New literacy, new media, new challenges

The fundamental issue that internet in FL teaching and learning should be used primarily in dedicated multimedia laboratories is increasingly challenged by practitioners. The relentless march towards increased miniaturization in wireless applications (mobile telephones, palmtops, etc.) means that personalized communication devices are becoming widely available to almost all members of society.

Communications technology is both ‘shrinking’ - becoming portable and seamlessly entering everyday devices – as well as becoming all-encompassing and distributed throughout the world. This continues to have a considerable impact on how communities interact. The emergence of new genres, new communicative modes will inevitably follow. There will be a pressing need for teachers to know how to cope with linguistic challenges that transcend familiar standards and norms. Language teachers must raise to the challenge of harnessing the potential of such new devices for their own and their learners’ particular needs (Gee, 1996).

Whereas, in the past, education was usually a matter of unidirectional transfer of information from the teacher to the student (“top down”), we believe that new pedagogical models now need to be explored in order to prepare future citizens for cooperative, collaborative and life-long learning. There is, as yet, little consensus about what these new pedagogical models should encompass. There are notions that students should be trained to learn more autonomously and to gain access to and digest information more independently than has been the case to date, and that the information gained must be converted into accessible knowledge and skills (Cutler, 1996).

New organizational and pedagogical models are called for, including ICT for teacher education (using a learning-by-doing-and-reflecting approach), and dissemination / up-scaling of successful models. According to de Castell and Luke (1986), teachers need to understand and master the new kinds of literacy (scientific, digital, linguistic, and cultural) which are emerging and the demands they place on both language learners and teachers. In addition, an awareness of new types of language forms and genres, and to what extent language acquisition must be complemented by language socialization, is essential.

 

The new role of the teacher

Educationalists, researchers and administrators are now aware to a great extent that the introduction of the new media into educational institutions calls for a change in learning and teaching patterns (Roblyer, 2003). The new media:

• facilitate more independence on the part of the learner, more self-directed activities and the organization of learning processes;

• encourage interactive work;

• facilitate direct feedback;

• call for a change in the role distribution of teacher / learner, where learners take on teaching functions;

• enable contents to be continually updated with minimum efforts;

• provide faster access to teaching materials.

• provide greater opportunities for individual forms of learning;

• but also demand more social learning in group and team work;

Experts, however, emphasize that new teaching and learning media do not automatically lead to a new culture of learningbut simply offer the opportunity for change. Teachers’ attitudes to the new media and appropriate concepts for their use and for the orchestration of learning will decide whether the desired outcomes can be achieved and whether a major shift in the culture of learning is possible. The learning space beyond the institutional context (school, university, teaching institution) is of particular relevance and will change the character and contents of school-based learning and allow teachers to take into consideration the complexity and individuality of learning (Warschauer, 2000).

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the new media are not seen as a panacea for teaching / learning problems, nor are they a replacement for present models of language learning. ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) alone cannot provide a comprehensive basis for language learning. ICT must be integrated into present, proven and successful practice if full benefits of their advantages are to be reaped. Their adoption should represent a complement and addition to present models, contributing to an evolution towards the concept of a new culture of learning.

Knowledge and competent use of search engines and reliable information sources are essential. For those concerned with mainstream education, the propriety and reliability of information sources must figure as one of the main criteria for the selection of background material. Familiarity with the use of electronic tools for language analysis (e.g. concordances) will enable teachers to further develop their own linguistic and professional competence and increase their confidence in the use of the language.

Teachers should become completely computer-literate and have the confidence to use the available technology adequately. They should be able to cope with the most common problems arising from the use of computers very much in the way that average car drivers can cope with commonly occurring problems with their motor vehicles, i.e. no specialist knowledge of the machine, but knowing what to do when routine breakdowns occur.

It is impossible to list here what this entails, as advances in technology mean that problems of the past are often eliminated in later generations of equipment (Vogel, 2001). Teachers must move to a role in which they are designing learning experiences and planning encounters for their learners with the target language environment, often in situations where complete control of the means at their disposal has to be abdicated to the learner. Good, practical examples with convincing theoretical underpinning giving a rationale for choices made are needed when introducing this “change of paradigm”.

The role of the learner

As Vinagre (2008) explains, the learner also has to adjust to a new role in the learning process. S/he must take on new responsibilities, often working without any supervision whatsoever. Classes will become much more learner-centered, with learners’ time and effort devoted to authentic reading and writing tasks related to authentic communication with (native speaker) partners. For the first time, learners of a language can now communicate inexpensively and quickly with other learners or speakers of the target language all over the world. They have access to an unprecedented amount of authentic target-language information, as well as possibilities to publish and distribute their own multimedia information for an international audience.

Having and manipulating language data in multiple media provides learners with the raw material they can use to re-create the language for themselves, using their own organizing schemes. Activities will encourage students to explore and be creators of language rather than passive recipients of it furthering the idea of the learner as an active participant in learning.