213 Midterm Study Guide

From Perry:

Literacy as Social Practice:

The autonomous model: literacy is assumed to be a set of neutral, decontextualized skills that can be applied in any situation.

The ideological model: literacy as a set of practices (as opposed to skills) that are grounded in specific contexts and “inextricably linked to cultural and power structures in society”

1. Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are mediated by written texts

2. There are different literacies associated with different domains of life 3. Literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and

some literacies become more dominant, visible and influential than others 4. Literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural

practices 5. Literacy is historically situated 6. Literacy practices change, and new ones are frequently acquired through processes

of informal learning and sense making.

Aspects of knowledge needed in order to engage in literacy practices:

Multiliteracies:

Scholars who work within theories of literacy as social practice tend to focus on practices that surround print literacy, while those who work within the theory of multiliteracies emphasize what multimodality.

Multimodality implies that meaning-making occurs through a variety of communicative channels “in which written-linguistic modes of meaning are part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns of meaning” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000, p. 5).

Critical Literacy:

Critical theories of literacy emphasize both power and empowerment, and recently have expanded to include issues of agency and identity

Address the issues of power, identity, and agency

From Baron:

THE STAGES OF LITERACY TECHNOLOGIES:

Each new literacy technology begins with a restricted communication functionand is available only to a small number of initiates

As costs decrease and the technology becomes better able to mimicmore ordinary or familiar communications, a new literacy spreads across apopulation. Only then does the technology come into its own, no longer imitatingthe previous forms given us by the earlier communication technology,but creating new forms and new possibilities for communication.

new technology begins to affect older technologiesas well.

the computer is simply the lateststep in a long line of writing technologies

THE TECHNOLOGY OF WRITING:

the first writing technology was writing itself.

As innovative uses for the literacy technology are tried out, practitioners mayalso adapt it to older, more familiar forms in order to gain acceptance from awider group.

Although writing began as a tool of the bean counters, it eventuallyadded a second, magical/religious function, also restricted and obscure as atool of priests. For writing to spread into a more general population in theancient world, it had first to gain acceptance by approximating spoken language.Once writers-in a more "modern" sense of the word-discovered whatwriting could do, there was no turning back. But even today, most written textdoes not transcribe spoken language: the comparison of script

THE COMPUTER AND THE PATTERN OF LITERACYTECHNOLOGY:

Writing was not initially speech transcription, and pencils were first madefor woodworkers, not writers. Similarly, the mainframe computer when it wasintroduced was intended to perform numerical calculations too tedious orcomplex to do by hand.

Just as the literacy practices of older reading and writing technologies took generations to catch on, spread to those less powerful, and develop new ways of learning and making meaning, computers and digital technologies will take long term study and observation to fully understand.

From Faigly:

Literacy is not just alphabetic; it is visual and material. The grand narrative of alphabetic literacy has lead us to prioritize and privilege print and written literacies, but visual and material communication is equally complex and legitimate:

Technologies of the Visual:

Literacy as Design:

From Jones and Hafner:

New media literacies:

Mediation (terms to know):

Medium technological dystopianism cultural tools technological utopianismmediational means digital literacies affordances technological determinismconstraints

From Selber:

In addition:

Understand the definition of translatio and how the concept helps us think through texts and literacies.