The very nature of information has changed. Most of what we read, view, listen to, and watch is now digital, networked, and overwhelming. This presentation is a next-generation version of my book, Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century (Linworth, ISBN-1-58683-130-5). It makes a case for how the new information landscape affects our notions of basic literacy skills. As information becomes increasingly networked, its accuracy and reliability cannot be assumed. It is now a basic skill to be able to expose the truth about the information, not merely be able to read it.

It is more important today than ever before that all children understand the language of numbers. But when all information is made of numbers, and information increasingly becomes the raw material that we work with to accomplish our goals, it becomes just as important for children to learn to process text, images, sound, and video as it is to know how to process numbers.

Almost everyone accepts (and laments) that we are overwhelmed with information. However, our biggest problem is not managing all of that information. The bigger challenge is getting our message through that storm of information. We must learn to communicate so that our ideas successfully compete for the attention of our audiences. This means being able to write well. But it also requires that the literate must also be able to communicate effectively with images, sound, animation, and video.

The ethical implications are clear when Technorati now indexes more than 50 million bloggers (independent content publishers) and Wikipedia continues to grow not only in its content but also in the number of people who use it as a source of information. But another factor has come into play during recent months that further illustrates the urgency of fully addressing the new shape that information is taking. The news media has made headlines of our students use of social networking tools, such as MySpace and Xanga. Student use of video games has also been more widely publicized and has even come increasingly to the attention of education technologists. But the overarching realization that this presentation will help educators to acknowledge is that information means something different to our students than what it means to us.

For most teachers today, content is something to be consumed. We read books, listen to music, and watch TV and movies. We buy it, consume it, and then put it away. Our students, on the other hand, interact with their information. The climb into it, reshape it, and then experience it in new ways. The buy information and see it as a raw material. They remix it, republish it, and become information artists and artisans.

A principal question that we face, as we continue to redefine literacy, is how do we leverage our students skill and use of information to produce more powerful learning experiences?

Outline

Online handouts & intro [10 minutes]

Brief Tour of Wikipedia [5 minutes]

Technorati [5 minutes]

Contemporary Literacy [20 minutes]

Information as raw material [15 minutes]

closing [5 minutes]

Supporting Research

Beck, John, and Mitchell Wade. Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Presenter Background

David Warlick is a 30-year educator with experience in the classroom, administration, work with a state department of education, and instructional technology consultant. He is the author of three books on literacy and technology, and has presented workshops and keynote addresses throughout the U.S. Europe, Asia, and South America.

Mr. Warlick is also a prominant education blogger and podcaster, and has developed some of the most popular education-related web 2.0 tools on the Internet.

Prerequisites

None! All Educators!

Referenced Web Links

Many, which can be viewed in the evolving web site above.