Chapter 2: New forms of literacy worldwide

Chapter 2: New forms of literacy worldwide

‘But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the works that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves.’

My decision to include this chapter centres around my hope and desire for this to be a practical, useful thesis, as befits a professional doctorate. Problems around digital literacies are not dry, academic problems but real-world, everyday issues affecting individuals, organisations and communities worldwide. Before embarking on a project to find a better ways to deal with digital and new literacies I believe it is important to investigate the ways in which different countries and cultures have approached the problem. Whilst this is limited by my ability to read and write in one language reasonably well and another particularly badly it is nevertheless more representative than focusing on my own narrow educational experiences.

The explosive growth in use of digital technologies for learning has left subject disciplines, government agencies and many practitioners with a problem. First, what do they call these new skills that are evidently required to function adequately in today’s society? Second, how can these new skills be taught? And third, who is best placed to deliver these skills? As I show, countries have dealt with these questions in different ways. In what follows we will briefly explore the history of ‘new literacies’ in selected countries, the current status of new literacies, the dominant form of new literacy (e.g. Media Literacy, Digital Literacy), and finally manifestations of new literacies in public bodies, pronouncements and policy documents.

The countries included in this overview have been chosen for the following reasons. Singapore has a history of investment in ICT within education since the end of the last century with English as one of their official languages. As an Asian country they provide a different perspective to that of the UK. Norway is seen internationally as a pioneer in the field of ‘digital literacy’ having built elements of it into the foundation of their school curricula. The European Union funds many initiatives including those relating to new literacies. These are referenced in UK and Norwegian literature and demonstrate some of the different ways in which new literacies are considered within Europe as a whole. Finally, the USA and Australia are considered as different contexts within which New Literacies are manifested in the English-speaking world.