New Literacy- Conceptual Understanding and Classroom Implications

Conceptual Understanding
My original definition of literacy that I posted was several people's individual conceptions about what literacy was. Only one of them talked about technology, but overall everyone of those people agreed that literacy's main goal is communication. Through researching visual literacy and using a digital literacy to go along with it, my understanding of literacy has grown. Before this project, I thought of literacy as one big idea that encompassed everything- visual, communication, culture, technology, etc. I thought of it as something very general, which I think is reflected in my original definition. But now, I know that there are many different literacies, each one having very specific definitions and are all inter-related in trying to communicate a message. By researching visual literacy, I came to understand that pictures, graphs, videos, models, etc., are all different ways in which people communicate. The main sense used to comprehend the message is sight, but the other senses can also be used to supplement this- thus, the overlapping of literacies. The digital literacy used in  my group's project also demonstrated how important it is for students to be taught how to use technology- that technology alone is it's own kind of literacy. Digital literacies are extremely useful for supplementing development of other literacies as well while allowing students to be even more creative with their message.


Classroom Implications
Based on my new understanding of literacy, I believe effective literacy instruction focuses on integrating all the literacies into daily lessons and assessments. Diverse learners come from all different backgrounds and all have varied ways of learning and preferred ways of communication, so it would be wrong to focus on one type of literacy over another. Making sure students are competent in each literacy will help them to grow up to be global citizens.