How much do traditional literacy skills count?

How much do traditional literacy skills count?
Literacy in the 21st century &
reading from the screen
Barbara Combes
WASLA President WA Operations
Vice President Advocacy & Promotion IASL
Lecturer, School of Computer and Security Science, ECU
PhD Candidate, Curtin University of Technology, Perth Western Australia

Diversity Challenge Resilience: School Libraries in Action - The 12th Biennial School Library Association of
Queensland, the 39th International Association of School Librarianship Annual Conference, incorporating the 14th
International Forum on Research in School Librarianship,
Brisbane, QLD Australia, 27 September – 1 October 2010.

Information in the 21st century
Public Domain
Web
An information landscape characterised by:
– Technological change (new formats, delivery modes)
– Differentiation (layered landscape)
– Overload
– Complexity
– Density The Internet
– Decontextualisation
– Access 24/7
– AI enhanced & user friendly
– Faster, smaller, convergent
– > Storage, cloud computing
– Easy manipulation
– Multimedia The Deep Web

Technologies:
– Mobile phones, PDAs, iPods, Blackberries, iPhones,
– Kindles, iPads, Bebooks
– Digital cameras, video cameras
– Flash drives, mobile memory, USB sticks
– Laptops, tablets, notebooks, notepads
– Thin client technology
– Wireless, bluetooth
– Multi-user Web conferencing, Elluminate, online classroom
– LMS, BlackBoard/WebCT, Moodle, …
– 3D, stereophonic, haptic sensory devices, …

Web 2.0 Utilities
• Interactive
• Social
• Public domain
• One-to-many
• RSS Feeds
• Twitter
• Nings
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Voicethread
• Weebly …

Utilities:
– Web 3.0
– Internet2, Internet3?
– Facial recognition
– Aggregator software (123people)
– Virtual worlds
– Multimedia, simulations
– eBooks, vooks, digidocs

Students in the 21st century

Assumptions:
– Digital natives vs digital refugees
– Computer literate?
– ICT literate?
– Internet/network literate?
– Information literate?

Literacy in the 21st century
• Traditional literacy
• Computer literacy
• ICT literacy
• Internet/network literacy
• Screen literacy
• Multimedia literacy
• Visual literacy/discrimination
• Information management
• Information inquiry literacy
• Transformational literacies? Transliteracy?
• Higher order thinking - analytic and synthesis
(making meaning)

Literacy - definition
(Traditional) Literacy is:
"... the integration of listening, speaking, reading,
writing and critical thinking. It includes a cultural
knowledge which enables a speaker, writer or reader
to recognise and use language appropriate to
different social situations. For an advanced
technological society such as Australia, the goal is
an active literacy which allows people to use
language to enhance their capacity to think, create
and question, in order to participate effectively in
society."
The National Secretariat for the International Year of Literacy, 1990.

... the making of meaning and its clear
communication to others. Truly literate people not
only read and write, but regularly do so in order to
sort out their ideas and put them in words, to fit them
together and test hypotheses - ie. to make sense
and meaning out of our world. Truly literate people
acknowledge that they need to write things down, to
talk them out, to read widely, to listen critically and to
respond articulately. Truly literate people are
thinkers and learners."
Brown & Mathie, 1990

"... the foundation of effective citizenship, human
communication and social integration in a literate
society. Therefore it is important to foster the lifetime
habit of purposeful and critical reading for
information, education and recreation. Literacy is the
foundation of learning in all areas of the curriculum."
Holdaway, 1979

– Understanding (comprehension/making meaning)
– Critical (constructing/making meaning)
• reading
• thinking
• learning

• Literacy is more than the mechanics of reading.
• In developing countries, a major issue is the
maintenance of literacy skills.
• All children/adults need to continue to read widely to
consolidate, maintain and expand their literacy skills.

• Reading
• Writing
• Viewing
• Listening
• Speaking
• Understanding

• The online environment is increasingly a visual
environment
• Interpretation of visuals is the most subjective

Learning to read …
There are two parts to an elementary classroom
instructional reading program - the learning-to-read
phase and the reading-to-learn phase.
The instructional program develops readers who learn
to read independently for pleasure and learning
which, in turn, is supported by both instruction and
the collection in the school library.
A literate society is built of citizens who read for
pleasure and knowledge, in contrast to "aliterates" -
those who can read and choose not to read.
(Webb, 2007)

The learning to read phase
Occurs between ages of 3 – 8 years
Characteristics:
– Pre-operational stage of cognitive development
– Learning is defined by direct interaction with the local
environment
– Young children learn to use language and to represent
objects by images and words (spoken/oral)
– Thinking is largely egocentric
– Young children perceive their world by relating it to what is
real
They are concrete learners.
(Bhattacharya & Han 2001; Huitt & Hummel, 2003; Atherton, 2009)

• When learning to read and create the cognitive
connections that are necessary to associate
meaning with symbolic language, young children still
need a concrete experience.
• Learning to read is an holistic experience and
includes:
– oral repetition
– images to connect a concept with a real/concrete object
– a physical object (picture book) to provide an anchor for the
reader who still requires something physical in order to
create their reading circuit.

Books provide:
• A physical/concrete object for children to
relate to when learning to read.
• A physical representation of whole:
– Parts of the whole
– Beginning middle & end
– Sequencing
• A physical context to assist children to
become conceptual learners

We humans were never born to read. We learn to do
so by an extraordinarily ingenuous ability to
rearrange our “original parts”
Each young reader has to fashion an entirely new
“reading circuit” afresh every time. There is no one
neat circuit just waiting to unfold.
This means that the circuit can become more or less
developed depending on the particulars of the
learner: e.g., instruction, culture, motivation,
educational opportunity.
(Wolf, 2009)

What does the research say?
• 46 % of Australians don't have the literacy and
numeracy skills required to participate
effectively in modern society.
• Our perceptions of our skills can be at odds
with the reality.
• People facing literacy difficulties compensate in
other ways.
• We reward having higher literacy. Not explicitly,
but it's inherent in the system.
(Bailey, 2010)

• Literacy and numeracy problems can be
directly linked to healthcare issues, workplace
safety, equity and access to work.
• Poor literacy exerts a serious negative drag on
the overall GDP per capita of a country.
• The correlation between poverty and literacy is
irrefutable.
(PISA, OECD; Bailey, 2010)

• People read more slowly on screen, by as much as 20-
30 percent.
• Reading on screen requires slightly more effort and
thus is more tiring.
• Workers switched tasks about every three minutes and
took over 23 minutes on average to return to a task.
• Distractions abound online & task switching — costs
time and interfering with the concentration needed to
think about what you read.
(Mark, Aamodt, 2009)

• Reading from the screen is different. Current forms of digital media
behave nothing like ‘books’ or ‘libraries,’ and cause users to swing
between two kinds of bad reading.
• Networked digital media does a poor job of balancing focal and
peripheral attention. We swing between two kinds of bad reading.
We suffer tunnel vision, as when reading a single page, paragraph,
or even “keyword in context” without an organized sense of the
whole. Or we suffer marginal distraction.
• Online technologies that actually behave nothing like a book,
edition or library.
• Online literacy or screen literacy requires a new skills set to match
a new paradigm.
(Liu, 2009)

• The brain learns to access and integrate within 300
milliseconds a vast array of visual, semantic, sound (or
phonological), and conceptual processes, which allows
us to decode and begin to comprehend a word.
• 100 – 200 extra milliseconds to connect the decoded
words to inference, analogical reasoning, critical
reasoning, contextual knowledge.
• The apex of reading – when the reader’s own thoughts
go beyond the text.

(Wolf, 2009)

Concern:
“The young brain will never the time (in milliseconds or in hours or in
years) to learn to go deeper into the text after the first decoding, but
rather will be pulled by the medium to ever more distracting
information, sidebars and [multimedia]”.
“Digital reading may ultimately prove antithetical to the long-in
development, reflective nature of the expert reading brain as we
know it.”
(Wolf, 2009)

“The physical side of reading depends not on the bad aspects of
computer screens but on the brilliance of the traditional book —
sheets bound on end, the “codex” — which remains the most brilliant
design of the last several thousand years.
Technologists have (as usual) decreed its disappearance without
bothering to understand it. They make the same mistake clever
planners have made for half a century in forecasting the death of
cars and their replacement by spiffier technology.
The problem is, people like cars.”
(Gelernter, 2009)

Reading online is thus not just about reading text in isolation.
When you read news, or blogs or fiction, you are reading one
document in a networked maze of an unfathomable amount of
information.
Research shows that people are continually distracted when working
with digital information. They switch simple activities an average of
every three minutes (e.g. reading email or IM) and switch projects
about every 10 and a half minutes.
It’s just not possible to engage in deep thought about a topic when
we’re switching so rapidly.
The extent to which young people can deeply engage with the online
material is a question for further research.
(Mark, 2009)

Digitized classrooms don’t come through for an off-campus reason, a
factor largely overlooked by educators. When they add laptops to
classes and equip kids with on-campus digital tools, they add
something else, too: the reading habits kids have developed after
thousands of hours with those same tools in leisure time.
Educators envision a whole new pedagogy with the tools, but
students see only the chance to extend long-established postures
toward the screen.
We must recognize that screen scanning is but one kind of reading,
a lesser one, and that it conspires against certain intellectual habits
requisite to liberal-arts learning.
Screen reading is a mind-set, and we should accept its variance
from academic thinking.
(Bauerline , 2009)

Screen literacy skills are closely related to good
traditional literacy skills.
Students need to be literate before they can ‘read’
information on the screen.
Even students with good literacy skills “miss’ information
on the screen.
(Corio , 2008)

70

60
55%
% per group total

50
No use
40
Minor
30% Major
30
Essential
20

10

0
TOTAL GROUP Females Males

Groups

Gen Y – importance of the printer, measure of level of use

Technology use, printing, frequency and comments, males.

Index Net Gen-ness (ING)
Interview answers LC LC Av Av Av Av Av Av Av Av Av Av Av Av HC HC HC HC HC HC
LU A v LU LU A v Av Av Av Av Av Av LU H U H U LU A v H U H U H U H U

Rarely/No
Sometimes/cost a factor
Everything/most
Comments
Easier to read/prefer hardcopy
Easier to understand the info
Less distracting
Assignments in hardcopy
Verification - email
Technology - not robust
Mobile/convenience, review
Always write things down
Audio failed/no clear answer

Technology use, printing, frequency and comments, females.
Index Net Gen-ness
Interview answers LC LC LC LC A v Av Av Av Av Av HC HC HC HC HC HC HC HC HC HC
LU LU LU H U A v LU LU LU H U H U LU LU A v A v A v A v H U H U H U H U

Rarely/No
Sometimes/cost a factor
Everything/most Pre
Audio failed, no clear answer
Comments
Easier to read/prefer hardcopy
Easier to understand info
Less distracting
Assignments in hardcopy
Verification - email
Technology - not robust
Mobile/convenience, review
Always write things down

Interviews: What were the participants saying?
• Most students interviewed were printing.
• Cost was a factor, but many were still printing anyway.
• Reasons for printing:
• Easier to read
• Easier to understand
• Minor considerations:
• Mobility, convenience, review
• Assignment requirement
• Uncertainty with technology (online upload)

Tasks: What were the participants doing?
Major behaviours
• Rapid scrolling using the side bar to move down the screen
• Rapid scrolling using the scroll on the mouse to move down the
screen
• Running the mouse over text looking for hidden links
• Random clicking on all areas of the screen looking for hidden links
• Stopping only to click on headings or bolded text
• Clicking on keywords even when the rest of the heading suggests
another meaning

Reading text on the screen
• In-depth reading:
• Using the cursor as a line-of-sight guide
• Peering very closely at the screen (inch away)
• Comment: I would usually print this

Consequences:
• Participants missed much of the information on screen
• They seemed to be transferring this reading style to print and missed
major implications on the task sheet because they didn’t read it
properly ie, make meaning

Consequences:
• Most participants were unsuccessful and did not complete the tasks
• Information retrieved was incomplete or ‘near enough’ ie. satisficing
• Participants experienced significant levels of anxiety
• Demonstrated 2 major types of behaviour:
• Switching between multiple pages, accessed by random clicking
rather than reading tabs on the bottom of the screen
• Using one page at a time and using the back button to go back to
the search results

Media – Gen Y at work
"We're starting to see a lack of confidence and skill in problem-
solving and critical-thinking skills. Millennials are dependent on
menu-driven thinking and prompts and this leaves them lost in an
environment without menus.”
(Wendover , 2008)
Millennials need other types of training - in professional behavior,
basic writing, confidentiality issues, critical thinking, or how to give
and receive constructive criticism.
(Tyler, 2008)
My addiction to the Internet's gush of information means that, word
for word, I read more than ever, but I understand less.
(Keilman, 2009)

Media – Gen Y at work
"A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the net, with its
constant distractions and interruptions, is turning us into scattered
and superficial thinkers.
“People who read text studded with links, the studies show,
comprehend less than those who read words printed on pages.
People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less
than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused
manner.
People who are continually distracted by emails, updates and other
messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate.
People who juggle many tasks are often less creative and less
productive than those who do one thing at a time.”
(Carr, 2010)

Reading
• Computers are not compensatory, they are complementary.
• Students require good traditional literacy skills to use
computers effectively and efficiently.
• Reading is about mechanics (deconstructing code), making
meaning (understanding), analysis and synthesis
(reconstructing meaning).
• Reading from the screen is different:
• New paradigm
• New skills

Reading
• Screen literacy is a set of skills that need to be taught.
• Traditional reading skills must be maintained to ensure
students:
• Focus
• Concentrate
• Read in-depth
• The more students read the better their skill development
• The more students read fiction the better their skill
development beyond the mechanics (OECD, 2000).

Traditional Literacy & the TL
• More important than ever before.
• Cannot assume students can transfer skills into different
mediums
• Focus
• Concentrate
• Read in-depth
• The more students read the better their skill development
• The more students read fiction the better their skill
development beyond the mechanics (OECD, 2000).

How much do traditional literacy skills count?

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How much do traditional literacy skills count?