21st Century Literacy
21st century literacy is the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap. These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform
digital media, to distribute them pervasively,
and to easily adapt them to new forms.
Adobe Systems, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and the New Media Consortium, three organizations deeply interested in this phenomenon and its potential impact on communication and creative expression, began conversations in the fall of 2004 about how they might collectively stimulate work in the areas of visual, aural, and digital literacy, and bring attention to the efforts already taking place.
The group came up with these characteristics of 21st century literacy:
- 21st century literacy is multimodal.
- 21st century literacy includes creative fluency as well as interpretive facility.
- 21st century literacy means learning a new grammar with its own rules of construction.
- The language of 21st century literacy lends itself to interactive communication.
- 21st century literacy implies the ability to use media to evoke emotional responses.
- 21st century literacy has the potential to transform the way we learn.
Curriculum Resource:
What is the Big6™?
Developed by educators Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, the Big6 is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world. The Big6 is an information and technology literacy model and curriculum, implemented in thousands of schools - K through higher education.
Questions or comments?
Send us feedback on the eLiteracy web site.
