Assuming no knowledge of linguistics, Understanding Digital Literacies provides an accessible and timely introduction to new media literacies. It supplies readers with the theoretical and analytical tools with which to explore the linguistic and social impact of a host of new digital literacy practices. Each chapter in the volume covers a different topic, presenting an overview of the major concepts, issues, problems and debates surrounding the topic, while also encouraging students to reflect on and critically evaluate their own language and communication practices. Features include: coverage of a diverse range of digital media texts, tools and practices including blogging, hypertextual organisation, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, websites and games an extensive range of examples and case studies to illustrate each topic, such as how blogs have affected our thinking about communication, how the creation and sharing of digital images and video can bring about shifts in social roles, and how the design of multiplayer online games for children can promote different ideologies a variety of discussion questions and mini-ethnographic research projects involving exploration of various patterns of media production and communication between peers, for example in the context of Wikinomics and peer production, social networking and civic participation, and digital literacies at work end of chapter suggestions for further reading and links to key web and video resources a companion website providing supplementary material for each chapter, including summaries of key issues, additional web-based exercises, and links to further resources such as useful websites, articles, videos and blogs. This book will provide a key resource for undergraduate and graduate students studying courses in new media and digital literacies.

Assuming no knowledge of linguistics, Understanding Digital Literacies provides an introduction to new literacies for university students. Each chapter in the volume covers a different topic, presenting an overview of the major concepts, issues, problems and debates surrounding the topic; whilst also encouraging students to reflect on and critically evaluate their own language and communication practices.

Facebook, blogs, texts, computer games, instant messages... The ways in which we make meanings and engage with each other are changing. Are you a student teacher trying to get to grips with these new digital technologies? Would you like to find ways to make use of them in your classroom? Digital technologies are an everyday part of life for students and Understanding Digital Literacies explores the ways in which they can be used in schools. Carrington and Robinson provide an insight into the research on digital technologies, stressing its relevance for schools, and suggest ways to develop new, more relevant pedagogies, particularly for social learning, literacy and literate practices. With a practical focus, the examples and issues explored in this book will help you to analyse your own practice and to carry out your own small-scale research projects. Explaining the theoretical issues and demonstrating their practical implementation, this topical book will be an essential resource to new student teachers on undergraduate and PGCE courses, and those returning to postgraduate study.

In the 21st century, digital tools enable information to be generated faster and in greater profusion than ever before, to the point where its extent and value are literally beyond imagining. Such quantities can only be meaningfully addressed using more digital tools, and thus our relationship to information is fundamentally changed. This situation presents a particular challenge to processes of learning and teaching, and demands a response from both information professionals and educators. Enabling education in a digital environment means not only changing the form in which learning opportunities are offered, but also enabling students to survive and prosper in digitally based learning environments. This collection brings together a global community of educators, educational researchers, librarians and IT strategists, to consider how learners need to be equipped in an educational environment that is increasingly suffused with digital technology. Traditional notions of literacy need to be challenged, and new literacies, including information literacy and IT literacy, need to be considered as foundation elements for digitally involved learners. Leading international experts from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and throughout Europe contribute to the debate, and Hannelore Rader, Librarian and Dean of the University Libraries, University of Louisville, Kentucky, provides the foreword. The book is in two parts: In Part 1, Literacies in the Digital Age, the contributors analyse how digital technologies have enabled transformative change in the ways in which learning can be constructed, and discuss the nature of the new literacies that have emerged in this new virtual and e-learning environment. In Part 2, Enabling and Supporting Digital Literacies, the contributors go on to consider the ways in which digital literacies can be made available to learners, and how these literacies are being relocated in a more student-centred environment within the broader perspective of learning. Readership: This book takes the issues raised in the successful Information and IT Literacy, also co-edited by Allan Martin, into a broader context. It is essential reading for all information professionals and educators involved in developing strategies and practices for learning in a digital age.

Digital literacy practices have often been celebrated as means of transcending the constraints of the physical world through the production of new social spaces. At the same time, literacy researchers and educators are coming to understand all the ways that place matters. This volume, with contributors from across the globe, considers how space/place, identities, and the role of digital literacies create opportunities for individuals and communities to negotiate living, being, and learning together with and through digital media. The chapters in this volume consider how social, cultural, historical, and political literacies are brought to bear on a range of places that traverse the urban, rural, and suburban/exurban, with emphasis placed on the ways digital technology is used to create identities and do work within social, digital, and material worlds. This includes agentive work in digital literacies from a variety of identities or subjectivities that disrupt metronormativity, urban centrism (and other -isms) on the way to more authentic engagement with their communities and others. Featuring instances of research and practice across intersections of differences (including, but not limited to race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and language) and places, the contributions in this volume demonstrate the ways that digital literacies hold educative potential.

This book brings together a group of internationally-reputed authors in the field of digital literacy. Their essays explore a diverse range of the concepts, policies and practices of digital literacy, and discuss how digital literacy is related to similar ideas: information literacy, computer literacy, media literacy, functional literacy and digital competence. It is argued that in light of this diversity and complexity, it is useful to think of digital literacies - the plural as well the singular. The first part of the book presents a rich mix of conceptual and policy perspectives; in the second part contributors explore social practices of digital remixing, blogging, online trading and social networking, and consider some legal issues associated with digital media.

Dramatic shifts in our communication landscape have made it crucial for language teaching to go beyond print literacy and encompass the digital literacies which are increasingly central to learners' personal, social, educational and professional lives. By situating these digital literacies within a clear theoretical framework, this book provides educators and students alike with not just the background for a deeper understanding of these key 21st-century skills, but also the rationale for integrating these skills into classroom practice. This is the first methodology book to address not just why but also how to teach digital literacies in the English language classroom. This book provides: A theoretical framework through which to categorise and prioritise digital literacies Practical classroom activities to help learners and teachers develop digital literacies in tandem with key language skills A thorough analysis of the pedagogical implications of developing digital literacies in teaching practice A consideration of exactly how to integrate digital literacies into the English language syllabus Suggestions for teachers on how to continue their own professional development through PLNs (Personal Learning Networks), and how to access teacher development opportunities online This book is ideal for English language teachers and learners of all age groups and levels, academics and students researching digital literacies, and anyone looking to expand their understanding of digital literacies within a teaching framework.

This edited volume provides a practical framework for teacher education programs to develop K-12 students’ digital literacies. It serves as a set of best practices in teaching digital literacies that promotes access to research-based pedagogies for immediate implementation in their classrooms.

Digital literacies are essential for managing information and communication in our rapidly changing world - but the old scattered approaches to introducing technology have left many teachers playing catch-up with their students. With this authentic, job-embedded professional development program, you'll help K-12 teachers incorporate digital literacies into their classrooms once and for all.

Offering a new perspective on adult English language education, this book provides theoretical and practical insights into how digital literacies can be included in the learning programmes for newly arrived adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Enhancing Digital Literacies with Adult English Language Learners takes readers inside Langfield, an adult community-based English language centre that supports the settlement and learning of this vulnerable group. Drawing on a six-month ethnographic study of Langfield’s work, the book explores the approach to teaching digital literacies and presents a range of perspectives, including those of the adult learners, the teachers, and the organisation’s CEO. The chapters present a holistic view of teaching digital literacies in the adult English language context by exploring: adult learners’ digital literacy practices in everyday life and their learning at Langfield; teachers' beliefs and practices about digital literacies; and the support offered to them through institutional resources, leadership, and professional learning. The book identifies exemplary practices, as well as areas for further development in Langfield’s work and offers a range of implications for practice, policy, and research. Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this book contributes important insights into the strengths and needs of this unique and complex education sector. Addressing an area of uncertainty for many researchers, practitioners, leaders, and policy makers working within community-based learning contexts in Australia and internationally, this book will be an essential resource.