I came across a website for a program called Project New Media Literacies, which is hosted by USC-Annenberg. One of directors is Henry Jenkins, who happens to be one of my favorite scholars in this field. While looking through the website, I found a page describing these "new media literacies," and I really enjoyed the breakdown they gave. I've included the original content below (in black text) and my comments on each literacy (in blue text).
The New Media Literacies constitute the core cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in our new media landscape. We call them "literacies," but they change the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to one of community involvement. They build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom. If these New Media Literacies are learned - and they can be learned without computers in the classroom - they can form the building blocks for students' participation in new media.
Play: the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving. Having a strong sense of play can be helpful when you pick up a new piece of technology that you've never used before, when you're trying to write an essay and your outline isn't functioning as you'd hoped, and when you're designing anything at all, from a dress to a web page to a concert's program.
I love the idea of "play" because it really is the best way to learn something. I suppose it could be called a number of things--like tinkering, perhaps?--but it really does work. After all, one of the best ways to learn how to do something is to actually do it. There has to be a feeling of almost fearlessness with this--as in you have to play with something and not be terrified that you're going to mess something up. When I was teaching, this was one of the most commonly cited reasons I heard from teachers who didn't want to try out new things. Luckily, I think I'm sort of naturally drawn towards this behavior. When I received my first computer in 8th grade (this was in 1993), I knew little about computers and my family members knew even less. I basically just messed with it until it worked, and I've continued to do that with anything new that comes my way. Thus, it is important that we give students the opportunity to play and build these skills.
Performance: the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery. Being able to move fluidly and effectively between roles can help you when you're exploring online communities, when you're trying to decide what actions are ethical, and when you're shuffling between home, work and school.
This is also extremely important and is relevant to the online world, and the real world as well. Students need to understand audience, and that they need to take on different "personas" and know who and what they're dealing with to effectively navigate and communicate in a variety of situations.
Simulation: the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes. Being able to interpret, manipulate and create simulations can help you understand innumerable complex systems, like ecologies and computer networks - and make you better at playing video games!
I think this one can be a little more difficult to learn and to also helps students with; however, as is mentioned in the introduction, computers aren't necessarily needed for students to learn how to do this. The right assignment/problem and a little posterboard, even, can get students moving in the right direction. Then, as they pick up even more skills, they can move on to more complex ways of building these simulations.
Appropriation: the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content. Being able to remix media content (and knowing when doing so is appropriate) can help you understand literary works, music, and art; it can also help lead you to a deeper understanding of copyright and cultural clashes.
This is something that we are seeing more and more of in schools, but it is not always done correctly. Students can have a lot of fun with and get a lot out of these types of projects, but teachers and librarians need to be well-informed of copyright laws in order to help students use this content correctly. We have to know these things so that we can hold students accountable--which is also a learning experience for them.
Multitasking: the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details. Being a good multitasker is required in our new media landscape - and that includes learning when it isn't good to multitask.
This is such an important skill for everyone to have, and I'll admit it was difficult for me to latch onto when I started teaching--but as many of you know, you have to be able to multi-task as a teacher to stay organized and sane! From what I've seen with a lot of students, many think they are good at multi-tasking because they "Facebook," listen to music, watch YouTube videos, and write papers all at the same time; however, this is not so. Effectively multi-tasking also means that you have a keen understanding of setting and adhering to priorities--and like I mentioned before, this can be very difficult for some people. Also, as is mentioned, sometimes it isn't good to multitask.
Distributed Cognition: the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities. That can mean something as simple as using a ruler or calculator, or something as complex as efficiently using Wikipedia on your iPhone to access information on the fly.
Again, this goes back to that issue of play and giving students the tools to learn from. The hope is, of course, that students learn the skills so that they can apply these to all the new and different tools that will come their way.
Collective Intelligence: the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal. This ability is key to open source projects. Being able to pool knowledge with others can allow us to solve challenges far more complex than the individual mind can process.
And students wonder why they're assigned group projects! It is essential that students learn to harness collective intelligence when analyzing and solving problems. In order for this to happen, though, they need to be given assignments that truly challenge them to work together and analyze. Far too often I've seen group projects assigned that require little to no critical thinking, and then one person ends up doing all the work. Students will rise to the challenge if given something meaningful to work on.
Judgment: the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources. If you're worried about your students using Wikipedia at inappropriate times and taking everything they read on the internet as gospel truth, you're worried that they aren't exercising good judgment. But judgment also includes knowing when sources are appropriate for your use: for instance, sometimes Wikipedia might be the appropriate resource to use.
This is also so important, and I love that they've used Wikipedia as an example! This was something I tried to hammer into the heads of my students. Time and time again I told them that Wikipedia is fine for a starting place, to get some basic information, or to settle a feud about some trivial pop culture reference. It is not, however, the best source when writing a serious literary analysis.
Transmedia Navigation: the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple media. Anyone who needs to do research needs a good understanding of transmedia navigation - how to follow threads through video, still photography, written work, music, online sources etc.
We are seeing more and more of this from adults and students alike. As I mentioned in my last blog post, just look at how quickly the news spread of Osama bin Laden's death. My guess is that a lot of people sort of naturally navigated through different types of media--from comments on Facebook, to news stories, to TV, to videos posted, to Google images and more.
Networking -- the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information. Writing something isn't enough without the ability to circulate it to the communities where it will matter.
This adds a whole other dimension to the word networking, and this is something that all of us have brought up time and time again during our discussions of different types of media and how to become media literate. It's finding, analyzing, creating--all of that--and then getting it to the right audience.
Negotiation -- the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms. We now need to know how to live in multiple communities - from the hyperlocal to the global and from those composed of people like us to those consisting of people very different from us.
This is basically respecting diversity and understanding your place in the world, realizing that you have only one perspective out of many, and respecting the perspectives of others. Now that is so easy to have a voice online, it's important for students and adults to practice this and strive for this constantly.
Visualization - the ability to translate information into visual models and understand the information visual models are communicating. VIsualization has become a key way we cope with large data sets and make sense of the complexity of our environment.
This is something we've talked about in class--that ability and skill to create--and that it is a form of communicating. Just like talking or writing a paper, creating a video and sharing it with the world is also a form of communication. This is why it's important for students to have opportunities to create, share, and receive feedback from a real audience. When students are creating for real people, it puts a whole new spin on things and is a good learning experience for them.
If you'd like to read more about Project New Media Literacies, check it out at http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/.
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