Wag the Dog: A Digital Literacies Narrative

Abstract

In the spring of 2020, schools across the country and world closed. COVID-19 reached pandemic proportions. Were schools prepared? Was there a research base available to help schools prepare students for reading and writing digital texts? The ability to read, analyze, compose, and communicate with digital texts requires digital literacies. However, the rapid-fire development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) makes the identification of digital literacies and the development of curriculum and instruction a moving target. In her Literacy Research Association Presidential Address, Dr. Betsy Baker asserts that digital literacies are no longer an entity separate from reading and writing instruction, they are no longer a technology issue, students live in a digital world, and digital literacies are not optional. Digital literacies have become the literacies of our culture. Baker synthesizes over 25 years of research to propose that digital literacies are persistently public, semiotic, product-oriented, and transitory. Researchers, educational leaders, and teachers can leverage these characteristics as footholds to identify ever-changing digital literacies, design curricula, and provide instruction so that all students can be autonomous as they seek to thrive in a digital world. Dr. Baker’s Presidential Address is available online (see https://youtu.be/Avzup21ZnA4 ).

Investigating New Literacies Among Teacher Educators: A Multi-Institution Collaborative Self-Study

“…Not all TEs come to the classroom thoroughly versed in NL. And yet, digital technologies are already ubiquitous in literacy practices today and continue to become more so with each day that passes (Baker, 2021; Leu et al, 2017). It is thus imperative that TEs develop both a strong theoretical and pedagogical foundation in N/new L/literacies.…”

“…Literacy practices are constantly being redefined as new technologies continually demand paradigm shifts in what constitutes literacy in the 21 st century (Baker, 2021). Literacy instruction can no longer be narrowly conceived of through a binary lens between traditional and digital literacy skills.…”

Critical Inquiry in (and About) Media Environments: Examining an Asset-Based Digital Literacy Curriculum

“…Their curriculum thus signals an updated conception of what constitutes critical reading pedagogy in a post-truth environment characterized by disinformation, sectarianism, and rising authoritarian discourses (Hobbs, 2020b). Furthermore, their unit suggests that critical literacy online cannot remain limited to representational analysis, the search for objective information, or the deconstruction of news and other media, but rather must be constantly responsive, emergent, and fluid in relation to texts, systems, ecologies, and platforms that rapidly change (Baker, 2021).…”

“…In her 2020 presidential address to the Literacy Research Association, Baker (2021) issued “a clarion call” (p. 70) for researchers to investigate the transformed nature of literacies in digital spaces. One year prior, Haddix (2020) invoked a similar urgency, calling for attention to the role of communities consisting of teachers, students, researchers, and families in reshaping teaching and learning to push back against oppressive traditions.…”

Productivity Versus Sustainability: A Tale of Two Authors’ Engagement in Participatory Culture

“…As digital literacy practices are enacted in the everyday lives of youth, literacy researchers call for increased study of these practices (Lammers et al, 2012). During the 2020 Literacy Research Association Presential Address, Baker (2021) cautioned against assuming students will develop the requisite digital literacies because they live in a digital culture. Rather, we need to be intentional in supporting digital literacies learning throughout the educational timeline of students.…”