Reading New Literacies 3rd
ed. is one of those rewarding learning experiences. It is a well structured
and lucidly written book full of interesting examples.
New Literacies is divided into three parts: Concepts and theories, Everyday practices and examples, and finally, building upon these, New literacies
and social learning.
I found 'New literacies and social learning' the most valuable part. There’s a
lucid chain of reasoning from the change of the global world, from the new
requirements in the working life, to the informal participatory digital culture
and how these urge the learning and teaching to change.
Learning in the current society has to happen as an active process of the learner, where he/she
becomes a full participant in a community of practice. That means that learning is not so much
“(educators) pushing decontextualized abstract knowledge” but “(learners)
pulling meaningful and contextual skills”. When learning is contextual, authentic, and makes a connection to the life outside school, it can touch emotions, too. As best, that can lead to
passion-based learning.
Not only do Lankshear&Knobel theorize about it, but they give us
plenty of examples as well. There’s the granny who decided to learn to be a
Sims designer. There’s the community building up The Secret Life of Toys. And
what is of the most essential, there’s the authors’ own (authentic!) experience
with teacher education students and their team-based learning, producing both
research and new media.
This quote sounds like a motto of our Learning Solutions team at InnoOmnia:
“The efficacy of social learning is predicated on the fact that it immerses learners in processes of induction into the ‘ways’ of becoming ‘full practitioners’ and acquiring their appreciative systems, as well as getting hands-on practice with their mental and material tools within authentic contexts in which they are employed by successful practitioners from the outset.” (220)
The
strength of part 1 and part 2 lies in the vast array of interesting examples of current digital culture. They range from auctioning one’s soul in Amazon.com,
to the shoe throwing meme, to writing fanfiction, and to producing machinima
video at school.
In Facebook terms, I ‘like’ this book. “This [liking on Facebook] creates
text, makes meaning, does identity work, expresses solidarity, sends signals,
instantiates one’s sense of ‘cool’ or insiderliness, and so on. It is writing
by clicking.” (196)
So, if you liked this review, share it and ignite your own social network of meanings.
So, if you liked this review, share it and ignite your own social network of meanings.
