Summary
The 21st century has been a time of ever evolving change in technology and the job market. Sara Armstrong and David Warlick’s article, The New Literacy, explores what changes need to take place for students to succeed in the future job market in terms of literacy. Instead of the traditional 3 Rs skills, curriculum must evolve into the 4 Es, so that literacy is aligned with the digital and networked world. The 4 Es consist of Exposing Knowledge, Employing Information, Expressing Ideas Compellingly, and Ethics: Right and Wrong on the Information Highway. These four areas do not only include the traditional skills need but expand upon those with ones that will develop students ability to purposefully find, decode, create, and evaluate information in all forms. Armstrong and Warlick describe what this will look like and the reasoning behind it. They end the article with practical examples and resources teachers and administrators may use to support them in the perusal of the “new” literacy.
Review
I could not agree more that today’s students need to be versed in skills that will help create and evaluate information in an ethical way. I appreciated that evaluation is stressed because like the article states without it students could be put in danger. This is a very real threat because information that is presented in the most grabbing way will get attention whether it is valid or not and students need to be able to objectively evaluate what they see, hear, and read. Although I agree that students need these skills and the resources given in the article are very applicable. I do not feel that students learning to be self-educators is as important as these skills because if students can teach themselves they will have the tools they need no matter what changes there are in technology and the world of the future.
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