"New Literacies" Chapters 1 and 2

If asked what it meant to be literate, I would have responded that it is having the ability to read and write. We learned how to do this in school in our reading and writing classes. Nowadays they are called Literacy classes and we have literacy teachers.
As I read the articles about the"new literacies", I now understand literacy to involve so much more than just reading and writing. Richard Lanham says that literacy means having the ability to understand information however it is presented. And as noted in the article we have all types of literacies, oral literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, as well as today's most popular literacy, digital literacy. Literacy is further seperated by what's referred to as conventional literacy and new literacy.

In light of my age I am considered a newcomer to the "new literacies". As a newcomer I lacked basic understanding of precisely what the Internet is and what all it could do for me.When told to infuse tecnology into my curriculum, I did not take full advantage of everything the internet had to offer. I was not literate in this area. I didn't realize just how much I didn't know, or how my ignorance was actually depriving my students from reaching greater heights.
My idea of infusing technology was to have my math students go to web sites that gave them practice problems that they could complete using their laptop. I understand now how this was just a fancier version of a worksheet. I also had them research mathematicians using the internet, but again they were simply using an online encyclopedia.

It is imperative that I catch up and learn as much as I can about the new technologies available to myself and my students. There's a saying "better late than never". I feel it is not too late for this newcomer to leave behind the mindset of a Web 1.0 and branch off to the mindset of a Web 2.0