Towards a definition of 21st Century Literacy

This is a straight quote from the website of The National Council of the Teachers of English based in Urbana, Illinois, USA ... picked from the blog of Will Richardson the writer of Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts. Will has written extensively about the 'read/write web'.

Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee
February 15, 2008

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to:

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

Will the New Framework for Literacy in England and the collected guidance on literacy in other countries manage to reflect this quickly enough to fit our young people for their demanding futures in a digital world? Or will the learners simply plot their own pathways through the institutional maze?

This has a direct link into Ewan's post today about 'The outcomes for Literacy in Scotland'. He picks out all of the best bits ... thanks goodness there are some really good bits ... and the definition of what makes a 'text' is little short of wonderful to my way of thinking to my way of thinking. Might have to buy a kilt soon !