey's pragmatism can be accused of subjectivism as each individual creates his or her own world. But questions about truth and falsity only become relevant in social situations:
<<<
To represent things as they are is to represent them in ways that tend to maintain a common understanding... and understanding is a social necessity because it is a prerequisite of all community of action. (1911)
<<<
//(Social interaction leads to transactional truth, as it were)//
!Chapter 5 - Pragmatism and Educational Research
''p.107'' - Pragmatism provides us with a different way to think of the:
#Relationship between knowledge and action.
#Relationship between theory and practice
#Objects of our knowledge
#Objectivity and relativity
''p.109'' - May be able to design 'highly effective instructional machines' but we need to raise the question of what doing so demonstrates about what society values about education.
''p.114'' - How should educational researchers "use" pragmatism?
<<<
Pragmatism is not a recipe for educational research and educational researchers; it does not offer prescriptions. It is... as much a way of //un//-thinking certain false dichotomies, certain assumptions, certain traditional practices and ways of doing things, and in this it can open up new possibilities for thought. It is, in short, a resource that can help educational researchers make their research activities more reflective and - to use one of Dewey's most favorite words one final time - more //intelligent//.
<<<
//(Great quotation to use in intro to Methodology section!)//
The tiddler 'New Tiddler' doesn't yet exist. Double-click to create it
''Gee, J.P. (2010) [[New Digital Media and Learning as an Emerging Area and "Worked Examples" as One Way Forward|http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Learning-Emerging-Examples-ebook/dp/B0030EGHHI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1279029731&sr=8-1]]''
//(divide by 16.69 to get page number from Kindle ebook location)//
''Highlight Loc. 30-33'' - Difference between field and discipline:
<<<
A field is a much less integrated configuration of academic work than a discipline. Areas like
education and communications are fields, which are composed of multiple disciplines. However, over the years there has been a good deal of controversy in the field of education regarding whether it should stay a field or whether scholars should work to configure an integrated body of knowledge that would constitute education as a discipline. For whatever reason, no such integrated body of knowledge has emerged.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 74-75'' - Why we talk of 'digital literacies':
<<<
Writing is a technology for making meaning, as are the various digital media, which is why we hear the term digital literacies.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 77-88'' - Secondary orality and why the idea didn't take off:
<<<
Ong's classic 1982 book also started the discussion of the effects of digital media on traditional literacy and said it constituted a form of "secondary orality").
This theme never congealed into a coherent integrated body of scholarship. There were two reasons for this, in my view. First, scholars could not agree whether literacy, as a technology, transforms mind and society (i.e., has specific effects) or whether literacy has myriad different effects in different social, cultural, historical, and institutional contexts. In the latter case, the argument went, we should study the different contexts and not literacy in and of itself. We can, of course, expect the same conflict in the study of digital media. This dilemma did not foreclose a truly integrated approach to literacy, though it made it more difficult. Indeed, the "new literacy studies," which I discuss later, was an attempt to define something like a thematic discipline around literacy seen in contextually relevant terms.
Second, scholars studying literacy never came to share a core set of perspectives, principles, and tools. In my view, this partly resulted from the fact that the major literacy effect that interested policymakers and the wider society was, for better or worse, literacy learning in schools. And this concern was massively dominated by reading as a disciplinary specialization in psychology and reading education as a specialization in schools of education. People looked to these areas for implications and policy about learning and not to literacy studies as defined more generally. This, in turn, was closely tied to policymakers and the wider society largely viewing learning to read and write in purely mental and individual terms: Reading and writing go on in
people's heads, and problems with them require remediation as a form of clinical therapy ("remedial reading therapy"). This viewpoint was challenged by the new literacy studies (as discussed later), but it meant that social, historical, institutional, and cultural aspects of literacy-the subject of much of work on literacy-took a decided backseat.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 97-98'' - NLS & relation to sociocultural aspects of literacy:
<<<
One is the new literacy studies (NLS), an endeavor that proposed to study literacy (reading and writing) as a sociocultural achievement rather than a cognitive one.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 100-101'' - Difference between 'new literacies studies' and 'new literacy studies':
<<<
Yet another is the new literacies studies (not to be confused with new literacy studies, described above), an area that studies new "literacies"-new types of literacy beyond print literacy-especially new digital literacies and literacy practices embedded in contemporary popular culture.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 109-10'' - Find this reference:
<<<
What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (Gee 2003)
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 133-35'' - Affinity spaces:
<<<
Second, with today's digital tools for social networking, people easily and readily can form and re-form groups to engage in joint activity (such as writing fan fiction) and even political interventions (such as campaigning) without the sanction and support of formal institutions. So participation today involves participating in both producer communities and in many other fluidly formed groups organized around a myriad of interests and passions (Shirky 2008).
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 138-41'' - Literacy and video games:
<<<
The thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills required to engage in video game "modding" (modification) look more like important twenty-first-century skills than do the skills on offer in some of our skill-and-drill-test prep schools. So do the social, technical, and organizational skills required to lead a guild in World of Warcraft. It even appears that the reasoning required to engage in debates on many Internet forums involving technical matters (e.g., making mods for Warcraft) often resembles valued forms of scientific reasoning, forms that we have difficulty gaining in school with all our textbooks (Steinkuehler 2006, 2008a, 2008b).
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 161'' - Find ref:
<<<
Sociolinguistics and Literacies (Gee 1990)
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 167-71'' - NLS at other end of spectrum to 'psychological aspect' of literacy:
<<<
The NLS opposed a traditional psychological approach to literacy. Such an approach viewed literacy as a "cognitive phenomenon" and defined it in terms of mental states and mental processing. The "ability to read" and "the ability to write" were treated as things people did inside their heads. The NLS instead saw literacy as something people did inside society. It argued that literacy was not primarily a mental phenomenon, but rather a sociocultural one. Literacy was a social and cultural achievement-it was about ways of participating in social and cultural groups-not just a mental achievement. Thus, literacy needed to be understood and studied in its full range of contexts-not just cognitive but social, cultural, historical, and institutional, as well.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 171-74'' - Sociocultural aspect of NLS:
<<<
The NLS saw readers and writers as engaged in social or cultural practices. Written language is used differently in different practices by different social and cultural groups. And, in these practices, written language never sits all by itself, cut off from oral language and action. Rather, within different practices, it is integrated with different ways of using oral language; different ways of acting and interacting; different ways of knowing, valuing, and believing; and, too, often different ways of using various sorts of tools and technologies.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 174-79'' - Difference in people's use of texts:
<<<
...people read and write religious texts differently from legal ones and differently again from biology texts or texts in popular culture, such as fan fiction or strategy guides for video games. Also, people can read the same text in different ways for different purposes. For example, they can read the Bible as theology, as literature, as history, or as a self-help guide. They can read a comic book as entertainment, as insider details for expert fans, as cultural critique, or as heroic mythology. People also do things with these texts that often involve more than just reading and writing, and they do them with other people-people like fundamentalists, lawyers, biologists, manga otaku, gamers, or whatever-who sometimes (often) make judgments about who are "insiders" and who are not.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 181'' - What 'decoding' means:
<<<
Knowing how to use a text in the right place and time is as important as knowing how to "decode" it.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 188-93'' - Importance of participation:
<<<
People learn a given way of reading or writing by participating in (or at least coming to understand) the distinctive social and cultural practices of different groups. When these groups teach or "apprentice" people to read and write in certain ways, they never stop there. They teach them to act, interact, talk, know, believe, and value in certain ways as well, ways that "go with" how they write and read (Gee 1990). So, for example, knowing how to read or write a game faq (a strategy guide for a video game) requires knowing how game faqs are used in the social practices of gamers, practices that involve much more than just reading and writing. It requires knowing how gamers talk about, debate over, and act in regard to such things as "spoilers" and "cheats"-and how "cheating" is defined by gamers, not just in general terms (Consalvo 2007).
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 195-97'' - Reason for multiple 'literacies':
<<<
Many different social and cultural practices incorporate literacy, so, too, there many different "literacies" (legal literacy, gamer literacy, country music literacy, academic literacy of many different types). People do not just read and write in general, they read and write specific sorts of "texts" in specific ways; these ways are determined by the values and practices of different social and cultural groups.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 197-202'' - 'Activity systems'
<<<
These multiple literacies are why the NLS often tended to study not literacy itself directly, but such things as "activity systems" (Engestrom 1987), "Big D Discourses" (Gee 1990), "discourse communities" (Bizzell 1992), "cultures" (Street 1995), "communities of practices" (Lave and Wenger 1991; Wenger 1998), "actor-actant networks" (Latour 2005), "collectives" (Latour 2004), or "affinity groups" or "affinity spaces" (Gee 2004)-the names differ and there are others, but they are all names for ways in which people socioculturally organize themselves to engage in activities. The morale was: follow the social, cultural, institutional, and historical organizations of people (whatever one calls them) first and then see how literacy is taken up and used in those organizations, along with action, interaction, values, and tools and technologies.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 212-14'' - NLS not coherent according to Gee:
<<<
In my view, the NLS never fully cohered as an area. Although there are now books devoted to it as a unitary phenomenon, there was never any attempt to translate across the diverse disciplinary languages within which different contributors wrote. We each had our allegiances to different academic microcom- munities with our own pattern of citations, for instance.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 215-19'' - Relation between print and digital literacy according to NLS:
<<<
The NLS argued that print literacy is a technology for giving and getting meaning that has no single effect but many different ones in different social, institutional, cultural, and historical contexts. The same is true for for digital literacy, with the caution I mentioned above that we should pay attention to the affordances of different technologies. It is also a technology (made up of many different kinds of tools and associated practices) for giving and getting meaning. These tools, too, have no single effect (good or bad) but many different ones in different social, institutional, cultural, and historical contexts.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 232-33'' - Meaning related to what people //do// with that thing:
<<<
"To a particular person, the meaning of an object, event, or sentence is what that person can do with the object, event, or sentence." (Glenberg 1997, 3)
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 234-36'' - Guide to action:
<<<
Human understanding, then, is not primarily a matter of storing general concepts in the head or applying abstract rules to experience. Rather, humans think, understand, and learn best when they use their prior experiences (so they must have had some) as a guide to prepare themselves for action. I talk later about how they do this.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 260-61'' - Find ref:
<<<
(where literacy is defined as "getting and giving meanings using written language"). This was the argument I made in my book The Social Mind (Gee 1992)
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 277-81'' - New literacies studies continues from where NLS left off:
<<<
The new literacies studies simply carries over the NLS argument about written language to new digital technologies. The new literacies studies is parsed grammatically differently than the new literacy studies. The NLS was about studying literacy in a new way. The new literacies studies is about studying new types of literacy beyond print literacy, especially digital literacies and literacy practices embedded in popular culture. I am aware this is confusing, but the naming issue emerged partly because people in the new literacies studies were influenced by-and, in part, responding to or supplementing-the NLS.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 285-87'' - NLS wanted to talk about different literacies; New Literacies Studies wants to talk about different digital literacies:
<<<
Just as the NLS wanted to talk about different literacies in the plural-that is, different ways of using written language within different sorts of sociocultural practices-so, too, the new literacies studies wants to talk about different digital literacies-that is, different ways of using digital tools within different sorts of sociocultural practices. In this sense, the new literacies studies is a natural offshoot of the NLS, though the two areas do not contain the same people by any means.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 324-26'' - NMLS (New Media Literacies Studies):
<<<
The NMLS thus engages with a new sense of media literacy. The emphasis is not just on how people respond to media messages, but also on how they engage proactively in a media world where production, participation, social group formation, and high levels of nonprofessional expertise are prevalent. Issues of being critical and reflective are still paramount, of course, but so are issues of how digital media are and are not changing the balance of power and status in society.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 329-32'' - Video gaming as a literacy:
<<<
For example, consider two important papers by Katie Salen (2007b) and Eric Zimmerman (2007), the author together of a very influential book on game design (Salen and Zimmerman 2003). Both these illuminating papers deal with video gaming as a literacy. They both argue, among other things, that the sorts of meanings gamers give to and get from playing and modding involve "systems thinking" and "design thinking" within communities of practice that encourage technology mediated, collaborative problem-solving. Such thinking and collaboration are, they argue, particularly important twenty-first-century skills.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 337-40'' - New London Group
<<<
The New London Group was a small international group of scholars (of which I was a member) that wrote a manifesto on literacy for "new times." The manifesto gave rise to the term //multiliteracies//, which was something of an amalgam of the NLS, the new literacies studies, and situated cognition studies (and other movements), stressing print literacy as multiple sociocultural practices, new digital literacies, and multimodality (the mixing and integration of print, images, and other modalities) all in terms of our quickly changing global world.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 360-61'' - Academic and analysis of data:
<<<
Academics rarely analyse each others' data in ways that show how they would approach the same data from the perspectives of different disciplinary backgrounds and methodological tools.
<<<
''Highlight Loc. 375-79'' - How new areas gain traction through worked examples:
<<<
What I take from Mishler's essay and my own reading of Kuhn is that for a new area, or a new approach in an established one, to gain traction and coherence it is necessary for certain examples of work - for example, analyses of data, applications of methods, theory building, or inferences from theories - to come to be seen as shared exemplars of what counts as "good work" or accepted work in the emerging area or approach. People may first come to share an appreciation for these exemplars as good work before they can articulate exactly why this is so.
<<<
''Rheingold, H., 'Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies' (in Ito, J. (ed.) [[Freesouls|http://freesouls.cc]])''
''p.103'' - Literacy as the intersection of sociocultural practice:
<<<
Literacies are where the human brain, human sociality and communication technologies meet.
<<<
''p.103'' - Rheingold's definition of literacy:
<<<
Literacy is the most important method Homo sapiens has used to introduce systems and tools to other humans, to train each other to partake of and contribute to culture, and to humanize the use of instruments that might otherwise enable commodification, mechanization and dehumanization. By literacy, I mean, following on Neil Postman and others, the set of skills that enable individuals to encode and decode knowledge and power via speech, writing, printing and collective action, and which, when learned, introduce the individual to a community.
<<<
''p.103'' - Need for new literacies:
<<<
Literacies are the prerequisite for the human agency that used alphabets, presses and digital networks to create wealth, alleviate suffering and invent new institutions. If the humans currently alive are to take advantage of digital technologies to address the most severe problems that face our species and the biosphere, computers, telephones and digital networks are not enough. We need new literacies around participatory media, the dynamics of cooperation and collective action, the effective deployment of attention and the relatively rational and critical discourse necessary for a healthy public sphere.
<<<
''p.104'' - Need to use literacy to create participatory culture:
<<<
Literacy−access to the codes and communities of vernacular video, microblogging, social bookmarking, wiki collaboration−is what is required to use that infrastructure to create a participatory culture.
<<<
You are viewing the file on offline mode.
To update your changes please log into ccTiddly in a seperate window and then press the sync button.
[[sync]]