I. Introduction to the concept of “new literacies”

• Analysis of “new” with respect to chronology and ontology, as well as ethos or “mindset”

• Analysis of literacy as a sociocultural concept that involves socially recognized patterns or ways of knowing, doing and using “tools/technologies”

• Engagement with the distinction between “insider” and “outsider” mindsets on new literacies and new technology uses with respect to in-school and out-of-school practices.

II. Introduction to a range of new literacies

• Technologies and young children – gaming, television/internet connections, and popular culture, among other things

• Technology and adolescence – writing, performance, identity

• Concepts of multimodality, the role of the visual

• Gaming and literacy

• Virtuality, experience and language – Second Life

III. Analysis of these new literacies as social practices along three dimensions:

• In terms of the tools and techniques used within each new literacy practice,

• the uses to which these tools and techniques are put within this practice, and

• the cultural dimensions of this new literacy practice.

This approach directly builds on the 3-dimensional model of literacy outlined by Lankshear and Snyder (2001). The results of these analyses are then used to discuss the educational potential or relevance of each new literacy.

IV. Analysis of user demographics

• Critiques of assumptions made by teachers about students from low-income homes and their access to new technologies

• Critiques of media panics concerning child safety online

• Critiques of media panics concerning the deleterious effects of using computers on children’s social, cognitive and language development

V. Analysis of mindset types found in a range of digital technology education initiatives around the world

• Education Testing Services’ computer literacy standards

• The European Union’s digital literacy competencies

• The UK’s National Grid for learning

• Australia’s national EdNA network

Plus

• Accelerated Reading computerized programs

• CD-ROM storybooks

• Reader rabbit CD-ROMs and similar drill-and-skill programs

• School filters and surveillance issues with respect to new technologies in schools

• Critique of internet-based approaches like webquests and travel buddies keypal projects

VI. New literacies and the economics of attention

• Shift in an economics of scarcity to an economics of surplus online, with implications for who becomes influential and how

• Critique of what now constitutes “powerful writing” online

• Examination of the proliferation of ratings systems online and their links to new forms of social participation and one’s online reputation; “reading” user profiles and “buddy lists” and other information in savvy ways

• Critique of online hoaxes and scam memes and the development of pragmatic responses to both

VII. Development of informed approaches to using new literacies in school settings

• Problematization of importing new literacies directly into the curriculum and attaching assessment grades to them

• Problematization of curriculum design that focuses on ‘teaching”

• Examination of highly successful initiatives like the “Knowledge Producing Schools” and digital story-telling projects, educators and games designers working together to develop authentically engaging, knowledge-producing games (e.g., Foodforce.org)

• Using scenario planning to think about possible futures students of today may inhabit and what these possible futures might imply for literacy teaching today.

VIII. The intertwining of narrative and new literacies

• Narrative and literacies: terms and practices

• Narrativity in technological settings

Methods of Evaluation:

1. Attendance and participation (worth 10%)

The following questions – summarized in the analytic table immediately above – should help participants organize their thinking about and discussion of the readings and practices associated with each of the ‘new’ literacies dealt with in the course.

i. What are the particular tools and techniques involved in/associated with the new literacy practice?

ii. How can the kind of application(s) involving these tools and techniques best be identified and described? That is, what application are they involved in, and what is this application like?

iii. How would you describe the larger cultural practice in which the people using the particular tools, techniques and application are participating? In other words, what are these people really doing and what are they being when they are using the tools and application? What does this practice ‘look like’, and what are the people being when they engage in it? What does expert practice look like here; how do the expert performers of this practice ‘do it’?

iv. What do the language and literacy ‘bits’ of the practice look like? What counts as ‘getting them right’, or ‘doing them successfully’ (as opposed to ‘not doing them so well or successfully’)?

v. Do you think schools and classrooms can and/or should be organized in ways that would allow students to learn how to participate proficiently in these new literacies? In what ways and to what extent do you think that developing expert-like practice in these literacies is the kind of thing education should be concerned with? In other words, what kind of educational significance, relevance or value might these literacies and the practices in which they are embedded have (if any)?

vi. What are your reasons or grounds for your views on the above questions?

2. Personal blog (worth 30%)

This task involves responding to three prompt questions for the key set of readings listed for each week. Participants will produce up to 2 single spaced pages each week. The prompt questions are:

• What is/are the key issue(s) lying behind this text?

• What are some of the ways you could respond practically to the issue(s) within a classroom literacy program?

• What are your feelings and opinions on what you read?

These will be done and posted on your individual blog. As well, you will have the opportunity to “blog” more generally and personally throughout the semester, as this will be the primary way in which we will get to know one another in this class.

3. Academic paper (worth 30%)

You will identify a “new” literacy and explore it in depth by reviewing relevant literature – especially though not necessarily only academic and research literature. Based on a close and analytic reading of the literature, the paper will provide an in-depth investigation of the nature and educational potential of one 'new' literacy. As such, this paper will deal with practical as well as conceptual and theoretical aspects with respect to the new literacy practice under scrutiny. It is expected that this project will demonstrate in a sustained way the kind of thinking and analysis captured in the ‘analytic tool’ developed for the course (see Item III above) and in the kinds of questions presented in the section on Attendance and Participation above.

4. New literacy project (worth 30%)

You will develop a project plan for using new literacies to address a particular area of interest and need in your classroom. This could include using new literacies with students in order to:

• Interpret canonical texts (e.g., Shakespearean plays, Frosts’ poems)

• Transpose a text from one period or location to others, and which involves researching contextual details (e.g., setting S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders in present times or vampire young adult best-seller Thirsty in a previous historical period)

• Create original manga storylines in order to teach literary terms and structures

• Use blogs and blogging to research and write persuasive genre pieces