Themes in New Literacies Research

New literacies addresses a wide range of ideas and concepts. It is pulled from various fields and foci. Although primarily with at least one foot in the education/teaching/learning realm, the term literacy has become such a catch-all phrase that nearly any idea relating to interaction and meaning making can be applied to it. With the idea of literacy is more broadly understood as meaning making practices, we gain a certain focus for our discussions around the term literacy. Yet literacy with this idea moves outside of the realm dealing with reading/comprehension and ability to write/communicate in written form. Meaning making can be done in many different areas and with crossed with a term like Science, as in scientific literacy, we now are speaking to a certain type of meaning making, that is scientific. However, it is not just the concepts of science, that is required when making meaning, but an understanding and use of the broader tools and resources of those who tend to talk about science. Gee refers to this as Discourses which one can participate in. The literacy in a specific area, then is looking at the ways that meaning is made in the Discourse of that specific area, encompassing the shared practices, histories, vocabulary, etc of that area.
Now then, what 'area' would New Literacies be? New literacies research looks at the way that various technologies change and transform the meaning making process, or literacies. This research can span the change that utilizing different mediums (such as video, graphics and audio) impacts the way that communications that typically might have been text are created and understood. This multi-modality is a focus of some researchers (Kress) who are looking at the way that communications that might have been in print is being transformed and what that transformation does for the meaning itself, the process of making meaning and the individual utilizing that medium to make meaning. Others look at the way that more open access, brought about by ubiquitous computing and the internet, to information is changing the way we think about, relate to, evaluate and present information. Still others consider what technologies such as gaming or simulations might do for making meaning, once these games allow for the end user to help in the creation of the way the game is played (Gee, Prensky, Squires). Even more so when those games involve multiple users from multiple locations.
So then, as we look at the ways that new literacies studies exams the impact of ever-changing technology has on meaning making, what are the themes that begin to emerge? I think more on that tomorrow. I am more on a roll to finish by addressing the question: What happens when you look at new literacies in a specific area such as science. We saw that with science and literacies, we entered into specific Discourse in which the meaning was made not only with the use of resources of that specific Discourse but the meaning itself only had meaning as it existed in that area. For example, the discussion of the impact of changing barometric pressure on the density of air masses, causing energy to be released has very specific meaning to a group of people (even if my meaning is wrong as I do not claim to be an earth scientist). Both the vocabulary but also the relationship within that and the ways that this can be observed and measured are all a part of this larger way of making meaning. Now if we are to take new literacies and cross that with science, this intersection or nexus provides us with an area of study which is looking at the ways that technology is changing how meaning is being made, the meaning itself, and the person making the meaning in the scientific Discourse....or in our case the scientific education Discourse. This is not only interesting but also extremely complex area to study.
I shall leave my notebook tonight with this final thought:
New Literacies research is creating a space for understanding the changing practices of any area. It provides us with a space for exploring how these practices might change when the processes around the interactions is disrupted and redesigned for different space.
Thanks,
J:)