What does it mean to be literate today? That question just might be the most difficult question out there to answer. You see the word literate defined as a noun (Merriam-Webster) is defined as: an educated person, or a person who can read and write. The word literate defined as an adjective (Merriam-Webster) is defined as: educated or cultured, able to read and write, versed in literature or creative writing, lucid or polished, or having knowledge or competence. Now apply all of the possible ways to define the word literate and then apply that to the world of information and media that we currently live and you end up with an almost open ended question and likely even more of an open ended answer.
It is possible to determine if an individual is an educated person, it is possible to determine whether or not they can read and write, but in today’s ever changing world of technology is it really possible to determine whether or not a person has knowledge or competence in the digital world? With our ever changing digital world, the fake news and information, the rise of deep fakes, and the political agendas of many groups and organizations online, as well as the online algorithms that lead individuals down a guided path of information, knowledge and competence becomes very hard to judge.
As a result, an individual may be literate in some areas and not in others. Perhaps the term “fully” literate would make more sense. For example, an individual may be able to read and write so we could say that they are literate in that area. However, that same individual may not be able to discern between what is real and what is fake news. That individual may be easily led and subject to fall victim to disinformation or information put out by political organizations aiming at swaying public opinion. In this case, that same individual would not be literate in that area and as a result would be considered literate in the area of reading and writing, but not full literate as they are not competent when it comes to critical thinking of the text or information that they are presented online or through media.
Melinda Moyer outlined an example of individuals not being fully-literate in her online article when she stated: “When college students in the survey looked at a Twitter post touting a poll favoring gun control, more than two thirds failed to note that the liberal antigun groups behind the poll could have influenced the data” (Moyer 2021). Moyer also indicated that young children and teens are targets for disinformation and fake news. The major concern knowing this is that children and teens need to be supported and guided to be able to navigate through the digital world and it seems that we are not necessarily doing the best job at it right now in our schools.
Speaking of not doing the best job right now, Youtube has also come under fire in recent years over their algorithm that they use to suggest videos to viewers. In Kevin Roose’s online article from 2019 entitled “The Making of a Youtube Radical,” Caleb Cain accuses Youtube of suggesting far-right videos to the viewer. In the article, Caleb blames the algorithm for driving him to become a radical.
“YouTube has inadvertently created a dangerous on-ramp to extremism by combining two things: a business model that rewards provocative videos with exposure and advertising dollars, and an algorithm that guides users down personalized paths meant to keep them glued to their screens.” (Roose 2019)
With all of this being said, what does it mean to be literate today? What might be some different elements of being “fully” literate? To be literate today is to be able to read and write and have the ability to think critically about the information that you are processing. To be fully literate, that ability would need to transcend through all forms of media and mediums. An individual would need to be able to read and write and thing critically about the information presented across a broader spectrum. This spectrum would include but are not limited to the following: the digital world, the media world, the online world, the physical world, and the fantasy world. As a result, the definition of literate today is so broad and encompassing that it is almost impossible to define. Furthermore, the nature of our ever changing worlds that we live in dictate that the definition or meaning will always be evolving and changing to try to keep pace with that change.
When I read the list of requirements to be “fully literate” it seems to be an insurmountable task. Students must be this but also this, this, and this. And of course, it is our job and purpose to provide them a well-rounded education (academically and personally)…but it just continually seems to me that such a large task requires so much more support than we receive.
Kimberly, you are 100% right when you say that it seems to be such a large task to be able to move our students towards being literate and “fully” literate. I believe that is where education in Canada and closer to home Saskatchewan has missed the boat. Finland for example does have digital citizenship and access to technology and teacher training built into their school wide system from beginning to end. In Saskatchewan, we are so far removed from school wide training and the implementation of digital literacy & citizenship that we struggle as a collective and try to implement things on our own to meet the needs of our students.
There are so many things that we as educators need to know when it comes to being media literate. I wish we all educators can take this course so that they are aware of the elements or digital citizenship but also what media literacy is. In speaking with other colleagues about this they have no idea what media literacy is. It is so important that educators know what to teach when it comes to media literacy or be aware of their own media literacy. From your reply to Kim, we definitely need the training so our students are successful digital citizens.
Shella,
I believe that teacher training in this area is absolutely required! If you go back to the roll out of Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools (Couros & Hildebrandt 2015) you quickly realize that it was yet another example of a great resource that was put out by the Ministry of Education and that was as far as it went. I was in administration then and there was no support training or larger system planning so that teachers could work collaboratively on it’s implementation. I will attach a link to an article out of Finland about how they implement Digital Literacy in their school system across the country. It is simply amazing how implementing a goal and then putting the support pieces in place to be able to achieve that goal works every time. Saskatchewan Education may have had a goal when the 2015 document was written, but the support pieces and monitoring were never put in place to ensure we moved our system forward.
https://finlandeducationhub.com/digital-literacy-in-finnish-education-a-model-for-the-world/
Great post! I struggled this week to decide what it would mean to be fully media literate, so I compared it to the language proficiency scale in my blog post. In my post, I think I answered your question about some of the elements involved with being media literate and the different levels. I hope that you have a chance to read over my post and I would love to hear your thoughts in relation to your blog post!
Do you think being “critical” has always been part of being literate? As I was reading your post, I felt that the skills required for literacy haven’t changed. What has changed is the amount of time people are required to use those skills, which has dramatically increased because the amount of information being produced is unprecedented. I think the gaps you identify in traditional literacy education have always existed. They are just exacerbated by the amount of information and misinformation being created. I like that the idea of foundational skills of reading and writing remains vital, but I think critical analysis and thinking skills have been overlooked. Your discussion of being ‘fully’ literate would develop this more ‘holistic’ literacy.