18.070 - Interrogating the Multiple Meanings of Digital Literacies

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Once a new and exciting buzzword, “digital literacy” has now entered common parlance in schools and universities. It is often invoked in the abstract - the necessary, taken-for-granted skills needed to navigate changing times and emerging technologies. However, the term’s rapid uptake among educational stakeholders and its vague, “catch-all” usage risks prematurely foreclosing inquiry into “digital literacy’s” tangled meanings and the work it does for researchers, teachers, and students. What is meant by “digital” and “literacy”? How does their convergence relate to parallel notions of media-, multi-, and new-literacies? Taking seriously both words in “digital literacy,” this panel considers the term’s theoretical, methodological, and analytical uses, as well as the possibilities alternate configurations might hold for teaching and learning.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Writing and Literacies

Chair

• Amy Stornaiuolo, University of Pennsylvania

Papers

• Assembling "Digital Literacy": Tracing Its Histories and Possible Futures - Amy Stornaiuolo, University of Pennsylvania; T. Philip Nichols, University of Pennsylvania

• Digital Literacy as Collaborative, Transdisciplinary, and Applied - Julie Coiro, University of Rhode Island; Renee Hobbs, University of Rhode Island

• "Save Our School": Children's Critical Digital Literacy Work in an Embattled School - Jessica Zacher Pandya, California State University - Long Beach

• Literacies Unseen: Why the Sub-Screenic World of Computer Code, Data, and Algorithms Demands Literacy Researchers' Attention - Tom Liam Lynch, Pace University

Discussant

• Glynda A. Hull, University of California - Berkeley