That Was Then, This Is Now: Literacy for the 21st Century Student

Introduction

The field of literacy studies has made many educators take a deeper look into the similarities and differences between print and digital texts (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2009). It seems not only through literature, but also by observation as a classroom practitioner, that there are certain elements and conflicts between digital texts and print-based texts that need to be combed through by educators and scholars in the field (Kist, 2005). So, what does the field need to know about this new generation of literacy, and perhaps more importantly, how can recognizing the similarities and differences between print and digital texts improve the way students learn to read and write in the K-12 classroom?

It begins by looking at the current scene of literacy studies and its relation to the current educational practices of teachers today. Current conditions of literacy studies have become inundated with new literacies, and because of it, Gee (2001) suggests, “…that if someone wants to know about the development of literacy, he or she should not ask how literacy and language develop. Rather, he or she should ask how a specific sociocultural practice (or related set of them) embedded in specific ways with printed words develops” (p.31). For the purpose of this chapter and discussion, a focus will be on controversy in the juxtapositions given between digital and traditional, print-based texts. This, after all, is the study of new literacy, and to some, newness is often met with distrust and avoided (Baker, 2010). This chapter will discuss print and media-based approaches to getting students literate for a new age of literacy. It appears to Millennials that a well-balanced literary diet contains both print and digital texts (Gerber, Abrams, Onwuegbuzie, & Benge, 2014). This means students should sample different ways of making sense of the world through multiple operations in the classroom. Later, suggestions are made for incorporating into educational settings many of the new literacies students are using away from school.

New literacies are inspiring refreshing changes in their wake, not in small increments, but across the educational landscape at large. As the field of new literacies continues to grow, so too does the need for researchers to zoom in and examine what brought education to its steepest literacy precipice yet. “It is in this world that national reports find a literacy crisis, and that nonstandard literacies and language forms are regarded as deficits rather than differences” (Dagostino & Carifio, 1994, p.4). With education companies like Pearson and McGraw-Hill shifting literary paradigms and moving content into digital formats, it means big changes for education. Ng (2012) discusses how, “digital technology tools are advancing and proliferating the marketplace at an increasing pace” (p.28). The relationships between digital texts and print literacy are affected by sociocultural components like politics, big business, privilege, oppression, and many others (Gee, 2017). However, for many educators their questions about how to tackle these literary issues find answers beyond the classroom (Harvey, 2018). Educators, who, considering all social components, must ask themselves: What will be the most effective literacy learning approach for the students? What does the data say about the students’ reading and writing habits, and what do they need from their teacher? It is easy to get lost in the questions, and literature on the subject often falls short of good examples of what quality print and digital texts look like in K-12 classrooms across the United States (Marlatt, 2019).