This document provides summaries of 10 articles on changes to literacy teaching and learning with the rise of new technologies. Traditionally, literacy was taught through explicit skills-based approaches using printed texts, but digital technologies have expanded the definition of "text" and transformed literacy practices. Teachers now need pedagogies of multiliteracies that embed new technologies and allow students to make meaning across different modes of communication. Frameworks like multiliteracies pedagogy can guide teachers in developing students' cognitive and social literacy skills for a globalized, digital world.

1. EDX3270
Literacies
Education

3. Changes in literacy practices, created by rapidly evolving
technologies, have had many implications for the
teaching and learning of literacy.
This synthesis will reflect on the ten annotated articles to
highlight how literacy teaching and learning has
changed, and how teachers can best assist students in
their learning.
Traditionally, literacy was taught via approaches, such as
“drilled in skills”, or in immersion processes, drowning
students in experiences of print and visuals prior to
developing semantics, syntax, or phonological skills
(Henderson, R. slide 3). These pedagogies were at a time
when texts were explicitly from a two dimensional print-
based world of books and images (NSW Department of
Education and Training, p. 3.).

4. Nowadays, the very concept of „text „encompasses print
and digital modes through what Cope and Kalantzis
(2009) define as Learning by Design. These designs set
out how students make meaning in all modes of texts via
the linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial and
multimodal aspects (New London Group, p.78).
Having the ability to comprehend or interpret the design
modes in literacy ensures students become multiliterate
it today‟s technological society. This requires not only a
cognitive practice but also having an understanding, or
an awareness, of the social concepts (Anstey and Bull,
p.), aiming to empower students through literacy to read
the “word and the world”, encouraging them to firstly
indentify texts as social constructions and then to
analyse their meanings (Freire & Macedo, 1987).

5. It is little wonder that students are more adept at newer
technologies then teachers, as these technologies have
embedded themselves into the culture of the students,
taking on complex roles and new mindsets in regards to
communication (Asselin and Moayeri, p.1).
Blogs, Skype and texting are just a snippet of the new
forms of communications, transforming the very act of
literacy learning, and progressing at such a rate that
pedagogical practices are falling behind (Marsh, p.13).

6. There is no one right way to teach literacy skills, but there
are a number of pedagogical approaches that benefit
the learning processes; didactive teachings, discovery
based and exploratory approaches, are just a few
(National Curriculum Board, p.16). These styles provide
grounded experiences that are meaningful to students
and relatable to their personal experiences both in and
out of school. Structured dialogue is another approach
teachers can take on board when teaching as it builds on
robust learning environments and improves learning
outcomes (Abbey, 2010). Dialogue, along with
pedagogies and technologies, develop the cognitive
mind as well as having social functions that enhance
students‟ vocabulary.

7. There are also a number of frameworks that assist both with
the teaching, and learning of literacy and the Four
Resource Model is one framework that lends itself into
all subject areas (Santoro, p.52, Stewart-Dore, p.6)
seeing literacy taught across all domains of the
curriculum, not just in English.
Faced with a digital driven and globalised world, teachers
must adopt a pedagogy of multiliteracies and embed the
new technologies into the learning frame in order to
develop inclusivity, cultural knowledge and
connectedness to the real world (Mills, p.7).

8. Abbey is an Australian consultant and researcher with
much experience in the government and community
sectors. His article explores the benefits of
structured dialogue and examines a four dimensional
model and a stage-by-stage process for teachers to
implement into the learning environment. Through his
research, he suggests that new pedagogies and
technologies need to align in order to bring optimal
performance in the classrooms. Abbey argues that
pedagogy and technology need to merge in order to
transform classroom conversations into a structured
dialogue, developing cognitive as well as social
functions. How students are read to is just as
important as how often they are read to as this will
enhance their vocabulary.

9. Anstey and Bull‟s article explores the term
multiliteracies and the skills required by students to
be cognitively and socially literate within the
technology used. The implication for pedagogy
begins at examining what constitutes text in an age of
multimedia. Previously education worked within
paper based text, hence a linguistic semiotic system
dominated literacy pedagogy, however as texts are
increasingly multimodal the term „literate persons‟
requires knowledge of all five semiotic systems as
well as an understanding of how they work together.
This means that teachers need to help students
explore the changing nature of texts as they develop
understandings about them.

10. Asselin and Moayeri„s article offers examples of
classroom practices drawing on social elements of
„social webbing‟ (Web 2.0) which they believe are
necessary in extending students ideas of new
literacies. Expanding literacies for learning with Web
2.0 include criticality, metacognition, reflection and
skills, all needed for creating and publishing, yet
schools still remain to use Web 1.0 for
games/activities and resources. The authors suggest
social bookmarking sites as examples of
collaborative cataloguing and indexing tools due to
their collaborative nature of ranking information
based on the number of people who have
bookmarked them. The use of these technologies
provides students with a collaborative environment
with them being active participants in the
development of new social literacy practices.

11. Cope and Kalantzis refer to The New London Groups
theory of multiliteracies pedagogy. They believe that
due to a changing world and changing environment ,
pedagogy needs to change also. Instead of the
traditional basics of reading, they call for a
transformative pedagogy, allowing the learner to
actively analyse and apply meaning making in four
major dimensions of teaching. This article suggests
that empirical activities will aid in the development of
strategies for diversity among students enabling
equity within the classroom and enabling students to
be active participants in their learning providing
them with the framework to be literate participants in
society.

12. Marsh‟s analysis suggests that schools take into
account the way in which students are engaged in
“innovative literacy practices” in order to adopt
productive pedagogies. Because of the range of
learning opportunities afforded by digital
technologies, new pedagogical approaches are
required in schools if the content is to be engaging
and appropriate, and if students are to become
competent and effective analysers and producers
within a range of multimodal texts. Marsh draws on
Bernstein‟s‟ (2000) Pedagogic Recontextualizing
Field in relation to literacy learning and education to
critique two different pedagogies (The National
Literacy Strategy and Productive Pedagogies).
Schools need to revisit how they teach literacy, and
Information and Communication Technologies, and
attempt to meld the two in order to achieve a more
productive pedagogy.

13. Mills‟ research paper looks at the findings of research
regarding the interactions between pedagogy and
access to multiliteracies among culturally and
linguistically diverse learners. Conducted in an upper
primary classroom of a low socio-economic area, Ms
Mills conducted her research using the
multiliteracies pedagogy and critical ethnographic
methodology. Unfortunately the observations made
by Ms Mills showed the teacher‟s relapse to existing
pedagogies and traditional text thus prohibiting
access to culturally diverse textual practices and
multimodality. This article highlights the
shortcomings of theories into classrooms as well as
the importance for teachers to constantly re-evaluate
their pedagogical beliefs and practices.

14. The New South Wales Government delves into how
digital technologies effect learning environments via
teacher pedagogy, the nature of the learner, and
reading and writing. They acknowledge that although
these are still central to being literate, globalisation
has created new literacy needs, which should equip
students to become critical creators and consumers
of the information they encounter. They draw on a
range of frameworks they believe are influential in
determining curriculum content, yet applying these
frameworks alone do not ensure success in literacy
learning amongst students. Pedagogical beliefs and
knowledge in technology are also important ensuring
teachers have understandings of what technology
and media do .Educators need to adjust their literacy
practices in order to stay at least on par with the
changes occurring in literacies.

15. Santoro‟s perspective in this article is that literacy
learning is a complex set of practices operating
within a variety of texts and within certain sets of
social situations. He contrasts this to teachers who
believe that once students have learnt to read and
write, they are able to do so in all contexts. Santoro
quells these beliefs by pointing out that there are
many distinctive school and social literacies
characterised by written, oral, aural, visual, digital
and multimodal texts. Santoro advocates the use of
the four-resource model as a “valuable tool” for
middle year‟s teachers and student teachers.

16. Students need to be strategic learners, acquiring a
multitude of skills and strategies enabling them to
gain, construct and communicate new knowledge‟s
whilst building higher order thinking skills and
experiences, according to Stewart-Dore. He
examines the popular reading frameworks and
touches on their shortcomings (linear, systematic
progression, lacking in critical reflections regarding
contents and processes). In turn, Stewart-Dore
proposes an alternative framework through the
Practicing Multiliteracies Learning Model comprising
of four phases: accessing knowledge, interrogating
meanings, selecting and organising information and
representing knowledge. This article suggests that
teachers require some guidelines ensuring their
teaching strategies are appropriate to literacy
education.

17. The New London Group argues that the cultural and
linguistic diversity occurring in society calls for
extensive views on literacy rather than the traditional
based language approaches. This article, written by
ten academics, is concerned about the changes
occurring in literacy due to globalisation, technology
and the social and cultural diversity. It was through
them that the term „multiliteracies was coined,
acknowledging the many diverse ways that literacy is
used. This new approach to literacy pedagogy
combats the “limitations of traditional” pedagogies,
taking on a transformative approach by introducing
the “what” and “how” of literacy pedagogy. This
article has been very influential regarding literacy
within the educational system.