Literacy Theories For The Digital Age

Winner of the 2017 Edward Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association. Literacy Theories for the Digital Age insightfully brings together six essential approaches to literacy research and educational practice. The book provides powerful and accessible theories for readers, including Socio-cultural, Critical, Multimodal, Socio-spatial, Socio-material and Sensory Literacies. The brand new Sensory Literacies approach is an original and visionary contribution to the field, coupled with a provocative foreword from leading sensory anthropologist David Howes. This dynamic collection explores a legacy of literacy research while showing the relationships between each paradigm, highlighting their complementarity and distinctions. This highly relevant compendium will inspire researchers and teachers to explore new frontiers of thought and practice in times of diversity and technological change.

The flow of information through our modern digital world has led to many new issues and controversies. Information Literacy in the Digital Ageexamines the challenges involved in seeking and evaluating information from the vast array of sources available through digital technology. Compelling text, well-chosen photographs, and extensive back matter give readers a clear look at these complex issues. Features include essential facts, a glossary, additional resources, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Today, nearly everyone agrees that the Internet has vast potential as a learning tool. This collection of essays reconsiders what it means to be literate in the information age, and offers practical advice not only for getting networked computers into the classroom but also for instructing students and teachers how to take advantage of their boundless potential.

Introduces readers to the modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century A Companion to Literary Theory is a collection of 36 original essays, all by noted scholars in their field, designed to introduce the modes and ideas of contemporary literary and cultural theory. Arranged by topic rather than chronology, in order to highlight the relationships between earlier and most recent theoretical developments, the book groups its chapters into seven convenient sections: I. Literary Form: Narrative and Poetry; II. The Task of Reading; III. Literary Locations and Cultural Studies; IV. The Politics of Literature; V. Identities; VI. Bodies and Their Minds; and VII. Scientific Inflections. Allotting proper space to all areas of theory most relevant today, this comprehensive volume features three dozen masterfully written chapters covering such subjects as: Anglo-American New Criticism; Chicago Formalism; Russian Formalism; Derrida and Deconstruction; Empathy/Affect Studies; Foucault and Poststructuralism; Marx and Marxist Literary Theory; Postcolonial Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender Theory; Freudian Psychoanalytic Criticism; Cognitive Literary Theory; Evolutionary Literary Theory; Cybernetics and Posthumanism; and much more. Features 36 essays by noted scholars in the field Fills a growing need for companion books that can guide readers through the thicket of ideas, systems, and terminologies Presents important contemporary literary theory while examining those of the past The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Literary Theory will be welcomed by college and university students seeking an accessible and authoritative guide to the complex and often intimidating modes of literary and cultural study of the previous half century.

A 2023 SPE Outstanding Book Award Winner 2023 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age: Disruptive Devices and Resourceful Learners offers an examination of the impact on children, their families and their teachers, as digital technologies and new literacy practices have rapidly transformed how children learn, play and communicate. While ease of access to enormous knowledge bases presents many benefits and advantages, mobile screen technologies are often perceived by parents and teachers as disruptive and worrisome. Developed from a wide range of the authors’ research over the past decade to an examination of remote learning during the COVID 19 pandemic, this book posits that while teachers, parents and governments are focused on protecting children, what is often neglected is children’s own agency and capacity to engage with mobile technologies in ways that support them in pursuing their own interests, pleasures and learning. This text works to disrupt boundaries in research, policy and practice, between home and school, and across virtual and actual worlds, positioning children as both users of media texts and coproducers of digitally mediated knowledge, with peers, family and teachers. Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age brings together over a decade of shared research, conversations, writing and friendships across diverse geographies. Over the past decade, digital technologies have rapidly transformed how children learn, play and communicate. Tablet devices such as iPads are now ubiquitous in the lives of many children. Such devices are easy to use and provide multimodal options (i.e. operable via touch, speech, and icons, as well as conventional text). Users do not need to be conventionally literate to have access to powerful search engines, social media platforms, a range of ‘apps’ and games, or to be able to share their own creations on publication venues such as YouTube, TikTok and more. While such ease of access can present many benefits and advantages when positioned in relation to children’s use, but this access is not without concern, since mobile screen technologies are often perceived by parents and teachers as disruptive and worrisome, with popular media ramping up fears via publication of sensational articles. Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age contributes to research on digital literacies, and offers a pedagogical examination of digital possibilities for bringing playfulness and innovation into learning. Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Literacy Research | Qualitative Research Methods | Early Literacy | Research Methods in Language and Literacy | Introduction to Qualitative Research | New and Digital Literacies | Digital Media Education | Theories of Language and Literacy

Just as the majority of books about computer literacy deal more with technological issues than with literacy issues, most computer literacy programs overemphasize technical skills and fail to adequately prepare students for the writing and communications tasks in a technology-driven era. Multiliteracies for a Digital Age serves as a guide for composition teachers to develop effective, full-scale computer literacy programs that are also professionally responsible by emphasizing different kinds of literacies and proposing methods for helping students move among them in strategic ways. Defining computer literacy as a domain of writing and communication, Stuart A. Selber addresses the questions that few other computer literacy texts consider: What should a computer literate student be able to do? What is required of literacy teachers to educate such a student? How can functional computer literacy fit within the values of teaching writing and communication as a profession? Reimagining functional literacy in ways that speak to teachers of writing and communication, he builds a framework for computer literacy instruction that blends functional, critical, and rhetorical concerns in the interest of social action and change. Multiliteracies for a Digital Age reviews the extensive literature on computer literacy and critiques it from a humanistic perspective. This approach, which will remain useful as new versions of computer hardware and software inevitably replace old versions, helps to usher students into an understanding of the biases, belief systems, and politics inherent in technological contexts. Selber redefines rhetoric at the nexus of technology and literacy and argues that students should be prepared as authors of twenty-first-century texts that defy the established purview of English departments. The result is a rich portrait of the ideal multiliterate student in a digital age and a social approach to computer literacy envisioned with the requirements for systemic change in mind.

From the publisher: Living in today's digital age provides a wealth of learning opportunities and a wide range of communication possibilities. Along with its many benefits, the World Wide Web poses real challenges to even the most informed user, from misinformation to unedited work to plagiarism. How can we teach students to use the Internet intelligently and responsibly? In this insightful resource, internationally recognized professor and author R.W. Burniske takes an in-depth look at the Internet's advantages and risks and shows teachers how to incorporate technology to help students communicate clearly, accurately, and purposefully. Using specific case studies, teacher tips, and practical ideas, this valuable resource gives teachers guidelines to help students develop their ability to: use language critically and tactfully, assess visual content on the Web, critically evaluate Web sites for validity and reliability, practice ethics and etiquette on the Internet, and analyze online information for credibility, logic, and embedded emotional content. Literacy in the Digital Age, Second Edition, provides everything educators need to make digital literacy a vital part of their classroom instruction.

Digital practices are forging ahead in leaps and bounds. Examining digital practices in early childhood education, this book seeks to inform the discussion on how digital technologies are best integrated into play-based pedagogy, and demonstrates effective practices that enhance children’s learning and development. With a range of international contributors, perspectives, and case studies, the fusion of play and portable technology is explored through contemporary research.

This book examines the various types of literacy that are important in the Digital Age of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources in a variety of formats. According to the American Library Association (www.ala.org), "information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning and is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. Information literacy is an umbrella term that includes a variety of specific competencies: cultural literacy, library literacy, computer literacy, network literacy, and media literacy. Each topic addressed in the book includes contextual background information, basic concepts, a resource list, exercises and activities to reinforce the important learning concepts addressed in each chapter.