The Literacy Connection

Having recently provided two half days of PD to our system administrators on effective use of technology in schools to support student learning, I can say that my message was all about literacy. Through examples and discussions my intended message for administrators was that literacy and technology are not two different goals. Technology is embedded in literacy. Technology requires a new set of literacy skills. Interaction with information in a digital world involves its own grammar and requires a unique set of literacy skills. We should not be talking about literacy without including and acknowledging the role of technology.

The reason I made these points stems from my concerns around school division emphasis on literacy. In Saskatchewan, the Ministry of Education has implemented a Continuous Improvement Framework. One of the priorities being “High levels of literacy and achievement”. What I hear talk of and planning for however reflects a historical rather than 21st century definition of literacy. While I do not have “the definition” of literacy, in its most general sense, literacy is the ability ‘to make meaning’. When literacy is only considered within the realm of Language Arts, we are in danger of defining literacy as “reading and writing”. It becomes difficult in these conversations to differentiate ‘literacy and numeracy’ from its more historical ‘back to the basics’ movement.

When we talk about literacy, we must acknowledge the expanding literacy skills that our students are going to need for their futures. With rapid changes in society and the workforce, we can no longer imagine what their futures will look like. I believe it is imperative that we embrace and articulate a vision of literacy that, as David Warlick suggests, prepares our students for their futures and not our past. An articulated vision of literacy today within the division, may help educators understand the purpose for a renewed focus on literacy and help them to understand how their practices need to change in order to support a changing vision of literacy.

~ by search4understanding on February 27, 2008.