21st Century Literacies

In the first week of this course a quote was presented to us that I believe represents the meaning of literacy in a 21^st century learning environment. According to Carrington and Robinson (2009) “literacy is not just about decoding marks on a page, it is also about performing social acts of meaning, where meaning and practices vary according to context.” In my opinion this quote brings up a more complex meaning of literacy that looks beyond the basic definition of reading and writing and rather at the implications of literacy that come from reading and writing and extends beyond into social contexts. To me this means that upon learning the basic skills of literacy, students must learn to apply literacy into multiple contexts including global, financial, critical, environmental, media, etc. In order to this, students must have an understanding of social contexts so they are able to interpret a situation and apply their knowledge effectively which will allow for their actions to become more meaningful.

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In the beginning of every Ontario curriculum document, 21^st century learning is discussed with the government saying “today and in the future, students need to be critically literate, in order to synthesize information, make informed decisions, communicate effectively and thrive in an ever changing global community.” In reading this section it makes me think of the practical application of students learning. I believe that this quote is stressing the importance not only of teaching the required the curriculum, but also of providing children with real world examples that they are able to relate to their own lives to show them how what they are learning could be useful. By making students critically literate, and making lessons more suited to the needs of individuals I believe that students are more likely to be engaged in their learning and therefore will become more aware and contributing in different social contexts.

The above video discusses how literacy has begun to expand beyond understanding languages into multiple categories. Understanding these different literacies is becoming important due to the fact that people are beginning to communicate and interact internationally more often in ways where all kind of literacies are relevant in understanding social meaning. This video also discusses the importance of teachers keeping up with technology due to the fact that it is constantly changing and this will help students understand how to appropriately connect with the outside world.