Contemporary Literacy
Online handouts for Redefining Literacy and Literacy & Learning presentations
Session Description
As little as we know about the future for which we are preparing our students, it is clear that it will be a place that is governed by information. Accessing, processing, building with, and communicating that information is how we will all make our livings.
- What do you need to know, when most of recorded knowledge is a mouse-click away?
- How do you distinguish between good knowledge and bad knowledge?
- What does it do to the value of information, when everyone is a producer?
- How do we address ethics, when we are empowering our students with such prevailing skills?1
Some Articles & Other Resources
- The New Literacy appeared in Technology & Learning magazine, Sept, 2004 and co-written with Dr. Sara Armstrong2
- The New Literacy (a different article) appeared in the March/April issue of [http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/ Scholastic Administrator].3
- Setting the Stage: A Future Fiction This is a work of future fiction. I do not call it science fiction, because I have every reason to expect that schools can change this much, and that it could happen during my career. If they do not, it will not be because the technology is not available, but because we did not have the courage or vision to make such dramatic changes in the way that we prepare our students for their future. This is an abbreviated version of chapter one ofRedefining Literacy for the 21st Century. This piece was published in the March 2004 issue of Library Media Center.4
- '''The Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship, by Ribble and Bailey Now is the time for educators as well as other adults to begin to evaluate how they are using technology. Within this website are many examples of how educators can begin the process of teaching their students how to use technology more appropriately. These resources can be used by any adults who are interested in helping students better understand appropriate technology use.
- Textbooks of the Future That students will eventually use computers in place of traditional textbooks is almost certain. Just watch the eight-year-old children at your local elementary school pulling their backpacks (now on wheels). This makes no sense. Published in May 2004 issue of Technology & Learning Magazine.5
- Sweatshop Video is a resource that I am very frequently asked for after the keynote. It can be access from the SFETT web site and the URL is:
- A listing of Fair Use materials from Temple University, who has been researching the issues of fair use in K12 education, and how our restrictive interpretations are detrimental to proper media education. 7
- An example of working the information or Employing the Information. In this exercise, I took data from the Internet World Stats page 8, accessed archived versions of the page going back to 2002, and re-typed the number of Internet users and penetration data into a Google Docs spreadsheet. Then I inserted the motion chart widget to make the graph here.
Some online music production tools:
- Koblo http://koblo.com/
- Hobnox http://www.hobnox.com/
Weblog & Podcast

Veteran blogger and podcaster
Some Additional Information
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Session Blogs |
1 Warlick, David. "Literacy & Learning in the 21st Century." Professional Page. The Landmark Project. 16 Mar 2008 <http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=61>. ⇑
2 Warlick, David, and Sara Armstrong. "The New Literacy." TechLEARNING. 15 Sep 2004. Technology & Learning Magazine. 16 Mar 2008 <http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=47102021>. ⇑
3 Warlick, David. "The New Literacy." Scholastic Administrators. Mar/Apr 2005. Scholastic. 16 Mar 2008 <http://tinyurl.com/2acxda>. ⇑
4 Warlick, David. "A Future Fiction." Technology Connection. Mar 2004. Linworth Publishing. 16 Mar 2008 <http://davidwarlick.com/ff_article/>. ⇑
5 Warlick, David. "Textbooks of the Future." TechLEARNING. 15 May 2004. Technology & Learning Magazine. 16 Mar 2008 <http://techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20300250>. ⇑
6 Molina, Consuelo. "Sweatshops." SFETT. SFETT. 16 Mar 2008 <http://www.sfett.com/html_movie/Ican2/sweatshop.html>. ⇑
7 Johnson, Doug. "Re: Fair Use." E-mail to Author.9 Aug 2008. ⇑
8 "Internet Usage Statistics: The Internet Big Picture." Internet World Stats. 30 Jun 2009. Miniwatts Marketing Group, Web. 26 Oct 2009. <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>. ⇑
Equity: In Canada about 73% of adults 16 years and older access the internet. see: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080612/dq080612b-eng.htm World-wide only ~23% of have access to the internet. See http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm The New Literacies are important, I agree, but how are we ensuring that access to information is equitable.

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