After doing my Work 2 on disciplinary literacies practices, I was curious to further dig into research on an interesting concept I came across: new literacies. Considering it's an emergent field of study, a concrete and shared definition is still evolving. According to a synthesis of multiple perspectives and research practices (Baker, 2010) new literacies is defined by four common elements:

1. New Literacies include the new skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices that are required by new technologies for information and communication.
2. New Literacies are central to full participation in a global community.
3. New Literacies regularly change as their defining technologies change.
4. New Literacies are multifaceted and our understanding of them benefits from multiple points of view.

What I find fascinating about Baker's analysis was her emphasis on understanding the affordances of each of the different perspectives on literacy and integrating them into one's practice. It feels strikingly similar in spirit to Kalantzis's and Cope's (2012) beliefs about weaving different pedagogies and learning designs into their instructional repertoire. The media element below provides a good primer from Dr. Jennifer Roswell on some of the origins, frames, and future directions of new literacies. 

The more I learn about new literacies, the more I see it as an important body of work for future educators, especially those in English Language Arts classrooms. If we're to transcend the reductive and acerbic reading wars and develop more holistic and integrative models of literacy, we're going to need more work and research on frameworks and models like new literacy.

References:

BildungsTV, Dr. Jennifer Rowsell: New Literacy Studies. (2014, July 17). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ekrU14tYg

Baker, E. A., & Leu, D. J. (2010). The New Literacies: Multiple Perspectives on Research and Practice (Illustrated ed.). The Guilford Press.

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2012). New Learning: Elements of a Science of Education (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.