Let's Play: How are we going to define literacy in Word?
The question, "What is literacy?" is historically tied to another question, "What does it mean to be educated?" People living in the 18th century Europe would be considered literate if they could read classic literature, play the harpsichord, and write elegant letters. In the 21st century, literacy is increasingly coming to mean the ability to negotiate digital information. Knowing how to locate credible information and how to access and create digital texts. The history of literacy can also be traced along the history of technology. Technology has always play a role in shaping literacy: manuscripts, printing presses, moveable type, telgrams, computers, email, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype have all shaped literacy.
Many people associate the word "literacy" with the ability to read, write, speak, and understand written and spoken language. However, literacy can mean a lot more. For example, to say you are computer literate means you understand how computers work. Other examples include digital literacies, art literacy, music literacy, political or economic literacy, or the cultural knowledge that enables a reader, writer, speaker, and listener to create language and ideas and use them appropriately in different situations. An individual person has many literacies. A person could be extremely literate in auto mechanics and be able build engines, but could have trouble reading at above an eighth grade level. A person could be very literate in their native language, but illiterate in a second or third language.
Word investigates the question: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?
Multiple Literacies:
Information
Media
Technology
Language(s)/Linguistic
Academic
(Pop) Cultural
Community
Religious/Traditional
