Authentic literacies are modes of literate expression that contribute equally important educational value for the 21 st century as traditional literacy commonly understood as the ability to read and write. These literacies include becoming knowledgeable about and proficient at critiquing and creating demonstrations of understanding that include producing digital media. Video, animation, images, movement, sound, and music can be incorporated into digital media, and constitute veritable emerging communication basics that can be utilized as educational tools to prepare students to become literate citizens in the 21st century global economy (Author’s definition).
Published in Chapter:
Literacy Learning and Assessment for the Digital Age
April Marie Leach (Northcentral University, USA)
Copyright: © 2015
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch249
Abstract
Multiple forms of media or multimodal media (MMM) available to communicate have expanded the definition of literacy beyond “alphabetical communication” and assessment (Kalantzis, & Cope, 2012; Kress, 2003; Kress, & Leeuwen, 2006). Reading and writing as traditional forms of literacy now encompass digital media. These technologies afford opportunities for the design of communication that incorporates the senses of sight, sound, and movement as part of the message. Newly possible modes of communication require of creators the ability to craft and manipulate these multiple modes of media, and require that interpreters formerly thought of as readers, develop the ability to understand these modes of meaning making as contemporary literacy pedagogy. Reconceptualizing both the interpretation of multiple modes of media and learning how to craft interdisciplinary MMM to address the requirements of the Common Core State Standards and college and career readiness is the new frontier in literacy learning in this first digital age.