Margit Böck New Literacy Studies & Information habitus Department of Communication Studies, University of Salzburg part of Literacy Technology-enhanced learning in the context of technological, societal and cultural transformations Alpine Rendez-Vous 2009, Garmisch-Partenkirchen

1. “Literacy”Hindsight:New Literacy Studies Technology-enhanced learning in the context of technological, societal and cultural transformations Alpine Rendez-Vous 2009, Garmisch-Partenkirchen Margit Böck Department of Communication Studies, University of Salzburg

2. 2 Margit Böck New Literacy Studies NLS James P. Gee (1990): Sociolinguistics and Literacies. Ideology in Discourses.London: Taylor & Francis (3rd edition 2007) NLS argued against an understanding of literacy as a “cognitive phenomenon”; readers and writers engaged in mental processes like encoding, decoding, retrieving information, inferencing, comprehension, etc.; ability to read/write as things people do inside their heads ( the “skills view”) NLS: those who “write” / make texts or “read” / are engaged with texts are engaged in social practices with cultural resources these resources, e.g. written language or image, are used differently in different practices by different social groups literacy / literacies; “multiliteracies” (Cope/Kalantzis)

3. 3 Margit Böck Ascription of “meaning” to reading, writing, different forms of texts, etc. „People learn a given way of reading or writing by participating in (or, at least, coming to understand) the distinctive social and cultural practices of different social and cultural groups. When these groups teach or ‘apprentice’ people to read and write in certain ways, they never stop there. They teach them to act, interact, talk, know, believe, and value in certain ways as well, ways that ‘go with’ how they write and read (Gee 1990, 1992, 2003).” (Gee 2010, in print)

4. 4 Margit Böck Literacy events / literacy practices „[…] literacy events are activities where literacy has a role. Usually there is a written text, or texts, central to the activity and there may be talk around the text. Events are observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them. The notion of events stresses the situated nature of literacy, that it always exists in a social context.” (Barton/Hamilton 2000: 8; emphasis in original) „Literacy practices are the general cultural ways of utilising written language which people draw upon in their lives. In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy.” (Barton/Hamilton 2000: 7)

5. 5 Margit Böck Literacy as social practice Literacy is best understood as a set of social practices; these can be inferred from events which are mediated by written texts. There are different literacies associated with different domains of life. Literacy practices are patterned by social institutions and power relationships, and some literacies are more dominant, visible and influential than others. Literacy practices are purposeful and embedded in broader social goals and cultural practices. Literacy is historically situated. Literacy practices change and new ones are frequently acquired through processes of informal learning and sense making. (Barton/Hamilton 2000: 13f.; emphasis in original)

6. 6 Margit Böck The “new” in New Literacies Studiese.g.Lankshear/Knobel (2006), Gee (2010) “[…] practices that are mediated by the ‘post-typographic’ forms of texts” (Lankshear/Knobel 2006: 25) new forms of texts “[…] involve different kinds of social and cultural relations, they flow out of different kinds of priorities and values, and so on.” (ibid.) more participatory, more collaborative, more distributed, less published, less author-centric than conventional literacies “Digital tools are changing the balance of production and consumption in media […], the balance of participation and spectatorship […], the nature of groups, social formations, and power.” (Gee 2010) “age of ‘Pro-Ams’” (ibid.)

7. Insight:Information habitus

10. 10 Margit Böck Information, knowledge, learning knowledge as basis for action in the environment(action outwardly) and for inner action (thought) learning as expansion of the learner‘s resources and horizons communication is at the centre of the chain of information, knowledge, learning making knowledge and learning as two sides of one sheet of paper

11. 11 Margit Böck Digital media, actors and their environment digital media exist and are used in the wider environment of allmedia,that is,in the whole “bandwidth” of communication, as well as forms of inter-personal communication use of media and habits of communication are always part of specific life-worlds communication and learning are a resource for dealing with life („Lebensbewältigung“) habits of communication and learning are part of ongoing practices and processes of identity construction („Identitätsarbeit“)

14. 14 Margit Böck Exemplifying the framework: Stefan Life-world “Schönach”: a small village in a remote area near the Czech border; relation of public and private domain in which much of what is elsewhere private is fully known by all a ‘limited’ life: no family of his own (illegitimate child raised in the uncle’s family); reduced material circumstances; small circle of friends; no acknowledged position in the public domain (formal or informal); low-skilled shift-worker in a steelworks to which he has a long commute etc.

15. 15 Margit Böck Exemplifying the framework: Stefan Identity ‘traditional’ sense of gender as husband, father and colleague, of ‘generation’; wants and seeks ‘connection’, ‘inclusion’ and recognition; fragility of his sense of self Agency in terms of his social location: narrowly circumscribed job; in voluntary fire-brigade assigned to low-level unattractive tasks in terms of self perception: fully in control of his life; acknowledged by family, closest friends and colleagues of the same or lower rank Learning As somebody who is entirely competent the notion of self as learning is not acceptable. Position as learner is acceptable only in situations of entire novelty.