Literacy

Redifining Literacy Today

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,

but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

~Alvin Toffler

In today's world, literacy expands beyond just reading and writing. To succeed, students must understand, decipher and communicate through a variety of forms beyond text. Librarian Valerie Strauss shares "Literacy has evolved, to not be defined or confined by container or format . . . [and] defines literacy

today as Transliteracy" (as cited in Meeuwse, 2012).

Transliterate students may share a video presentation, compose a song, create a new phone application, or learn to code a web based program. And, these formats seem to be the choice for most teens. Based on a 2015 Common Sense census, teens spend about 9 hours a day interacting with media. The goal for educators is to equip students with literacy tools to help students go beyond consumers and transcend to creators.

Resources

Common Sense Media. (2015) Media use by teens and tweens. Retrieved from

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by- tweens-and-teens-infographic

Meeuwse, K. (2012). Redefining literacy with ipads. Retrieved from

http://iteachwithipads.net/2012/04/02/dude-youre-in-my-spot/

Web Literacy

Visual Literacy

Information Literacy (Meeuwse, 2012)