Week One - What is Literacy Anyway?

Before commencing this course I had a very limited view of literacy and idea of what it meant. To me, literacy was reading and writing and entailed little more than simply that. This week’s experiences however, have opened my eyes to a whole world of literacy and an exciting new definition. As was explained in this week’s lecture (Phillips, 2013), literacy is so much more than just reading and writing but rather a way of making meaning from a variety of social practices. Literacy therefore includes visual, gestural, oral, audio, tactile, linguistic and spatial modes (Phillips, 2013; Kalantzis & Cope, 2012). This new definition of literacy – well new for me – was exciting as I felt as though there were so many facets of literacy that I could explore through the course! I was ready to learn!

As Kalantzis and Cope (2012) explore, writing is no longer the most effective mode of meaning making across time and space and has been replaced by a world of technological communication that allows us to communicate visual, oral, audio and gestural meanings with ease.

This shift is reflected in my own literacy practices. As someone living in 2013, many of my literacy practices centre around social media where I view, display and critique written texts, images and videos. I also engage with television, magazines and newspapers in my daily literacy practices.

I believe the following video describes perfectly the shift that has been made to becoming literate in the 21^st Century.

Reflecting on my own literacy practices has highlighted the relevance of literacy within my own life and ignited an intrigue within the subject and a desire to learn more - an engagement I hope I am able to ignite within my students in the future!