New+Media+and+New+Literacies


 * Carol R. Holder.** **“****New Media and New Literacies: Perspectives on Change.”**

// EDUCAUSE Review, // vol. 41, no. 6 (November/December 2006): 76–77

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 * Abstract**

This article ponders the changes that learning has gone through with the evolution of technology. It mainly focuses on how teachers are using computers and new media in order to teach their students to become better writers. Some examples are the use of threaded discussions, wikis, online journals, chat rooms and email. The author, Carol R. Holder, believes that because of technology today, literacy has a new definition. Not only do students need to know how to read and write well, they also need to become familiar with a range of communicative tools and media. Holder compares the changing definition of literacy to putting “new wine” (new skills in media) in an “old bottle” (the traditional modes of reading and writing). There are even college courses that are now available to students who want to study new media. Students at North Carolina State University can seek their Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media.

Holder concludes her article by arguing that these technological changes are having a very positive impact on education, and will continue to do so as long as we create an environment where people can continue to discuss their ideas.

Holder contends that the onslaught of new media and technology has not been adopted into newer methodologies of teaching and learning. Therefore creating a void in curriculum and limitations on what literacy vs literacies is. Students need to be taught and updated on digital technology, for communicative and writing aides. Holder goes on to discuss the extensive demands literacy is placing on students and the adaptive ways faculty can include the research of new media into emerging interdisciplinary programs.
 * Argument**

The culmination of her contest resolves to strengthen literacy through: strong faculty communication, inter and intra collegial networking and space, and new courses and methods of teaching.


 * Key Passages**

“New media change what is produced and how it is received, and different criteria determine whether it achieves the desired or intended effect.”

“Across the curriculum today, literacy demands extend beyond the traditional modes of reading, writing, and speaking, to incorporate facility with new genres, new messages, and new media and information technologies. The faculty in composition, rhetoric, and communication are active in exploring and using these new literacies in their scholarship and in their teaching.”

“If we want to see more change on our campuses, we need to support that inter- and intra-campus collegial network and create spaces (such as workshops, institutes, forums, brown-bag lunches, publications, grants, and awards) where faculty can share, across discipline lines, what they are learning, can talk about problems, and can learn from each other as they create new courses and change modes of teaching and learning.”


 * Author**

Carol Holder taught English and directed writing in the disciplines and faculty development at Cal Poly Pomona from 1969 to 2002. She is continuing her work in faculty development at California State University–Channel Islands part-time and as a consultant at other campuses. Comments on this article can be sent to the author at carol.holder@csuci.edu.


 * Notes**

1. See //Computers and Composition Online// (@http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/) for information about the print-based Computers and Composition, published for nearly a quarter-century.

2. Glynda Hull, "Transforming Literacy: Adventures in Digital Multi-Modality," National Writing Project 2006 Spring Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 7, 2006, @http://www.writingproject.org/cs/nwpp/print/nwpr/2321.

3. See, for example, Mueller's February 19, 2006, notes on Gunther Kress's //Literacy in the New Media Age:// @http://www.earthwidemoth.com/mt/archives/001092.html.