(Re)thinking the connection between Critical Literacy and Critical Digital Literacy
Submitted by:
Anna-Lena Godhe
Abstract:
In this roundtable we aim to discuss questions about how to make critical literacy more digital and digital literacy more critical. Pangrazio (2016) argues that there is a need to combine the skills of handling and making effective use of digital technology with the understanding of how technology is shaped by humans in order to question and challenge the digital tools and practices. Similarly, Darvin (2017) states that learners need to become aware of how social and cultural reproductions in digital spaces are shaped by power in order to develop the ability to critically examine digital media and verify information. Luke (2012) points out that digital culture are part of complex political and economic structures and that engaging in digital environments is not in itself a critical literacy approach, but rather requires new ways of describing, analyzing and critiquing these structures.
The roundtable will suggest central questions to be discussed such as; what strategies do students need in order to take a critical stance towards different kinds of texts and data that they encounter. How can teachers address and facilitate students’ agency and their understanding of how different positions effect how texts are created and interpreted?
In a time with increased focus on so called “big data” and artificial intelligence, it is important to discuss issues around data literacy and what that means, for us as educators and for our students. Do we as educators have sufficient data literacy to for example be critical to "big data" that official agencies or schools may want to use? How could data be opened up to both teachers and students in order to understand it and perhaps also create other types of big data?
Finally, as researchers of literacy, we need to ask ourselves questions of what it means to read and write. Do you read when you listen to a book? Do you write when an app translate your speech to writing? Technically this is possible today but how do we deal with these issues as teachers and researchers in higher education?
Suggested reading list;
Darvin, R. (2017). Language, Ideology and Critical Digital Literacy. In Thorne, S. & May, S. (Eds.), Language, Education and Technology (pp 17-30), Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02328-1_35-1
Luke, A. (2012). Critical Literacy: Foundational Notes, Theory into Practice, 51:1, 4-11. DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2012.636324
Pangrazio, L (2016). Reconceptualising critical digital literacy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37:2, 163-174. DOI:10.1080/01596306.2014.942836