Blog 4: Literacy is Developing

Literacy is developing and changing all the time, and the way we learn literacy is changing as well. Wesch’s video shows what and how we can do with the internet. Now, a people with a computer can do a lot more than before, sending out information and receiving feedback from anywhere. This demonstrate ideological model of literacy, the effects of different literacies and cultures are weaving, not simply dual effects. Keri’s learning experience of the new genre Tweet shows the shift from autonomous model to ideological model of literacy. When learning new knowledge, there are autonomous features embedded in the literacy learning. Eventually, the new learning requires more through the social practice, like audience, response, reaction, conversation, communication, etc. to achieve the social goal. Finally, ideological model of literacy is completed. This process is very complicated and educators try to figure it out. Lik Street says in “What’s ‘new’ in New Literacy Studies”, “a key issue is how we can characterize the shift from observing literacy events to conceptualizing literacy practices (79)”.

The interesting concepts I got from Street’s article is “social practice approach”, “local literacy”, “distance literacy”, “figured worlds”. I believe there is no doubt about the importance of “social practice approach”. To help students, after school programs can be strong support for the literacy learning and school study. However, if we focus too much on the school, the literate ability cannot be developed well as it is supposed to be. For example, the standardized tests would make students more familiar test taking skills rather than the literate ability, reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Literacy is developing and changing all the time, and the way we learn literacy is changing as well. Wesch’s video shows what and how we can do with the internet. Now, a people with a computer can do a lot more than before, sending out information and receiving feedback from anywhere. This demonstrate ideological model of literacy, the effects of different literacies and cultures are weaving, not simply dual effects. Keri’s learning experience of the new genre Tweet shows the shift from autonomous model to ideological model of literacy. When learning new knowledge, there are autonomous features embedded in the literacy learning. To understand this, I think accumulating literacy would be helpful. Eventually, the new learning requires more through the social practice, like audience, response, reaction, conversation, communication, etc. to achieve the social goal. Finally, ideological model of literacy is completed. This process is very complicated and educators try to figure it out. Like Street says in “What’s ‘new’ in New Literacy Studies”, “a key issue is how we can characterize the shift from observing literacy events to conceptualizing literacy practices (79)”.

The interesting concepts I got from Street’s article is “social practice approach”, “local literacy”, “distance literacy”, “figured worlds”. I believe there is no doubt about the importance of “social practice approach”. To help students, after school programs can be strong support for the literacy learning and school study. However, if we focus too much on the school, the literate ability cannot be developed well as it is supposed to be. For example, the standardized tests would make students more familiar test taking skills rather than the literate ability, reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Like Keri’s tweeter case, learning is beginning in the support around and self-motivation based, which can be considered as “local”; after obtaining certain knowledge and skills though not completely proficiently, she tries to make connection to the outside world. The relation between local and distance literacy can help understand and solve the problem how to switch from observing the literacy events to literacy practices.

The following is a quote I think maybe helpful:

The result of local-global encounters around literacy is always a new hybrid rather than a single essentialized version of either. It is these hybrid literacy practices that NLS focuses upon rather than either romanticizing the local or conceding the dominant privileging of the supposed “global”. As we shall see when we discuss practical applications of NLS across educational contexts, it is the recognition regarding the relationship between local literacy practices and those of the school. (Street 80)