Multiliteracies

**__Skills needed to become multiliterate__**
Kasper, L, New Technologies, //New Literacies: Focus Discipline Research and ESL Learning Communities//, Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 4, No. 2, (2000) pp. 105-128

The following is a summary from the above article, which is available in the public domain and can be read in full at: http://llt.msu.edu/vol4num2/kasper/ All of what is quoted is taken directly from the article, with the page number following it. I feel that this is particularly relevant for developing reading skills using the internet, and seems to reflect what we have ourselves been doing on this task. Very early on in her paper, Kasper makes the important point that: '...succeeding in a digital, information-oriented society demands multiliteracies, that is, competence in an even more diverse set of functional, academic, critical, and electronic skills.' (p.105) She goes on to explain that a number of skills are necessary if one is to make the most of the numerous and varying modes of communication which technology makes possible, and allows us to become part of such a wide learning community. Students need to work on acquiring skills which will give them access to this. Both 'cognitive and sociocultural skills' and essential. (p106)

As so much information is available online, she draws our attention to the fact that: 'Further, they must become critically literate, defined here as the ability to evaluate the validity and reliability of informational sources so that they may draw appropriate conclusions from their research efforts. Finally, in our digital age of information, students must become electronically literate, able "to //select// and //use// electronic tool for communication, construction, research, and autonomous learning" (Shetzer, 1998).' (p106)  This seems to reflect exactly what we are doing on this webquest! The four factors stated below also seem to be the framework on which our webquest is based, don't you think? Kasper talks about some research which she did, using the New London Group's (NLG) four point pedagogy of how to become multiliterate (p110-111):
 * 1) **Situated Practice** - 'facilitates literacy development through an authentic learning environment that provides direct experience with tasks students value and intellectual stimulation from teachers and peers who ask thoughtful questions and provide supportive coaching.'
 * 2) **Overt Instruction** - 'the goal of overt instruction is to enable the learner to gain "conscious awareness of and control over what is being learned," and meeting this goal requires and interaction between students and teacher that allows learners "to accomplish a task more complex than they could accomplish on their own" (NLG, 1996, p. 86)'
 * 3) **Critical Framing** - 'encourages learners to evaluate what they have learned, to constructively critique that learning, and to creatively extend and apply it to new contexts (NLG, 1996, p. 87)'
 * 4) **Transformed Practice** - 'to help students simultaneously apply and revise what they have learned and then to put this understanding to work in reaching their own goals and fulfilling their own values (NLG, 1996, p. 87)'

'Because electronic literacy now counts among the basic skills necessary for success in college and the workforce, finding ways to use technology to support curricular objectives has vecome increasingly important. Focus discipline research pedagogy is inherently task-based, student-centered, and project-oriented and so offers a natural context for the integration of technology into instruction.' (p109)

'Finally, because focus discipline research pedagogy encourages students to assume an active role in the learning process, their views on this pedagogy and its relationship to literacy skill acquisition can provide valuable insights into, and suggestions for improving, the process.' (p110)  In thinking about how we approached the task at hand, and what we learnt on the way, this seems to also be what we are doing, and consequently providing useful ideas on how to improve it.

Students often work interactively, collaborating to work through the tasks. Further, and again, seeming to reflect our work on this webquest : 'Here situated practice interacts with overt instruction and critical framing to provide students with a powerful context for developing critical literacy skills as they read and evaluate the resources they find on the Internet. Moreover, technology provides the means and the motivation for students to share resources and discuss their research with an audience outside of the immediate physical classroom.' (p112)

Finally, one more point which Kasper makes, and I feel is not only relevant to ESL students' development, but also to how we ourselves have progressed on our three week webquest: 'The focus discipline group offered ESL students the opportunity to become part of a diverse community of learners, who worked together to construct knowledge. In the study described here, students began by researching topics on their own and then joining with the group to summarize and evaluate each of the sources found. The learning environment created through collaborative focus discipline research encouraged students to view their peers as additional knowledge resources, each who brought his or her own unique perspective on the issues and topics studied (as well as his or her own personal reason for studying them). Multiliteracies were developed as students engaged in social and academic discourse with focus discipline group members, elaborating and reflecting on both their own ideas and those of their peers.' (p113)