Evolving Concepts of Literacy

Critical Reflections In Media

Source: UNESCO

The introduction of new digital technologies and forms of communication have had a powerful effect on our understanding of the term “literacy”. Along with Industry 4.0 came vast changes in our understanding of the workplace. A modern workplace can now be defined by the presence of Cyber Physical Spaces, a high level of technological convergence alongside labour-based workplace processes being replaced by automated, computerized processes, a concept described as “informating” (Zuboff, 1989). Additionally, the majority of us spend vast amounts of time on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the average user amassing an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per day, according to a report conducted by GlobalWebIndex (2020)

Scholars have developed ways to articulate the growing importance of literacy in our increasingly textualised society and give form to the complex nature of the term and the level at which it is valued within certain contexts. Such examples involve Wan Ng’s Digital Literacy Model (2012) and Barton and Hamilton’s case for a new and improved “social literacy” (2010) both of which include the terms Functional Literacy, Social Literacy, Cognitive literacy and Digital Literacy.

As illustrated, traditional definitions of literacy as ‘the ability to read and write’ (Deursen & Dijk, 2014) still apply in an increasingly textualised society however, as a result of a greater depth of research pertaining to the contexts in which literacy is practiced, our understanding of it has broadened. The heightened importance placed on the maintenance of complex relationships and “connected systems” (Farrell et al., 2020) on which technological convergence relies, for example, has shifted our understanding of literacy from something historically deemed a cognitive process to a “social practice”. Digital spaces also involve a heightened reliance on the mediation of relationships successfully done through the employment of digital literacy skills, as Ng’s model of Digital Literacy illustrates. The cognitive, social-emotional and technical realms of digital literacy all need to be learnt in order to navigate risks that these spaces pose, as well as maximize the potential of these technologies.

Additionally, the concept of literacy held by government during the First Industrial Revolution as a powerful tool to be withheld from the masses for fear of revolution (Farrell et al., 2020) remains relevant.  It is through teaching digital literacy, for example, that we allow those participating to access opportunity through knowledge, as illustrated in the increased demand for “soft” communication-based skills in the workforce as employees who possess high-level soft skills are more able to “improve their material bargaining position” (Fischer & Bergstermann, 2015, as cited in Farrell et al., 2020) than those who possess “the mid-level qualifications and skills needed for routine cognitive and manual tasks”.

References

Barton, D., & Hamilton, M. (2010). Literacy As A Social Practice. Langage et société, 133(3), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.3917/ls.133.0045

Farrell, L., & Newman, T. (2020). Literacy and the workplace revolution: a social view of literate work practices in Industry 4.0. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/10.1080/01596306.2020.1753016

Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy?. Computers & Education, 59(3), 1065-1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016.

Van Dijk, J. (2020, August 4-7). Closing the Digital Divide. Virtual Expert Group UN Meeting on “Socially just transition towards sustainable development: The role of digital technologies on social development and well-being of all”, New York, New York, USA.

Zuboff, S. (1988). In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and power

Global Web index report. Employ Responsibility and Rights Journal 2, 313–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01423360

Image: [Colourful illustration]. UNESCO. https://uil.unesco.org/event/international-literacy-day-2020