New Literacy

After reading Street’s article as well as the blog post by Keri Franklin on learning a new literacy, I’ve picked up a lot of new ideas on the importance of being literate in the modern world, (or whatever situation you need to be literate in) as well as how difficult it is to become literate in a field.

One of the main ideas that I have gained about literacy from these articles and the other material from our class, is that literacy really expands beyond the traditional classroom stereo type of reading and writing. Street’s definition of an “ideological” literacy model is a very new concept to me, but I think it makes a ton of sense. This model allows for a much looser definition of literacy, that can be redefined depending on the social setting that one is trying to define it in. This seems like the only logical way to organize something as complicated as the definition of literacy, because different places and social situations have radically different levels of literacy, and in some ways this is okay because they also have different levels of need, especially when it comes to the more academic fields of literacy. For example, students at a college or graduate school need to have a far higher level of academic literacy than a student in high school.

Street also forms new categories of literacy and introduces the idea of “literacy practices”, which involve the different steps that it takes to put literacy concepts to use in different cultures. There is a difference between having knowledge and putting it to use, and perhaps the area of literacy practices is where we can place non-academic forms of literacy such as practical knowledge that people use at work and in their every day lives. These literacy’s are just as important as academic literacy and are crucial to people being able to survive in their culture and do their jobs.

Franklin’s blog has given me an insight into how difficult it can be to learn a new literacy. I can’t remember learning to read and write, at least, I can’t remember the struggle and frustration that I’m sure came with it. I have had to become educated in legal jargon for my work, and that is probably the most difficult area that I have had to become literate in. Learning new technologies hasn’t been much of a struggle for me since it has fit right in with my generation. It is easy to pick up by being social with other kids as you grow up. It’s interesting how different it is for my parents to learn how to use new technologies compared to my sister and I. Overall, it seems like instead of worrying about coming up with a singular definition for literacy, we should make sure that everybody is able to gain individual literacy for their own personal needs, and figure out an effective way to get the information across to them as efficiently as possible.