I found the reading very “dry”. It was written more like a research paper as opposed to a text. I would not recommend this book to other educators, as most of them would give up on reading it after the first few pages. – I give it 2 stars out of 5. Was this review useful?

Above you see an attempt (albeit a poor attempt) to illustrate the concept of “new” literacy. It is based on Amazon.com. The reading assignment (Chapter 2 in the Lankshear and Knobel text) attempts to identify and comment on the disparities between the traditional mindset, or way of thinking about literacy as opposed to literacy for the 21st Century. After reading the material and reviewing (and re-reviewing) the text I noted the following:

1. The definition of literacy is changing or has changed from the traditional idea of reading (printed text) and writing to electronic and technical competency. - Personally I disagree with the concept that the definition is or has changed, but rather evolved to include reading, writing, technical, and electronic competecy. This idea allows the blending of all areas and does not neglect or diminish the importance of any particular component of literacy.
2. Education is now at a crossroad. We as educators are placed in a position in which we need to teach both the old (traditional) and new (technological) forms of literacy to prepare students for the future.
3. The concept of space is now split between physical and cyber. This clouds the perception of value, as was illustrated in the reading with the story of the notebook computer. The owner perceived its value to be $1 – $2 million based on the data on the computer, while the physical value of the unit was placed at $2,000.00.
4. According to the text people fall into one of two categories. The “Insiders”, who are people who understand technology because they have been exposed to it for their entire life, and Newcomers/outsiders (people who grew up prior to the ”information age”). The text points out some different beliefs of the groups. One area which was addressed was the concept of value. To the “Insiders” “value is a function of dispersion”. I interpeted this to mean that the more people who have and/or use something, the more valuable it is. This differs from the belief that “value is a function of scarcity” (supply and demand) which is a trademark of the “Newcomers”. Another concept addressed was the idea of expertise. To “Insiders” there is a “focus on collective intellegence” which produces “hybrid experts” (in other words the group is smarter than the individual). This is opposite of the “Newcomers’ ”focus on individual intellegence” and the idea of “individual and institutional expertise”. I would also propose that there is an additional classification which is not addressed in the reading… the “Tweeners”. Tweeners are people who grew up during the period between the Insiders and the Newcomers. I would think that most of us in the class fall into this category. It can be characterized by moderate technological competency coupled to the traditional understanding of literacy, space, expertise, and value.
5. Technology has evolved. There is/has been a shift from “1st phase automation” in which the same processes are being done (shopping, etc.), utilizing technology (barcodes) to make it faster to “2nd phase automation” which focuses on technological interaction (purchasers being able to rate and comment on puchases – as illustrated above). This has helped foster the idea of ”collective experts”. In addition the web has evolved from a resource based instrument (web 1.0) to in interactive tool (web 2.0)

All of the items identified above illustrate one recurring concept…change. The worlds (physical and cyber) are constantly evolving. This is nothing new (does the name Darwin ring a bell?) We as educators must remain fluid – able and willing to change. We cannot fall into the trap of having a fixed mindset or our students will suffer.