Multiliteracies Group 1 SU 09

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This page has been created for the use of students in EPS 415 during Summer 2009. Please do not edit this page unless you are a member of the appropriate group. Thank you.

Multiliteracies

Authors: Sarah Becker, Rhonda Ehrecke, D. Gillon, Kristin Maksymec, Barbara M., Julie McMullan, Brian Wallace

Created for: Ethical & Policy Issues in Information Technologies Summer 2009

Instructor: Professor Nicholas Burbules

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Contents 1 Introduction & Explanation 1.1 What is literacy? 1.2 What is multiliteracy? 1.3 Using 1.4 Who is affected? 2 Types of Multiliteracies 2.1 Functional 2.2 Rhetorical 2.3 Critical 3 Spheres 3.1 Public 3.2 Private 3.3 Work 4 Linguistic literacy and the challenge of multiliteracies 4.1 Language, meaning and representation 4.2 Language and literacy as a mark of group identity 4.3 Linguistic literacy and learning 4.4 Literacy in the knowledge economy 5 Why address in schools? 6 How to address in schools 6.1 Teachers 6.2 Students 7 Globalization 7.1 Role of multiliteracies in globalization 7.2 Access 7.3 Uses 8 Projects Related to Multiliteracies 8.1 International Projects 8.2 National Projects 9 Conclusion 10 References

Introduction & Explanation

What is literacy?

Literacy is often understood to be the ability to read and write the official, standard forms of the national language (The New London Group, 1996). However, in today’s world, literacy means so much more: it means, in the broadest sense, an education and a knowledge base (dictionary.com). Literacy now includes the ability to understand and relate to the multimedia presentation of all of the cultural and language diversities among our gloablized societies. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, today, one in five adults are still not literate and two-thirds of them are women while 75 million children are out of school (www.unesco.org).

What is multiliteracy?

Enhancing student learning to provide opportunities to develop multiple skill sets and competencies is the goal of any strong educational system. The term Multiliteracies was composed by the New London Group (1996). They argue that “educators should seek to incorporate interventions focused on multi-literacy development which involve rich pedagogy as well as integrate existing and emerging technologies”( Cazden, Courtney; Cope, Bill; Fairclough, Norman; Gee, Jim; et al).

“Multiliteracies describe new and different forms of literacy that are beginning to become necessary. Since the way people communicate is changing due to new technologies, and shifts in the usage of the English language within different cultures,” they believe that new "literacy" must be used and developed and teaching of all representations of meaning including, linguistic, visual, audio, and multimodal through a balanced classroom design of immersion and personalized explicit instruction” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiliteracies).

According to the New London Group “the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches”( Cazden, Courtney; Cope, Bill; Fairclough, Norman; Gee, Jim; et al). Furthermore, “effective citizenship and productive work now require that we interact effectively using multiple languages, multiple Englishes, and communication patterns that more frequently cross cultural, community, and national boundaries. Sub cultural diversity also extends to the ever broadening range of specialist registers and situational variations in language, be they technical, sporting, or related to groupings of interest and affiliation. When the proximity of cultural and linguistic diversity is one of the key facts of our time, the very nature of language learning has changed” (Cazden, Courtney; Cope, Bill; Fairclough, Norman; Gee, Jim; et al).

Principal aspects of Multiliteracies:

• Extend the idea and scope of literacy pedagogy to account for the context of our culturally and linguistically diverse and increasingly globalized societies, for the multifarious cultures that interrelate and the plurality of texts that circulate.
• Literacy pedagogy must account for the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies.
• Critical literacy- the ability to analyze and question textual, visual and oral information.
• Information Literacy-ability to recognize the need for information and then identify information effectively.
• Language literacy-ability to understand and use language in verbal and written models.
• Media literacy-understanding the techniques and impact of mass media.
• Numeracy-ability to understand, interpret and use mathematics.
• Technology literacy-ability to use appropriate technology tools to communicate, solve problems and access, manage, integrate, evaluate information.
• Visual literacy-ability to understand, create and use images.

Using

Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 08, Authentic Materials

Who is affected?

When planning curriculum, the importance of teaching multi-literacy skills can sometimes be overlooked. Lockyer, Brown and Blackall suggest “literacy and learning need to be redefined in schools by digital communication and multimedia technologies” (Lockyer, L., Brown, I. & Blackall, D, 2003). If lessons don’t “engage students, include appropriate assessment or provide exciting relevant cross-curricular activities then society is affected by student’s lack of exposure to multi-literacy” (Lockyer, L., Brown, I. & Blackall, D, 2003). It is clear that “the development of multiple literacy will enable students to develop the skills required to communicate, understand, translate and critically examine a complex world” (Lockyer, L., Brown, I. & Blackall, D, 2003).

Types of Multiliteracies

Functional

Functional multiliteracy involves both understanding what one is reading or seeing and effectively communicating one’s message. According to Unsworth, multimodalities in print media are not new things. Publishers have always been able to choose typeface, layout, and paper. Those choices often conveyed whether the writing was formal, casual, important, not important, etc. Now, so many more modalities are available: the various combinations of visual and text, color, special effects, images, video, audio, the channel of communication (print, image, page, screen), etc. Being literate in its traditional sense, decoding the written word, is no longer enough. The reader now needs to be able to decode the meaning behind the combinations of all of these modalities. Why did the author present the information in this fashion? What message was he or she trying to send? From what field of study, or culture, or language, is this person? All of these areas affect the meaning of the passage and, to be able to truly understand someone’s message, we need to understand who that person is and where they come from. On the flip side, the author of a passage needs to know how to combine these options in such a way that he or she can convey his or her intended message. Who is in the audience? How might their various types of backgrounds affect how they perceive this piece? What is the best way to present this information to reach the intended audience?

This “plurality of literacies [makes] being literate” (Unsworth, 2001, p. 8) an outdated concept. “As emerging technologies continue to impact on the social construction of these multiple literacies, becoming literate is the more apposite description” (Unsworth, 2001, p. 8).

Rhetorical

Rhetorical multiliteracy refers to having the skill to use language and multimodal resources effectively and persuasively. While not limited to the electronic arena, the computer has greatly increased the number of available rhetorical options which in turn has created new kinds of literacy practices (Unsworth, 2001). “Because of the digital dimension of these new practices and growing access to multimodal authoring software, individuals are now more likely to be able to be equally engaged as constructors and consumers of textual materials, closely articulating comprehending and composing behaviors” (Unsworth, 2001, p. 12).

A new development in the digital age is the ability to create hyperlinks when constructing literacy materials. These links create a connection from the current material to any material the author sees as related. In doing so, these links create meanings and associations that encourage the reader to think about the topics in a different way (Unsworth, 2001, p. 13.) According to Burbules, (cited in Unsworth, 2001, p. 13), “[l]inks make such associations, but do so in a way that is seldom made problematic; yet because such categorical links are often the gateway that controls access to information, clustering and relating them in one way rather than another is more than a matter of convenience or heuristic – it becomes a method of determining how people think about a subject.”

These changes to literacy practices and how information is connected necessitates the development of strong critical thinking skills. These skills are necessary to both discern the author’s intent or meaning in making these connections and to decide for one’s self if the connections made are valid.

Critical

Critical multiliteracies are the skillful analysis and judgment as to the truth and merit of the passage. Traditionally, this just involved the analysis of the author’s written word. Critical multiliteracies are far more complex. They involve an analysis of the written word, the special effects used, the visual and audio chosen, the links to other materials, the channel of communication chosen, etc. Someone skilled in the use of rhetorical multiliteracies will be able to make his or her work look natural or it will be completely invisible. “Critical reading of digital rhetorical structures necessitates a capacity to ‘make strange’ or problematize the apparent ‘naturalness’ or ‘invisibility’ of the rhetorical choices [of the] designers/authors” (Unsworth, 2001, p. 13). Critical multiliteracies involve not just questioning what was done but also considering what could have been done differently (Unsworth, 2001). According to Burbules (cited in Unsworth, 2001, p. 13), “The more one is aware of how this is done, the more one can be aware that it was done and that it could have been done otherwise.”

Spheres

Literacy demands are always changing and vary greatly within and among the spheres of our public, private, and work lives. To be able to effectively interact with society, people must understand what multiliteracies are and how they affect us in each of these spheres.

Public

In the past, citizens learned and used a standard language and dialect. It was common practice to “assimilate immigrants and indigenous peoples to the standardized ‘proper’ language of the colonizer”(The New London Group, 1996). Even if it was the child’s native language, it was actually illegal to teach a foreign language to anyone who had not graduated the 8th grade (Alexander & Alexander, 2005, p. 302). The goal of this practice was to extinguish all other cultures and develop one common culture where everyone was the same. This law was overturned in the 1923 Supreme Court Decision of Meyer v. Nebraska (Alexander & Alexander, 2005, p. 302). Due to court cases such as this, the pursuit of civil liberties, and the increasing local diversity and global connectedness of all societies, it is no longer acceptable to impose one’s ways and beliefs on others.

Today, cultural and linguistic diversity are valued and promoted. There can no longer be a ‘standard’ way to express one’s self. As a society, we can no longer extinguish differences; we need to arbitrate them (The New London Group, 1996). As a result, both children and adults must learn how to function in this world of multiple cultures, multiple ways of expressing information, and multiple belief systems. “…The most important skill students need to learn is to negotiate regional, ethnic, or class-based dialects; variations in register that occur according to social context; hybrid cross-cultural discourses; the code switching often to be found within a text among different languages, dialects or registers; different visual and iconic meanings; and variations in the gestural relationships among people, language, and material objects” (The New London Group, 1996). Learning this is a benefit to all. “When learners juxtapose different languages, discourses, styles, and approaches, they gain substantively in meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic abilities and in their ability to reflect critically on complex systems and their interactions” (The New London Group, 1996).

Private

Prior to the 1950s, language was either spoken or captured in written form. The telephone was one of the first major inventions that revolutionized how people where able to communicate. For the first time, people who had no way to see each other could at least hear each other’s voice and could communicate immediately rather than wait for a letter. During the 1960s, the advent of the tape recorder changed everything (Scollon & Levine, 2004). Linguists could study language even when they were not present to hear the conversation; people could tape conversations to prove what was said or to use the information against others; students could tape lectures to help recall and improve their understanding of it, etc. The power of the tape recorder was witnessed by the entire world during the downfall of President Richard Nixon. This one simple invention changed how people interacted with each other. Now, with the advent of cell phones, the Internet, chat rooms, texting, instant messaging, dating websites, palm-sized digital video recorders, and all of the other communication devices available, interactions between people are constantly changing and these interactions are now available in multimedia formats (Scollon & Levine, 2004). The development of these multimodalities has encouraged the growth of subcultures and decreased the occurrence of a standard culture. “No person is a member of a singular community. Rather, they are members of multiple and overlapping communities – communities of work, on interest and affiliation, of ethnicity, of sexual identity, and so on (Kalantzis, 1995)” (The New London Group, 1996). An inability to navigate these literacies is an inability to truly know others which can lead to a misunderstanding or even fear of those who are different. A development of these literacies will increase one’s ability to function well in any situation with any person.

To fully participate in society, one must be able to flow freely from one culture to another, from one communication device to another, from one person’s area of interest to that of another who may be very different. Gone are the days when virtually everyone in the United States was at home at the same time and in front of the television watching The Jack Benny Show, Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, The Dukes of Hazard, and Dallas. Gone are the days of limited social networking and being raised in, working in, and marrying from within the same community where one lives his or her entire life. Now, children and adults alike are networking with people from all over the world in places like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, online dating services, special interest websites, texting, instant messaging, etc. Children are no longer reading just story books; they are reading gaming magazines and are making cartoons and movies and posting them online and then interacting with children from all over the world. As one participates in this global community, one must also be cognizant of the fact that everything he or she does can end up public and available to the entire world. Pictures, emails, blogs, and password protected sites have all been corrupted and used against the author’s will and will continue to be used in unintended ways. One must be knowledgeable and informed when participating in these interactions.

In addition to knowing and understanding others, this blitz of multimedia communication has lead to information overload. Many people believe everything they read and hear, especially when it is on the Internet or in a film. On a basic level, people must be taught how to discern what is the truth from what is opinion or fiction. People need to understand the source of the information they are reading or seeing and how to fact-check what they have just read. As well as discerning the validity of information, people must understand correlations. For example, what was the intent of the author when he or she provided links from his or her writing to that of a ‘related’ topic? These links imply relationships between topics. According to Burbules, “Links make such associations, but do so in a way that is seldom made problematic; yet because such categorical links are often the gateway that controls access to information, clustering and relating them in one way rather than another is more than a matter of convenience or heuristic – it becomes a method of determining how people think about a subject” (The New London Group, 1996). Teachers must teach children how to navigate all of this information and make sense of it. After learning it, citizens must then utilize that literacy to be an informed consumer.

Work

While there once was a time when a person could learn how to do a job and then do it for the next thirty years, that time has now passed. Gone are the days of the few managers at the top continuously directing those under them. These hierarchies have been ‘flattened’ and have been replaced by teamwork, collaboration, working communities, and networks (The New London Group, 1996). Because new business and management theories center “…around change, flexibility, quality, and distinctive niches…,” (The New London Group, 1996) many more literacies are now required of today’s worker. Work now requires multitasking, an ability to keep up with technological change, knowledge of visual rhetoric, and an ability to effectively communicate with everyone.

Today’s worker needs to be competent and skilled in many areas. According to Cope & Kalantzis, the “division of labor into minute, deskilled components [has been] replaced by ‘multiskilled,’ well-rounded workers who are flexible enough to be able to do complex and integrated work” (The New London Group, 1996). Employees can no longer “…depend upon clear, precise and formal systems of command, such as written memos and the supervisor’s orders. [E]ffective teamwork depends to a much greater extent on informal, oral, and interpersonal discourse. This informality also translates into hybrid and interpersonally sensitive informal written forms, such as electronic mail (Sproull & Kielser, 1991). These examples of revolutionary changes in technology and the nature of organizations have produced a new language of work” (The New London Group, 1996). Success in the workplace is largely dependent on one’s ability and willingness to continually develop literacies in these new and ever-changing areas.

Above all else, the ever-emerging multiliteracies and multimodalities mean that today’s worker needs to be able to flow freely from one culture to the next through many different modes of communication. Workers need to be able to fulfill different demands in different areas. How they communicate will differ based on whether or not they are working with experts, lay people, coworkers, management, or customers. Does the task at hand require one to access and merely reproduce information or does he or she need to be critically engaged and reflective (The New London Group, 1996)? How the worker presents information is also crucial. Writing is no longer the primary way to convey information. Today’s technology has resulted in a shift from the written word to a much more visual focus. A knowledge of visual rhetoric, a literacy that was once reserved for those in advertising, is now used in all aspects of one’s job. One uses visual rhetoric to get the job (preparing resumes and applying online), navigate websites, and prepare presentations. Those receiving the information expect a layout that provides quick and easy access to the pertinent points and that also incorporates more visual elements: charts, graphs, photographs, color, tone, and video clips. This proliferation of visual rhetoric in the workplace has made knowledge of this literacy as important as knowledge of written and oral language literacies (Brumberger, 2005).

A failure to master these literacies will result in a failure to advance in one’s field. While society as a whole is moving away from a ‘standard’ in culture and is embracing differences and a multitude of subcultures, each workplace still has its own culture (even if it is a blend of many cultures) and success is dependent upon one’s ability to navigate it whatever that culture may be. “Corporate cultures and their discourses of familiarity are more subtly and more rigorously exclusive than the most nasty - honestly nasty - of hierarchies. Replication of corporate culture demands assimilation to mainstream norms that only really works if one already speaks the language of the mainstream. If one is not comfortably a part of the culture and discourses of the mainstream, it is even harder to get into networks that operate informally than it was to enter into the old discourses of formality. This is a crucial factor in producing the phenomenon of the glass ceiling, the point at which employment and promotion opportunities come to an abrupt stop” (The New London Group, 1996). In all fairness to the new employees, they should be helped to learn how to succeed in their new world. This adds another dimension to the already overwhelming number of literacies an individual is expected to master in the workplace: he or she needs to be fully literate in how that corporate culture works, must know and understand how to fit into it, must be able to work and communicate well enough with others to assimilate into that culture and then, finally, must be able to mentor the new employee and help him or her develop the same literacy. While doing this, all of the employees must continue to become literate in all of the new literacies as they develop.

Linguistic literacy and the challenge of multiliteracies

Linguistic literacy is expressed in a rich array of roles that oral and written language takes within a single culture. The use of verbal or written language involves many different literacies, as such, it is appropriate to recognize that language is subject to multiliteracies. The composition or interpretation of language varies according to the social context in which it is used. Being literate, then, means being able to use verbal or written language as a tool for participation in community.

The dominance of the western literary canon in educational settings results in a prescriptive literacy based on a narrow set of cultural values, and creates obstacles for individuals and groups for whom that canon and the ‘standard’ (read, dominant) language are foreign or other. The New London group (1996) discuss the role of schools and literacy in standardization of language, and the conformity and assimilation of indigenous peoples in colonized communities. Unfortunately, many teachers are not aware that assumptions about literacy are influenced by cultural bias. The standard educational understanding of literacy has to do with the ability to use and interpret language in a particular way.

Traditional definitions of literacy reinforce dominant understandings of reading and writing as a prescribed mode of addressing a canonical set of texts. While this narrow view of literacy maintained itself in a homogenous community in which normative culture was delivered from a single source, flows of culturally distinct groups entering and participating in previously insulated communities have diluted the traditional top down perspective and create a need to re-evaluate the understanding of literacy. The multicultural community presents new challenges for educational institutions and the educational professionals who administer school systems, and no less the teachers who engage students in the classroom.

The notion of a single literacy exists because typical socio-cultural contexts reflect one dominant ideology and one simple world view. In our multicultural and rapidly globalizing world, individuals participate in multiple socio-cultural contexts as they navigate the day to day demands of their lives. Brian Street (1984), taking an anthropological and sociolinguistic approach to literacy, stipulates that language use cannot be separated from the context in which it is used, and that the oral and written presentation of language are marked by context specific literacies. That is, the rules and values attributed to the specifics of language use are different in school settings than they are in the marketplace, the church, the street corner, or on the internet. Context specific literacy depends on the ability to make and interpret meaning in a given socio-cultural situation.

In the classroom, the practices of canonical literacy are dictated by an authority beyond any of the individual participants in the activity, beyond the classroom, beyond the community, and arguably, beyond the bend of time. As Kalman (2008) states, “the content, form, and use of written texts is determined by a more powerful other.” This is not a use of language which derives from personal or even community experience. It is not a use of language applied to personal needs and interests, nor is it a language in which the individual can express the dimensions of self; rather, the canonical expectation of literacy is the expression and replication of the given meaning of a previously determined system of values.

What is it we know when we know a language?

Language, meaning and representation

All languages are complex and the speakers of each language and dialect have a particular set of competences. As language users, we know the phonetics of our language, the sounds that we can use and how to shape our mouths to make those sounds. Not all language sounds are used in any given language. We also know the phonology of our language. That is, the rules for putting those sound together to form meaningful units of language. For instance we know that in English that we cannot use the sounds of the letters lt at the start of a word. And while speech often sounds like an unbroken sequence of sounds, we are able as speakers of a language to identify the individual meaningful units of language, the morphology of the language. We know the words, prefixes, and suffixes, and the various grammatical indicators such as ‘s, -ed, -er. The order of the words in a language is important and as native speakers or well-trained learners of a language we can readily identify a well-formed and grammatically acceptable sentence. We know the syntax of our language. We know all of these elements of the language but most of us have very limited ability to describe what it is we know; we are, however, instantly aware of those who use language differently. The elements of accent, phonetics and phonology, are the most salient of these differences, but speakers are attuned to dialectical variation in word use and sentence structure.

Rather, we are interested in the function of language. We use it to make and interpret meaning and to communicate with others. Our competence with the semantic aspects of language allow us to make sense of the utterances we hear or the text we read, but it is the use of language in context, our understanding of the pragmatics of language that allows us to function and perform in our communities. The same sentence in to different contexts can have radically different meanings. For instance, if one had said in 1911, "Ocean liner is the only way to travel to Europe," one would be stating a fact about the availability of transportation. The same sentence today could be understood to suggest that traveling by ocean liner is far superior to flying to Europe, "Ocean liner is the only way to travel to Europe." The ability to produce and interpret language in context is the significant indicator of linguistic literacy. As the examples show, the meaning does not reside with the individual or even in the language, but in the application of language within a social setting.

Visual representations of language take the form of the handwritten, the typeset, and the digital text of the computer screen. All language, verbal or written, is a sign that points to something else; that is, neither written language nor any other image is the thing that it represents, as Rene Magritte cleverly shows in his work The Treachery of Images. It is the myth of the literate culture that the written representation of language, specifically, typographic representations, that are the superior form of language. Rather, written forms of language strive to approximate the verbal use of language. In English, for example, we have over forty discrete sounds that we use in speaking, but we use only twenty-six letters to represent these sounds. Individual letters may have multiple sounds which depend on the context in which they are used, and some sounds are represented by a combination of letters.

The most important innovation in the visual presentation of language was the invention of typesetting. The ability to organize individual letters to form words resulted in new organizational structures for language. The use of consistent spelling developed in the typesetter's craft. The production of innumerable copies and identical versions resulted in the notion of a correct and immutable text. It is through social interaction with the printed page that the technologized word and the book became a thing (Ong, 1982). The use of the visual space created by typography offered poets new ways of interpreting and utilizing language, and one can look at concrete poetry and see how language and the visual become something more than either. The link to the Mary Ellen Solt poem, Geraniums, shows how even the innovations of the concrete poets are being reworked in the digital age. The ability to move texts through digital media shows cleverness with tools, but we must ask if the reworking of old content in new forms adds anything to the existing work.

Mary Ellen Solt's Geraniums: http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Geranium/154497

Language and literacy as a mark of group identity

The most basic elements of language are used to establish group identity. Labov (1963) examined variant pronunciations of the diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/ as in the words “white” and “house” on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. Some inhabitants of the island were using a pronunciation of the diphthong that started more centrally in the mouth, /əy/ and /əw/. After conducting interviews with islanders, Labov determined that those who identified with the island’s historical roots and who resented the intrusion of wealthy mainland tourists were adopting the /əy/ and /əw/ pronunciation as a social identifier. This had been an anachronistic pronunciation extant among the island's fishermen, with whom young people who planned to stay on the island identified themselves. Labov identified another group of young people who saw their futures beyond the island and who did not adopt the local variant of the diphthong. This simple distinction in pronunciation accomplished by positioning the tongue a millimeter higher or lower represents a catalog of values and the attendant social choices on the part of members of an otherwise homogenous community.

The divergent language communities of Martha's Vineyard provide an example at the local level of a linguistic issue evident at the regional and global levels. National identity depended on cultural homogenization and assimilation of all peoples within the nation-state to a mythic type of cultural identity (Castles & Davidson, 2000). The various media now transporting ideas, images, and trends around the world impinge on the national identity. It is not only external elements that threaten national identity. It is a matter of record that cultural elites in nations around the world have for centuries recognized the power of language in individual and group identity, and have tried to coerce linguistic communities to adopt a homogenous national language. Darder and Torres (2004) suggest that nation-states destroyed language communities in order to maintain authority and eliminate the possibility of competitive cultural heterogeneity within the nation-state. Appadurai (1996) notes, "The central problem of today's cultural interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization."

Literacy practices outside the dominant cultural perspective take many forms, and one of the most engaging and controversial is the practice of Tagging, the creation of graffiti. Tagging is a visual form of language use, frequently associated with hip-hop culture. Because Taggers are typically of lower socio-economic status, usually from communities of color, powerless in the dominant culture and antagonistic toward the status quo, the practice of tagging is suspect and usually criminalized. Literacies that do not conform to the dominant standards have no established metric for determining the value of the meaning presented. In fact, the possibility of meaning making is discounted by the canonically-based culture. The failure of the proponents of the dominant, prescriptive literacy to understand graffiti as a signifier different from but more powerful than the textbook canon for communities of youth and color is a failure to engage and understand the vitality that the youth of our multicultural communities bring to cultural development.

The research of MacGillivray (2007) sees tagging as “a local literacy practice and as an avenue into the construction of youth identity and group affiliation.” And while dominant culture dismisses, or ignores, tagging as a formal literary construct, there are clear social norms and requirements.” (Lave & Wegner, 1991) Tagging provides a way for members of the tagging community to create an identity within the community, and according to MacGillvray (2007) carry on a dialogue and provide a social commentary. The short video conversation with women who participate in tagging is instructive in the role tagging plays in individual identity and the social context in which tagging takes place.

Linguistic literacy and learning

The Text. The Dictionary. The Bible. As discussed above, traditional, dominant conceptions of literacy assume a single, definite article. There is a text and there is a way of approaching the text and the ability to interact successfully in the prescribed manner with THE text is literacy. The demands of current education and learners require us to take a broad and diverse view of literacy. Thwaites (1999) observes that the traditional notion of literacy as bound by the page devalues language and omits much of its capability. But he asserts that, Schooling has the power to lead the way towards diverse kinds of literacy.” Citing Graf (1995) and Raymond (1982), Thwaites identifies an extensive list of current and potential literacies, and reminds us that language is more than alphabetical characters on a page. While we are able to recognize the various representations of language that engage users outside the classroom, as well as the alternative sources of meaning developing in popular culture, language as the medium for interpreting and evaluating messages maintains its primacy. Duncum (2004) notes that multiliteracies are still mediated by language, perhaps not the language of the educational system, but interpretations are still dictated by the standard associations of the dominant culture.

Literacy in the knowledge economy

As English has become the lingua franca of education, the authority in defining literacy has shifted from the classroom to the boardroom. Corporate entities assess the needs of their businesses and establish criteria for workforce literacy. The World Bank, a primary supporter of literacy in the developing world promotes a literacy that is “purely instrumental for completing work related to tasks in the knowledge economy.” (Spring, 2009) This approach to literacy, Spring contends, while purporting to address the minimal instruction necessary for prosperity in a globalized economy, does nothing to develop in the learner the level of literacy required for personal development or the critical thinking it takes to be an active participant in the political process. Altbach (2007) notes that English, the world’s most studied second language, is the language of higher education. The editors of major scholarly journals typically work in English-speaking universities. Most educational websites are available in English (Spring, p 108). Many countries have developed strong English language educational programs to address the needs of the international market of the knowledge economy, sometimes at the expense of indigenous language and culture.

Why address in schools?

The boundaries of literacies have dramatically shifted due to rapid technological changes. There is a shift from page-based literacy to screen-based literacy. Schools need to be able to encompass both traditional literacy as well as the multiliteracy competencies students will need and are currently embracing. Technology has created a nearly synchronous environment for students in their everyday life. As users of technology like cell phones, movie making software and internet social networks, students are engaging with multimedia and electronic sources for things they once received from text books. However, schools generally do not embrace that same level of technology. Students often access technology in the home that is far in advance of the equipment that exists in many schools. When students enter the school building, that type of technological competency often ends at the door. Yet, the work environment of the future will most certainly include the technologies students use during their out of school hours.

For schools to become involved in the development of these multiliteracies for the benefit of the students, there must be a higher level of engagement in electronic and traditional literacy. Schools have a responsibility to address multiliteracies because of the change in work, public, and private lives. Schools must provide opportunities for the expansion of technical skills that students will require to navigate in today's changing environment. Educators need to prepare students to be users and makers of meaning. Students today must be able to do more than merely read text. In order to be successful, students need to be able to interpret and communicate what they have read. That interpretation and communication will involve multiliteracies. It is also "essential to exemplify contemporary literacies to policy makers because tests currently used to evaluate children’s literacy do not adequately take children’s social and cultural backgrounds or their technological expertise into consideration. There is a mismatch between the imagined future we are educating kids for and the rapidly technologizing world that awaits them." (Lotherington)

Yet, teachers may be resistant, because current assessment and accountability focus on traditional print curriculum. The skills emphasized by current standardized testing will not prepare today's students for the jobs of the future. "The educational risk is that youth will continue their accelerated engagement with digital technologies outside of formal schooling. Simply, the advances in creative commons, social networking, video gaming, corporate commercialisation of the web, and new workplace cultures will bypass the school and become principal sites for skill development, knowledge exchange and value formation." (Luke, 2008)

An important question is how we can incorporate new performance indicators that include multiliteracies that will encourage teachers to incorporate multiliteracies in the classroom?

The world of gaming, internet social communities, and even text messaging brings new competencies to students that too often are not incorporated into the classroom. These new competencies introduce a new language that should not stop at the door of the classroom. "It is no longer enough for literacy teaching to focus solely on the rules of standard forms of the national language. Rather, the business of communication and representation of meaning today increasingly requires that learners are able figure out differences in patterns of meaning from one context to another. These differences are the consequence of any number of factors, including culture, gender, life experience, subject matter, social or subject domain and the like. Every meaning exchange is cross-cultural to a certain degree." (Kalantzis & Cope)

The following video discusses the role of multiliteracies in preparing students to be active and critical users and makers of meaning. Media:http://vimeo.com/3757639

There is a need for a new multiliteracy perspective. Leu et al (Stevens, 2005) conclude that:

"Change increasingly defines the nature of literacy and the nature of literacy learning. New technologies generate new literacies that become important to our lives in a global information age. We believe that we are on the cusp of a new era in literacy research, one in which the nature of reading, writing, and communication is being fundamentally transformed."

Teachers and schools play a critical role in applying multiliteracies to learning. Becoming multiliterate has become an essential element of successful learning.

How to address in schools

Teachers

It is becoming increasingly important for teachers to address these multiliteracies in the classroom. "From an educational standpoint, the concept of multiliteracies refers to how people must adapt to the changing nature of communication in a digital age and to what must be inculcated in students in order for them to succeed in lives where productivity depends on keeping up with technology." The importance of technology and becoming multiliterate "impacts what we should be teaching students (and one another) about coping in a world of information overload, where information must be accessed quickly, constantly filtered, and distilled efficiently into useful knowledge in order for us to remain competitive in any walk of life" (Stevens, 2006).

Because teachers and schools recognize the importance of multiliteracies and navigating the ever-changing world of technology, teachers not only must know how to use these technologies, but they must also be able to use them in the classrooms to create a productive learning environment. Incorporating multiliteracies into the classroom "might involve activities such as simulating work relations of collaboration, commitment, and creative involvement; using the school as a site for mass media access and learning; reclaiming the public space of school citizenship for diverse communities and discourses; and creating communities of learners that are diverse and respectful of the autonomy of lifeworlds." The following four pedagogical elements proposed by the New London Group for using multiliteracies in the classroom do not suggest a linear or hierarchical relationship. These are simply four components of instruction that may be used in different ways.

• Situated Practice: Immersion in experience and the utilization of available discourses, including those from the students' lifeworlds and simulations of the relationships to be found in workplaces and public spaces.
• Overt Instruction: Systematic, analytic, and conscious understanding. In the case of multiliteracies, this requires the introduction of explicit metalanguages, which describe and interpret the Design elements of different modes of meaning.
• Critical Framing: Interpreting the social and cultural context of particular Designs of meaning. This involves the students' standing back from what they are studying and viewing it critically in relation to its context.
• Transformed Practice: Transfer in meaning-making practice, which puts the transformed meaning to work in other contexts or cultural sites. A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies Designing Social Futures

Each of these methods of incorporating different literacies is effective when used in the classroom, however, they require much more time and resources than many teachers have available. To be most effective, teachers need an increase in preparation or planning time built in to the school day. This will give teachers the opportunity to actually implement the technologies in which they have been trained.

• The Multiliteracies Project is a Canadian study that explores teaching practices that prepare students for the challenges they will face in our globalized, networked, multilterate world. The study asks several questions to guide their research. These questions would be helpful for any teacher, school, school district, or researcher to ask when addressing multiliteracy education:

• What conceptions of literacy are embedded the literacy practices that students pursue both in school and in out-of-school contexts? What are the relationships between print-based academic literacy taught in school and the variety of multiliteracies that have emerged in our technologically evolving, culturally diverse, globalized economy?
• What are the characteristics of learning environments that have succeeded in engaging all students (normally-achieving and those at risk of school failure) in an expanded range of literacy practices, including imaginative and cognitively demanding integration of text-based and multimedia practices? To what extent do these expanded conceptions of literacy in educational practice result in approved attainment in traditional school-based literacy?
• How can the development of optimal (multi)literacy learning environments be supported by large-scale assessment policies and practices? What role might portfolio assessment play in legitimating diverse literacy accomplishments and what options exist for integrating alternative assessments with province-wide assessment policies and practices?
• What structures with respect to school leadership, teacher development, pre-service teacher education, community partnerships, and material resources need to be in place to facilitate implementation of innovative approaches to (multi)literacy development and school improvement?

Students

Knowledge students bring to the classroom

When a student today enters a classroom for the first time, he or she brings a whole new set of background knowledge that they will use to learn. Children are exposed to digital television, computer games and internet, video games, movies, DVD’s and more. They are able to navigate these outlets with ease and often without being able to read the directions. A four-year-old can learn his numbers into the hundreds from changing the channel on the television and can remember what channel his favorite cartoons are on. Another child can learn to read from websites or computer games. Children play video games that complex moves must be done to move up levels. As Cope and Kalantzis point out, children are faced with letters and sounds in reading and learning phonics. However, children are able to quickly master complex systems such as Pokemon or video games without instruction by their teacher (2009, 16). Children begin to recognize names and signs even as toddlers, wanting McDonalds™ as parents drive past. As Lotherington points out, “Even those children who have limited English know the icons used in computer programs” ( http://www.yorku.ca/foe/research/projects/goldilocks.pdf ). Uses of multiliteracies transcend traditional notions of literacy and reading. Children of all capabilities are able to use technology to enhance their learning with little assistance.

Not only are young children bringing new background knowledge to school, but older children are bringing it as well. Older children are able to gain knowledge from websites quickly and with ease. On web pages, there are many different layouts and ways to access the information. Gone are the days of lines of print on a page, now information is presented in a way that, according to Cope and Kalantzis, “more and more resemble screens. The mix of image, and caption, and list, and breakout box is such that reading paths of the image are now to be found on the page” (2009, 15). Students today are able to find and utilize those reading paths with ease.

Students are also able to communicate in many ways, through e-mail, instant messaging, texting and social networking. With each of these outlets requiring a different mode to communicate, students are able to switch how they write, talk or express themselves. This ability to switch up communication styles is a skill that can be utilized in school settings in projects and other school work. Students also have the ability to change how they communicate based on who they are communicating with, whether it is an adult or one of their friends.

Taught to be critical consumers

As students are navigating the technological world, they are taking in and learning from what they are seeing. Often, they see advertisements for different products or deals on various services. Many students believe all that they see on the internet or on television to be true. They will come to school and say, “I saw this on the internet and it is true!” As they are taught to learn to use the technology they have on hand, it is also necessary to teach students to be critical consumers, to not believe everything that is on the internet, to do the research to find out what is real and what could be a scam. Frequently children are apt to take what they read at face value without looking into the details. They want the newest and latest toy or electronic game, without bothering to investigate whether it really works well or not. When a new game system first came out, children all over wanted it and rushed out to buy it. Then the reports came out that the maker was still trying to work out the bugs, and people were having problems with it. If children and parents had done the research to find out what was happening, they wouldn’t have wasted their money and could have waited for the same system that had the kinks worked out. As schools are teaching students to look into what they see, to question what information they find, to verify with multiple sources, to use all the resources that technology offers, it will teach students to be critical consumers and to not make rash decisions when it comes to believing what they read or see.

Globalization

The Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce states that Globalization is "a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology"(globalization101.org). Due to "policy and technological developments of recent decades there has been an increase in cross-border trade, investment, and migration"(globalization101.org). Many observers believe "the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development"(globalization101.org). Therefore, now more than ever it is very crucial that educators create cultures and environments that cater to developing multi-literacies.

Role of multiliteracies in globalization

Globalization leads to a proliferation of communities. Individuals are connected to others across the globe through the Internet. People can choose to join online communities such as MySpace or Facebook to chat or connect to people right next door or thousands of miles away. Businesses and governments are connected to each other 24-hours a day. A businessman in Istanbul may trade thousands of shares of a company at midnight, local time, which may affect the market thousands of miles away in Mexico City. People are becoming increasingly interconnected through the processes of globalization. Globalization changes the concepts of space and time because of the interconnectedness of people, nations, corporations, and beliefs. There is an increase in the volume of cultural interactions, resulting in an increased dependence on each other. A network of increasingly powerful transnational actors and organizations intensifies the interdependence of people and ideas (Cohen & Kennedy 2006) As a result, the way individuals view themselves, both publically and privately, are affected. The way people build their identities affects the way that they learn and communicate. In this age of liquid modernity, where the flow of human and knowledge capital affect the way people perceive themselves and their roles in the communities that they choose to join (Bauman 2000).

Access

• Communities

For a long time, culture has been tied to a fixed location. Culture has evolved into a mobile entity, in which “practices of displacement...[are treated] as constitutive of cultural meanings” (Held & McGrew 2007). Borders have become meaningless. Communities develop from common interests that extend between language or heritage. Online discussion boards like SlickDeals connect conscious consumers searching for discounts at restaurants or department stores. Internet sites such as MySpace bring people together through music, pictures, and discussion boards. Individuals can create any identity that they so choose. The text color, background, and musical choice reveal as much about an individual as a particular biography.

Teachers can bring together students from various parts of the world to increase their intercultural knowledge and build communities that may not have formed elsewhere. For example, Ryan Bretag, a high school English teacher in a rural town of Illinois, connected with a racially diverse community in Boston to discuss The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Bretag uses an open-source online discussion board that allows people to share their ideas through instant messenger, private messaging, and email notification of thread changes. (Monroe 2006). His students were exposed to a different viewpoint that they would not have found in their small rural town. This interweaving of cultures opened up new perspectives for both schools and a new community. Multiliteracy education provides an opportunity for communities to grow and learn from each other.

• Mobility of People

Global migration leads to the “creation of multicultural societies composed of groups representing very different cultural histories, values, and practices” (Lull 2007). Ideas are being exchanged instantaneously because of global migration and increased communication. This leads to multicultural groups and societies. The interconnectedness of people and ideas leads to a blending of communities and identities. Reasons for the mobility of people include: migration, employment, education, refugees, tourism, and business. The movement of people causes demographic shifts and results in global cities. Although not a new occurrence, there are new dimensions in the movement of people. As groups of people move to other parts of the world, they attract other groups to join them resulting in networked migration. In addition, places of business set up recruitment opportunities for skilled workers. The migration of individuals leads to a diversification of communities, a forced cultural reaction, and a hybridization of cultures over a longer period of time. (Bauman 1998) The rapid mobility of people, capital, and alters the way that people interact (Arjun 1996)

• Meaning-Making

Humans naturally bond to one local that contains shelter, a sense of belonging, and houses material possessions. Through telemediatization, or electronic communications and media systems, local individuals have the ability to “access the world” (Held & McGrew 2007). Practices such as watching the television, listening to the radio, exploring the world wide web, texting, or sending pictures via the Internet or mobile phones transforms the public sphere and how people interact. The way people make meaning is evolving as a result of globalization practices. Media may be used as a form of cultural expression (Buckingham 2003). A shift away from traditional methods of expressing oneself through text is emerging through global processes. The informal nature of media that connects people across the globe should be transferred to the classroom to help students develop their identities and connections to communities.

• Hybridization of Languages and Barriers

As a result of the interconnectedness of people, ideas, and services in this age of liquid modernity, borders are becoming meaningless. Transnational corporations (TNCs) target similar audiences across “borders”. Ideas and people are constantly evolving as the result of the exchange of people and ideas. Government relations and business ventures are connecting people hundreds and thousands of miles away. A new culture is emerging that leads to the hybridization of languages and barriers. Globalization does not result in a particular set of values, instead it creates an “institutionalized mode of social being” (Held & McGrew 2007). A common culture exists in the ways that people view the world around them.

• Digital Divide

A digital divide results from a technological division among gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. Communities that are removed from fast-paced emerging technological age face a widening gap in an intercultural context. With the advent of technology such as the Internet that connects people and ideas across the world, those that do not have access find themselves left behind during this age of fluidity. This concept of a digital divide goes beyond mere physical access to technology. If people lack the support, incentive, or means to access technology they will fall behind as these communities with the means and willingness become fully incorporated. This divide affects how people communicate and learn (Monroe 2006) For example, in the aforementioned Retag’s mostly white class, he is able to connect to a diverse community in Boston to broaden his students’ perspectives through asynchronous and synchronous technologies. Secluded communities that do not have the means or the capabilities to reach out to another community lose the ability to build intercultural knowledge.

Uses

• Personal

Globalization leads to a time-space compression. Technology has interrupted time. People are linked together to create borderless communities as a result of advances in technology. The immediacy of information and ideas changes how people learn. There is an influx of ideas and conversations at an instantaneous rate. Children enter schools with experience from multimodal communication practices outside of school. Video gamers communicate online through XBOX Live accounts or on websites to share “cheats” that may be used immediately. Libraries offer research assistance through instant messaging. Students can scan homework problems and receive help from another individual hundreds of miles away.

Online networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter engage people in communities with status updates, chatting, and picture sharing. The informal nature of multiliteracies through social networking makes the world even smaller as people are instantly connected.

These multimodal forms of communicating impacts the way people perceive the world and understand their relationships with the environment and each other. Students are informally enhancing their ability to collect and process information from a variety of sources and modalities.

• Professional

Cultures are being joined together by common symbols or images in part from TNC marketing. Companies such as McDonalds or Nike attempt to build brand loyalty at a young age. Consumers are bombarded with 30-second video clips, product placement in television shows and sporting events, trademark colors and slogans in an attempt to build brand loyalty at a young age. The exposure to the multimedia produced by TNCs alters the way individuals perceive the world around them. McDonalds uses images of a clown face with red hair, sound bites and billboards with the “I’m lovin it” slogan, jingles, and public casting calls to build a bigger audience. A 2006 casting call received 15,000 submissions from people that sent in a story with a digital photograph, which would appear on cups and bags worldwide. (Kukec 2006) A common culture emerges from the “shared experience of particular signs in a crowded and highly competitive symbolic environment” (Lull 2007).

By targeting audiences across the globe, a wide variety of people are exposed to a world that is becoming increasingly visual and interactive. People thousands of miles away see and hear the same messages, which creates a much broader community as a whole. This influx of multimedia affects the way people learn and perceive themselves and the world around them. Local culture also affects the concepts of identity, community, and meaning-making, but these perceptions are changing as a result of the mobility of people, ideas, goods, and services. The way people learn both formally and informally is altered as a result of globalization. The ability to understand and process these rapidly changing images, sounds, and messages must be taught in schools in order for students to be competent and critical citizens. The way people are learning changes daily as a result of the interconnectedness of people, ideas, and services.

World trade, itself, continues to evolve as a result of globalization. Decreased tariffs on imports and exports allows for the flow of services and goods across “borders”. There is a freedom of exchange in terms of products, ideas, peoples, and services. Transnational organizations move beyond the nation-state to become even larger by outsourcing and relocating production resulting in global assemblage of workers. Mergers, takeovers, and strategic alliances move companies beyond a specific locale. They become floating organizations that are joined together by a common goal of targeting the consumer. Even the organization of TNCs changes the way business is run. TNCs stress strategic management, managerial decentralization, a flexible labor force, and a culturally diverse teamwork to increase efficiency and build a broader consumer base. This shift towards efficiency and culturally diverse counterparts affects how and what children learn. Students will need to learn how to critically analyze the world around them, in addition an ability to work on a team in a changing labor force. (Waters 2001)

• Politics

The advent of new forms of technology such as YouTube is changing political participation. During President Barack Obama’s campaign, thousands of people rallied in support of his views. The use of YouTube became an integral part of Mr. Obama’s way of reaching an audience. An example of one such advertisement is included below.

His ideas were shared with thousands of individuals through YouTube and Facebook groups. The Obama campaign targeted college-age voters by using a technology that those people were familiar with. Even political organizations are stepping beyond traditional methods of reaching audiences through town meetings, rallies and more recently, television advertisements and debates. People are learning beyond merely textual means. Ideas are being shaped by the methods and modalities of communication.

• Education/Schooling

[ Steps to 21st Century Learning]

Within the ever-increasing technological age, as shown in the above video, knowledge and communication are exchanged nearly instantaneously. People with access are immersed in the exchange of ideas. Those individuals that have the capability and willingness can participate in this exchange, while those that face the digital divide fall behind. This age of immediacy removes borders and changes how people learn. The instantaneous communication is a departure from the traditional methods of teaching that had a single entity focused on rote memorization. Teaching is moving away from a “communicative approach and towards the paradigm of intercultural (communicative) competence (Pegrum 2008). Literacy is becoming a social practice. Individuals must become competent in “fluid literacies” that make the boundaries more porous between nations, communities, and cultures (Pegrum 2008).

In order for schools to build a competency in a variety of literacies, schools need to incorporate computer technologies, an assortment of digital and traditional images, a range of technological modalities including discussion boards and web logs, and an incorporation of critical literacy practices (Unsworth 2001). Stepping into the 21st century, requires a rethinking of pedagogy that permits and encourages students to interact with each other and their environment and to think critically about the world around them.

• Future

With the advent of MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, international advertisement campaigns, iPhones, and the Internet, to name a few, identity formation and communication is changing at a fast pace. The younger generation reads and writes thousands of words online each week through chats, blogs, online discussion boards, and twitters. In addition, they are bombarded with images, sound, and videos. The way people create an identity is changing as a result of the interconnectedness of the world. Through multiliteracy education, individuals will be linked to an “intercultural global citizenship” (Pegrum 2008). Identity formation in the global age will allow people to understand connections between themselves and their own culture, as well as other cultures, and the world as a whole.

Projects Related to Multiliteracies

International Projects

The New London Group brings together ten educators from across the world to discuss the role of multiliteracies in education through the International Multiliteracies Project. According to the authors, multiliteracies emphasize an understanding of the “multiple linguistic and cultural differences” in society to promote access to an “evolving language of work, power, and community” and to foster the development of students’ own social futures (The New London Group 1996). This group unites curriculum authors, researchers, and theorists from all over the world with various experiences and positions to understand the complexities of schools and the best way to use multiliteracies pedagogy to account for cultural differences and quickly changing modes of communication. The New London Group discussed the ways that globalization has changed the working, public, and private lives of individuals and the methods that schools could use to increase access to produce global citizens. This collaboration of individuals seeks to examine and redefine curriculum practices, cooperate with other communities to build sound pedagogy, and develop and reformulate theories that may be implemented in schools.

National Projects

The Queensland Multiliteracies Project is one of Gap Cluster LDC’s projects that researches multiliteracies and catalogues multimedia projects in Australia. Twenty primary and secondary school teachers used some of the New London Group’s framework and Literate Futures materials published by the Queensland Department of Education to create projects to help prepare students for participation in a multimodal society. This project provides tools and ideas that schools may use to help students access and interpret the world around them. (Gap Cluster Multiliteracies Project)

The Multiliteracy Project is a national Canadian study exploring pedagogies or teaching practices that prepare children for the literacy challenges of our globalized, networked, culturally diverse world. Increasingly, we encounter knowledge in multiple forms - in print, in images, in video, in combinations of forms in digital contexts - and are asked to represent our knowledge in an equally complex manner. Further, there is international recognition that Canada's linguistic and cultural diversity are a source of its strength, and a key contributor of Canada's social and economic well-being. The challenge is to assist our schools in helping students to achieve a more diverse folio of literacies. (The Multiliteracy Project)

Project Kaleidoscope @ NBSS provides a cross-curriculum platform to teach three subjects, namely Mathematics, Art and Design. The platform in this project is a foam model sculpture through which mathematics, design and art concepts were delivered across to the students concurrently. Thus, the students involved would have to apply his or her knowledge in the three subjects in creating the sculpture. (Project Kaleidoscope)

Conclusion

"Change increasingly defines the nature of literacy and the nature of literacy learning. New technologies generate new literacies that become important to our lives in a global information age. We believe that we are on the cusp of a new era in literacy research, one in which the nature of reading, writing, and communication is being fundamentally transformed" (Leu et al, 2004). As literacy and global communication changes, classrooms need to reflect these changes and new types of learning. Multiliteracies need to be integrated into the classroom to enhance and improve student learning. Teachers, parents, community members, politicians, and students are challenged to carefully integrate multiliteracies to focus on how they can help achieve the ever-changing learning objectives and outcomes put in place, ensuring that they actually prepare students for the global challenges they will be expected to overcome today and in the future. Students today bring new experiences to schools that are as ever changing as the multiliteracies themselves. Furthermore, students are on the cutting edge of the multiliterate world and often can teach as much as they learn. It is important, however, that we recognize the limits of the new literacies. It is still the case that successful use of language in the classroom and workplace allows us to engage with and put to use the various media available for learning. As the advent of new literacies changes the world in which we live, so too should the classrooms reflect the multiliterate world of the students' personal lives. Educators are challenged to effectively integrate these multiliteracies into their teaching practice, which will become easier and more natural as they experience the reward of enhancing their students' learning through these technologies. Educators need to embrace this challenge not only for the sake of the students, but also to enhance their own ability to stay current and relevant.

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